May Allah make Medina al-Munawwara and Makkah al-Mukarama beloved in our hearts, Ya Rabbil Alameen.

Ahbab al-Kiram, InshaAllah Ta'ala tomorrow I take the VRSC group for Umrah. So I sincerely ask you all if I made any mistakes or said anything that might have hurt you or if I wasn't able to give you enough time then please do forgive me before I leave and I will keep all of you in my du'as InshaAllah Ta'ala. So please forgive us InshaAllah before we leave.

Starting the Journey with Medina

InshaAllah the Umrah that we're doing is going to start with Al-Medina al-Munawwara and personally my own experience starting with Medina is the best way to go about it because when you go into Medina you get the peace, the tranquility of sitting in Al-Masjid al-Nabawi sending salams to the Prophet ﷺ going to Jannat al-Baqi just spending a few days to just recharge yourself get the motivation and then you go to Makkah al-Mukarama from there.

Sheikh Abdullah Sirajuddin one of the great Syrian scholars that passed away rahmatullahi alayhi from the teacher, the teacher of my teachers rahmatullahi alayhi he used to do the same thing whenever he would come for Umrah he would choose to start in Medina and then he would go to Makkah and then he would finish at Medina. You know sometimes we can't do that logistically but that's what the heart wants us to do that we enter Min Babi Rasulullah ﷺ that we enter into Makkah al-Mukarama and the Ka'bah from the door of Rasulullah ﷺ.

The Character of the Two Holy Cities

You know there's a thing that people always ask they say why is it Ya Sheikh that the people of Medina are so soft there's so much peace there there's so much tranquility there even that mu'amala of the people how the people deal with one another so sweet that's why sweet Medina but then when you go to Makkah it's so intense it's like almost the complete opposite it's very strong and there was one of the great scholars the teacher of my teachers Sheikh Alawi al-Maliki rahmatullahi alayhi Sayyid rahmatullahi alayhi these are great scholars that served the religion of Islam he was a polymath scholar that resided in Makkah al-Mukarama from the family and the lineage of Rasulullah ﷺ.

And he mentioned Sheikh Alawi that that's because when they go to Medina they come humbly before Rasulullah ﷺ with humility and when they go to Makkah the people of Makkah they're following the sunnah that Rasulullah ﷺ set for them that remember when they did the Umrah what did the Prophet ﷺ tell them to do to do ramal which is to show the strength and walk with strength and rushing in your walk like soldiers and to uncover the right shoulders because the Quraysh they thought the Muslims were weak and the Prophet ﷺ said no, we must show them our strength so the people of Makkah they have the jalal they have the strength and the people of Medina they have the jamal they have the sweetness and the softness and both of them are beloved places.

May Allah make us from those that have taqwa Ya Rabb.

The Hadith About Leaving Medina

There is a hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ that I'm going to talk about today and this is a hadith that the Prophet ﷺ tells us that there will come a time where Sham will be opened and the Muslims will be there but people will leave Medina al-Munawwara for the wrong reasons not for da'wah not for the right reasons but they'll leave for the dunya elsewhere so Sham will be opened up and they'll leave Medina for the dunya and the Prophet ﷺ each time he would say:

Say it with me: وَالْمَدِينَةُ خَيْرٌ لَّهُمْ لَوْ كَانُوا يَعْلَمُونَ - And Medina is better for them if only they knew.

Wallahi I cannot tell you how many times we used to repeat this as students in Medina always to one another وَالْمَدِينَةُ خَيْرٌ لَّهُمْ لَوْ كَانُوا يَعْلَمُونَ - And Medina is better for them if only they knew.

The Prophet ﷺ he said that would happen with Sham that would happen with Yemen and that would happen with Iraq and each time he would repeat the phrase وَالْمَدِينَةُ خَيْرٌ لَّهُمْ لَوْ كَانُوا يَعْلَمُونَ - And Medina is better for them if only they knew.

But when you look at the hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ when you say better than, better for them that means there must be something that is less than وَالْمَدِينَةُ خَيْرٌ لَّهُمْ خَيْرٌ لَّهُمْ from what sense? Medina is better for them in what particularly, what exactly? Over here, the lafz is mutlaq min ghayr taqyid meaning it's unrestrictive that Medina is better for them in everything. Medina is better for them for their dunya is better for them in the akhira.

Four Ways Medina is Better

And I'm gonna mention four specific things that Medina is better for them if only they knew:

• Number one: Al-Medina al-Munawwara in the salah
• Number two: in the food and the provision
• Number three: in the safety and security
• And number four: even in death

We'll go one by one inshallah. How Medina is better for them if only they knew.

1. In Prayer (Salah)

The Prophet ﷺ he said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1190)

The prayer in my masjid is a thousand times more and better a thousand times better than all other masajid except al-Masjid al-Haram which is one hundred thousand. And a lot of times people think it's just a thousand. No, the Prophet ﷺ he said خَيْرٌ مِنْ أَلْفِ صَلَاةٍ - even more than a thousand. So Allah a'lam how many the number can go into.

So no matter how many prayers we do in VRSC when we go and pray in al-Masjid al-Nabawi that type of ajr that type of hasanat that type of connection you can only get when you are in the masjid of Rasul Allah ﷺ.

And what is our effort here ya jama'a except to try to take a piece of Medina and bring it to our home here in Valley Ranch. That's all we want to do to bring Medina or as close as we can get in our blessed city alhamdulillah. And I ask Allah to make us like a small Medina ya Rabb al-alameen. That's the salah.

2. In Food and Provisions

Number two was the food and the provisions. The Prophet ﷺ he made a du'a and he used to make these types of du'a of course he's getting answers but also to make sure the sahaba their hearts are getting connected to Medina al-Munawwara because their hearts were so attached to Mecca the Prophet ﷺ he wanted them to make Medina even more beloved in their hearts.

And so the Prophet ﷺ he said:

The Prophet ﷺ he said may Allah bless us in our city may Allah bless us in our fruits may Allah bless us in those the scales of measurement that they did for food the mudd and the sa' and may Allah put with the barakah double barakah.

So the food and the provisions of Medina al-Munawwara has a special barakah Muhammadiyyah that Allah has granted the provisions of al-Medina al-Munawwara.

Ya jama'a let me ask you and I can tell you this any day of the week if I had to choose between a five star Michelin three star steak restaurant and the dastarkhaan the iftar of al-Masjid al-Nabawi wallahi al-azeem I would choose the Masjid al-Nabawi iftar every single day.

That barakah that you get when you just sit in the Masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ and you hear the adhan أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ أَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللهِ you're sitting with all of your Muslim brothers you're sitting with your Muslim sisters from all across the globe only because of your love of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ that the barakah in those dates that you eat that simple yogurt with a little bit of that spice powder the duqqah that they call with the bread that you dip in there wallahi that gives you more nourishment than any restaurant can offer it's the barakah of al-Medina al-Munawwara subhan Allah.

And from the barakah of the food and the provisions there as the Prophet ﷺ has taught us - sallu ala rasul Allah - is the ajwah of Medina if you wake up in the morning and you have seven ajwah dates of al-Medina al-Munawwara then what will you be saved from for that day? Poison and magic you'll be saved from poison and magic for that day that's from the ajwah of Medina and some of the scholars they hold the opinion that this is restricted to just the ajwah of the Medina of Rasulullah ﷺ.

And even a special even more so special ajwah is a hadith in Sahih Muslim where the Prophet ﷺ he said indeed in the ajwah of al-Aliyah. Al-Aliyah is the upper region of al-Medina, Quba you know the Prophet ﷺ with Mariyah al-Qibtiyyah she was from Egypt so she couldn't handle the weather of al-Medina al-Munawwara so she stayed in the upper side why?