Yousuf Raza – For The Love of The Prophet
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
I would like to begin by welcoming
our dear sister into
this incredible religion of Islam.
And
with this reminder to all of us, really,
that it is this proclamation
of faith
in
the in the monotheism,
in the unity of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
and belief in the prophethood of Muhammadu Rasool
Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam as the last
and final messenger of Allah,
what unites this community.
But this proclamation,
this testimony
of faith
is
what we
articulate from our tongues.
But beyond this articulation,
what binds this community
is this shared love
for the prophet
And it is that what I want to
talk about today.
For the love of the prophet.
And
when we speak of the love of the
prophet
we mean 2 things.
The first, of course, is obvious,
which is the love that we have for
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
That how beloved he is to us.
How he is supposed to be
more beloved to us
than our very selves.
That's the obvious understanding
that we all
vie for, that we all strive for.
A second very important implication
of the love of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam
is his love for Allah.
To recognize the love of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam for Allah,
his love of the divine
as his most important sunnah,
as his most important practice
that we have to embody in our lives.
That really we live our lives
in accordance with Rasulullah
salallahu alaihi wa sallam's love for Allah.
How should I love Allah?
That's a very important question.
Particularly members of the Christian faith
pride themselves
of the love of god or the love
that god has for them and they have
for god.
Surat al Imraan particularly addresses
that very Christian sentiment
and says,
that, oh, prophet, tell them,
say, if you really love
Allah, if you really love Allah,
then follow me.
I either way to the love of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, if my claim to the
love of Allah that I say I love
Allah,
If my claim is really true,
then Allah's response to that
is follow the prophet.
That the most beloved of Allah, the most
loving towards Allah,
what he's done with his life, How he
lived that love.
That has set the standard.
That's now the yardstick.
The acceptance that Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam got
from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is the kind
of acceptance that he becomes the yardstick. He
has set the bar that everyone has to
emulate now. This is what love of Allah
looks like.
And his personality, his life,
the diversity within that, the breadth, the depth
of his life is such
that the diversity of humanity,
all of us coming from different backgrounds,
there is so much for everyone
to follow in his footsteps.
His footsteps,
his footprints
are enough to include
all of our
attempts at walking.
We can walk in his footsteps,
and each of his footprints,
we will all very easily fall into and
there will be still room for more.
And so when we talk about
the love of the prophet
it is something that we're speaking about which
is very personal, which is very emotional.
It goes beyond intellectual understandings.
It is something that we develop, that we
look to develop.
And so it goes beyond 2 very common
mistakes that we make,
that the seerah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam typically is only going to be discussed
in Rabi'ul Awal
as the day of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam's birth. By all means, people wanna
talk about it, go ahead talk about it.
Knock yourselves out. But what about the rest
of the year?
So when I was asked what I would
like to speak on, I said, for the
love of the prophet.
It's not
but still that topic deserves to be spoken
of ever so often, at least once every
month,
if not more.
The second mistake we make with the seerah
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam is we
look at it,
we approach it the way we approach history
books in school.
Oh, I know what happened.
I know the events. I know the incidents.
I have the
you you can quiz me on it.
It's not a series of facts for you
to add to your general knowledge.
It is something that you relate to again
and again and again and again.
With your experiences in life, with your growing,
maturing in life, the way you would look
at the stories from the life of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
if you're not resonating
more with it, if you're not identifying more
with him, if you're not feeling him,
if you're not feeling his pain,
if you're not feeling his ambition,
if you're not feeling his love for Allah,
then are you really growing?
If I don't have the love of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, but I know I
should have it, that's a good place to
be.
If I can't identify with his stories,
if I can't identify with the incidents
that took place in his life,
that may be okay.
That's going to be the case for most
of us. But if I don't want to,
if I don't aspire to,
if that's not a goal for me,
that the stories of Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wasallam,
the incidents in Sira,
the way I engage with them, I need
to experience them.
I need to reflect on them such that
I travel to Madinah,
that I travel to Makkah,
that I feel that pain.
That when Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wasallam even before
the advent of his prophethood, when his love
for Allah, when he doesn't
know when Quran has not been revealed to
him, yet his love for Allah is real
even at that time. He was always a
monotheist. He always believed in one God. And
he saw that the belief in one God
should extend
to helping others, and so he would help
others.
Whatever it is that he could possibly do,
he did.
But he saw the limitations
that what can one person really do.
There's more poverty than he than he can
alleviate. There's more misery than he can solve.
There are more people in help that he
can possibly help. But he does whatever it
is that he can. When he gets married,
Khadija
he comes home one day and he says
to her
that there are people who have no shelter
against the sun.
I wish I had something to provide them
shelter against the sun. There are people who
have no food. I wish I could feed
them.
At that point, Khadija,
his first wife, the richest lady
in Mecca, she realizes he doesn't look at
his at my wealth as his wealth. She
goes and publicly makes an announcement. He she
says, oh, people of Quraysh, whatever is mine
is his.
He can do with my wealth whatever he
wants to. From that day onwards, morning, noon,
and night, he would spend, spend,
spend trying to alleviate poverty,
trying to eradicate
the misery of people
only to realize
that this curse that is poverty
because it is so heavily man made,
because it is
utterly tied
to the arrogance
and oppression
and injustice
that people have
resulted in, that people have constructed
systems.
Whatever rudimentary forms of capitalism there were
in Mecca,
he saw that people cannot get
their basic necessities
met
because
there is just this unequal distribution.
There is this oppression in society. There is
this exploitation when he gets an opportunity,
when one person is deprived of his rights
because a powerful person of Quraish
would not give him his right,
and a group of people, noble people get
together to stand up for their rights. Again,
this is all before prophethood has begun.
He joins hands with them because collective effort
is always better than individual effort.
And he seeks to bring justice through that
little coalition
that he has with those people to the
point that later in his prophethood, he recalls
that if I had an opportunity like that
again, I would do it again. I would
partake in something noble all over again, something
noble like that. Nevertheless, even this does not
eradicate all problems.
To the point that when he each reaches
the age of 40,
his relation his love of Allah
his love of Allah
drags him away from society.
He sees the pain, he sees the plight,
he sees the injustice.
He does not see how his love for
Allah, the one Allah,
how that can translate
into alleviating the suffering of the people around
him.
There is an innocence to the seerah.
There is an innocence to the story of
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
He does the most basic stuff
and learns from that experience.
And then questions and reflects what more can
possibly be done.
This is his journey. This is the expression
of his love for Allah which manifest itself
in love for humanity.
Specifically,
those most underprivileged.
And it is in the midst of these
reflections,
this state of worship that he's in. Imagine
he has the most loving wife.
He has the most loyal children.
He has the greatest riches that Makkah has
to offer.
He has the most amazing reputation.
They call him the most trustworthy, the most
truthful.
But he cuts off from all of that.
And he spends time in solitude reflecting,
thinking,
worshiping Allah,
trying to connect the dots.
And it is in that
state of mind, in that state of being
that he gets an answer.
The angel comes to him. Angel Jibril,
Gabriel.
And he says to him, read.
Again, he doesn't know that this is an
angel. He doesn't know what he is or
who he is.
He is absolutely
horrified.
What just happened? I'm alone
on the top of this mountain,
in this little cave,
in the middle of the night,
and this creature suddenly pops up.
What is going on here?
Says, Iqurah, read. He says, Iqurah,
I can't read.
Says, Iqurah, he says,
Iqurah, I can't read.
He says again, Iqurah, but this time grabs
him and squeezes him.
Again, my relationship with the prophet
my love for him, my resonance with his
love for the divine
should
at least
transport me to that cave in that instance
and feel something of that pain
where he says that he felt that his
ribs were going to intertwine.
That's how strongly he was squeezed.
Then he received the first revelation.
He has no idea what just happened. He
runs down the mountain.
And I he recalls that as I was
running down, I was thinking maybe I should
jump off this mountain. I think I've lost
my mind.
I don't want people to see me as
crazy.
He runs home
straight to the lap of Khadija
his wife.
And he is unabashedly
vulnerable before her.
He opens up whatever has happened. He shakes
for that entire night. He's trembling.
He's horrified. He's terrified.
She has to console him. She has to
hold him. She has to cover him
for him to somewhat be reassured.
And she continues to tell him you're good.
You're a good person.
You give him charity.
You mentize
of kinship.
Nothing bad can happen to you.
But he's overwhelmed so she has to reiterate
this.
She goes to
informs him what has happened. He then, from
the knowledge that he has of scripture,
identifies what this is.
And this is prophethood.
And he's the one that previous scriptures prophesized
about.
She believes in him before he believes in
himself.
And he comes out at one point
after some rest,
and he tells Khadija
that from this day onward there's no rest.
Our life is not gonna be the same
again.
And it wasn't the same again. He did
not rest
after that point
until he died.
Can I resonate with that?
Can I identify with that restlessness
that kept him up at night?
That did not let him sleep?
So he was engaged in that, in the
aftermath of that in 2 activities. Either praying
to Allah
or preaching to the people.
And when he preached to the people, they
would abuse him, they would curse him.
Those amongst whom he was the best, he
was the most favorite, he was the most
truthful, he was the most trustworthy. They said
you're kazab. You're the biggest liar.
They flipped 180 degrees.
You're trying to break ties of kinship.
You're trying to break families.
You're trying to separate
mother from child.
All kinds of propaganda that you can possibly
imagine.
All those tools
of controlling the narrative,
the discourse
to malign
Muhammad,
that was done.
He saw before his very eyes the people
who said, we believe you're telling the truth.
He saw them tortured.
He saw them beaten black and blue.
He saw them crushed under stones.
He saw them killed before his very eyes.
He saw their body literally
blown up.
How Ammar tied
to by with all his 4 limbs to
4 different animals who ran in 4 different
directions
so that nothing remained of him.
He saw
that.
He saw Sumayyah
how she was stripped
in front of her child,
grown child,
in front of people watching,
tortured
and speared to death
by Abu Jahal. He saw all of that.
Whatever we see
in the genocide unfolding before our eyes in
Gaza,
the torture
of people
whose only crime is that they said,
That is what they're being held accountable for
by the pharaohs of the time.
Whatever pain you feel
whatever pain we feel as a community is
a remnant
of what standard
standard of compassion,
of mercy,
of love,
left for us
is what he felt
when he saw his companions being tortured.
When he sees that the entire clan of
Bani Hashim, not just those who believed in
him but everyone,
Even those who stood up for him.
Even those who on account of ties of
kinship said, what you're doing is wrong. He
doesn't deserve this. Even if they did not
believe in Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, they were
boycotted. And what did that boycott mean?
It meant that no food, no
resources whatsoever
could reach the clan of Bani Hashim.
That in that little valley,
they were under a curfew.
Nothing could go in or come out
without the knowledge or without the permission
of the elders of Quraish,
very much like Gaza today.
To the point that they had to
melt leather,
and molten leather would be cooled down
and passed down the throats of children to
quench their hunger and thirst.
That the children and the elderly of that
entire clan
of Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam of the
prophet,
they would eat grass. 3
years
3 years
of this boycott,
of this torture.
And then when he finally comes out,
when that boycott is lifted,
when some sanity prevails, when they get some
respite,
he loses Khadija, he loses Abu Balib. He
does not smile for an entire year.
He's the Amal Husun.
He goes to Taif.
1 of the first chiefs of Taif looks
at him and says, you have been sent
as a prophet. Did God not find anyone
better?
He goes to a second one
and he says,
go away from me.
Either you're a prophet and you're telling the
truth,
in which case
it's not good for me,
or you're lying
and I don't wanna talk to you.
Either case, I don't wanna talk to you.
Get out of here.
A third said a similar thing, and they
didn't just leave it at that. They got
the street urchins,
the little bad boys of the street.
They set them after him
the way
those
tribes
would treat madmen.
And so he was pelted with stones,
cursed, yelled at.
That was his love for Allah.
That was how his love for Allah and
his love for humanity was responded to.
His shoes fill with blood,
and he falls to the ground.
If I love him, if I want to
emulate his love for Allah,
I need to feel something when I hear
this story.
When he gets up and he's offered that,
you Rasoolullah, if you want we can destroy
this town, and he says no.
Whereas on previous occasions we know from the
Quran itself that prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
has harbored that idea
that maybe these people do deserve the adab
of Allah.
But at that instance, he says, no.
If they don't believe, their future generation will
believe.
But he does let out a prayer.
You Allah, I complained to
you of my weakness.
And I don't have anything.
And my other subjugation before humanity,
towards whom have you entrusted me?
Who have you handed me over to?
Those people who don't care for me.
These people who oppress me.
Who give me pain.
He begins with a complaint
but he concludes
accepting
the decree of Allah.
And says,
as long as this does not mean that
you're unhappy with me,
I'm okay.
It is after all of these that Allah
says, if you really love Allah, follow him
follow the prophet.
Follow in his footsteps, the footsteps that went
to Taif. Follow in his footsteps, footsteps that
were filled with blood.
Follow in his footsteps,
feet that swelled
from standing more than half the night.
Follow in his footsteps, the footsteps, the feet
upon which his tears would drip when he
was praying for you and me.
We live in a time where we barely
make any prayer for people who are related
to us,
Our spouses, our children, our parents, our siblings.
What about the neighborhood and the rest of
the ummah? Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was
praying for all the generations
of humanity, not just Muslims.
All of us.
To love him
and to look to emulate his love for
Allah,
means to aspire to do all of that.
In action,
in thought,
and in feeling.
And that requires
persistent effort. Rasulullah
felt it,
believed it, and he did it.
We may not feel it, we may not
even properly believe it, but we have to
do it.
So by continuously
doing it, we may believe in it more,
we may feel it more, we have to
work our way back.
Doctor Youssef Raza.
For it's it's always very difficult for me
to follow anyone much less you, so I'm
gonna keep it short.
Insha Allah, before we break for dinner,
as you must have seen in the announcement,
we are taking into consideration some of the
feedback we've received from the community members,
especially those with little kids. With the construction
that's ongoing,
we have lost the place for the kids
to play and and, spend their summers. So
those kids spend summer without a proper place
to hang out in the masjid.
Based on the feedback from the community, we're
considering building a small patio to my right,
on the left of the Masjid here.
As we we shared in the the announcement,
we reached out to a few builders, not
the same builder as this one, but other
builders as well. We got a quotation for
about, $60,000.
So there's not gonna be a fundraising fundraising
tonight, but I just wanna mention
that inshallah we're looking at building
a 5,000 square foot patio,
to the right of this, to the to
my right,
inshallah. So,
if you go to Mohit on the website,
the donation page, there is a category for
patio,
would strongly encourage everyone whether you have kids
or planning to have kids,
please make some donation inshallah so we can
complete this project. Insha'Allah, we'll serve dinner in
a few minutes. Thank you.