John Graf

Shortly before the final illness of our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, as it's narrated by Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ ascended the minbar, and he said: "That there is a servant of the servants of Allah, that Allah gave him the choice between the beauty of this worldly life, and that which Allah has reserved for him, and that which is with Allah. And he says in that servant has chosen that which is with Allah."

The Sahaba didn't know how to react to this, except for Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, with his deep perception and sensitivity, he said, فَدَيْنَاكَ بِآبَائِنَا وَأُمْهَاتِنَا "We would give the lives of our parents for you, O Messenger of Allah."

Now when Abu Bakr as-Siddiq heard of the news of the death of the Prophet ﷺ, when he came into the masjid, or he saw those people in the masjid, they were gathered around Umar al-Khattab. So he goes into the house of the Prophet ﷺ, and he walks up to the Prophet ﷺ, he stands above him. And he removes the cloth from above his face, and he sees him, and he kisses him on his forehead.

And he says, بِآبَائِنَا وَأُمْهَاتِنَا "I would have given my father and my mother for you, O Messenger of Allah. Not would Allah ever have you taste two deaths. For the death that He decreed for you, you have gone through it. And never will you be inflicted with another one after that."

And so Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, he comes out to the people, and he praises Allah. And everyone leaves Umar al-Khattab to hear what Abu Bakr as-Siddiq has to say.

And he says, after praising Allah, he says, مَن كَانَ مِنكُمْ يَعْبُدُ مُحَمَّدًا فَإِنَّ مُحَمَّدًا قَدْ مَاتَ وَمَن كَانَ مِنكُمْ يَعْبُدُ اللَّهَ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ حَيٌّ لَا يَمُوتُ "Any one of you who before had worshipped Muhammad ﷺ, then let them know that Muhammad is dead. But those of you who worshipped Allah, then know that Allah is alive and will never die."

And he recited from the words of Allah in the Qur'an, أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ:

In this verse in Surah Al-Imran, as Allah says, Muhammad ﷺ was no more than a messenger. And many were the messengers that passed away before him. If he was to die or was killed, would you turn back on your heels? And whoever turns back on their heels, they would not harm Allah in any way. And Allah will surely reward those who are thankful. The shakireen.

As it's narrated, at that moment, as it's narrated in Al-Bukhari, it's as if the people had not heard, it's as if that verse was being revealed for the first time, and all the people understood. And they broke down in tears, and Umar al-Khattab fell down. And he narrated, he said, I couldn't even hold up my own weight.

And then it was time for the salah. So Bilal, he went to call the people, and he started the adhan. But when he came to, وَشَهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ He could not finish. He started crying, and he never ever after that finished the adhan again.

And as Ibn Malik, he narrated, he says, I witnessed two days in my life. One day was the brightest and the best day that I ever witnessed. And that was the day that Rasulullah ﷺ, the Messenger of Allah came into Madinah. The other day was the worst day, and the darkest day in my life. And that was the day in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away. And I witnessed both days.

This is our beloved. The beloved of Allah, Habibullah, Rasulullah ﷺ. May Allah bless him in this life, and give him of the greatest status and greatest reward in this life and in the next.

The Priority of Love for Allah and His Messenger

Brothers and sisters in Islam, we all feel when we hear this, the love of our Prophet ﷺ. But to actualize that love, we have to look to see where that love should be in our lives. And to understand that, we should look at the Qur'an, how Allah expects that prioritization to take place.

Say, if your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your relatives, and the wealth you have acquired, and the trade you fear will be in vain, and the dwellings you are pleased with, are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger, and Jihad in His way, then wait until Allah comes with His command. And Allah will not guide rebellious, disobedient people.

Here we can learn many things from this verse. Number one, we can see that Allah has made loving the Prophet ﷺ a very part and parcel of loving him, as they are together in those things which should be at the very top of that list. Second thing we can learn here is that when we look at how we prioritize our lives, we should always see that those things that we love in this world, all of those things should be secondary and subsidiary and less than our love for Allah and His Messenger, and that which He obligates for us, and to obey Allah and His Messenger.

The Sweetness of Iman

(Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim)

And we can also see from this verse that we know that there are Muslims that do not actually have that as their top priority. And that's why the Prophet ﷺ says, there are three things, if those three things are in that person, then that person has tasted the sweetness of Iman, حلاوة الإيمان. And the very first of those things he mentioned, he said, that Allah and His Messenger will be more beloved to him than anything else. And that's the person that has tasted the sweetness of Iman.

Umar's Realization

Now, many of the Sahaba, actually all of the greatest of the Sahaba, for example, Umar al-Khattab, he didn't realize this priority to put the love for the Prophet ﷺ, what that really means. In fact, one day he was with the Prophet ﷺ and he told him.

He said, يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ إِنِّي أُحِبُّكَ "I love you." The Prophet ﷺ asked him, he says, أَكْثَرَ مِنْ وَلَدِكَ يَا عُمَرُ "Do you love me more than your son?" Umar said, yes, of course. He says, "Do you love me more than your wealth?" He said, yes. "Do you love me more than your family?" He says, yes. He says, أَكْثَرَ مِنْ نَفْسِكَ يَا عُمَرُ "Do you love me more than yourself? More than your soul?"

How could Umar reply? He was honest. He says, "No, O Messenger of Allah. No, not more than my own soul, myself. How can I love you more than myself?" The Prophet ﷺ said to him, لَا يَا عُمَرُ لَا يَكْتَمِلُ إِيمَانُكَ حَتَّى أَكُونَ أَحَبَّ إِلَيْكَ مِنْ نَفْسِكَ "Your iman will not be complete until I'm more beloved to you than yourself."

So as narrated Umar al-Khattab, he went. And he sat down and he thought about that. And he started to think. And he came back after some short time and he says, وَاللَّهِ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ لَأَنْتَ أَحَبُّ إِلَيَّ مِنْ نَفْسِي He says, "Now O Messenger of Allah, you are more beloved to me than myself." The Prophet ﷺ says, الْآنَ يَا عُمَرُ "Now, Umar, now you have understood. Now you've done it."

And so it was asked by the son of Umar al-Khattab, Abdullah ibn Umar al-Khattab later. He says, "O my father, why? What in such a short amount of time made you change?" He says, "I was thinking on the day of judgment, which will I be in more need for? Myself or the Messenger of Allah? And the more I thought about it, the more I realized I was in misguidance. And the more I realized I needed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ more than my own self."

And that's what Allah says to us, brothers and sisters, that the Prophet ﷺ should come before the mu'mineen or with the mu'mineen that he is the number one priority even more than themselves.

Examples of Sahaba's Love

And if we look, we can see many beautiful examples of the Sahaba and how much they love the Prophet ﷺ. And how they compared that love to love of anything else in their lives. After the battle of Uhud, they came to give one of the women of the Ansar the tragic news that her father had passed away. And not just her father.

And listen to how her response was. When they said, your father passed away, she says, وَمَا فَعَلَ رَسُولُ اللهِ "What about the Messenger of Allah?" They said, and also we have to inform you that your brother passed away. She says, وَمَا فَعَلَ رَسُولُ اللهِ "What about the Messenger of Allah?" They said, and your husband passed away in the battle he died. She says, وَمَا فَعَلَ رَسُولُ اللهِ "What about the Messenger of Allah?"

So they said, no, he's fine. She said, no, I want to see him. So they took her to where she could see the Prophet ﷺ. And she said, كُلُّ مُصِيبَة She says, "Every tragedy. As long as you are safe, O Messenger of Allah, it's negligible. As long as you are safe, O Messenger of Allah."

Also, there's the example of Khubayb. Khubayb was captured by Quraysh. And he was brought to Mecca, and they were torturing him to give up his religion. And they tortured others. And when Khubayb was going through this torture, Abu Sufyan was talking to him. And they were going to kill him. And he knew he was going to die.

And he said, "Wouldn't you Khubayb, wouldn't you prefer that you are home with your family and safe, and that Muhammad ﷺ was here in your place?" Khubayb listened to his reaction. He says, "No, I would not prefer to be home with my family and safe, and Muhammad ﷺ is even to be pricked by a thorn. I would rather be going through this than him to even be pricked by a thorn."

Abu Sufyan, who was the enemy of the Muslims at that time, he said, "I've never seen a people love their leader more than the people of Muhammad ﷺ love their leader."

How to Actualize That Love

Now, maybe some of you are asking, maybe someone will come to me or come to someone and say, "Listen, Shaykh, how can we actualize that type of love that the Sahaba had? We never saw the Prophet ﷺ. We never spent time with him. How can we reach to that level?"

(Musnad Ahmad)

Well, very interestingly enough, as it's narrated in Al-Musnad Imam Ahmad, that the Prophet ﷺ in one narration, he said, "The glad tidings is for the one who saw me and believed in me." And then he said seven times in one narration, "And the glad tidings for the one who believed in me but never saw me."

Even if you look what the Prophet ﷺ, if you look at the last things he did in his life before he left this world, who was he thinking about? Who do you think? He was thinking about us, brothers and sisters.

When he came to the Baqi'ah, the graveyard of the Muslims, he said, السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ دَارَ قَوْمٍ مُؤْمِنِينَ وَإِنَّا إِن شَاءَ اللَّهُ بِكُمْ لَاحِقُونَ "Soon we will join you." And then he said, the beautiful statement, he says, وَدِدْتُ أَنَّا قَدْ رَأَيْنَا إِخْوَانَنَا He said, "I wish we could see our brothers."

So the Sahaba that were there witnessing at the time, they said, أَوَلَسْنَا إِخْوَانَكَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ "Are we not your brothers, O Messenger of Allah?" He says, no. بَلْ أَنْتُمْ أَصْحَابِي "You are my Ashabi, you are my companions. وَلَكِنْ إِخْوَانُنَا الَّذِينَ لَمْ يَأْتُوا بَعْدَ My brothers, our brothers are the ones who have not yet come."

They said, "How would you know? وَكَيْفَ تَعْرِفُ مَنْ لَمْ يَأْتِ بَعْدَ مِنْ أُمَّتِكَ" They said, "How can you know the one who has not yet come, O Messenger of Allah?" He says, he gave a beautiful analogy, he says, "If there was a man who had all black horses with white stripes on the foreheads and on the legs, do you think he would not recognize his own horses?" They said, "Of course, O Messenger of Allah."

He says, "Like that, سَيَأْتُونَ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ غُرًّا مُحَجَّلِينَ مِنْ أَثَرِ الْوَضُوءِ Like that, they will come on the day of judgment, my brothers. And they will have the blazing white brightness and stripes upon their heads, their foreheads, and upon their feet from the signs of wudu. And I will precede them, and I will precede them to the Haud. And I will be there at the basin of the Prophet ﷺ, where he's there, ready to give us a drink. The one who drinks from it, لَمْ يَظْمَأْ بَعْد The one who drinks from it will not ever thirst again. The one who drinks from the hand of the Prophet ﷺ."

Oh Allah, we ask You to make us of those who drink from the hand of the Prophet ﷺ.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ الْعَظِيمَ لِي وَلَكُمْ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ

The Day of Judgment

On that day when we will come to meet the Prophet ﷺ to drink groups will come to him groups after groups after groups from the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ from every one of the believers who lived from the time of the Prophet ﷺ to the last days in this world and there will be some groups that will be stopped the angels will prevent them from coming forward and the Prophet ﷺ will respond he will say رَبِّي مِنِّي وَمِنْ أُمَّتِي "they're from my Ummah" then angels will respond هَلْ شَعَرْتَ مَا عَمِلُوا بَعْدَكَ "do you know what they did can you perceive what they did after you" the Prophet ﷺ will respond he will say سُحْقًا لِمَنْ بَدَّلَ بَعْدِي "away and to hell with the ones and away with those who changed after me" may Allah save us from being of that group

The Test of Love

Brothers and sisters there is much we can learn from looking and reflecting about how we should love the Prophet ﷺ and we can see here that it's not simply enough to claim you're from the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ or that you love the Prophet ﷺ and if you really want to test to see if you're a man and your love for the Prophet ﷺ is real then you should look to the Qur'an there's a verse in the Qur'an which the ulamas they call this آية الامتحان the verse which is the test the test verse and that verse is in Surah Al-Imran where Allah says:

Say, O Muhammad if you truly love Allah if you claim to love Allah then you must follow me if you do so Allah will love you and will forgive you of your sins and Allah is the most forgiving, most merciful

Actions Must Back Claims

Brothers and sisters we can learn many things from this verse we can understand several things number one is that it's not simply enough to claim you love Muhammad ﷺ if you can't back that up with some actions once there was of the Sahaba a man who came to stay with the Prophet ﷺ and he stayed the night with him and in the morning the Prophet ﷺ told him he said, "Ask whatever you want ask whatever you want this is a messenger of Allah ﷺ" listen to what the Sahabi says he says, أَسْأَلُكَ مُرَافِقَتَكَ فِي الْجَنَّةِ "I ask to be in your company in Jannah" so listen to how the Prophet ﷺ replied he says, فَأَعِنِّي عَلَى نَفْسِكَ بِكَثْرَةِ السُّجُودِ "so help me to achieve this for you by having much sujood having an abundance of sujood"

It's not enough to say you love the Prophet ﷺ if you're not willing to follow him if you're not willing to follow his example of ibadah of the many things we can learn to actualize this love for the Prophet ﷺ is to copy him to copy his actions and to copy his character the character which Allah put for us as a standard as he says:

"You are Muhammad upon the most exalted standard of character"

(Sunan at-Tirmidhi)

And in fact if we want the love of the Prophet ﷺ in this verse of course is talking about the love of Allah but in the hadith the Prophet ﷺ says "the most loved and beloved of you all to me and the closest of you all to me in station on the day of judgment are the best of you in your character"

So it's not enough to say you love Muhammad if you don't try to copy his patience if you don't try to copy his character and the way he would for example control anger the way he would react to people the way he would deal with people the way he would be so honest all of his character traits these should be embodied within us if we truly love the Prophet ﷺ

Study His Life

And lastly and the last two advices I will give you today to prove that love for the Prophet ﷺ is that number one we should study his life now if you say you love somebody now imagine somebody came into you the master you don't know and they came up to you person you never met and they never met you and they says "I love you I love you" how many of you would just feel the sincerity in that somebody who doesn't even know you how can they love you and if that's the case with a stranger then what about the Prophet ﷺ whom we all love those wouldn't you want to learn more about his life because the more you learn about his life the more you would love him if someone actually studied and read books about the lives of these so called famous people and movie stars and sports heroes actually more details you know about the life the more you would dislike them but that's the opposite case with the Prophet ﷺ the more you learn about his life and you study his seerah and his behavior the more you would love him and so that love should grow by your learning about him and his life

Send Salah Upon the Prophet

And then the last advice I would give you today is to send our salah upon the Prophet ﷺ of course we know to make dua for another as the Prophet ﷺ mentioned to us دَعْوَةُ الْمَرْءِ الْمُسْلِمِ لِأَخِيهِ بِظَهْرِ الْغَيْبِ مُسْتَجَابَة to make dua for your brother in his absence will be answered by Allah but we should also make prayers for the Prophet ﷺ and never forget that in fact the one prayer that he was given he says that every prophet was given a prayer دَعْوَةٌ قَدِ اسْتُجِيبَت that Allah would make that dua mustajab he would make it answered every prophet would be given one da'wah one prayer that would be answered by Allah he says فَجَعَلْتُ دَعْوَتِي شَفَاعَةً لِأُمَّتِي يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَة "I have made my prayer as shafa' for my ummah on the day of judgment"

So he gave his salah for us so naturally what should we do in return? Give our salah to him and I'll narrate a story to you in an authentic narration hadith an Ubayy ibn Ka'b so Ubayy ibn Ka'b he came to the Prophet ﷺ and he said "Ya Rasulullah inni yukthiru salata alayk I do the salah upon you I send the salah and the greetings upon you so much" and so he asked him specifically he says فَكَمْ أَجْعَلُ لَكَ مِنْ صَلَاتِي "how much of my salah should I make for you? so I make dua I pray to Allah how much of that all my total salah within that dua how much of it should be for you and how much for me"

So the Prophet ﷺ he replied he says "as much as you wish" he said "should I do one fourth one fourth of my prayers for you O Messenger of Allah" he says "as much as you wish but if you do more it would be better for you" and so he replied he says "ok how about what if I do or he said how about what about half of my salah upon you" he says "as much as you wish but if you want to do more it would be better for you" he says "what about two thirds" he says "as much as you wish but if you do more it would be better for you"

And so he says in the end he says "I will make all of my salah for you O Messenger of Allah" listen to what the Prophet ﷺ responded he says إِذًا تُكْفَى هَمَّكَ وَيُغْفَرُ لَكَ ذَنْبُكَ He said "then all of your worries and troubles will be taken care of and you will be forgiven for your sins"

Are we not in debt to the Prophet ﷺ for everything he did for us so we should remember him often and we should and as Allah says:

"Indeed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is the best example for all of us and for those who have hope in Allah in the last day and mention Allah a lot" and of course we should mention the Prophet ﷺ

And his angels they send salah upon the Prophet ﷺ and we send salutations upon him ﷺ