Mirza Yawar Baig – Importance of the method

As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.

Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen.

Wasalatu wassalamu ala sharafil anbiya wal mursaleen.

Muhammadur Rasulullahi sallallahu alaihi wa ala alihi wa

sahbihi wa sallam.

Tasliman kathiran kathiran.

Amma ba'du.

My brothers and sisters, alhamdulillah, we are here

for this Mubarak Majlis to learn about the

Seerah of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.

The word Seerah, as you know, is usually

meant as biography.

Seerah means the way, the path.

We learn about the path of the Rasulullah

sallallahu alaihi wa sallam because he was sent

by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as a

guide for all of mankind until the last

day, so that people can have a life

in this world, which is successful, as well

as be successful when they meet Allah subhanahu

wa ta'ala on the Day of Judgement.

And that is why we learn about the

Seerah.

The Seerah is extremely important and should be,

at least in my opinion, the Seerah should

be a fundamental course of learning, a fundamental

course of the raising of children of Tarbiyah

wa Tazkiyah from day one, because it's like

this.

The reason why we have the way is

the same reason why we have a recipe,

right?

The same reason why we have a recipe.

Now, say for example, my favourite food is

biryani.

So, if I ask you, tell me how

to cook biryani.

So, you give me a list of ingredients.

You must get the best mutton, you must

get the best basmati rice, you must get

these spices and so on and so on.

And then I take all the ingredients, correct

in that there's nothing wrong with the ingredients,

same correct ingredients.

If I take all of them, put them

into a pot, put some water and boil

it all up, I will get very nice

smelling dog food.

It will not be biryani, because rice cooked

with meat, with spices and smell is dog

food, right?

Dogs will love it.

It's not biryani.

So, what is biryani?

Biryani is to use the same ingredients, but

according to a pattern, according to a plan,

which tells you at what stage in the

cooking each thing should be put.

What do you start with?

What comes next?

And at what stage does the second one

come?

And then what comes after that?

And so on.

So, you have to follow a method.

Good ingredients alone will not give you a

tasty dish.

Good ingredients cooked according to a method gives

you a tasty dish.

And that's exactly the same thing as far

as Islam is concerned.

We have the best ingredients, I mean, nobody

can improve on the Quran and nobody can

improve on the hadiths of Rasulullah ﷺ.

But if that is approached without adab, without

respect, without the method, then it will not

give you the right result.

It creates arrogance, it creates people who have

no concern for others, it creates people who

have no respect for the teacher, no respect

for the kitab.

And we see signs of this everywhere.

We see people, for example, in our masjid

who will be reading the Quran and then

they put it on the floor.

We have people who sit in the masjid

with both their feet, legs extended, both the

feet pointed at the Qibla.

And if the imam, if the ustad is

teaching, both the feet are in the face

of the imam.

So, the point I'm making is that that

is the reason why we study the seerah,

that's the reason why the seerah is so

important, because the seerah of Rasulullah ﷺ is

the method by which Islam should be approached.

If Islam is approached in a method, in

a way which is different from the way

Rasulullah ﷺ approached Islam, then you will not

get the results that Nabi ﷺ got.

The best dalil for this I can give

you is the story of Abdullah ibn Umar,

the son of Umar ibn al-Khattab.

He memorised Surah al-Baqarah, which is two

and a half juz' in twelve years.

Now, those of you who are familiar with

our Badrasa system and Hif system, you know

that in our Hif system, a child memorises

the entire Quran, thirty juz' in two years.

And if the child takes longer than that,

maybe three years, then the ustadh will say,

this child is slow, his memory is not

that good.

And if he does not even complete in

three years, then at the end of three

years, generally they will tell him, salamu alaikum,

good, whatever you know is fine, forget it.

So here, on the other hand, was Abdullah

ibn Umar, radiyallahu anhuwar, who was Arab, who

was the son of Umar ibn al-Khattab,

radiyallahu anhuwar, who was a close and personal

student of Rasulullah, salallahu alaihi wa sallam.

One of his favourite students, Sayyidah Aisha Siddiqui,

radiyallahu anhuwar, has a famous statement, she said,

I don't know anyone who follows the sunnah

of Rasulullah, salallahu alaihi wa sallam, more than

Abdullah ibn Umar.

Abdullah ibn Umar, radiyallahu anhuwar, used to follow

the sunnah of Rasulullah, salallahu alaihi wa sallam,

to such an extent that sometimes people said,

there's one story where he was mounted on

his animal, on his camel, and he's going

along a street, at one point he bends

down, like this, and then he straightens up,

and the camel is walking.

So people asked him, why did he bend

down?

He said, there used to be a tree

by the side of the street, and that

tree had a branch which extended across the

street, and when Rasulullah, salallahu alaihi wa sallam,

would pass this way, he would bend down

to get under the branch.

So people said, now there is no tree,

now there is no branch.

But this was Abdullah ibn Umar, radiyallahu anhuwar.

He said, it doesn't matter, if there's no

tree, no branch, Nabi, salallahu alaihi wa sallam,

used to bend there, I will bend there.

Another time, he goes to a place, he

makes his camel kneel, he dismounts, and he

prays to the Ghat of Salah.

So they said to him, why do you

do this?

What is the sanctity of this place?

He said, because, same thing.

I will meet Nabi, salallahu alaihi wa sallam,

one day, and Rasulullah, salallahu alaihi wa sallam,

dismounted from his camel, and he prayed to

the Ghat of Salah, so I prayed to

him.

Now, the reason I'm telling you this is

because this shows the intense love for Rasulullah,

salallahu alaihi wa sallam, that these Sahaba had.

It was their intense love for him, their

regard for him, their respect for him, and

the way they followed him in excellence.

Now, why is it important for us to

study this and follow Rasulullah, salallahu alaihi wa

sallam, in excellence in this way?

Because Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, said, As

-sabiqun al-awwaluna min al-muhajireena wal-ansari

wal-ladheena attaba'uhum bi ihsan, radiyallahu anhum

wa radwan.

Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, said, the sabiqun

al-awwalun, those who won the race, those

who went ahead, from among the first of

the muhajireen and the ansar, from the people

from Makkah who came to Madinah, and the

people in Madinah who helped them, muhajireen wal

-ansar, wal-ladheena attaba'uhum bi ihsan.

Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, left the door

open, and Allah said, and those who followed

them in excellence, radiyallahu anhum wa radwan.

Allah is pleased with them and they are

pleased with Allah.

So, Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, said about

the Sahaba of Rasulullah, salallahu alaihi wa sallam,

and that also, among the best of the

Sahaba, the sabiqun al-awwalun, the ones who

came, the first who came to Islam.

And Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, left the

door open for all those who want to

follow them.

Now, how will you follow if you don't

know what they did?

And that's the reason why it is so

important to study the Seerah of Rasulullah, salallahu

alaihi wa sallam.

And that is what we are doing here.

What we are going to do today, inshallah,

is a course that I created, and for

which I wrote a book, and the book

is called Seerah is the Answer.

And inshallah, to teach the book, I created

the course.

And this course we have taught in many

countries in the world, and we are doing

it here.

And inshallah, we ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta

'ala, to make it a source of khair

and barakah and benefit for us.

So the idea of learning is to practice.

And so, therefore, my suggestion is, whatever you

take away from here, focus on how will

you apply it.

We ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, to

help us to do that which is pleasing

to Him and to save us from that

which does not please Him.

Wa sallallahu ala nabiyyil kareem, wa ala alihi

wa sahbih.

Bi hurmati l-Habib, bi hurmati l-Fatiha.