Yahya Rhodus – Lesson – 1 Introduction- What Is in a Name
AI: Summary ©
The importance of knowing the Prophet's name and his deification in the spiritual world is discussed, as it is not allowed to be used. The Roha is about learning the names of the Prophet and bringing in the benefits of his image, while also discussing the importance of learning the names of the Prophet and their characteristics, which increases one's love for him and her love for him. A culture worker recites a passage of literature to encourage people to visit his resting place, and a book about the resting place describes a woman and her face.
AI: Summary ©
In the name of Allah, and peace and
blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, and
upon his family and companions, and upon all
who follow him.
And the 201 or 202 names, it has
the transliteration of them as well as the
translation.
And if you purchase the book, you also
have access to the recording of their recitation.
So it's good to constantly and regularly hear
the recitation of the blessed names of Rasulullah
ﷺ.
And it's also one of the great ways
to come to know him, learning his names.
Because each one of those names tells us
something about him.
This is why he was given that name.
So today we're just going to read the
opening bit here, which is a type of
introduction to these blessed names of Rasulullah ﷺ.
And these names are still there today, that
if you walk in the blessed mission of
the Prophet ﷺ, if you notice to your
right, you will see them written in beautiful
calligraphy to your right.
As you enter into the blessed gate that
leads to where you then send salams to
the best of creation ﷺ.
So those that are following along with the
book, we are going to read from part
two, where it states, what's in a name?
So mostly we're going to be reading, which
is very light commentary for this session.
The Prophet ﷺ is described in many ways
throughout the Quran and in prophetic literature, hadith
and seerah.
The Arabs say that the more names a
thing has, the more noble it is.
A number of scholars have compiled collections of
names of the Prophet ﷺ to increase the
appreciation of who he actually is.
So notice he didn't say was, who he
is.
He was, is and will be ﷺ.
Who he was, who he is and who
he will be.
In some cases, they collected 99 names to
match the 99 names of Allah mentioned in
a famous hadith.
Qari Abu Bakr ibn Arabi relates in his
commentary on the Kitab al-Shamayun, the great
hadith compilation of Imam al-Tirmidhi describing the
Prophet ﷺ.
So he mentions in his commentary that some
Sufis have said that the Prophet ﷺ has
a thousand names.
Ibn al-Faris includes 2,020 in his
Tafsir Asma al-Rasul.
While Abu al-Hassan al-Subqi states that
they number 4,000.
Imam al-Qastanani relates just over 500 in
his work in Mawahib al-Ladunniyya.
The great Imam Qadi Iyad in his famous
book Ashifa the Healing.
His classic treatise on the Prophet ﷺ limits
himself only to those names ascribed clearly to
him.
He also says that the Prophet ﷺ has
30 names which are also among the names
of Allah.
So there's different approaches that the different scholars
have taken to list the blessed names of
our Prophet ﷺ.
Other authorities such as Imam al-Nawi, Imam
al-Suyuti, Imam al-Sahawi derived his names
not only from names clearly described to him
but also from various actions attributed to him
as well.
So he took an action and attributed that
to him and described him in a certain
way.
Imam al-Jazudi collected 201 according to the
collection of Abu Imran al-Zannati al-Fasi.
Although I have numbered them as 202, it
may well be that Imam al-Jazudi considered
Ra'uf and Rahim as a single name
since they come together without any conjunction in
the Quran.
Imam al-Ghazali relates that the learned are
in agreement that it is not permissible to
give the Prophet ﷺ a name unless either
Allah has given it to him in the
Quran or else it has come to us
from previous scriptures or from his father Abdullah
or his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib or he
gave it to himself.
Any name we attribute to him must have
been related through some valid source.
Scholars consider it permissible to extrapolate names not
only from rigorously authenticated or sound traditions but
also from weak ones that have not been
rigorously authenticated because they do not believe this
to be one of the matters of tenets
of faith which require definitive knowledge concerning which
there is no doubt.
And because this just gives us a more
complete picture of our blessed Prophet ﷺ increases
our knowledge that in him and this is
why they deem this to be permissible.
Nevertheless we are not allowed to devise or
invent names for him even if they allude
to a perfection fitting for him.
The reason why it is not permitted is
that it is only fit for us to
ascribe to him qualities which are fit for
man.
If we were to ascribe any perfection to
him beyond those that have come to us
through the Quran and hadith we could unwittingly
lapse by ascribing to him attributes which are
only fit for Allah and thus fall into
the unlawful.
Or that you could ascribe an attribute to
him that you think is something good to
attribute to him but it actually is something
negative or that indicates something that we shouldn't
ascribe to him ﷺ.
So Sheikh Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Fasi in
his commentary on Ad-Dilai al-Khairat says
about the benefits of knowing the names of
the Prophet ﷺ.
This is a long quote.
One of his many merits, Allah bless him
and give him peace is that mentioning his
names enables one to visualize him and bring
him to mind and to gain true knowledge
of him his names, his attributes and the
glorious station he has with his Creator.
So this is why we are doing this
as a part of the Roha officially moving
on.
It is going to take us a while
to get through all of this.
But this segment of the Roha is about
coming to know the Prophet ﷺ.
We all want to know Rasulullah ﷺ.
That being the prerequisite of falling in love
with him.
We want to know him.
And we are going to be taking steps
in that direction by studying his names and
also studying his Shamail, his blessed characteristics ﷺ.
So the quote continues.
Qadi Iyad says in Ash-Shifa One of
the things Allah has made unique to him
is that he has made it so that
his names incorporate praise of him and by
remembering him, one shows the gratitude that is
his due.
The purpose behind them is to gain greater
knowledge of him knowing that his many names
indicate his greatness brings about veneration for him,
increases one's love for him.
Knowing each specific name also increases one's respect
and adoration for him and encourages one to
invoke abundant blessings upon him.
Allahu Akbar.
So one got that?
This is why we study these names.
The increase in veneration, respect, love, attachment and
then we send more salawat upon him.
And then something that wasn't mentioned here is
that if they say When you mention the
righteous mercy descends then they used to say
Then how about the most righteous person ever?
If mentioning Awliya which were great but they're
not prophets mercy descends through mentioning them in
their stories then what about Rasulullah?
When you mention him, what type of mercy
descends?
What type of light enters into the heart?
What happens in the unseen?
How much purification takes place when this happens?
This is one of the most important things
of all.
The righteous, they tend to have their discourse
revolve around Rasulullah.
They're always reminded of him.
They tie things back to him.
And the higher one's maqam with Allah the
more that they constantly speak about Rasulullah.
Such that we reach the highest degrees of
representation of the Prophet in this world almost
everything that they speak about is tied to
the Messenger of Allah.
Because of the doors that have opened up
for them to know who he truly is
and understanding is that when you spend time
thinking about and loving and praising and discussing
the Beloved of Allah the single most beloved
person ever in human history in existence to
Allah Jalla Jalaluhu you realize that the more
that you take part in that the more
that you get.
And if you don't take part in that,
you're the one who loses.
And he's not harmed in any way.
But the more that we take part in
that the more the floodgates of mercy open
up for us.
So he goes on to, this is still
the quote.
Many of these names are mentioned in the
following chapters which concern the way to invoke
blessings upon him.
But they are collected together here beforehand.
This is in order that anyone reciting the
blessings on him in the subsequent chapters will
be aware of these qualities enumerated in regard
to him and know they are truly his
names.
Allah bless him and give him peace.
Likewise, Sheikh Ibn al-Fakihani compiled a chapter
dedicated to his names in his book Al
-Fajr al-Munir as did Abu al-Khair
al-Sakhawi in Al-Qawla al-Badi'a.
And Allah knows best the intention of them
all.
So this is from his Matala al-Masarrat
is his commentary on Dala'il al-Khairat.
So Sheikh Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Fasi goes
on to explain the wisdom behind the names
being mentioned before the image of the resting
place of the Prophet ﷺ.
So that if you look in your copy
of Dala'il al-Khairat is that he
mentions many of the fada'il and the
merits of sending salawat upon the best of
creation ﷺ and then that there the names
are mentioned.
Sayyidina Muhammad, Sayyidina Ahmed, Sayyidina Hawa, Sayyidina Mahmood
until the end.
And then there's a Sifat al-Rawda al
-Mubarakah that is a mention of the description
of the blessed Rawda of our Prophet ﷺ
and we start to see here how the
grave of the Prophet ﷺ is how the
grave of Sayyidina Abu Bakr is and how
the grave of Sayyidina Umar bin al-Khattab
is.
And it's explained for us there.
So he's explaining the wisdom of including that
here.
And he says that he also explains why
we recite the poem entitled Qasidat al-Salam
said to have been composed by Imam al
-Jazuri when he visited the tomb of the
Prophet ﷺ we're going to end the rauha
tonight with that and that's the one So
why does he include this brief map of
the resting place of Rasulullah ﷺ and then
this blessed poem in which the line says
if he comes distant from me and difficult
for me to visit is that my image
of it in my mind is the very
best of images of all in other words
is that I can use my ability to
I can use my ability to think about
things that are I can use my ability
to imagine things that are in a totally
different place thousands of miles away to bring
me closer so we want the road of
Sharifa to be imprinted on our imagination because
at any given moment you could be in
the worst of places you could be in
a place outwardly that's filled with crime and
dirty and dark you imagine yourself in front
of the road of Sharifa and a person
is where their heart is person is where
their heart is and Alhamdulillah has blessed us
to be speaking about all of this and
have a blessed carpet that was actually in
that space in proximity to Rasulullah ﷺ So
he also explains why we recite the poem
entitled Qasidatul Salam, he says Then the author
Rahimahullah may Allah have mercy upon him and
be pleased with him followed the names with
a description of his blessed resting place in
the sacred graves following Shaykh Tashiddin Ibn al
-Faqihani who devoted a chapter of his book
Al-Fajr Amir to a description of the
graves one of the benefits of this is
that those who have not had the opportunity
to visit his resting place can visit its
image instead he who yearns to do so
may gaze upon it press his lips against
it and increase in love and longing for
it many people have taken the image of
the sandal in place of the sandal itself
and shown it honor and respect authors have
exposited its special qualities and blessings which have
been tried and tested and cited many verses
on the subject many books have been compiled
concerning the image of the sandal and scholars
have cited proofs for the permissibility of doing
so one of them said when yearning for
it makes me restless and my desire to
stand before it is unfulfilled I engrave an
image of it on my palm until my
eyes hold fast to this another reason why
it is found here is that the grave
is mentioned in three or four sections of
the book also at the end the author
mentions the graves of the Prophet and his
two companions may Allah be pleased with them
both moreover the book describes a number of
his inward and outward qualities as well as
his way of life salient features, miracles and
states with which this chapter is concerned some
authors have described them in their books on
the life of the Prophet some of those
who have spoken about the litanies and the
manner in which one should compose oneself when
invoking them state that after invoking one should
visualize his noble entity in front of oneself
as a human figure of light in garments
of light taken into consideration the reality of
his human nature and that his garments follow
suit thanks to the fulfillment of the greatest
miracles with which Allah has honored him that
is a means for his image to be
imprinted on one's soul and so that one
may find solace with it in a manner
in which one may benefit from his secrets
and draw from his lights what a blessing
to have this in English to have this
in English with such that beautiful prose the
same author continues but if one cannot bring
his image to mind one should see oneself
sitting before his blessed grave porting towards it
whenever mentioned him for when the heart is
preoccupied with something it is prevented from accepting
anything besides it at that moment hence anyone
who is invoking blessings upon him from this
book and does not know the noble resting
place in the sacred graves in whose state
is preoccupied as we have described which means
the majority of people needs to envision them
in order to recognize their image and bring
them to mind and help us be present
in fact I've read a treatise by one
of the scholars from the East saying an
aspirant who invokes the majestic name of Allah
should write it in gold on a parchment
of paper and place it before his eyes
therefore if the reader of this book draws
the image of the resting place of the
messenger of Allah peace be upon him and
beautifully would find colors specifically in gold well
that will be equivalent to what has been
mentioned and Allah knows best this is the
end of the quote from the Tariq al
-Musammat so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give
us tawfiq in this endeavor and open up
the doors for us in order to come
to know our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa alhamdulillahi rabbil
alameen