Yahya Rhodus – Following In The Footsteps Of The Prophet Muhammad
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AI: Transcript ©
We thank Allah
for the blessing of Islam.
The blessing of being granted the great gift
of faith
to believe in our creator who originated
us, brought us into existence
and continues to sustain us. What a blessing
from
Allah and to be in gatherings in which
that he is remembered.
In this blessed time that we spend,
which nothing does more for the heart than
being in the and
the gatherings of remembrance
in which that the heart then comes to
life
and receives
an increased light
from the blessing of the one who is
mentioned.
Our lord,
And if you think about what we've been
doing in this gathering,
we've been remembering our lord. We have been
supplicating him, that we have been that seeking
forgiveness for our sins. We have been sending
blessings upon the best of his creation.
We've been hearing beautiful words of advice coming
from sincere hearts
of people that Allah
have not only brought to this deen, but
has inspired them to be in the service
of people.
And this is the most noble thing of
all is to follow in the footsteps of
the prophets,
to be able to be like
their prophets, to resemble
the prophets, to share in the concern and
in the mission of the prophets.
The best of Allah creation.
And unfortunately, we live in a time where
people are so, so distant from this meaning
of even understanding
what prophecy, what prophethood
is, who prophets actually are.
But this
is preserved for us.
And we know
with the blessing of these unbroken chains of
transmission
back to the blessed prophet Muhammad himself, sallallahu
alaihi sallam. And it is an understanding what
we learn from the great inheritors
in that tradition
with those understandings that trace back to him,
sallallahu alaihi wasallam, that you and I can
have a correct conception
of history in its entirety,
the correct conception of history
in its entirety.
And one of the beautiful subtleties
when we talk about the science of
whatever it is that you call it, belief.
When we talk about the science of belief
and you talk about Allah
in terms of what we believe about him
in relation to his essence, in relation to
his attributes,
in relation to his acts
The 2 greatest acts
of his creation
is his creating
prophets
and creating the hereafter and everything that transpires
in it.
And this is why that at a certain
juncture
in history, you find that the scholars spoke
of 3 different categories or divisions
of the science of, the science of belief.
The first and foremost is the most important,
and that is
what we believe about Allah.
And Imam Al Ghazani, in his blessed book,
Quran, the jewels of the Quran,
when he speaks of the themes,
the core meanings of the Quran, And this
is something
that we will be speaking about in more
detail
in the summer retreat, which is just around
the corner.
He says, the first and most important of
all of the categories
is,
The theme
of that relates to Allah literally
is that us coming to know the one
that we're being called to.
We're being called to Allah in his book.
Allah
is calling us himself
to himself
in his book. Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So, the
Quran
that provides us with knowledge of the one
that we're being called to. And in fact,
if people tune their hearts in, they will
find that everything that happens around them in
reality is calling them to Allah.
Every tribulation
that you go through, all blessings that come
your way, all possible states of the human
being in reality
are calling us to Allah
if we open up our hearts to perceive.
But this is why we need prophetic knowledge.
You are not going to be able to
do this in and of yourself with the
unaided intellect. It cannot figure everything out. Yes,
by virtue of the Fitrara, there is much
that we can come to know. We have
a general knowledge of what is right and
wrong. But, ultimately,
that it has to be supported
by knowledge that comes from beyond the intellect's
ability to receive that is revelation that comes
through the prophets.
So the Khulasta and the most important aspect
of everything that Allah has created and will
recreate relates to Allah creating prophets
who were sent for our guidance and our
success
in this world and in the hereafter.
And then everything that transpires.
This is the essence of creation.
Of the 14 +1000000000
years, if it really has been that long
that this world has been around, this is
what it's all about.
This is everything that happened before is so
that the crown of creation, which is the
human beings can come and then the crown
of crowns, which is the best of creation,
who was soon to come. At the later
time,
and he is the
He is the seal of the prophets and
messengers
And then when you come to understand that,
then we're blessed to be a part of
an ummah
that these scholars of this Ummah are like
prophets from previous Ummahs.
They're like prophets.
The scholars are the inheritors of prophets. They
are their heirs.
They inherited
not only the knowledge that you need, but
all of the traits
inwardly and outwardly
everything that it is that you need to
know and then be
and live
in order to continue be means for the
continuance of that guidance until the end of
time.
And the time which we live right now
is not bereft of these great inheritors. This
gathering that we're in would not be here.
It wouldn't be established. It wouldn't be happening
were it not to be for these inheritors
still on the face of this earth.
And then, if you start to think about
the greatness of that blessing
to connect to the heirs of the prophets,
people that have not only learned the prophetic
message
from books,
but they have learned that blessed message from
living inheritors
of this tradition.
And what a difference between someone who takes
their knowledge from books,
even if they be religious books, let alone
books of knowledge that relates to this world,
and between someone who takes their knowledge from
the chest of great men
who are living representatives of this tradition,
in addition to their outward chains of transfer
of mission, back to the prophet,
they also have an inward connection.
A very
real
inward connection
that leads not only to their correct understanding
of this deen, but even to the details
of all of the decisions that they make.
Everything that it is that they do, the
advice that they give, and even the words
that they say.
And then the intelligent one
is the one who sees things as such
and then
opens up the doors for their own self
to benefit.
And then when you start to connect to
these blessed souls,
of these blessed inheritors,
you start to realize
that there is something that they want from
you.
And when they we would put it like
this, that there's something that they want from
you,
when we first hear that, it might be
like, well, what does that mean?
They don't want anything from us in the
way that people of this world think.
They are totally disconnected from that.
They don't want us to praise them. They
don't want us to give them money.
They don't want us to do anything that
would bring about some type of worldly benefit
or even desire.
This is not how these people are.
They want something for us that is priceless.
1 of the blessed imams of this deen
that he says in poetry form, Watruq Munaka
in Aratta Munana.
Leave what you want
for what we want. In other words, if
you really want to attain what we want
for you, you have to leave what you
think that you need or you think is
even if you think that it is something
great.
And that tuning your heart into that reality,
understanding that there is something that the great
inheritors of the prophets want for us in
any time but to this very day and
age, there's something
that they want from us.
And there are multiple dimensions to this.
But there is a blessed statement
from one of our teachers.
And he was addressing the students that were
studying before him. And he said to them,
do not think that you are here studying
sacred knowledge only.
He said, you could study sacred knowledge
in many different places.
But he then went on to say, is
that you are here
so that you can study and then you
can become
great representatives
of this religion
in the places that you come from. The
Arabic there is
So that you can become
great representatives
of this religion
and the lands that you come from.
This is what they want. And they use
the word rijal,
which translates literally
as men.
But, essentially, the reality
of this manhood or manliness
is traits
that both women and men have equal access
to.
And these traits, according to the great Imam
al Shafi'i,
and this is narrated
by Imam al Nawawi
in his introduction to the book Al Majmoor,
his commentary
on the great book of Abu Ashaq al
Shirazi,
al Muhaddhab.
And he says
is that
if you want to be a great representative
of this deen,
is that you can't attain that unless you
have 4 traits.
And then he listed them.
Diana,
And we're going to translate these in a
certain way, maybe slightly different than you would
normally translate them.
Dianna here translates as
uprightness,
number 1.
Amanah here translates as trustworthiness.
Siyani here translates
as virtuousness.
And
razana here translates as
steadfastness.
These four great traits, when Allah
speaks of these great
in his book,
about these great men,
these great representatives
of this deen who are not preoccupied
from the remembrance of Allah by any buying
or selling,
nor does it preoccupy them from establishing their
prayers or giving out from their wealth.
From among the believers
That they've been true to the covenant that
they've taken with
Allah
But our teachers used to repeat this over
and over.
We don't want to just come to these
gatherings and then leave in the same state
that we're in before we came.
Rather, we want to make an intention
to become transformed.
Is that to hear meanings
that then strike the heart or absorb therein,
and then we go out after that to
do what it is that we can do.
We live in a time where we cannot
just leave this affair to 1 or 2
people.
We need everybody in this room
times 10,
times a 100, times a 1000
to
internalize the reality of these meanings
and then to spend their lives living them.
This is what our prophet
did with the very best generation of all.
Nobody
taught and instructed
and then reared other human individuals, both men
and women, young and old alike, like the
best of creation sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And
then no generation
transformed human history
like the companions did.
And their state was such a high quality
is that sometimes
even the means outwardly doesn't seem to match
up with what they were able to do,
that they had a state that transcended
even language.
It transcended
material resources
and a long list of other things.
And, yes, they were supposed to take the
means, but our reliance is upon Allah. And
the more that we are in touch with
these realities,
the more that you and I will be
keys that open up the doors of good
and then locks that shut the doors of
evil.
So if we briefly look at these traits,
these are the traits that you and I
need to be if we are going to
that be the way our teachers want us
to be.
And what they are giving us by saying
that they want us to be great representatives
of this religion
in the places that we come from, I
e,
just be the way you're supposed to be
outwardly.
Do what it is that you're supposed to
do, and then the spirit
will be blown into it. The spirit of
sincerity
and then the spirit
of the adwak and the great states of
experiential faith that come in this world,
let alone everything that someone experiences
as they die, after they die in the
and
then eternally in paradise,
let alone. There's not much that you could
say about that. But they just want you
to outwardly do what it is that you
can do. And the first trait is.
And what this means is is that we
be.
We be upright
upon the straight path of our prophet
as Allah says,
is that were they only to be upright
upon the right way is that we would
have given them abundant rain to drink. That's
an outward meaning of physical rain coming down
and as that our teachers point out is
that it also has a spiritual meaning, is
that their hearts will be irrigated
with the greatest of blessings from Allah
Uprightness,
learning to commit
to this deen over an extended period of
time
as we go through all of our different
stages.
The second is trustworthiness,
is that you and I understand the responsibility
that has been placed upon our shoulders,
and we become
reliable
carriers and transmitters of this deen
that becoming links
in that chain.
This chain extends back to our prophet, sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, but we all need to
be a certain way to be a link.
Not anyone can be a link.
You can get a PhD and be a
total fasik,
but if you want to be a link
in the chain that goes back to the
prophet, that
can't happen. You have to understand the responsibility
that is upon your shoulders, and you have
to be a certain way. There's a particular
way that you have to act. There's certain
things that you can't do.
So we have that uprightness
and we have trustworthiness.
And then there's other dimensions of this trustworthiness
when certain things start to appear to you,
when certain understandings that you have. Not everything
do you experience do you say.
The third trait is razana.
The third trait first is syana,
where we become steadfastness,
where we protect
our deen from anything
that would harm us in any way or
lead us to have a bad reputation.
The meanings of razani here are the meanings
of morua and futuwa.
Morua is a type of legal respectability.
Is
chivalry.
There's certain things that
are
disgraceful for someone representing the the deen to
do. Even if they'd be permissible, even if
they not be unlawful.
There's a way that we have to be.
There is a way that we have to
carry ourselves.
There is that certain things that even though
they might be permissible in the deen that
we simply can't do. And there's many examples
that could be mentioned there. But this is
that how these people are. If you're going
to truly represent this deen
in the places that we all live, for
us in the United States of America is
that we have to be people that have
high degrees of legal respectability,
people that are chivalrous,
people that are virtuous
in everything that it is that they do.
And so this great trait of sienna, virtuousness.
And then finally, razzana
is the great trait of steadfastness.
When we recognize,
as human beings, we're gonna have our ups
and downs.
There's times where we're going to be tired,
and there's times that we're going to have
more energy. There's times where our hearts are
going to be expanded and there's times that
they are constricted.
There's times where things are going that sour
in our life, our health, or in our
home life, or whatever it might be. And
then there's times where that things are going
very well. Throughout all these different states, razana
is tabbat,
steadfastness
upright steadfastness
and firmness
upon the truth of La ilaha illallah Muhammadar
Rasulullah.
Is that no matter what happens to us,
is that you and I are firmly
grounded in this deen, is that we are
firm upon that fulfilling
our mission that has been placed upon our
soul shoulders,
is that we have the ability to be
able to bear
hardship,
and to suck it up, and to keep
going,
and to work hard
day in and day out.
This affair is not going to take root
in these lands.
And what we mean by that is, ultimately,
in the heart of individuals
without not just hard work,
extremely
hard work, working till you can't even work
anymore.
And you take whatever break that is that
you need so that you can then get
right back to work
and do this consistently
over an extended period of time.
When we have this great trait of razzana,
huge doors will then open up for
us So these four traits of rujula,
that you can't be a great representative, what
are they? Is that uprightness,
trustworthiness,
steadfastness,
virtuousness,
and steadfastness.
If Allah
blesses us with these great traits, He'll open
up the door for us to not only
benefit in and of ourselves,
but to be blessed links of these
blessed chains of transmission
that are like conduits of light
and that are means then for other people
to taste the sweetness
of what those first blessed people tasted when
they were in the presence of our prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam because they used to say,
is that
no one would come into the presence of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and they wouldn't
leave without.
They would taste something and outwardly is that
our prophet would take care of his guests
and that he would provide from them that
and to give them things to drink and
to eat,
but
the meaning spiritually is is that anyone came
into his blessed presence, sallallahu alaihi wasalam,
they would taste the sweetness of the deen.
They would taste the sweetness of knowledge that
he receives directly from Allah
Taste the sweetness of what it means to
be a slave of Allah, what it means
to submit to Allah to Allah and to
come to know him. May Allah bless us
in this blessed night of Jum'ah to taste
these minis and to be from these blessed
people.
May Allah inspire
the upcoming generation and even those that are
older to strive to have actual lives within
them these great traits so that
just as those great representatives spread this din
wherever it is that they went is that
the realities of this din will spread here
in these lands.