Ali Hammuda – Our Ways With Prophet Muhammad [Continued] – Episode 5 – Our Ways
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of Muhammad's actions as a means of achieving his mission, including writing documentation and being a messenger. They stress the importance of raising one's voice over the Prophet's guidance and avoiding double talk. The speaker provides examples of the Prophet's behavior and appearance, including his visit to the throne, the arrival of an ambassador, and the use of spit to see the companions. The queen is considered the most happiest person in the world, citing her wearing a red garment and wearing a red face, and her loud face and long neck.
AI: Summary ©
Two weeks ago we introduced this session, but
we said before we can start speaking about
the adab, the mannerisms required of us towards
our Prophet ﷺ, which was this week's session,
we needed first to pave the way and
understand who he ﷺ was and is and
will continue to be in the eyes of
Allah ﷻ.
And we said when we learn about who
he is in the eyes of our Lord,
al-Malik, and how he occupies this high
status, then the by-product of that should
be a reflection of how we see him,
how we must honour him and put him
in a high status for if Allah Almighty
puts him in this high status, then this
by way of extension should be how we,
the Muslims, the worshippers of Allah Almighty put
him and place him.
And we spoke from the Qur'an and
we spoke from the prophetic tradition, we spoke
from history and we spoke about what will
happen on Yawm al-Qiyamah and how the
star of the Prophet ﷺ will rise and
everybody will sing in his praise and he
will be elevated to a position that only
he will be able to accomplish.
After having paved the way and the love
of the Prophet ﷺ, I hope by now
is really gripping our hearts, we're now in
a strong position to ask the question, what
is expected from us towards him ﷺ?
So let us begin and I'm going to
summarize or compartmentalize the next hour or so
under four headings, take note of them please.
And we said we wanted writing, documentation to
become a culture of our masjid, please.
So for those of you who are inshaAllah
becoming a minority now, who are coming empty
handed, please take heed and next week bring
with you a pen and paper and take
note and that is better than taking note
than on your phone by the way.
There is something miraculous about the book and
the pen.
The first of the adab, the mannerisms expected
of us towards the Prophet ﷺ is to
believe that he was a Prophet sent by
Allah Almighty to all of humanity.
Every one of those words is carefully chosen,
anything less than it will be bad adab,
bad manners towards him ﷺ.
Some people believe that he is a great
leader, the world's greatest statesman that has ever
walked the earth, the world's most influential human
being to tread the globe, none of that
is sufficient.
Before this and above this is that he
is a Prophet, a Nabi and a Rasul
and a Messenger sent by Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
For the whole of humanity, why is that
part of the sentence required?
Because some people will accept that he is
a Prophet and we've heard some Jews who
say that he indeed is a Prophet sent
by God Almighty but not to us, he's
sent to the Arabs.
So we say that we are to believe
that he is a Prophet not just a
leader and a man of influence, he is
a Prophet sent by Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala to the whole of humanity.
Did you know that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala has taken a pledge, an agreement from
every one of the Prophets and Messengers to
walk the earth?
From Adam alayhis salaam until Prophet Isa, the
Prophet just before our Prophet alayhis salaatu was
salaam, saying to them that if the Prophet
Muhammad ﷺ appears as a Prophet during your
era, then you are to believe in him
and you are to support him and you
are to tell your people to believe him
and to support him.
Imagine this message was given to Adam and
Dawood and Idrees, Sulaiman and Danial, Dhunoon, Lut,
Ibrahim, all of them had the same message,
if he appears during your time, you will
believe in him and you will support him.
The evidence, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he
said in surah Ali Imran chapter 3 of
the Qur'an and as was explained by
Abdullah ibn Abbas, Allah said, وَإِذْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ
مِثَاقَ النَّبِيِّينَ Remember when Allah Almighty took the
agreement from the Prophets, what was the nature
of the agreement?
لَمَا آتَيْتُكُم مِّنْ كِتَابٍ وَحِكْمَةٍ ثُمَّ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ
مُصَدِّقٌ لِمَا مَعَكُمْ لَتُؤْمِنُنَّ بِهِ وَلَتَنْصُرُنَّ Allah said
to the Prophets that if after I have
given you the scripture and the wisdom, then
comes a messenger, who is he?
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, then comes a messenger who
confirms what you have been given, that you
will believe in him and you will support
him.
Then Allah said to those Prophets, قَالَ أَقْرَرْتُمْ
وَأَخَذْتُمْ عَلَىٰ ذَلِكُمْ إِصْرِي Allah said, have you
taken the agreement?
Have you taken up the covenant?
قَالُوا أَقْرَرْنَا And they said, we have taken
it, O Allah, we agree.
قَالَ فَاشْهَدُوا وَأَنَا مَعَكُمْ مِّنَ الشَّاهِدِينَ Allah said,
so bear witness, and I am with you
from those who bear witness.
Allahu Akbar.
Should he have appeared in any era, it
was upon the Prophet to believe and to
hand over to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and
to support him.
So it's good that people, and we always
cite these things in our talks, that the
Prophet ﷺ is indeed the most influential figure
in human history, and I recently submitted a
post-grad in Islamic leadership philosophy, so I'm
very much in the environment of speaking about
leaders and the leadership of the Prophet Muhammad
ﷺ, but this is only a very small
piece as for who he was.
It's great that we quote the likes of
Mazerman and Reverend Bosworth Smith and Lamartine and
others who said of how great a leader
he was ﷺ, and certainly Michael H.
Hart, his book The Hundred Most Influential People
in Human History, and he crowned that list
with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ as the most
influential person in human history, and he puts
him before Christ whom he himself believes that
was God Almighty.
That's great, we can talk about that.
But if you put a full stop there,
you have inadvertently displayed terrible adab towards the
Prophet ﷺ, because his first and most important
feature after being a slave and worshipper of
Allah Almighty is that he is a messenger
and prophet of Allah ﷻ, then we give
him all the other noble titles thereafter.
It begins with him being a prophet, accepting
that, sent by Allah to all of humanity.
That is adab number one.
I don't think anybody here has an issue
with this so we move on swiftly to
adab number two.
Adab number two towards him ﷺ, let's make
an agreement, we will all say ﷺ, and
we're going to get to this in point
number three inshaAllah.
Adab number two towards him ﷺ is that
we rush towards everything that he has instructed
us to do, and we flee instantly from
everything that he has prohibited us from without
the slightest bit of hesitation.
Did you know that it is still possible
to raise your voice over the voice of
the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ?
The Qur'an has prohibited us from doing
this, and has warned that those who raise
their voice over his, they have put themselves
in a very awkward situation where all of
their hasanat, their good deed, may come crashing
down and rendered meaningless on Yawm al Qiyamah.
Why?
Because of a voice that was raised over
his.
Allah ﷻ said, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَوْ
يُوهُوا بِلِيْبِ لَا تَرْفَعُوا أَصْوَاتَكُمْ فَوْقَ صَوْتِ النَّبِيِّ
Don't raise your voices over the voice of
the Prophet ﷺ.
وَلَا تَجْهَرُوا لَهُ بِالْقَوْلِ كَجَهْرِ بَعْضِكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ And
don't speak over him in a loud way
as you do with one another, what will
happen if they do this?
Allah said, أَن تَحْبَطَ أَعْمَالُكُمْ وَأَنْتُمْ لَا تَشْعُرُونَ
Lest your good deeds may be rendered null
whilst you perceive naught.
Imagine those who raise their voices over the
voice of the Prophet ﷺ, then their future
as a Muslim could be jeopardized before Allah
ﷻ.
And that is why after this ayah was
revealed, Abu Bakr said to the Prophet ﷺ,
I will only ever speak to you as
a person who is telling his brother a
secret.
He would almost whisper.
And Umar would lower his voice when speaking
about the Prophet ﷺ so much that the
Prophet would almost always need to say to
him, sorry can you repeat that again please?
La ilaha illa Allah, adab with the Prophet
ﷺ.
You're now going to say to me, how
does that relate to me?
As a Muslim in the 21st century when
the Prophet ﷺ has passed away, I say
to you no, it's doable.
You can raise your voice over his voice
today as it was possible when he was
still with us ﷺ.
How?
Imam Ibn Qayyim he said in his book,
اعلام الموقعين, take note of these words.
He said, فَإِذَا كَانَ رَفْعُ أَصْوَاتِهِمْ فَوْقَ صَوْطِهِ
سَبَبًا لِحَبُوطِ الْأَعْمَالِ فَكَيْفَ تَقْدِيمُ آرَائِهِمْ وَعُقُولِهِمْ
وَسِيَاسَاتِهِمْ وَأَمْزِجَتِهِمْ وَأَهْوَائِهِمْ عَلَىٰ مَا جَاءَ بِهِ
وَرَفْعُهَا عَلَيْهِ أَلَيْسَ هَذَا أَوْلَ بِحَبُوطِ He said,
if merely raising your voice over the voice
of the Prophet ﷺ is sufficient to cause
your good deeds to come crashing down, he
said, take note, what then of a people
who give preference to their opinions, their intellects,
their tastes, their politics, their ideas over that
of the Prophet ﷺ and elevate it over
him, he said, is this not a greater
cause of having your good deeds come crashing
down?
Did you understand it?
If simply raising your voice over his can
bring you this consequence, what then of people
who put their ideas and thoughts and preferences
and desires over his ﷺ, will that not
bring about a similar outcome?
And that is why Ibn Abu Bakr in
his book Ahkamul Qur'an, he said, take
note of these words, وَحُرْمَةُ النَّبِيِّ ﷺ مَيِّتًا
كَحُرْمَةِهِ حَيًّا He said, the sanctity of the
Prophet ﷺ now that he has passed away
is identical to his sanctity and honour when
he was still alive.
It hasn't changed.
Did you get this?
And then he said, وَكَلَامُهُ الْمَكْتُوبُ فِي الْرُّقْعَةِ
مِثْلُ كَلَامِهِ الْمَسْمُوعُ مِنْ لَقْضِهِ He said, and
his words that are written down today in
books are identical to his words that he
uttered from his mouth.
The idea is that just because the Prophet
ﷺ is no longer with us in person,
it doesn't mean that his guidance now is
anything less.
He is saying, if the Prophet ﷺ is
with us today and he is saying to
us in this masjid, do this ya Muslims,
refrain from this oh Muslims, he said that
is the same as reading it from a
book because it's from the same source.
So let me give you a very quick
tour about how the companions of the Prophet
ﷺ interacted with this adab that we are
speaking about.
Adab number two, to rush towards what he
has instructed and to refrain from what he
has prohibited and doing it without questioning, without
doubting, without hesitation, without second thought, without needing
a scientific evidence or proof from the Western
revelation or Eastern revelation as for why this
is a good thing that you should do.
How did the sahaba interact with this adab,
adab number two that we are speaking about.
I share with you a few examples.
Muslim narrates that some of the companions would
say the following, nahaana rasulullahi ﷺ an amreen
kana lana naafiAAa wa tawaAAiyatullahi wa rasulihi anfaAAulana.
They said the Prophet ﷺ forbade us from
certain things that used to benefit us, but
obeying Allah and His Messenger is of greater
benefit to us.
La ilaha illallah.
There was some trade, there was some commerce,
some buying and selling formats that were made
haram.
It used to bring in an income to
the companions.
They said that used to benefit us, but
the mentality of adab towards him says a
reframing is required.
Obeying Allah and His Messenger would always be
of greater benefit to us.
Who can say that today and translate that
in their trade, in their relationship, in their
private conversations, online and offline.
Obeying Allah and His Messenger is more benefit
than what I think or what society thinks
is right.
Muslim also narrates that the Prophet ﷺ came
across a sahabi who was wearing a gold
ring.
Gold is prohibited for the men, permitted for
the women.
So the Prophet ﷺ came to this man
and he took away the ring and he
threw it and he was upset and he
said يَعْمَدُ أَحَدُكُمْ إِلَىَ جَمْرَةٍ مِنْ نَعْرِي فَيَضَعُوهَا
فِي يَدِهِ He said why is it that
some of you choose to take a live
ember, a live coal from * and put
it on his hand.
So a man came to this individual who
had the ring confiscated and thrown.
He said to him, why don't you go
and collect your ring, sell it, make some
use of it.
Don't put it on, but do something with
it.
But look at the mentality of the sahabi
who understands this adab number two, putting him
first.
He said لا والله لا أخذه وقد طرحه
رسول الله ﷺ.
He said no I swear by Allah I
will never pick up something that was thrown
away by the Prophet ﷺ.
يَا سَلَام يَا سَلَام يَا سَلَام Wallahi it
is mut'a, it is pleasure, it is
like eating dessert.
When speaking about the scenes of obedience of
the sahabi towards the Prophet ﷺ, how many
things has he thrown away that we shouldn't
pick up again?
Whether that is the prohibition of alcohol or
the use of drugs or the use of
narcotics or the consumption of * or illicit
relationships.
Whatever it may be, he has thrown it
away ﷺ and he has put it beneath
his feet.
Never pick up something that he has thrown
away.
A third example, Abdullah ibn Rawaha, a shaheed,
a martyr, may Allah Almighty have mercy upon
the martyrs of the Muslims.
Abdullah ibn Rawaha hears the Prophet ﷺ saying
اجلسوا, he is giving the khutbah, the Friday
sermon and the Prophet ﷺ said اجلسوا, sit
down.
Abdullah ibn Rawaha is still outside in kitays
right, crossing over to come into the masjid.
He hasn't come into the masjid, he sits
down in the middle of the road.
We will not delay it.
If that was you or me, most certainly,
I would have said he means sit down
if you are in the masjid.
So I quickly get into the masjid and
sit down in a comfortable spot on the
carpet.
He sat down in the middle of the
road.
After the khutbah is finished, he is told
about what Abdullah ibn Rawaha did and the
Prophet ﷺ praised him and he said زادك
الله حرصا على طواعية الله ورسوله.
May Allah Almighty increase you in eagerness in
obeying Allah and His Messenger.
No surprise that a man who lived so
close to the sunnah will die as a
martyr.
This is Abdullah ibn Rawaha.
Allahu Akbar.
Jabir ibn Sulaym, another companion, who said to
the Prophet ﷺ, Ya Rasulullah, i'had ilayh,
O Messenger of Allah, give me some advice.
He said to him, لا تسبن أحدا.
Don't curse anyone.
Don't swear.
Perhaps this was an issue that was quite
unique to Jabir ibn Sulaym.
Maybe he was a little bit comfortable in
the vocab that he was using and his
vernacular.
So the Prophet ﷺ gave him a tailored
bit of advice.
As for you, watch your mouth.
Don't curse anyone.
How did he respond?
Because some people have this issue.
Every other word is just an F this
and an F that.
Have you met those people?
What did you have for lunch?
I had an F sandwich.
What was in your sandwich?
It was an F cheese and coleslaw.
Why?
It's like you're just walking on this minefield
and you're going to get F-bombed all
of a sudden.
Swearing, swearing.
Some people justify it.
I'm not profane.
I'm not vulgar.
I'm not rude.
I'm just authentic.
Just authentic.
Yeah, you're authentically rude.
You're authentically vulgar, authentically profane.
They don't even try to look for the
alternatives.
So the F, what is it, flipping and
then the other S word, sugar.
No, they're going for it.
Jabir ibn Sulaym, he said, Messenger of Allah,
give me advice.
He said, don't curse anyone.
Don't swear.
What did he say?
Did he say, I'm going to work on
it.
I'm going to find the alternatives.
It's going to take me some time to
get it out of my system.
I mean, everyone around me is swearing.
And how do I express myself?
None of this nonsense.
He said to him, فَمَا سَبَبْتُ بَعْدَهُ حُرًّا
وَلَا عَبْدًا وَلَا شَاتًا وَلَا بَعِرًا He said,
after hearing this advice, he said, by Allah,
I never insulted a human being, whether free
or a slave or a camel or a
sheep.
That's the end of it.
Done.
And of course, sisters, this is not limited
to the males of the Sahaba.
Alhamdulillah, the female Sahabiyat were just as compliant
and reverent towards the Prophet ﷺ.
And they were women of adab towards him.
Our mother Aisha, she said, يَرْحَمُ اللَّهُ نِسَاءَ
الْمُهَاجِرَاتِ الْأُوَّلِ May Allah Almighty have mercy on
the early Muslim women from the migrants who
came from Mecca to Medina.
May Allah have mercy on them.
How come?
She said, لَمَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ وَلِيَضْرِبْنَ بِهُمُرِهِنَّ عَلَىٰ
جُيُوبِهِنَّ شَقَقْنَ مُرُوتَهُنَّ فَاخْتَبَرْنَ بِهَا She said, because
when Allah Almighty revealed the ayah of hijab
in the Qur'an, saying that women need
to draw over their cloaks, over their bodies,
what did they do?
They didn't even wait to go home to
look for a hijab.
She said, they started to tear their cloaks
at once.
They started to rip it and to wrap
it around their bodies and their faces.
Incredible.
There wasn't this whole, can we take it
step by step, O Messenger of Allah, can
I have one of those loose hijabs, a
little bit under the collar, can I just
show my neck?
Right?
Is it okay if I start off in
the winter, O Messenger of Allah, because in
Arabia it's hot, it's scorching, you know, in
the summer we'll give it a miss, in
the winter I'm good with the hijab.
Besides, if I put on the hijab, how
am I going to get hitched?
Who's going to take a woman like me?
How will they know what I look like?
And it's funny because it seems that the
best hijab women are usually the ones who
struggle the least to get married.
This isn't my limited observation, it's anecdotal, I
may be wrong.
None of this, no fashion consultation about what
type of hijab I want to go for
step by step.
Am I okay wearing the turban hijab?
Am I okay to wear the flex fit
hijab?
Am I okay to wear the tech cap
hijab?
Am I okay to start off with the
crisscross turban type hijab?
None of that.
O Messenger of Allah, I want to go
to Thorpe Park on the water rides, can
I wear just a speedo cap?
Can I wear a hijab?
Because hoodies are super comfortable.
Messenger of Allah, is it okay if I
put on a zoom filter that shows as
though I am wearing a hijab, but I'm
not really wearing a hijab, is that okay?
Do I have to wear the hijab online
or is it just offline?
None of those questions.
They heard that Allah Almighty has obligated this
hijab, they started to tear their clothes, imagine,
there and then, on site, without any questions
about fashion or gradation, and they became women
of hijab.
And by the way, we as males, we
have our own challenges in accepting the advice
of the Prophet ﷺ, but maybe with us
it's less about fashion and more about money.
You sit with women, they're complaining about men,
you sit with men, they're complaining about money.
Money is the talk of most men.
So you say to a brother, for example,
this is a common issue, Allah Almighty has
forbidden riba, usury interest, it's haram, what about
a very small amount of riba, like just
pennies, it's in the contract, it's not going
to make me rich.
Yeah, with that penny you're still at war
with Allah and His Messenger.
Alright, let's not call it the riba interest,
let's call it a gift.
At the end of the loan, he's going
to give me a gift.
Is that okay?
So it's just interest with another name.
Still at war with Allah and His Messenger.
Okay, what if I invest some money with
a company and then the profits that they
give me happen to be equal to the
interest rate of the day?
It's profits, riba in another name.
Is it okay if I lend someone some
money and at the end of each afternoon
he buys me lunch?
Yeah, if it's connected to the loan, it's
still riba.
It's no getting out of it.
So this is the difference.
So notice that whenever you put your preference,
your dress preference, your food preference, your business
preference over that of the Prophet ﷺ, what
are you doing brothers?
What are we doing sisters?
What's the word that we're looking for?
We are raising our voices over the voice
of the Prophet ﷺ.
That's adab number one, adab number two.
Adab number three is to send abundant salat
and salam, salutations and blessings upon the Prophet
ﷺ.
There is an ayah in the Qur'an,
I know you've come across, I want you
to listen to it as though you are
hearing it for the first time because it
is mind-blowing.
It is staggering.
But lend me your mind and heart for
just a moment.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala He said, inna
allaha wa malaikatahu yusalluna ala an-nabi.
Allah and His messenger, Allah and His angels,
they send blessings upon the Prophet.
Ya ayyuhal-lazeena amanu wa sallu alaihi wa
sallimu taslima.
So O you who believe, send blessings and
peace upon him.
Why is this so profound and staggering?
Because we don't know of any act, any
amal.
For us as humans, it's an act of
worship.
However, we don't know of any amal, an
act that is participated in by the Muslims
and the angels and Allah Almighty Himself partakes
in it other than this one of sending
blessings and salutations and peace upon the Prophet
ﷺ.
You are doing it, the angels are doing
it and Allah Almighty is doing it.
Inna allaha wa malaikatahu yusalluna ala an-nabi.
Indeed Allah and His angels are sending blessings
upon the Prophet ﷺ.
It is incredible to add to the blessings
of him ﷺ.
What happens in the life of a mu'min,
a believer, who frequently says Allahumma salli wa
sallim ala nabiyyina Muhammad ﷺ, sending blessings and
peace upon him, what are you to expect
in your life as a return on investment?
Listen to this hadith, a Tirmidhi narrates on
the authority of Ubayy ibn Ka'b, that
the companion Ubayy said to the Prophet ﷺ,
he said, Ya Rasulullah, inni uqthiru as-salata
alayk, fa amkam aj'alu laka min salati?
O Messenger of Allah, I send a lot
of salat and salam upon you in my
dua.
So how much of my dua should I
dedicate for this?
Meaning, when I'm raising my hands and I'm
asking Allah Almighty for things, I say Allahumma
salli wa sallim ala nabiyyina Muhammad.
I say Allahumma salli wa sallim ala nabiyyina
Muhammad.
So what percentage of my dua should be
of sending salutations and blessings upon you?
He said to him, ma shi'ta, whatever you
wish.
He said, al-rubu, should I dedicate a
quarter of my dua for this?
He said, ma shi'ta, fa inzitta fahuwa khayrun
lak.
He said, if you wish, a quarter is
fine, but if you do more, it will
be better for you.
To Ubayy ibn Ka'b, he said, an
-nisr, what about half?
He said to him, ma shi'ta, fa inzitta
fahuwa khayrun lak.
If you wish, half is fine, but if
you do more, it will be better for
you.
To Ubayy ibn Ka'b, he said, fa
thuluthayni, should I dedicate two-thirds of my
dua to sending blessings upon you?
He said to him, ma shi'ta, fa inzitta
fahuwa khayrun lak.
That's fine.
If you do more, it will be better
for you.
So Ubayy ibn Ka'b, he said, and
look at the questions of a scholar.
He said, aj'alu laka salati kullaha.
Should I dedicate all of my dua to
just sending salat and salam upon you?
What did the Prophet ﷺ say to him?
He said, idhal, tukfa hammak wa yughfara dhanbuk.
He said, if you do this, all of
your worries will be removed and all of
your sins will be erased.
What is the greatest aspiration of life today?
To have your worries removed.
What is the greatest aspiration on the Day
of Judgement?
To have your sins removed.
As-salāhu alayhi wa sallam upon the Prophet
ﷺ removes the burdens of today, erases the
sins of tomorrow.
Allahu Akbar.
What a successful formula it is.
Question.
What is the question by the way?
Just to see if we're both on the
same line.
What's the question?
Are we thinking about the same one?
Ali, what's the question?
No questions.
Malik, what's the question?
So clear, you know what to do.
So for the rest of your life, you're
going to give salat and salam upon the
Prophet ﷺ and you're never going to make
a dua for yourself.
Is there a question?
No, still no questions.
I'm amazed.
Jahangir, is there a question?
Should we make dua for ourselves?
Is that a good question Malik?
It's not a good question Jahangir.
He said.
Should we make dua for ourselves?
This seems to be like a winning formula
doesn't it?
So why on earth would I ever ask
for anything for myself?
I just say Allahumma salli wa sallim ala
nabiyyina Muhammad all night.
What's the answer?
What's the answer?
How do we understand this hadith of today?
So we should start with sending salutations upon
the Prophet ﷺ.
So this we're all agreed on.
But the hadith suggests that if you start,
you end, everything in between with salat and
salam upon him, then your sins will be
forgiven and your burdens removed.
So this suggests that maybe you should give
up on dua and just do this all
day all the night.
Because it's a winning formula.
What do we do?
How do we understand this?
Abu Bakr, start with it, end with it.
Take it in moderation.
How?
What do you study?
What do you study at school?
So this is a good answer.
Rubab, what do you think?
What he said.
Told you it's a good answer.
Here is the understanding of it as was
given by Shaykh al-Islam ibn Taymiyyah and
other scholars.
They said that Ubayy ibn Ka'b is
asking the Prophet ﷺ saying that there is
a particular dua in the day that I
specify for myself, for my personal needs, my
problem.
There is a particular dua that Ubayy would
make for himself.
So there is a dua for the ummah,
there is a dua for the children, there
is a dua for other things.
But there is also a dua that I
make for myself.
So he was asking him about the dua
that he is making for himself.
How much of that dua should I dedicate
for you in terms of salat and salam?
He said to him, for that dua, if
you make it all salat and salam upon
me, then your sins are erased and your
problems are alleviated.
Allahu akbar.
Allahu akbar.
Understood?
There is two stories quickly I share with
you on this.
By the way, even my wife Umm Abida,
Allah ya'kbar, every time, every time, she
always messages me, I struggled to find parking
today.
I said salat and salam upon the Prophet
ﷺ, somebody moved out of the way and
allowed me to park.
It's like 1 plus 1 equals 2 in
her life.
Really.
Ni'mah from Allah.
And if it doesn't work in your life,
because it's your heart that is not functioning
well, not the dua that is failing.
There is one of our scholars from Egypt,
from the city of Mansura, and he said
that there was a young girl, she couldn't
have been 15 years old, and she said
to him, Shaykh, I need your help understanding
a reoccurring dream that I'm having involving the
Prophet ﷺ.
He said, whoa.
Hold on a minute.
A reoccurring dream involving the Prophet ﷺ?
She said, yeah.
He said, you see the Prophet ﷺ and
you dream a lot?
She said, yes, alhamdulillah.
He said, what's your secret to the Shaykh?
A dream of ours, it's our ambition to
see him.
What's your secret?
She said, I don't know, Shaykh.
Allah knows best.
Alhamdulillah, say salat and salam upon the Prophet
ﷺ on average 10,000 times a day.
So naturally Allah will not let down a
person like her.
The same Shaykh, he says, I was once
delivering a lecture in the masjid when one
of my students came to me after the
class, and this was on a Wednesday evening,
and he said to me, Shaykh, can you
come after the class and visit my mother,
an old 80-year-old woman, and she's
going through a bit of a challenge in
her life and she has asked if you
can come and visit her.
I said, of course.
The class finishes, they make their way to
the home of this elderly woman.
They enter a very primitive and weathered home,
and the woman brings us into her house
and she gives us hospitality.
What we found amazing about her is that
every other sentence that she said was Allahumma
salli wa sallim ala nabiyyin wa muhammad.
Come in, come in, come in, come in.
Allahumma salli wa sallim ala nabiyyin wa muhammad.
How are you, Shaykh?
How are you doing?
Allahumma salli wa sallim ala nabiyyin wa muhammad.
It was like every other breath she was
taking.
He said to her, Aunty, how can I
help you?
She said to him, my son, I don't
really need help because I know my illness
and I know my cure.
He said, what is the problem?
She said, Shaykh, I haven't seen the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in my dream for
three days in a row.
He said, you see the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam every night?
She said, yes, alhamdulillah.
She didn't like that for many years.
See, there are some people who go and
visit the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and
there are people who are visited by the
Prophet alayhi salatu wa salam.
So use this word, get used to this
statement, be connected to your Prophet alayhi salatu
wa salam.
Allahumma salli wa sallim ala nabiyyin wa muhammad.
That's adab number what?
Adab number three.
Adab number four and we'll conclude with this.
To love the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
with every atom of your being, to truly
love him.
It's so easy to say this.
No, I mean truly to love him alayhi
salatu wa salam.
More than you love your mother and father,
more than you love water on a hot
day, he said sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, la
yu'minu ahadukum hatta akuna ahabba ilayhi min waladihi
wa walidihi wa an nasi ajma'in.
None of you will reach the full state
of iman until I, the Prophet of Allah,
become dearer to you than your child, your
parent and all of humanity.
Allah Almighty knows how many nights he spent
awake, weeping, soaking his blessed beard with his
tears, thinking about you, how he's going to
be a cause of your salvation and mine.
And so to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
we complain of how hard our hearts have
become towards a man whose heart was so
soft towards us alayhi salatu wa salam.
How are the sahabah with respect to loving
their messenger alayhi salatu wa salam?
Something that you couldn't imagine, something that you
couldn't make up.
Ishaq al-Tujaybi, he said describing the companions,
he said kanu la yadhkuroonahu ba'da mawtihi illa
khasha'u wa qsha'arrat julooduhum wa bakaw.
He said every time the companions of the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam remembered the Prophet
of Allah after he had passed away, every
time they would mention his name they would
be humbled with khushuwa and their skins would
shiva and they would begin to shed tears.
Abu Bakr radiallahu ta'ala who is the
number one man of this ummah for a
reason because nobody loved the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam more than Abu Bakr.
Quiet in his sound, little in his words,
enormous in his iman, enormous in his love
towards the Prophet alayhi salatu wa salam.
Imab ibn Kathir he mentions a narration that
not many people speak of in his seerah
that our mother Aisha radiallahu anha narrated that
early in Mecca when the Muslims were 38
in number, Islam was still a child.
Abu Bakr he comes to the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam and he said a messenger
of Allah I think it is time for
us now to go public in our dawah.
We're 38 men strong now there's no need
to be secretive about this.
The messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
he said Abu Bakr be careful we're still
few in number.
There will be time for this, we're still
few in number.
Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu insisted this is the
time of messenger of Allah there's nothing to
hide now.
And so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
gave him the space, do what you need
to do.
So the Muslims went into the masjid, masjid
al haram in Mecca and they dispersed in
different places because they knew chaos was about
to ensue and each companion sat with his
tribe and Abu Bakr was with his tribe,
the tribe of tame and he stood up
as a khatib, a sermon giver and he
began to speak about Allah, tawheed, the oneness
of Allah and that this man sat over
there that is the messenger of Allah sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam and it is upon all
of you to leave your idols and surrender
to his message.
The masjid erupted and the pagan, the pagans
and the idol worshippers turned towards all of
the Muslims and they began to beat them.
As for Abu Bakr radiallahu alayhi wa sallam
he was trampled, he was severely beaten by
a group of them.
He is on the floor and you cannot
see him as they kick into him and
the worst of them was the fasiq, the
sinner Utbah ibn Rabia who took off his
sandal and he turned it to the side
to give it the hard edge and he
was hitting the face of Abu Bakr radiallahu
alayhi wa sallam with so much force that
by the end of it you couldn't recognize
the front or the back of Abu Bakr
radiallahu alayhi wa sallam on his head.
He had swollen, his nose had disappeared, he
was disfigured, he passed out, they thought he
had died.
The tribe of Taim fought off the pagans
and they put Abu Bakr in a cloth
and they carried him back to his home,
the home of his parents, Abu Quhafa and
Ummul Khair.
Then the tribe of Taim, Abu Bakr's tribe
went back to the masjid and they said
Wallahi by God Almighty if Abu Bakr dies
we're coming back and we're going to kill
Utbah ibn Rabia, come what may.
Abu Bakr radiallahu alayhi wa sallam who was
unconscious for all of the day and most
of the evening, late that night as his
tribe were pushing him to say something, they
managed to get a response and his very
first words were What happened to the messenger
of Allah?
They told him off, they said don't be
speaking about anything now just focus on your
health, get some rest.
Then the tribe of Taim they left and
they said to his mother Ummul Khair take
care of him, make sure he eats and
drinks.
When she was alone with him, mother what
happened to the messenger of Allah?
She said to him I don't know anything
about Muhammad ibn Abdullah, she wasn't a Muslim,
I don't know anything about your friend.
She said to her mother go to Ummul
Jameel because she was a Muslim, tell her
to come here please.
Ummul Khair she goes to Ummul Jameel, she
said he is asking about Muhammad ibn Abdullah.
Ummul Jameel she said I don't know anything
about him, she does but she was hiding
her Islam.
I don't know anything about him.
She said can you come with me?
So they went back, Ummul Jameel she saw
the face of Abu Bakr, she said may
Allah Almighty curse the ones who did this
to you.
She said to her what happened to the
messenger of Allah?
She said your mother is listening, she said
don't worry about my mother what happened to
the messenger of Allah?
She said to him Alhamdulillah he is well.
He said to her no, I swear by
Allah Almighty no food or drink is coming
into my mouth until I see the messenger
of Allah.
So they waited until the hassle and bustle
went down and they managed to help him
stand and they brought him to the house
of Al-Arqam, Ibn Abi Al-Arqam and
there the companions they crowded around Abu Bakr
and they wept over him and they kissed
him and the Prophet ﷺ stood up for
As-Siddiq and he kissed him and Aisha
she said, the Prophet ﷺ heart broke when
he saw Abu Bakr in the state but
Abu Bakr's only concern was I don't want
your heart to break and he said to
him, Messenger of Allah may my mother and
father be sacrificed for you, there is nothing
wrong with me, I'm completely okay, it's just
the sinner he really harmed my face.
In other words it's just how I look,
don't worry about it, I'm completely okay, Allahu
Akbar.
And what about Sawad Ibn Ghaziya radiallahu ta
'ala on the day of Badr, the Prophet
ﷺ is lining up his companions for a
war that they were not expecting nor wanting
and Sawad now in his final moments with
his belly protruding outside of the line and
so the Prophet ﷺ he pokes him in
his belly and he said istawiyah Sawad, stand
in line oh Sawad.
Sawad Ibn Ghaziya he said, Messenger
ﷺ establishing justice even on the battlefield and
he stands in front of Sawad and he
raises his garment and he uncovers his blessed
and white torso and he said to him
istawiyah Sawad, retaliate, take your revenge oh Sawad.
So Sawad Ibn Ghaziya pounces on the body
of the Prophet ﷺ and he kisses him
in his torso.
He said to him, why did you do
this oh Sawad?
He said, oh Messenger of Allah, you see
the situation that we're in, we're not going
to go back to our families.
And so I wanted my last memory in
life to be me making contact with your
skin.
La ilaha illallah.
Just enough that they had for him ﷺ,
thinking about being close to him even when
they are essentially experiencing the throes of death.
And Sa'd Ibn al-Rabi'ah, one of
the leaders of the Ansar, he was missing
on the day of Uhud and the day
of Uhud was a difficult day for the
Muslims.
And so the Prophet ﷺ he said to
Zayd Ibn Thabit, go on, go back to
the battlefield.
This was after the battle had subsided.
Go back to the battlefield and look for
Sa'd Ibn al-Rabi'ah.
And if you find him, say to him
that the Messenger of Allah says, how are
you doing?
Zayd Ibn Thabit, he makes his way back
to the battlefield and he is stepping over
the corpses.
And finally he sees Sa'd Ibn al-Rabi
'ah facing the heavens, fatally injured, breathing his
last.
He kneels down to Sa'd Ibn al-Rabi
'ah.
He whispers into his ear and he says,
the Messenger of Allah has sent me to
you.
And he said, as-salamu alaykum, how do
you feel?
Sa'd Ibn al-Rabi'ah, he said, upon
you and the Messenger of Allah is the
peace.
And tell him, O Messenger of Allah, I
smell the fragrance of Jannah.
And then he said, convey a message to
my people, the Ansar.
Say to them, your leader says, la'udhra
lakum amama Allahi min khalusa ila Rasulillahi ﷺ
wa fikum aynun tatla.
Tell my people that you have no excuse
before Allah Almighty.
If any harm touches the Prophet of Allah,
whilst any one of you has an eye
that blinks.
And then he breathed his last and he
passed away.
His last moments, he's not thinking about his
inheritance or his wife or his children, he's
thinking about his teacher ﷺ.
And what about the words of Urwatu ibn
Mas'ud al-Thaqafi, who was sent as
an ambassador by Quraysh to go and see
how the Muslims are operating with this man
who's claiming to be a Prophet at Hudaybiyyah.
They said, go and investigate.
And so he watches from a distance how
the companions are behaving around the Prophet ﷺ.
He goes back to the Quraysh.
What does he say to them?
Sahih al-Bukhari, he said, ay qawmi, O
my people, wallahi laqad wafattu alal muluk, I
visited the kings of the world.
Wafattu ala Qaysar wa Qisr wa Najashi, and
I visited Caesar, Khosroes, and the king of
Abyssinia.
Wa in ra'aytu wallahi malikam qad yu
'azzimuhu ashaabuhu ma yu'azzimu ashaabu Muhammadin Muhammada.
And in my life, he said, I have
never seen a people who honour their king
more than those companions honoured their Prophet ﷺ.
He said, wallahi in tanakhama nukhamatan illa waqa
'at fee kaffi ahadihim fadalaka biha wajhahum wajhidah.
Even if he wanted to spit on the
floor, one of the companions would be there
to catch it and would wipe his face
and his body with his blessed spit allahu
akbar.
He said, wa idha tawadda akadu yaqtatiluna ala
wudu'ihi.
And when he would do his wudu, his
ablution, they would almost kill one another.
They would fight with one another, competing for
the remains of the water that would drop
off his body.
Wa ma yahiduna ilayhi an-nadhar ta'zeeman
lahum.
And they would never stare at him out
of honour to their Prophet.
Wa idha takallama khafadu aswatahum.
And when they would speak, they would lower
their voices in his presence.
Allahu akbar.
Honour that they had for the Prophet ﷺ
and true love.
And this wasn't just the men.
Again, it was the women, a woman from
the tribe of Dinar, who was told on
the battle of Uhud that you've lost your
husband, you've lost your father, and you've lost
your son.
You've lost your father, your husband, and your
son, all in one battle.
She said, ma fa'ala Rasulullahi ﷺ.
What happened to the Messenger of Allah?
They said, huwa bikhayrin wa lillahi lhamd.
He's good by the grace of Allah.
She said, no.
Point him out to me so that I
can see him.
They said, there he is, over there.
Can you see him?
He's okay.
And then they heard her muttering to herself
kullu musibati ba'daka jalal.
Which means, every calamity is small as long
as you are okay.
Allahu akbar.
Who can do that?
They saw a man who was a perfect
worshipper of Allah, a perfect mujahid, combatant in
the path of Allah, a man who was
perfect in his generosity, perfect in his mercy
and kindness.
And let me say, and just to round
up the talk, when outer beauty mixes with
inner beauty, that's when the circle of love
is complete.
They loved him because not only was he
a man who was fine in his character
and his akhlaaq, he was a man who
was fine in his physical construct.
You know why?
Because we do judge people by appearances, and
we do judge books by their covers.
That's just a fact of life.
And that's why every Prophet and Messenger was
the finest of all men, even from an
appearance perspective.
He was the most handsome of men.
There may be people who are very attractive,
but the moment they speak, they become the
ugliest of people.
And similarly, there may be people who are
very attractive in their character, but from a
fasa'at perspective, it's not all there.
People don't do them justice, unfortunately.
That's the nature of man.
Allah Almighty catering for this nature, He made
him the finest of all people in character,
and He made him the most splendid of
people in physical form.
What did he look like?
It's important to know this, because that increases
our ability to act upon this fourth adab
of loving the Prophet ﷺ.
What did he look for?
Because the eye and the heart have a
yearning for those who are charming and graceful.
Ka'b ibn Malik, speaking about the Prophet's
ﷺ appearance, he said, كَانَ إِذَا سُرْ إِسْتَنَارَ
وَجْهُهُ حَتَّى كَأَنَّ وَجْهَهُ قِطْعَةُ الْقَمْرِ He said,
when the Prophet ﷺ would be happy, his
face would illuminate as though it was a
portion of the moon.
Abu Hurairah said about the Prophet ﷺ, كَانَ
رَسُولُ اللهِ أَبْيَضَ الْوَجْهِ كَأَنَّ مَا صِيغَ مِنْ
فِلْغَ The Prophet ﷺ had a white, fair
complexion.
It was as if he was fashioned from
silver.
You see from their descriptions, immense love proliferating
their words.
He was a man of a fair complexion.
It was as if he was fashioned from
silver.
Jabir ibn Samurah, he said, رَأَيْتُ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى
اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَمْ لَيْلَةَ إِضْحِيَامٍ I saw the
Prophet ﷺ on one night when the moon
was full.
And so I started to look at the
moon and look at his face and look
back at the moon and back at his
face.
And he was wearing a red garment and
he was in my eyes even more beautiful
than the moon.
And Al-Baraa ibn Aazib, he said, كَانَ
مَرْبُوعًا The Prophet ﷺ was of a medium
stature.
Not too tall and not too short.
وَلَقَدْ رَأَيْتُهُ وَعَلَيْهِ حُلَّةٌ حَمْرًا And I once
saw him wearing a red garment.
مَا رَأَيْتُ شَيْءً قَدْتُ أَحْسَنَ مِنْهُ In my
life I have never seen anything more handsome
than him.
And the most famous description of the Prophet
ﷺ was of course the description of Ummu
Baabad al-Huza'iya that old lady who
hosted the Prophet ﷺ in her tent during
the migration.
They came into her tent and they found
nothing that she could give them.
She said, I'm sorry, it's just this lone
goat that has nothing, no milk to offer.
He said, do you mind if I milk
it?
He tried to milk it.
The udder became full.
He gave them milk and it had a
froth on the top layer.
It came out with so much force and
barakah.
They all drank.
Her husband comes back and he says, Ummu
Baabad, where did this milk come from?
She said, no, a blessed man had visited
us today.
He said, give me the description of this
man.
She said to him, رَأَيْتُ رَجُلًا I saw
a man.
ظَهِرَ الْوَضَاءَ Of a glowing appearance.
أَبْلَجَ الْوَجْهِ Of a radiant face.
حَسَنَ الْخَلْقِ Of perfect proportions.
لَمْ تُعِبْهُ ثُحْلَةً He never had a protruding
belly.
وَلَمْ تُزْرِ بِهِ صَعْلَ Nor did he have
a small head.
وَسِيمْ Rather he was a handsome man.
فِي عَيْنَيْهِ دَاجِ His eyes were intensely dark.
وَفِي أَشْفَارِهِ وَطَفْ And his eyelashes were long.
وَفِي صَوْطِهِ صَهَل And there was a huskiness
in his voice.
وَفِي عُنُقِهِ سَطَع And there was some length
to his neck.
وَفِي لِحْيَتِهِ كَثَاثَ And his beard was dense
and full.
أَزَجْ His eyebrows were finely arched.
إِنْ صَمَتَ فَعَلَيْهِ الْوَقَار When he was silent,
he was a man of dignity.
وَإِنْ تَكَلَّمَ سَمَاهُ وَعَلَاهُ الْبَهَاء But when he
spoke, he rose with magnificence and grace.
أَجْمَلُ النَّاسِ وَأَبَهَاهُ مِنْ بَعِيد He was the
most splendid and gracious and magnificent from afar.
وَأَحْلَاهُ وَأَحْسَنُهُ مِنْ قَرِيب The most sweet from
up close.
حُلْوُ الْمَنْطِقِ Even his words were so sweet.
فَصْلٌ They were decisive to the point.
لَا هَذِرٌ وَلَا تَزِر He never spoke too
much or too little.
كَأَنَّ مَنْطِقَهُ خَزَرَاتٌ نَظْمٌ يَتَحَدَّرْ His words were
as though they were pearls cascading from a
string.
رَبْعٌ A man of medium stature.
لَا يَأْسَ مِنْ طُولٍ He wasn't too tall.
وَلَا تَقْطَحِمُهُ عَيْنٌ مِنْ قِصَر Nor was he
frustratingly short.
غُصْنٌ بَيْنَ غُصْنَيْنِ فَهُوَ أَنظَرُ ثَلَاثَةِ مَنْظَرَةٌ A
branch between two branches is the best of
three.
It was like looking at a fine branch
placed between two other branches.
فَهُوَ أَحْلَاهُمْ وَأَحْسَنُهُمْ وَأَجَلُّهُمْ قَدَرًا But he was
the finest of those branches and the highest
in status.
لَهُ رُفَقَءُ يَحُفُّونَ بِهِ He had companions who
were surrounding him.
إِنْ أَمَرَ تَبَادَرُوا إِلَىٰ أَمْرِهِ If he instructs
them to do something, they rush to the
instruction.
وَإِن تَكَلَّمَ خَفَضُوا أَثْوَاتَهُمْ And when he spoke,
they would lower their voices.
مَحْمُودٌ مَحْشُودٌ لَا عَابِسٌ وَلَا مُفْلِدٌ He was
well-served, well-attended to, though he was
never stern, and he was never argumentative.
If you truly love the Prophet ﷺ, you
will translate this love into action.
You will look at what he did and
you will try to be like him.
And when you commit a sin, you will
repent to Allah and avoid it.
True love is compliance.
True love is not poetry.
True love is not eloquent lectures.
True love is not portraits we put on
our doors, on the backgrounds of our phones.
True love is compliance and obedience.
And we get this in our Islamic Council
of Europe all of the time.
Husband and wife who are disputing, and he
says to her, or she may say to
him, but you know I love you, I
love you so much.
And they will say, how can you say
that when you did this or you didn't
do that?
There is the understanding in the human experience
that the meaning of true love is compliance,
is obedience, is behavior, is action.
So show your love of the Prophet ﷺ
through your appearance, through your trade, through your
salah, through your qiyam, through your hijab, through
the reading of a book of seerah on
a nightly basis with your family, or taking
Riyadh al-Saliheen and taking a hadith or
two or five or ten on a nightly
basis by saying salah and salam upon the
Prophet ﷺ.
Leading a good and righteous life is the
ultimate way of describing your life, improving your
life.
مَنْ يَدَّعِي حُبَّ النَّبِيِّ وَلَمْ يَفِدْ مِنْ هَدِيهِ
فَسَفَاهَةٌ وَهُ رَأُوا فَالْحُبُّ أَوَّلُ شَرْطِهِ وَفُرُودِهِ إِنْ
كَانَ صِدْقٌ طَاعَةٌ وَوَثَاؤٌ Those were the words
of the poet who said whoever claims to
love the Prophet ﷺ but does not stick
to his instructions that it is a nonsensical
claim.
He said because we all know that the
greatest manifestation of love, if it is true,
it is obedience and compliance.
We ask Allah ﷻ to gather us with
the Prophet ﷺ on Yawm al-Qiyamah.
We ask Allah Almighty to send his salam,
salutations and blessings upon him ﷺ and to
reward him aptly for all what he did
for us.
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.