Usama Canon – My Prophets Beautiful Smile
AI: Summary ©
The importance of the Prophet's teachings and their use of social media is discussed. The church's treatment of people who are not familiar with the Prophet's teachings is also discussed. The church's use of social media to promote their teachings is also discussed. The importance of understanding people who are new to the faith and avoiding harm is also emphasized. The church's history of love and hate in society is also discussed, including the way in which people are brought together due to theirwill and their deeds.
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 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 in that and
may He never take away our faith no
matter what He takes from us.
Allahumma 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 Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ.
And Allah reminds us in the Qur'an
about that blessing so many times and so
many verses that would go on beyond the
scope of the brief moments we've been afforded
this afternoon.
One of the beautiful things about the Prophet
ﷺ and everything about him is beautiful, even
in his majesty there is beauty ﷺ.
Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
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 is beauty
because in him ﷺ is the fulfillment of
all the manifestations of Allah's beautiful names and
Allah's majestic names, the majestic names Azza wa
Jalla.
The Prophet ﷺ 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
attributes of Allah ﷻ.
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 ﷺ says,
تَخَلَّقُوا بِأَخْلَاقِنَا Take on the character traits of
God to the extent that is humanly possible.
In other words, Allah is merciful, so we
are to try to be merciful.
Allah is just, so we are to try
to be just.
Allah Azza wa Jalla is forbearance, we are
to try to be forbearance, etc., etc.
So all of those realities are most prominently
and most manifestly seen in the beloved Prophet
ﷺ.
So he has outward realities and he has
inward realities ﷺ.
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 ﷺ after
I became Muslim, except that he was smiling
ﷺ.
Now there's two really interesting things about that.
There's a lot that can be said, but
two points will focus on one.
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 in 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 themselves
right?
Do they see an angry face that wants
to prove to them that look, brother, this
is serious?
Do they see a disciplinary figure that wants
to what?
Correct them?
Or do they want to see a face
that is like the face of Rasulullah ﷺ?
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 any one
of you in particular, per se, but all
of the things that we as people struggle
with, the Prophet ﷺ 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 ﷺ had people around him that
gave him a hard time.
We have spousal conflict or spousal tension.
The Prophet ﷺ had difficult times with his
noble wives.
Allah be well pleased with them.
What did he do?
When the Prophet ﷺ is 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 ﷺ, Allah
be pleased with her, and he's sitting with
a group of his companions in his home,
and the Lady Aisha ﷺ 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
fajr.
See you guys in the office on Monday.
What did he say?
Eat.
Your mother got jealous.
SubhanAllah.
One of the most amazing things about the
Prophet ﷺ is his ability to defuse socially
awkward and socially tense situations ﷺ.
And they used to test him.
The Bedouin came to the Prophet ﷺ, 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, Ya
Rasulullah, da'ani akhtar sihad al-munafiq.
Oh Messenger of Allah, give me permission to
cut off the head of this hypocrite.
The Prophet ﷺ said, No, I don't want
it to be said that Muhammad kills his
companions ﷺ.
He didn't say he's not a munafiq.
He didn't say, 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 the Prophet ﷺ 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,
Sayyid al-Wujud ﷺ, the last prophet.
And he says, Had ikhalaq safaiq?
Was that enough?
He said, Not really.
So he gave him more.
He already gave him more.
He said, Was that enough?
He said, Naam.
He says, Yes, thank you very much.
May Allah reward you kindly in your clan
and in your people.
In other words, thank you, my brother.
And then the Prophet ﷺ came out and
he said, Would you mind going to my
companions and clarify to them that you have
been sufficed because they're still upset.
There's something bothering them.
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 ﷺ.
When the Prophet's laying under the tree by
himself, no security guards, no gatekeeper, no stormtroopers,
huh?
There's no guard, all by himself ﷺ.
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 ﷺ picks up the sword.
Who's going to defend you now?
He said, Just be gentle and punish me
because you're a good brother.
The Prophet ﷺ said, Go, you're free.
And the man goes to his people.
He said, All my people become Muslim because
I came from the best of people ﷺ.
And then the other narration he said, Because
he said, Ya qawmi aslimu, about the man
who got the gift.
He said, Ya qawmi aslimu, all my people
become Muslim.
Because Muhammad gives the giving of a person
who fears not poverty ﷺ.
Those are the people who were ill to
him.
Those are the people who disrespected him ﷺ.
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 ﷺ loved Mecca.
He wasn't like, you know, just a matter
of religious processing.
He personally loved Mecca.
When he left, he said, O 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 O 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
ﷺ.
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 ﷺ had that.
They would try to kill him.
And in Uhud, when they come and they're
fighting the Prophet ﷺ, and the companion said
to them, Ya Rasulullah, O Messenger of Allah,
curse them.
And what did he say?
I was not sent to curse people.
Rather, I was sent as a mercy.
And he said, O Allah, guide my people
for they do not know what they're doing.
And in the narration, O 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 wavy was that?
It was so wavy that when the revelation
would descend and he's riding in Qaswa, you
could see tears come from Qaswa's face, the
camel.
Sometimes she would fall to the ground.
When his blessed head was laying on the
thigh of Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and
the revelation descends, Sayyidina Abu Bakr said, 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 to smile more.
You wonder sometimes you come to Muslim's faces
and you wonder, either we have muscular dysfunction
in our faces.
Right?
But there was huq in a masjid, huh?
You see the brother, no, I'm religious.
So where are you from?
Didn't he say, smiling in the face of
your brother is a charity.
Well, you don't know what I'm going through.
You're right.
And you don't know what I'm going through.
So let's set that all aside and just
love one another.
May Allah give us to love one another.
Alhamdulillah, this is not a masjid that necessarily
needs this class, needs this particular lesson, huh?
Because alhamdulillah there's a lot of love in
this masjid, but we don't want to be
that one person.
We don't want to be that one person
who couldn't find it in ourselves to channel
that prophetic mercy into this smile.
May Allah give us to smile.
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, 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 shaykh.
And I'm waiting to get directives about what
I should do when I get home to
America and how I should engage the community.
And I'm having a one-on-one meeting
with the shaykh.
And it took all of this time.
And finally I come in and I'm waiting.
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
smiling.
And then he said something very interesting.
And this isn't someone who's read up on,
you know, deep sociological studies, read up on
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 what someone's trying to sell themselves.
So he said, benefit from the beauty of
a sincere smile.
May Allah give our faces a smile, y
'all.
Now here's the really important part.
He's also described salallahu alayhi wasalam as always
being in a somber, sober, or perhaps even
grief-stricken state.
How do we reconcile these two?
And for those of us who are coming
late, we began by saying we have to
maintain a 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
complementary hadith.
The scholars of commentary said what?
His smiling was with the people, salallahu alayhi
wasalam.
When he was with the community, he was
smiling.
His grief, his sobriety, his what?
Being focused on himself and being saddened, salallahu
alayhi wasalam, 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 and what it means for a
human being.
This is someone, salallahu alayhi wasalam, 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, huh?
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 alayhi wasalam.
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 astaghfirullah for
the people of major wrong until we heard
the Prophet say, salallahu alayhi wasalam, shafa'ati
li ahlul kaba'i min ummata.
Or kama qala, salallahu alayhi wasalam, 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
sin.
He's concerned about them, salallahu alayhi wasalam.
And if I narrated in the hadith that
when he would be in prostration, you can
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 wa ana feehim, and I am
amongst them.
Oh Allah, did you not promise me that
you would not punish them wa hum yastaghfiroon,
and they're seeking forgiveness.
And this is why one of our early
Muslims, our predecessor said, we had two guarantees
against the punishment of Allah.
One of them was the physical presence of
the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam amongst us, and
the other is saying astaghfirullah.
The other is istighfar.
And we have lost that one outwardly, the
first one.
Not to say that the Prophet is not
amongst us in a figurative or in a
broader meaning, but physically the Prophet passed, salallahu
alayhi wasalam.
So he said what?
So you better do a lot of istighfar.
You better say astaghfirullah a lot.
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, 100
times a day.
May Allah make his people to istighfar.
So they said he was always smiling when
he's with the people.
And when he was alone, he was grief
-stricken.
Salallahu alayhi wasalam.
And this is what I mean about maintaining
a nuanced attitude.
And it's not to say that we should
be genderly consistent socially.
We should not have a type of schizophrenic
contradictory two 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.
So can we do that?
Can we be people that when we're in
the public space, set 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, and just smile.
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
a brother on the cheek.
And the brother said to him, don't kiss
me, ah.
Don't kiss me, ah.
He said, why not?
He said, it's not from the sunnah.
He said, it's not sunnah.
He said, but I love you.
What's he going to say?
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.
Allah will give them love.
And the ulema said, rahimuhumullah, there's three ways
that this love manifests.
One 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, y'all.
Allah list amongst his beloved, y'all.
When the Prophet said, when Allah loves a
servant, he calls Gabriel and he says, ya
jibreelu inni ahbabtu furan, and 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 save us from ever being from that
second category.
This is the first way that it manifests.
The second way that it manifests, the ulema
said, the scholars said, between the believers, that
they'll have love of 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 ﷺ 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 spent all of the wealth and
the earth of Muhammad ﷺ, you would not
have brought the hearts together.
But Allah brought the hearts together.
And he is indeed mighty and wise.
So in other words, our hearts being brought
together is the way that we are a
resource for the Prophet ﷺ.
But if we don't have hearts that 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 da'wah.
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 us, Ya Rabbi
al-alameen.
And may Allah grant us love between us
and creation, between us and one another, and
between us and Him, Ya Rabbi al-alameen.
A'udhu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem.
A'udhu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem.
Bi hurmati Muhammad al-Mustafa wa bi siri
Surat al-Fatiha.
Inna Allaha wa malaikatun yusalluna ala nabiyyin.
Ya ayyuhal ladhina amanu salli wa alayhi wa
sallimu tasreema.
Allahumma salli wa sallimu barakahu ala Sayyidina Muhammad
wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammad.
Salatun turdeeku wa turdeehu wa turdaghihana Ya Rabb
al-alameen.
Ya ayyuhal mu'minun hadhidun inni usi nafsi wa
yakin bi taqwa Allah.
Fa taqwa Allah ta'ala fima amarakuhu bihi.
Wa taqahu subhanahu wa taquhu subhanahu wa ta
'ala fima naha qura'ihuhu.
Fa inna Allaha ta'ala wa ala dhina
taqwa wa ladhinoohum muhsinoon.
We praise Allah and ask Him to bless
the Prophet ﷺ 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 Ya
Rabb al-alameen 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 a case
in the two narrations we found about the
Prophet ﷺ.
One of them being that he was always
smiling and the other that he was constantly
in a sober and grief-stricken state ﷺ
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
ﷺ.
May Allah give us to be nuanced because
that's what the next stage of our experience
as a community is inevitably going to demand
that we're people who maintain nuance.
We are a community that is not entirely
of the West or entirely of the East
or somewhere in between.
We're not entirely stuck in the pre-modern
world nor are we entirely modern people or
somewhere in between.
So we have to maintain nuances and I'll
leave you with a statement of one of
the great saints who said you'll never come
to true knowledge of Allah until you're able
to reconcile between two 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 uh 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 rancor
for the believing people.
May Allah take out of our hearts arrogance.
May Allah take out of our hearts vanity.
May Allah take out of our hearts love
of the world.
Oh Allah whatever you put in our hands
of worldly possessions never put them in our
hearts.
We ask you a lot to bless this
masjid in this community and to bless our
families and our parents and our teachers and
our loved ones.
We ask you to bless Allah especially our
teachers.
Anyone who ever taught us so much as
one letter we ask you that you make
a reward that they enter paradise.
Without any account without any reckoning.
And to bless our teachers families and to
bless their parents and to bless their loved
ones.
We ask you Allah to make us a
source of mercy and good and light for
the ummah.
Make us from the most blessed of the
ummah for the ummah.
And the most beneficial of the ummah for
the ummah.
And from the most merciful of the ummah.