Usama Canon – My Prophet’s Beautiful Smile
AI: Summary ©
The importance of maintaining a nuanced understanding of things in the believer's life is emphasized, along with the importance of the prophet's beautiful names and attributes. The speaker emphasizes the importance of not seeing the face of the messenger of Islam and maintaining a personative attitude. The speakers stress the importance of setting one's worries aside and not being a resource for others, maintaining a love for one another, and appreciating that things appear to be opposite.
AI: Summary ©
One of the important things for a believer,
and especially in an age like the age
we live in, and it is to be
able to maintain a nuanced understanding of things.
In other words, to be able to understand
that there are two sides to the coin,
that there is more than one answer to
questions,
that there is inevitably,
there is inevitably
that which goes beyond our ability
as finite
creatures to comprehend.
The believer has chosen
and by the grace of Allah has been
blessed to orient himself or to orient herself
in a position that says,
I believe in Allah.
May Allah make us steadfast and not. And
may he never take away our faith no
matter what he takes from us, Allahumma'la.
Don't take away our iman.
So the believer has already oriented himself in
the correct position by saying I believe in
Allah.
And then after that, they inevitably have to
explore
what that orientation means vis a vis their
lived reality,
and vis a vis the lived reality of
the community and the world that they live
in.
We're very fortunate as believing people to have
been chosen, to have been graced, to have
been honored, to be from the community of
the beloved prophet, salallahu
alayhi wasalam.
And Allah reminds us in the Quran about
that blessing so many times and so many
verses,
that would go on beyond the scope of
the brief moments we've been
affording this afternoon.
One of the beautiful things about the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and everything about him
is beautiful.
Even in his majesty there is beauty sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam. Peace and blessings of Allah
be upon her. Even in those moments in
which he must necessarily respond to given events
in a way that is authoritative, in a
way that is proper, even in those majestic
manifestations of beauty. Because in him, salallahu alayhi
wa sallam, is the fulfillment of all of
the manifestations of Allah's beautiful names and Allah's
majestic name the majestic names Azza wa Jalalah.
The prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam is understood
to be
not only
the person who Allah gave the revelation, but
also to be understood to be the greatest
manifestation of all of the names and the
attributes of Allah
That may sound esoteric.
That may sound too deep. That may sound
beyond the scope of what some of us
are ready to reflect upon, but even you
and I have been instructed to try to
take on the character traits of Allah when
the prophet says,
Take on okay, salallahu
alayhi wa sallam. Take on the character traits
of God to the extent that is humanly
possible. In other words, Allah is merciful. So
we're we are to try to be merciful.
Allah is just, so we are to try
to be just. Allah
is forbearance. We are to try to be
forbearance, etcetera, etcetera.
So all of those realities are most
prominently and most manifestly,
seen in the beloved Prophet
So he has outward realities and he has
inward realities sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
One of those things, and this is what
we wanted to speak about and reflect upon
briefly today, is in that narration
where the companion said, by Allah,
I never saw the face of the messenger
of Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam after I
became Muslim.
Except that he was smiling salallahu alaihi wa
sallam.
Now there's 2 really interesting things about that.
There's a lot that can be said, but
2 points we'll focus on. 1,
I never saw his face after becoming Muslim.
What does that mean for us?
How do we treat those people who are
new to the faith?
How do we treat those people that are
exploring the faith?
How do we treat those people that may
be visitors?
How do we treat those people that may
be less than us if we would be
so arrogant as to deem anybody less than
us and their level of religiosity?
When they see our faces, what do they
see?
Do they see a frown that wants to
remind them that they need to get their
selves right?
Do they see an angry face that wants
to prove to them that look brother, this
is serious?
Do they see a
a disciplinary figure that wants to what? Correct
him? Or do they wanna see a face
that is like the face of Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam
except that he was smiling. Well, this begs
a really important question. What was going on
in the prophet's life that may have led
him not to be smiling?
All of the things that you and I
struggle with on a day to day basis,
and I'm not talking about myself here per
se nor am I talking about anyone of
you in particular per se, but all of
the things that we as people struggle with,
the prophet
had some
semblance or some resemblance or some,
part of that.
We have family troubles. We have difficult people
in our families that give us a hard
time. The prophet had people that aren't even
gonna give them a hard time. We have
spousal conflict or spousal tension. The prophet had
this talk about in the Quran.
The prophet had
difficult times with his noble wives. Allah be
well pleased with them.
What did he do? When the prophet's sitting
eating
and,
one of his noble wives made a dish
and another one of them, became
jealous. So she comes in, the lady Aisha.
Allah be pleased with her and he's sitting
with her group of his companions in his
home and then lady Aisha comes in and
she flips up the plate.
Well, what would happen if that happened in
your house? What would happen if that happened
in my house? Guys, you better leave.
I'll see you guys at the masjid for
a fajr.
See you guys at the office on Monday.
What did
he
say? Eat, your mother got jealous.
It's power.
One of the most amazing things about the
prophet is his ability to diffuse socially awkward
and socially tense situations.
And they used to test him. The bad
one came to the prophet he said, oh
Muhammad,
give me from the wealth of Allah not
from the wealth of your mother or father.
Now what happens, Umar takes out his sword,
he says, You Rasulullah
Oh messenger of Allah give me permission to
cut off the head of this hypocrite.
The prophet said, no. No. I don't want
it to be said that Muhammad kills his
companions. So the law of Ibrahim was saying
that. He didn't say he's not a Munafi.
He didn't say don't he said what?
Don't do that because I'm concerned about the
image of Islam publicly.
I'm worried about how this will reflect on
the community. I'm worried about how people will
see us if we do that kind of
thing. Then then the prophet salassul took the
man aside and he gave him an abundant
gift, a very generous gift. And he said,
are you happy? Was that enough? He said,
not really, no.
Imagine
going to the head of a community,
going to the head of state, no you're
going to the head of creation.
Sayyidina Wudu salallahu alaihi wasallam, the last prophet
and he says what? Have a hadics of
faith? Was that enough? He said not really.
So he gave him more.
He already gave him he gave him more.
He said was that enough? He said now.
He
says yes. Thank you very much.
And he's worried about how that will sit
in the heart of the companions, but he's
also worried about the safety of this individual.
So he comes out and he said, tell
him that you're happy. So the man said,
alhamdulillah, the Prophet gave me enough. I'm obviously
paraphrasing
for time's sake. The Prophet gave me enough
and he went on.
When the prophet's laying under the tree
by himself, no security guards,
no gatekeeper,
no stormtroopers.
There's no guards all by himself. And
the man comes and raises a sword above
him. He said, who will defend you against
me now?
And he says, Allah and the sword falls.
So the prophet picks up the sword. Who
said, who gonna defend you now? They said,
just be gentle in punishing me because you're
a good brother.
The prophet said, go, you're free. And then
that goes to his people, he said, all
my people become Muslim because I came from
the best of people.
And in the other narration, he said because
he said,
about the man who got the gift. He
said,
all my people become Muslim.
Because Muhammad gives the giving of a person
who fears not poverty,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Those are the people
who were ill to him. Those are the
people who disrespected him, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
His own personal challenges vis a vis the
fact that his people are denying him. He's
been exiled from his beloved homeland, and the
prophet loved Mecca.
He wasn't, like, you know, just a matter
of religious processing. He personally loved Mecca. When
he left, he said, oh, Allah, you're taking
me out of the most beloved city to
me,
So let me live in the most beloved
city to you. And in one narration he
speaks to Mecca in the second person and
he says, indeed you, oh Mecca, are the
most beloved of God's land to me. And
had it not been that your people exiled
me, I would never have left you.
So leaving Mecca was painful for the prophet
salallahu alaihi wasalam. Many of us may have
experienced a piece of that for one reason
or another had to move unexpectedly,
whether it was under political distress or any
other situation, economic distress
or whatever.
Or a person left their homeland and they
miss home, the prophet had that, sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
People tried to kill him. And in Uhud,
when they come and they're fighting the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And the companions said to them, You Rasulullah,
oh messenger of Allah cursed them. And what
did he say?
I was not sent to curse people
in the map and rather I was sent
as a mercy. And he said, oh Allah,
guide my people for they do not know
what they're doing. And in the narration, oh
Allah, forgive my people for they do not
know what they're doing.
So fill in the blank. Whatever difficulty we're
experiencing, the prophet was experiencing that. Not to
mention perhaps the most important point that revelation
is descending on his blessed heart.
How weighty was that? It was so weighty
that when the revelation would descend and he's
riding in, you could see tears come from
face, the camera. Sometimes she would fall to
the ground when his blessed head was laying
on the thigh, saying,
and the revelation descend,
I thought my thigh was going to burst
out of the weight of the revelation. So
he's experiencing all of that and he's still
what? Smiling.
May Allah give us the smile more. You
wonder sometimes you come to Muslim spaces and
you wonder
either we have muscular dysfunction in our faces.
But there was a messenger.
You see the brother know that he only
religious.
So what are you from?
Another. Alhamdulillah, this is not a masjid that
necessarily needs this class, needs this particular lesson.
Because alhamdulillah there's a lot of love in
this masjid. But we don't want to be
that 1 person we don't want to be
that 1 person who couldn't find it in
ourselves to channel that prophetic mercy into this
smile. May Allah give us to smile. Amen.
And as some of you know better than
me, it takes more muscles to frown than
it does to smile. It's easier to smile
than it is. And, you know, you again,
no matter how hard it may be, I'll
never forget one time being abroad overseas,
and I came to visit one of my
teachers before coming home.
And I had waited several days, literally several
days to see the Sheikh. And I'm waiting
to get directives about what I should do
when I get home to America and how
I should engage a community. And then having
a 1 on 1 meeting with the Sheikh
and it took all of this time and
finally I come in and then waving and
it says says that he says, my son,
my advice to you, when you go home
to America, just smile.
And I'm thinking, okay. What else?
He said, just smile and remind the brothers
about the importance of slandering. And then he
said something very interesting, and this isn't someone
who's read up on,
you know, deep socio sociological studies,
driven by demographic research. This is someone of
intuition. He said because my experience has been
with American people that they know a sincere
smile from an insincere smile.
They know when someone's trying to sell themselves.
So he said benefit from the beauty of
a sincere smile. May Allah give our faces
the smell, You Rabbi Nani. Now here's the
really important part. He's also described salallahu alaihi
wasalam
as always being in a somber
sober or perhaps even grief stricken state.
How do we reconcile these 2? And for
those of us who are coming late, we
began by saying we have to maintain the
nuanced attitude. And this is why hadith are
not to be studied without the guidance of
a proper teacher. Because you could read one
of the hadith and misunderstand it, and you
don't know the complimentary hadith. The scholars of
commentary said what?
His smiling
was with the people,
When he was with the community, he was
smiling. His grief,
his sobriety,
his,
in his what?
Being focused on himself and being saddened
when he was alone with his Lord. When
he was alone with his Lord, that's when
he observed what? A deep
because why?
This is someone who understands the reality of
the unseen.
This is someone who's been shown the realities
of eternity, what it means for a human
being. This is someone salallahu alaihi who's
seen the fire, who's seen paradise, who knows
that reality. So naturally someone who knows that
is not going to be sitting alone,
un improperly cheerful, just sitting and being happy
and,
having a good time because he's thinking about
the reality not only of himself because he's
not worried about himself, salallahu alaihi salam. He's
worried about you and worried about me and
worried about people that you and I may
write off.
Didn't the companion say we used to withhold
from praying that Allah would forgive the people
of wrong action in our community?
We used to withhold
from saying
for the people of major wrong until we
heard the prophet say
My intercession will be for the people of
major wrong for my community.
So he's not just worried about the good
people, the people who are practicing, the people
who are praying. He's worried about the people
from his community who have inconsistency,
who have error, who have sinned. He's concerned
about them.
And if I narrated in the hadith
that when he would be in prostration, you
could hear him weeping so profusely that it
sounded like a pot boiling, like a boiling
pot of water. And he used to say,
oh Allah,
did you not promise me that you would
not punish them
and I am amongst them. Oh, Allah, did
you not con promise me that you would
not punish them? And
they're seeking forgiveness.
And this is why one of our early
Muslims, our predecessors, said we had 2 guarantees
against the punishment of Allah. One of them
was the physical presence of the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam amongst us and the other is
saying, astaghfirullah.
The other is istirfar. And we have lost
that one outwardly, the first one. Not to
say that the Prophet's not amongst us in
a figurative or in a broader meaning, but
physically the prophet passed. So
he said what? So you better do a
lot of this tinfoil.
You better say asafarullah, Allah. Seek Allah's forgiveness
abundantly. And he's the one himself who said,
seek Allah's forgiveness for I seek his forgiveness
70 times a day and in one narration
a 100 times a day. May Allah make
his people the best day, father. Okay. So
they said he was always smiling when he's
with the people and when he was alone
he was grief stricken.
And this is what I mean about maintaining
a nuanced attitude. And it's not to say
that we should be genuinely consistent socially. We
should not have a type of schizophrenic,
contradictory, 2 different modalities. But no, rather, when
we're alone, we should be people of the
deep reverential attitudes, and we should not be
people who waste our time. May Allah make
that easy for us. Amen. So can we
do that? Can we be people that when
we're in a public space, set your your
worries aside for a moment. Set your concerns
aside for a moment. Set your,
criticism of one another or of the community
or of the situation aside for a moment.
It is not
And I'll never forget a brother. He came
to a masjid once. He told me the
story and on the way out, he kissed
the brother on the cheek. And the brother
said to him, don't kiss me. Don't kiss
me. He said, why not? He said, it's
not from Nasoon.
He said, it's not Nasoon. He said, but
I love you.
What's he gonna say?
Help us.
May Allah help us love one another.
What does love got to do with it?
Indeed, those who believe and do good deeds,
the most merciful will give them love.
They'll give the law will give them love
and the hulamasara imuwala. There's 3 ways that
this love manifests.
1 is between the servant and Allah.
That Allah will give that individual
love I. E. He will take that individual
as one of his beloved.
Allah list amongst his beloved You.
Allah list amongst his beloved You. When the
Prophet said, when Allah loves a servant he
calls Gabriel and he says,
Oh Gabriel I love so and so, so
love him. So Gabriel loves that person and
then Gabriel calls out in the heavens, oh
people of the heavens indeed Allah loves so
and so, so love that person and he's
made he or she's made beloved in the
heavens and then they're made accepted in the
earth and if Allah hates a servant,
he calls Gabriel and says, oh Gabriel, I
hate so and so, so hate him. And
then Gabriel hates that person. He's made it
hated in the heavens and made it hated
in the earth. Allah saved us from ever
being from that second category.
This is the first way that it manifests.
The second way that it manifests,
the ulama said, the scholar said, between the
believers
that they'll have love with one another. That
there'll be people who have
a fraternity that is not only outward but
it's actually at a heart level, that they
love one another.
And he reminds his prophet
that
the believers are a resource for you. He
says
He's the one who empowered you with his
victory and with the believers
and brought the hearts together.
If you split all of the wealth and
the earth of Muhammad
you would not have brought the hearts together.
But Allah brought their hearts together.
So
in other words, our hearts being brought together
is the way that we are resource for
the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
But if we don't have hearts and love
one another, then that resource unfortunately will
be diminished in its value. And then the
third way, as we close,
they said that if you're someone who believes
and if you're someone who does good deeds,
Allah will put love between you
and even people of the creations that do
not believe because in you, in your belief,
and in your good deeds is proof that
you don't have an agenda.
Allah will make people love you just because
you believe and just because you do good
deeds.
And this is where the Muslims always succeeded.
This is how the Muslims spread Islam. This
is how Muslims did Dawah. They didn't need
pamphlets historically.
I'm not saying pamphlets are a bad thing
but they were enough of a pamphlet. They
were enough of a book if you just
interacted with them. May Allah revive that in
the shayabaddha me. And may Allah grant us
love between us and creation, between us and
one another and between us and You Rabbi
that I mean
Yeah.
We praise the Lord and ask him to
bless the prophets and the blessed and loved
and his family, his companions. I advise all
of you believing people and my sinful self
to be mindful of Allah. Do the things
he has commanded you to do and leave
those things that he has prohibited you from
doing. May Allah make that easy for us,
and may he make his people of taqwa.
So we talked about the idea of maintaining
a nuanced attitude and appreciating
that things may appear,
at first glance to be opposite, but they're
actually
complementary. And this is the case in the
two narrations we found about the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam. One of them being that
he was always smiling, and the other that
he was constantly
in a sober and grief stricken state, salallahu
alaihi wasallam. And we said that that was
because why? When he's with people, he was
smiling. When he was alone, he was,
introspective.
And that led inevitably to a reverential type
of grief.
May Allah give us to be Nuance people,
because that's what the next stage of our
experience as a community is inevitably going to
demand. There were people who maintained Nuance.
We have to be we are a community
that is not entirely of the west or
entirely of the east or somewhere in between.
We are not entirely stuck in the pre
modern world nor are we entirely,
modern people. We're somewhere in between. So we
have to maintain nuances and I'll leave you
with the statement of 1 of the great
saints who said, you'll never come into true
knowledge of Allah, had tat teshmere being a
good day, until you're able to reconcile between
2 things that appear to be opposite. Because
we're existent,
but in reality,
we're perishing. We're alive, but in reality, we're
not really alive. We're here, but we're not
really here. This is the nature of, the
world that we live in. May Allah give
us to maintain a nuanced attitude. And when
we do that, it should make it easy
for us to get along with, not necessarily
kumbaya with,
not necessarily,
you know, feel wonderful about, but at least
get along with Muslims we disagree with. We
can maintain an attitude of tolerance with those
people who we have a different interpretation with.
May Allah take out of our heart record
for the believing people, You Rabbi Alameen. And
may Allah take out of our hearts arrogance,
You Rabbi Alameen. And may Allah take out
of our hearts vanity, You Rabbi Alameen. And
may Allah take out of our hearts love
of the world, You Rabbi Alameen. Oh Allah,
whatever you put in our hands of worldly
possessions, never put them in our hearts, You
Rabbil Alameen. We ask you, Allah, to bless
this masjid and this community and to bless
our families and our parents and our teachers
and our loved ones. We ask you to
bless Allah, Uma, especially our teachers, You Abu
Al Amin. Anyone who ever taught us so
much as one letter, we ask you that
you make the reward that the age of
paradise, be radi'i isaab or be radi'i adhab,
You Abu Al Amin without any account, without
any record, You Abu Al Amin. And to
bless our teachers' families and to bless their
parents and to bless their loved ones You
Rabbi Yalameen. We ask you, Allah, Ummah, to
make us a source of mercy and good
and light for the Ummah. Make us Allah,
Ummah,
from the most blessed of the Ummah for
the Ummah, You Rabbi Yalameen.