Zia Sheikh – The Rights of the Prophet peace be upon him Upon us
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AI: Transcript ©
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
My dear respected elders, brothers and sisters, I've
been given a very important topic, which you
could actually make the basis of a whole
conference over.
And that is the rights of the Prophet
ﷺ upon us.
The things that we are obligated to do
for the Prophet ﷺ.
And why wouldn't we do those things, when
the Prophet ﷺ loved for us and he
cared for us so much.
He thought of us 1400 years ago.
There's a very famous hadith in which the
Prophet ﷺ, he said to the Sahaba, I
want to meet my brothers.
The Sahaba said, Are we not your brothers,
O Prophet of Allah?
The Prophet ﷺ said, My brothers are the
ones that have not yet come yet.
My brothers are the ones that have not
yet come.
Meaning, he was referring to us.
The people that did not meet the Prophet
ﷺ, did not see the Qur'an being
revealed, but yet 1400 years later we love
him and we respect him.
And we hold him in highest esteem.
And we do not like that anybody should
insult our beloved Prophet ﷺ.
The Prophet ﷺ, he referred to us as
his brothers.
Just imagine, just imagine the love that he
had for us.
So why would we not fulfill his rights?
So my lecture today is about fulfilling those
rights and what those rights are.
And in the theme that's mentioned of seven
rights, actually you could increase it to many,
many more things that we should do for
the Prophet ﷺ, but it's been limited to
a few for the sake of time, inshallah.
It's narrated that one of the leaders of
Quraysh, Urwah, he came to see the Prophet
ﷺ once.
And during the course of this seeing, he
describes what he saw.
He says, Whenever
the Prophet ﷺ spat, he spat, the spit
would not fall to the ground, it would
fall in somebody's hand.
And that person would take the spit of
the Prophet ﷺ and he rubbed it over
himself.
Extreme love and devotion for the Prophet ﷺ.
When the Prophet ﷺ ordered them to do
anything, they would rush to fulfill his orders.
وَإِذَا تَوَضَّىٰ كَادُوا يَقْتَتِلُونَ عَلَىٰ وَضُوءِهِ When he
made wudhu, it was close to people fighting
over the remnants of his water, meaning the
water that was coming from his body, they
would fight over it.
But who would take that water and rub
it over himself?
فَبَرَكَ وَإِذَا تَكَلَّمَ خَفَضُوا أَسْوَاتَهُمْ عِنْدَهُ When the
Prophet ﷺ talked, they lowered their voices in
front of the Prophet ﷺ.
وَمَا يُحِدُّونَ إِلَيْهِ نَظَرٌ تَعْظِيمًا لَهُ They didn't
look at him directly with a sharp gaze
out of respect for him.
This was the state of the Sahaba when
they respected the Prophet ﷺ.
What does Urwah say?
Urwah came back to his companions.
The Quraysh had sent him to talk to
the Prophet ﷺ.
Urwah goes back to his companions and he
says to them, أي قوم O my people
والله لقد وفدت على الملوك I've been in
the courts of kings.
ووفدت على قيسر وكسر I've been in the
palaces of the Persian and Roman emperors.
والنجاشي And the Ethiopian emperor.
والله إن رأيت ملكا قطّ يُعظِّمه أصحابه ما
يُعظِّم أصحاب محمد ﷺ And I've been to
all of these palaces and emperors and I've
never seen any one of those emperors loved
and respected like the Prophet ﷺ is respected.
This was the love that the Sahaba had
for the Prophet ﷺ.
People who show respect for emperors and kings,
they do it with an ulterior motive.
For the love of position, for the love
of money, for the love of gifts given
to them.
But the love that the Sahaba had for
the Prophet ﷺ was a sincere love.
And ours is a sincere love for the
Prophet ﷺ.
We love him sincerely with the depths of
our hearts because he is our Prophet ﷺ.
So what are the things that the Prophet
ﷺ deserves from us?
What are the things that we are supposed
to do for him?
First and foremost, we are supposed to believe
in him.
We are supposed to have iman in him.
And iman means the actions that follow iman.
Not just knowing.
Otherwise, Allah ﷻ tells us in the Qur
'an about the people of the book.
Those that we gave the book to, the
Jews and the Christians, they know the Prophet
ﷺ just like they know their children.
But knowing is not sufficient.
Belief is completely different.
Belief is knowing and following up with actions
that are related to that belief.
And why shouldn't we have that obligation?
Even the Anbiya ﷺ were obligated to follow
the Prophet ﷺ.
They were obligated to have iman in him.
At the beginning of my lecture, I recited
an ayah for you from Surah Ali Imran,
in which Allah ﷻ says, وَإِذْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ
مِن فَاقَ النَّبِيِّينَ Allah ﷻ took a covenant,
a promise, a treaty from the Anbiya ﷺ.
لَمَا آتَيْتُكُم مِّن كِتَابٍ وَحِكْمَةٍ ثُمَّ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ
Whatever I gave you from the book and
wisdom, that's fine.
But when a Prophet comes to you, referring
to our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, مُصَدِّقُن لِمَا
مَعَكُمْ and this Prophet is, he testifies to
the truth of what you brought.
لَتُؤْمِنُنَّ بِهِ وَلَا تَنْصُرُنَّ You will have iman
on him.
And you will believe in him and you
will help him.
So all the Anbiya ﷺ were given this
order by Allah ﷻ that when Muhammad comes,
if he comes in your lifetime, then each
one of you have to have iman on
him.
It's not sufficient for us to say about
the Jews and the Christians and bearers of
the previous religions that they are good people
if they don't have iman in our beloved
Prophet ﷺ, if they don't believe in him.
Many people misunderstand certain verses of the Qur
'an which talk about the previous religions being
forgiven.
Those verses are actually referring to those people
that came before our beloved Prophet ﷺ.
And they had iman in the time of
their Prophets, Allah ﷻ forgives them.
But each and every human now is obligated
to believe in the Prophet ﷺ.
If the Anbiya ﷺ, they were obligated to
follow our beloved Prophet ﷺ and to believe
in him, then why should their followers not
be obligated to follow?
Allah ﷻ goes on and tells us in
that verse that the Anbiya ﷺ all agreed.
They said, yes, we believe.
We are going to do that.
If Muhammad ﷺ comes in our time, then
we will believe in him and we will
help him.
All the Anbiya ﷺ made this promise.
The Prophet ﷺ, he said about himself, he
saw Umar ﷺ one day reading the text
of the Torah, which of course we believe
in, that it was a scripture sent down
to Musa ﷺ.
But the Prophet ﷺ became upset at Umar
ﷺ and he told him, لَقَدْ جِئْتُكُمْ بِهَا
بَيْضَاءَ نَقِيَّةٌ Whatever I brought to you, it
is clear and pure.
أَمَا وَاللَّهِ لَوْ كَانَ مُوسَى ابْنِ امْرَانَ حَيًّا
لَمَا وَسَعَهُ إِلَّا اتِّبَاعِي If Musa ﷺ was
alive today, it would not be sufficient for
him except to follow me.
He would even have to follow me, Musa
ﷺ.
So again, this shows the importance of following
and of believing in the Prophet ﷺ.
Ali ﷺ is reported to have said, إِنَّ
اللَّهَ تَعَالَى مَا بَعْثَ آدَمَ عَلَيْهِ ﷺ وَمِن
بَعْتِهِ مِنَ الْأَنْبِيَاءَ عَلَيْهُ ﷺ إِلَّا أَخَذَ عَلَيْهُمُ
الْأَهْدَ لَإِن بُعِثَ مُحَمَّدٌ عَلَيْهِ ﷺ وَهُوَ حَيٌّ
لَيُؤْمِنُنَّ بِهِ وَلَيَنْسُرُنَّ From Adam ﷺ to Isa
ﷺ, each one of the prophets were told
to believe in the Prophet ﷺ.
This supports the ayah that I've just mentioned
above.
Now, just like we believe in the five
pillars, we believe in shahada, salah, zakat, fasting
and hajj.
Belief in the shahada, it basically, it is
the foremost thing which is proven by our
actions in the other four things.
So our belief in the Prophet ﷺ is
not sufficient that we believe in him.
It is followed up by certain actions.
What are those actions?
That's what I'm going to talk about now.
We have to obey the Prophet ﷺ in
each and every respect.
Allah ﷻ, he addresses the Prophet ﷺ and
tells him, whenever we hear the word qul
in the Qur'an, it is Allah ﷻ
telling the Prophet ﷺ to tell humanity.
The question is, why is Allah ﷻ saying
that?
The whole Qur'an was actually a message
from Allah ﷻ to humanity through the Prophet
ﷺ.
So why specifically Allah ﷻ is telling the
Prophet ﷺ, tell them.
Why?
Because the thing that follows the qul is
very important indeed.
And it is worthy of our attention, our
particular attention that we have to pay attention
to this point that is being mentioned after
the word qul.
إِن كُنْتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللَّهِ If you love Allah
ﷻ, then show your love to Allah ﷻ
فَاتَّبِعُونِي by following me, the Prophet ﷺ was
told by Allah ﷻ to tell the people.
اتباع of the Prophet ﷺ is a sign
that we love Allah ﷻ.
A result of that will be يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللَّهُ
وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ In return, Allah ﷻ is
going to love you and He will forgive
you your sins.
So اتباع النبي ﷺ very clearly mentioned in
the Qur'an and it is a رد,
it is a denouncement of those people that
say that the sunnah is not to be
followed.
The Qur'an is sufficient for us.
Allah ﷻ very clearly tells us time and
again in the Qur'an that we have
to follow the Prophet ﷺ and we have
to follow in his footsteps.
Allah says فَلْيَحْذَرِ الَّذِينَ يُخَالِفُونَ عَنْ أَمْرِهِ أَن
تُصِيبَهُمْ فِتْنَةٌ أَوْ يُصِيبَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ Those people
that go against the command of the Prophet
ﷺ they should be afraid that they're going
to be afflicted by some kind of a
trial or a painful punishment.
Very clearly telling us that we have to
follow the Prophet ﷺ otherwise we could be
the victims of the punishment of Allah ﷻ.
In another verse قُلْ أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَأَعْتِيُوا الرَّسُولِ
Again and again Allah ﷻ tells us throughout
the Qur'an obey Allah, obey the Prophet
ﷺ فَإِن تَوَلَّوْا فَإِنَّمَا عَلَيْهِ مَا حُمِّلَ وَعَلَيْكُم
مَّا حُمِّلْتُمْ If you turn away then he
has his responsibility and you have your responsibility.
And the next point is very very important
indeed.
Allah says وَإِن تُطِيعُوهُ تَهْتَدُ If you obey
the Prophet ﷺ you'll be guided without i'ta'
of the Prophet ﷺ you will not be
guided.
And this verse actually falls in a portion
of verses which is differentiating between the munafiqeen
and the people of iman.
And in these verses Allah ﷻ says and
describes the people of nifaq, the hypocrites, that
they are opposite to the obedience of the
Prophet ﷺ.
They don't obey the Prophet ﷺ.
Their nifaq, their hypocrisy pulls them away from
following and believing in the Prophet ﷺ and
Allah ﷻ very clearly tells us وَإِن تُطِيعُوهُ
تَهْتَدُ If you obey the Prophet ﷺ you'll
be guided.
And the next hadith is a very important
hadith.
And again the Prophet ﷺ told us about
the fitn and the trials and tribulations that
will come to this ummah 1400 years ago.
And one of those trials is something that
I've just mentioned.
The rejection of the hadith of the Prophet
ﷺ.
The Prophet ﷺ he said in this hadith
of Abu Dawood أَلَا إِنِّي أُوتِيتُ الْكِتَابُ وَمِثْلَهُ
مَعَهُ Be aware that I've been given the
Qur'an and I've been given something similar
to it.
أَلَا يُوشِكُ الرَّجُلُ شَبْعَانَ عَلَىٰ أَرِيكَتِهِ يَقُول Be
aware that there'll come a time when a
fat person شَبْعَان meaning he's full, his stomach
is full he's going to be reclining on
his couch and he's going to say something.
What is he going to say?
He's going to say عَلَيْكُمْ بِهَذَا الْقُرْآنَ Follow
this Qur'an that's sufficient for you.
فَمَا وَجَدْتُمْ فِيهِ مِنْ حَلَالٍ فَأَحِلُّهُ Whatever you
find in it that's halal, consider it halal.
وَمَا وَجَدْتُمْ فِيهِ مِنْ حَرَامٍ فَحَرِّمُوهُ And whatever
you find in it from haram then regard
it as haram.
Meaning he will say that it's sufficient for
you to follow only the Qur'an and
the sunnah is needless, we don't need the
sunnah to follow.
Another hadith on the same lines the Prophet
ﷺ said يُوشِكُ الرَّجُلُ مُتَّكِيَنَ عَلَىٰ أَرِيكَتِهِ يُحَدِّثُ
بِحَدِيثِ مِنَ حَدِيثِ A person is going to
be reclining on his couch and he's going
to narrate my hadith and he's going to
say بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمْ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ عَزَّ وَجَلَ Between
us and between you is the book of
Allah SWT.
فَمَا وَجَدْنَا فِيهِ مِنْ حَلَالٍ اِسْتَحْلَلْنَاهُ Whatever we
find in it that's halal, we will regard
it as halal.
وَمَا وَجَدْنَا فِيهِ مِنْ حَرَامٍ حَرَّمْنَاهُ And whatever
we find in it from haram, we will
regard it as haram.
أَلَىٰ The Prophet SAW mentioned at the end
of this hadith أَلَىٰ وَإِنَّمَا حَرَّمَ الرَّسُولُ اللَّهِ
صَلَىٰ اللَّهُ مِثْلُ مَا حَرَّمَ اللَّهُ Be aware
that whatever Allah SWT made haram, it is
similar to what the Prophet SAW made haram.
So following the sunnah, obeying the sunnah, regarding
the sunnah of the Prophet SAW as a
source of guidance, as a source of shariah,
is very very important.
And without it, our iman is incomplete.
Because وَمَا يَنْتِقُ عَنِ الْهَوَىٰ إِنْهُوَ إِلَّا وَحِيُّ
يُحَىٰ The Prophet SAW didn't talk from his
desires.
Whatever he said was a wahi, something that
was revealed to him.
So we need to understand that the sunnah
of the Prophet SAW is a source of
shariah and we could not live without it.
Jabi RA he narrates in a long hadith
about the description of hajj.
He says at the end of the hadith,
he says وَرَسُولُ اللَّهِ بَيْنَ أَظْهُرِنَا وَعَلَيْهِ يُنَزَّلُ
الْقُرْآنَ وَهُوَ يَعْرِفُ تَأْوِيلَهُ فَمَا عَمِلَ بِهِ عَمِلْنَا
The Prophet SAW is in front of us
and the Quran was revealed upon him.
He knows the ta'weel of the Quran
He knows the tafsir of the Quran He
knows the understanding of the Quran He explains
the Quran to us That is something that
we need to follow and we will follow
what the Prophet SAW taught us.
This is in the hadith which describes the
hajj.
In another hadith the Prophet SAW, again about
hajj, he told the sahaba لِتَأْخُذُوا عَنِّي مَنَاسِكَكُمْ
Take your manasik of hajj from me.
Learn your manasik of hajj from me.
Meaning that you will not find the description
of it in detail in the Quran.
In another hadith which you probably heard many
times before, the Prophet SAW said صَلُّوا كَمَا
رَأَيْتُمُون يُصَلِّ Pray as you have seen me
pray.
So the Quran will tell us certain things.
It will tell us أَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةِ It will
tell us to perform the hajj.
It will tell us آتُوا الزَّكَاةِ But how
do you perform the salat?
How many rakats do you perform?
What time do you perform those salats?
What do you recite in ruku?
What do you recite in sajda?
What do you recite in tashahud?
All of these things you find them in
in the sunnah of the Prophet SAW.
Without the sunnah we cannot practice our religion.
So following the Prophet SAW and regarding him
as a source of guidance, this is the
first and foremost thing.
Moving on, our love for the Prophet SAW
should be more than the love for anything.
This has been emphasized in the Quran in
which Allah SWT mentions all of the things
that a person could love.
Instinctively he loves those things.
Allah SWT tells us قُلْ إِن كَانَ آبَاؤُكُمْ
وَأَبْنَاؤُكُمْ وَإِخْوَانُكُمْ وَأَزْوَاجُكُمْ وَعَشِيرَتُكُمْ وَأَمْوَالٌ
اِخْتَرَفْتُمُوهَا وَتِجَارَةٌ تَخْشَوْنَ كَسَادَهَا وَمَسَاكِنُ تَرْضَوْنَهَا
أَحَبَّ إِلَيْكُمْ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ وَجِهَادٍ فِي سَبِيلِهِ
فَتَرَبَّس وَحَتَّىٰ يَأْتِيَ اللَّهُ بِأَمْرِهِ وَاللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِي
الْقَوْمَ الْفَاسِقِينَ Tell them again, Allah SWT uses
the word قُلْ at the beginning of this
ayah also, that if you love your fathers,
your children, your brothers, your sisters, your families,
your wealth, your businesses, your houses, all of
these things we instinctively love them.
But Allah SWT is telling us in this
verse that if these things are more beloved
to you than Allah and His Prophet, then
wait for the Allah SWT to give His
command, meaning that Allah SWT will send His
command of punishment upon you.
So the question is, we instinctively love our
parents, we instinctively love our children, we instinctively
love our wealth, we instinctively love our houses,
then what does this verse mean?
What it means is that when there's a
conflict between the two, what do we give
priority to?
We want to go to the masjid, our
children say, you do not, please don't go
to the masjid, play with us.
At that time, what is the priority that
we have?
Do we go to the masjid and pray,
or do we listen to our children?
Our boss tells us that you cannot go
for Jummah prayer.
Do we sacrifice the Jummah prayer, or do
we sacrifice our job at that time?
When there's a conflict between the two things
that we are supposed to be loving, then
who do we give priority to?
If we give priority to Allah and His
Prophet, then that means our Iman is intact.
And if we give priority to those other
things, then our Iman is under question.
So our love for the Prophet has to
be more than anything.
Umar said to the Prophet, brutally, truthfully, he
said, Ya Rasulullah, I love you more than
anything except myself.
The Prophet said, no, that's not sufficient.
Your Iman is insufficient.
None of you can have true faith until
he loves me more than his parents and
his children and all of humanity.
Umar r.a thought for a minute, and
he said, Ya Rasulullah, I love you now
even more than myself.
So then the Prophet said, Al-an Ya
Umar, now O Umar, your Iman is complete.
So our love for the Prophet is more
than all of humanity, all of our parents
and our children put together, and we should
increase in our love for him.
There's a Hadith which you've probably heard before,
in which Abu Umama al-Bahiri r.a
from the Prophet s.a.w. said, There
are three things if a person has them
inside him, he will taste Iman, he will
taste the sweetness of faith, and one of
them is, that Allah and his Prophet
become more beloved to him than anything else.
This is one of those things.
And he loves somebody only for the sake
of Allah s.w.t. And thirdly, that
he dislikes to come out of Iman into
Kufr after Allah s.w.t. Allah saved
him from it, just like he dislikes to
be thrown into the fire.
But our point here is, that our love
for Allah and his Prophet have to be
more than anything else in this world, and
that will increase our Iman, and we will
taste the sweetness of Iman.
Ali ibn Abi Talib r.a was asked
about his love for the Messenger of Allah
s.a.w. He said, Allah's Messenger was
more beloved to us than our wealth, our
children, our fathers, and our mothers.
He was dearer to us than cool water
to a dying man when he's dying of
thirst.
Just imagine, a person is dying of thirst,
he needs water.
The most beloved thing to him at that
time is to fill his parched throat with
cool water.
But Ali r.a says, that the Prophet
s.a.w. was even more beloved than
that cool water that would save our life
on this hot, dry day when we are
dying of thirst, if you can imagine.
So what are the signs that we love
the Prophet s.a.w.? You know when
you love somebody, you want to talk about
him all the time.
You talk about him all the time, you
mention him all the time, you check your
Facebook status all the time to see if
he's put a like on your statuses or
not, right?
So this, our love for the Prophet s
.a.w. has to be like that.
We mention him all the time, we think
about him all the time, we talk about
him all the time.
We should long to meet him all the
time.
We should think about how it's going to
be on the Day of Judgment when we
are lining up on Al-Hawd, Al-Kawthar,
and he's giving people water with his hands,
how it's going to be to take that
water from his hands and drink from it
directly from his beloved hands.
Just imagine that day, just think of that
day and think how we want to be
part of those people and not amongst those
people who engaged in bid'at and innovation,
who will be dragged away from that line
and even the Prophet s.a.w. will
tell them, get away from me, get away
from me.
So if we love the Prophet s.a
.w., these are the things that should be
crossing our mind.
And finally, a person, when he loves somebody,
he imitates him.
He walks like him, he talks like him,
he acts like him, he dresses like him.
He wants to be like the Prophet s
.a.w. in every respect.
So imitation, as they say, is the best
form of flattery.
Imitating the Prophet s.a.w. is our
sign of love for him.
Like I said, the subject of my lecture
was very, very vast.
I've covered a couple of points and unfortunately
I've been told my time is up.
I pray that Allah s.w.t. increases
our love for the Prophet s.a.w.
and I pray that we get to meet
the Prophet s.a.w. on the Day
of Judgment and we get to drink from
his beloved hands the sweet water of Al
-Hawth al-Kawthar.
Ameen.