Ali Ataie – The Quintessential Muslim’s Love for God & His Messenger
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
I would like to spend this Khutba,
looking at
a couple of different things.
The qualities of the quintessential
believers'
character,
akhlaqal mumminin,
and also what that translates into
when we look at love of Allah and
his messenger
First of all, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
in the Quran
speaking directly to the prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wa'alehi wasalam.
And here Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he says,
ala Khuluq.
Now the particle ala in Arabic,
usually
the word that precedes Allah is something that
is tangible or concrete.
This is standard Arabic.
But in rhetoric,
when an intangible, something that is not concrete,
something that is abstract follows ala, the meaning
of that is tamakun. It is mastery.
Verily, verily, you have mastered
magnificent character. This is what Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is saying to his Habib sallallahu
alaihi wasallam. This huluq of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam, he has mastered ethics.
He said sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, I was
only sent to perfect
character or noble ethics.
He said
that righteousness
is good character.
He said
That indeed,
the most beloved of you to me and
the closest of you to me
on the are those of you who are
best in character. He said
That the most perfect believers
are those
the most perfect believers with respect to faith,
Iman
are those who are best with respect
to character. He said,
There is nothing weightier
on the scale of a mu'min, on the
yomul qiyama.
There's nothing heavier, weightier than good character.
This is what he said, salallahu alaihi wa
sallam. However, when we talk about good character,
we are not talking about good good character
in lieu of performance of rights righteous action.
We do not imagine an absolute bifurcation
between iman and aamal,
that these two things are not mutually exclusive.
In other words, somebody who says, I don't
need to fast and pray and give zakah
because I have good character.
Such a person is living in a state
of,
delusion,
because righteous action is a function of good
character.
The
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was a
byproduct
of his good character. Give you one example.
Abu Huraira
He relates a hadith in which he says
that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
used to pray until his seat would swell.
And it was said to him,
Do you do this to yourself?
And it has been revealed to you that
Allah
has forgiven your future and past sins.
And of course, the sin of a prophet
is different than our sin. The urlamazid, the
theologians say the sin of a prophet is
leaving an act of great virtue for an
act of lesser virtue, but he's still virtuous
like Abba Sa wa Ta'ala.
He's still virtuous.
So
with respect to deliberate disobedience, there is no
there is no question.
But look at the response of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Do you do this?
Why do you do this? Allah has forgiven
you.
Shall I not be a grateful servant?
His prolonged prayer was a reflection of his
character virtue,
of shukr.
So if you really love somebody,
you will demonstrate that love.
This is Habibullah
He is the beloved of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, and he loves Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And when you love someone, you will naturally
show your love towards that person.
Imam al Hassan, he asked his brother, Imam
al Hussain,
to ask their father, Sayna Ali
about the khaluk, the character of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi salam.
And sayna Ali, he relates a long hadith,
will give you some highlights
the full hadith is in the shama'il of
Imam al Tirmadi
What exactly is this that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions in the Quran?
He said,
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was always
cheerful.
He was jovial. He was affable.
He was easygoing,
imperturbable.
You couldn't get him angry very easily.
This is the opposite opposite of someone that
you're afraid to be around. You have to
walk on eggshells, as they say, around certain
people. Because you might say something, and it
will set them off. This is the opposite
of the
The prophet
was mild,
mild mannered, mild mannered. He was gentle.
He was not harsh
or coarse.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran,
It is part of the incredible mercy of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that you have lean,
you have gentleness.
If you were harsh or hardhearted,
you would have seen people flee from your
presence.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam's character was
one of gentleness,
but he was principled.
He did not compromise
when it came to tawhid,
and when it when it came to theology,
and when it came to Islamic morality,
Abrahamic morality,
which is under attack right now, especially in
universities,
he did not he did not,
he wasn't to use the language of the
youth, he wasn't a sellout.
But he had beautiful character,
and he had long suffering. He was forbearing.
Aymar ibn al-'Aas fought against him for over
20 years.
Over 20 years, he's trying to actively kill
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. The prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam never gave up on him.
He showed him beautiful character. I was in
a masjid one time when I put in
a youth halakah,
and the Christian brother was in the masjid,
and the Christian brother was asking some questions.
They weren't disrespectful.
They were just questions.
Academic questions.
And another brother walks into the masjid,
and he says he listens for 2 minutes
to the Christian and he says to us,
you know these kuffar?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sealed their hearts. He's
made them blind. He's deafened their ears. I
said, who are you talking about? This brother
you just met? You're calling him a catholic
already?
You know anything about him?
To say someone's a kafir means you're you're
consigning this person to the flames of *.
Yes. His belief is kufr. He worships
Is This is clear.
But you don't know this person's end?
Don't give up on him. The prophet
did not give up on people.
Amr ibn al-'As became Muslim eventually,
and the prophet
showed him so much so
much love
so much love that Amr ibn al-'As radiAllahu
ta'ala Anhu Aruddha, he thought that he was
the most beloved person to the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam. This is how the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam made you feel, like you
were the most important person.
So Amr ibn al-'Aas,
he was feeling some jura'ah. So he came
to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and
he said,
O Messenger of God, whom do you love
the most amongst the people? Expecting the prophet
salallahu alaihi wa sallam to say, oh, it's
you. Isn't it obvious?
Look how I treat you.
And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he said
Aisha.
He said his wife,
our mother Aisha
may Allah
be pleased with her. No one knows a
husband like a wife.
That's what I tell the brothers in counseling.
No one knows you like your wife.
Right? And look at how she describes the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. We'll get to
some of these hadiths inshallah.
So then Amr ibn al Aasi said,
from the men.
Don't worry about the women.
Who do you love the most from the
men?
And the prophet said, Abu
her father,
not Abu Bakr,
the father of her, Aisha.
Thumma man, Umar. And then Amr ibn al-'Aasi
said he named a few other men but
I wasn't one of them.
I shouldn't have asked
him. But this is this is the prophetic
ethos. This is how he would make you
feel.
And people had longing for him.
The Sahaba loved him with an incredible love
because he is the most praised, sallallahu alaihi
wasalam.
He said the prophet
was more beloved to us than anything, and
that's sheikh when you say sheikh, that means
creation,
Because this comes from
something that's willed into being. Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is not a Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is not willed into being.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one who
wills into being.
So Sayyidina Ali said the prophet, he
was the most beloved thing to us,
even more so than cold water
over extreme thirst. What is the analogy here
for the for the Arab, for the desert
Arab? What does cold water represent? It represents
life itself,
that they love the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
more than life itself.
This is the love of Sahaba
and Nabi'u Aula.
The prophet is closer to the believers.
The prophet is more beloved. He's more dear
to the believers
even more so than their own selves.
Even more so than their own selves. They
prioritize
the likes, the the love of the Prophet
over the love of their own families.
I swear by the one who holds
my soul in his yag,
none of you truly believe until I am
more beloved to him than his parents,
his children,
and the whole of humanity.
Well how do we gain this love
for the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam? This this
incredible love.
How do we get this type of Mahaba,
which is unconditional love?
Is through ma'arifah,
intimate gnosis,
intimate knowledge.
This is the way you cannot love something
you don't know.
What are you always talking about?
This is how you can tell what you
love,
what's on your tongue.
The heart is the revelator of the tongue.
Whatever is coming out of your mouth is
proceeding from the heart. If you're always talking
about
this or that celebrity
or food
or some TV shows.
What are you talking about? Money,
even your family, your children.
This is what you truly love.
This is what you truly love. I'll tell
you a horror story. A Muslim doctor told
me he worked in a in a hospital,
the Muslim ward of the hospital. He said,
you won't believe how many Muslims
refuse
to say the shahada
when they're about to die.
Because at the point of death, the reality
hits home, and whatever is in your kalaba,
this is what's going to come out.
You don't wanna hear that. You wanna hear
your favorite song. You wanna be around your
kids and family.
You want that old story about high school
or college.
This is dangerous. The affair is serious.
We have to take our lives seriously.
Don't fall for this frivolity
and play.
Take it serious.
Cultivate love of the messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
Allah as much as we loved the prophet.
This is a misguided statement.
The only reason why we love the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam is because he's Rasulullah.
Rasulullah,
the messenger of God.
Construct noun, absolute noun. Who is the owner
of Rasul? Allah.
Why do we love the Quran?
Some words on a page in a book.
Why do we love this book? Why? Kitabullah.
Kitabullah.
The book of God. Why do you love
the Kaaba?
A few bricks.
Beitullah.
This is why.
Cultivate love for the messenger through gnosis of
the messenger.
Of
the prophet
How do we get of the prophet
People, they don't know one hadith.
I read an article one time in a
Christian newspaper.
It was called the greatest book never read.
The greatest book
never read. And it was about the Bible.
And this Christian journalist,
he said he went to churches at random
and asked people coming out of a church,
people who were parishioners in a church, who
just attended church,
And he asked them at random, can you
name the 4 gospels in the New Testament?
He said 50%
of churchgoing Christians
could not gay could not name the 4th
the 4 gospels in the new testament, Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John.
They couldn't name them. I told this to
my teacher. He said, don't be surprised.
Maybe 50% of Muslims
who walk out of Salatul Jum'ah
cannot quote one hadith
of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam
In
Arabic, ad Dinun Nasiha.
Convey for me
even one
one statement.
One statement.
We did not send you except as an
incredible mercy for all of humanity. We quote
this ayah,
21107
in the Quran,
And people say, well, how how
what does that mean? Demonstrate it to me.
How is he a mercy to all of
humanity?
We can't give an adequate answer. The Quran
is a bold book. It's very bold because
the author is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
But we have fallen short.
We have fallen short collectively
of defending
the speech of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in
the Quran, and people have skewed perceptions
of our messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
Of how we dealt with people, how we
dealt with his enemies, how we dealt with
Sahaba.
When the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam passed away,
many Sahaba never recovered.
They never recovered. Saying that Bilal, he couldn't
even do the adal in Medina.
He had to leave Medina because everything in
Medina reminded him of his beloved
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam's message
saved Sayyidina Bilal
in every way possible when he was being
tortured by his so called slave master in
the burning deserts of Mecca. It was the
risala of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam
that took him from that position and put
him on the Kaaba to give the adhan.
You don't think he loves the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam?
You know, he's gonna die for the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam. He couldn't even make adhan.
Everything reminded him of the prophet. He went
to Syria
in Damash where he lived
for over a year. Imam al Suki says
that, Say that that the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasalam came to Bilal in his dream
and said,
What is this aversion, oh Bilal?
Why are you estranged
to me?
Isn't it about time for you to visit
me
in Medina?
Isn't it about time?
So Sayyidina Bilal comes into Medina after a
year, and as soon as he comes in
to the sacred precincts
of Madinatul Munawara,
he begins to weep uncontrollably.
He can't stand it.
He goes into the masjid,
and Sayyid Abu Bakr as Siddiq, he sees
him, and he says, this is Bilal.
Give us one Avan
like he used to give in the days
of the Messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And sayinib
Bilal said, I can't do it. Sayinibullah saw
him and said, give us one azaan like
he used to give. Let us remember
the ayab of the Rasul.
He said, I can't do it.
So Al Hassanain,
Imam Hassan, and Imam Hussain,
the grandchildren of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, who look like the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. According to our sources, from the
neck down, Imam al Hussain looks like the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. From the neck up,
Imam al Hassan looks like the prophet
So here, Sayyidina Bilal is looking,
at reflections,
prophetic
reflections, illuminations,
of refractions of the prophetic light. He's looking
at them, and he said, give us one
a van. He said, I'll do my best.
He climbs the,
the tower. He says, Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar
Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar.
And he fell down.
He collapsed.
His knees give out.
He couldn't even say the name of his
beloved
sallallahu alaihi wasallam unconscious in his wound that
carried him out of there.
This is the love of Sahaba.
We have to cultivate this love.
We have to cultivate this love through.
Inshallah
We need to cultivate the love of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam through Ma'arifah.
How do we gain ma'rifah?
Read the seerah of the prophet salallahu alaihi
wa sallam. And if you've read it, read
it, read it again. And if you read
it again, read it another time. Read it
in a different language. Read a different translation.
Keep reading with an intention of ma'riha that
leads to Mahapa.
Get to know the Messenger sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. Get to know what he's done for
us.
In Sahih Bukhari,
we are told
that human beings on the yomul qiyama, they
will go to different prophets,
and they will ask for shafa'a,
and they will say nafsi nafsi, nuh alayhi
salam, Musa alayhi salam, Ibrahim alayhi salam, Isa
alayhi salam,
all of these prophets,
they will go to the prophet sallallahu alaihi
Salam,
I am for this,
and he will go make sajdah beneath the
arsh of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Oh, Muhammad, raise your head and ask.
Raise your head and ask. Ask what? What
will the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam ask
for? Shafa'a for his ummah.
You see, our parents are responsible
indirectly for our earthly existence.
Ultimately, Allah is the cause of everything.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is the cause
of our eternal
existence.
He is
he is the one who intercedes and the
one whose intercession is accepted
by Allah
ta'ala.
Soon will your Lord give you something
and immediately
it will please you.
Imam al Sayyuti mentions when this ayah was
revealed to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam he
said,
I will never ever be,
pleased
while even one person from my ummah is
in the fire.
This is the concern.
It crushes him that you should perish.
Deeply concerned is he about you.
Get to know him through Sira.
Get to know him through Hasaias,
through literature that speaks of the,
unique
qualities, the distinctive qualities of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi alaihi wasallam. Qualities that no other prophet
had but him.
Imam Abdul 'izz,
Ibn Abdus Salam in his book
Get this book. It's very short treatise.
Forty pages.
Forty two types of distinction. He mentions
that the prophet
has tafdil.
He has imminence
over all the other prophets.
Brother, the Quran
says don't make distinctions between prophets. Yes. I'm
not I'm not making a distinction. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala makes a distinction.
Prophets have different degrees,
and his degree is the highest.
Sallallahu alaihi wasalam. Read the
shamael of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam that
deal with his outward and inward qualities.
The sahaba describe his character, his khaluk. They
also describe his khal,
his physical his physicality.
Why would they just why would they describe
his physicality?
One time a student said to me, this
is just a waste of time
reading about the physical description of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam. I asked him, did Sahaba
waste time? They wasted time Sahaba?
He said no. They waste no time. Then
why did they mention these things? Why did
they mention he has 11 white hairs on
his temples?
Why they mention something so
minute? Why? Because they love him.
And you want to know everything about your
beloved.
You you just don't wanna know what your
beloved said.
You wanna know everything.
How how was he standing when he said
it? What did he look like? What color
was his turban? What did his beard look
like? What did his sandals look like? This
is, the Sahaba obsessed
with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam because
this obsession is healthy because ultimately it's for
the sake of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Everything
is about Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
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