Ameen, Rabbil 'alameen.

Introduction: Speaking About the Prophet ﷺ

I'd like to share today, insha'Allah, a hadith on the Prophet ﷺ — on his rahma (mercy) for the Ummah. In the blessed year, any part of the year is a great time to speak about our beloved Prophet ﷺ. And now, on the 14th of Rabi' al-Awwal, when people throughout the world are speaking about the Prophet ﷺ, is also a munasab (appropriate) time. There is nothing wrong with us speaking about the Prophet ﷺ in the month of Rabi' al-Awwal as well. Every day is for us a time to celebrate the life of the Prophet ﷺ, including this weekend.

Alhamdulillah, across the globe people are speaking about the Prophet ﷺ. Within our own city there are many seerah conferences taking place. May Allah make anyone who is connected to, attending, and benefiting from these places accepted. May Allah allow the true love of Rasulullah ﷺ to penetrate into all of our hearts, and may He make us true followers of Rasulullah ﷺ's sunnah. Ameen, Rabbil 'alameen.

The Du'a of the Prophet ﷺ for His Ummah

'A'ishah radiallahu 'anha narrates: she says, when I saw Rasulullah ﷺ one day very happy, I said:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 25663; also narrated in similar wording in various hadith collections)

"O Messenger of Allah, supplicate to Allah for me." So he said: "O Allah, forgive for 'A'ishah whatever sins she has committed in the past and whatever sins she may commit afterwards; whatever she has done privately in seclusion and whatever she has done openly."

So forgive whatever she has done in the past, whatever she may do in the future, whatever she has done quietly in private, and whatever she has done openly.

فَضَحِكَتْ عَائِشَةُ حَتَّى سَقَطَ رَأْسُهَا فِي حِجْرِهَا مِنَ الضَّحِكِ — 'A'ishah radiallahu 'anha began to laugh until her head fell into her own lap out of extreme laughter. This laughter was not because it was funny, but because she was so overcome with joy.

So Rasulullah ﷺ asked her: أَيَسُرُّكِ دُعَائِي؟ — "Does my du'a make you happy?" She replied: وَمَا لِي لَا يَسُرُّنِي دُعَاؤُكَ؟ — "Why would I not be happy by your du'a?" Of course, your du'a is what makes me so happy that I am overcome with joy.

Then the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 25663)

"I swear by Allah, this is my du'a for my Ummah in every salah." Look at it — he took an oath. He said wallahi, I swear by Allah, this is my du'a for my Ummah in every salah: "O Allah, forgive for the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ all the sins they have done in the past, all the sins they may do in the future, all the sins they have done quietly, and all the sins they have done openly."

Rahmatan lil 'Alameen — A Mercy for All the Worlds

Allah mentions in Surah al-Anbiya' — which we had the honor of covering here in our Tuesday night sessions — the stories of many prophets and different aspects of their stories, including: Ibrahim 'alayhi al-salam's story mentioned in detail, Yunus 'alayhi al-salam's story, Musa and Harun 'alayhi al-salam's story, Ayyub 'alayhi al-salam's story, Idrees 'alayhi al-salam's story, Isma'il 'alayhi al-salam's story, and Zakariyya 'alayhi al-salam's story. And at the end, Allah mentions in the last few ayat of that surah — he mentions Rasulullah ﷺ by saying:

"We have not sent you except as a source of mercy for the worlds." This is what Allah wanted to highlight. The whole surah goes through all different anbiya', and the final and most salient feature highlighted is that Rasulullah ﷺ is the last nabi to come at the end — and the most salient, beautiful feature of his is that he is a source of mercy. And he is not a source of mercy for one ummah, not a source of mercy for the Arabs, not a source of mercy for those who came only during his time — but it has been mentioned: for the worlds.

The Rhetorical Device of Hasr (Exclusivity)

This way of expression — negation, and then at the end mentioning exactly what he was sent for — is called in Arabic hasr or qasr: you negate something and then you affirm only one specific thing. For example, "there is no one in the masjid except for Zayd." The idea is to emphasize the presence — wow, at 3am Zayd is performing tahajjud, for example. You can simply say "Zayd's in the masjid performing tahajjud," but if you say "there is absolutely nobody in the entire building except for Zayd," then the emphasis and the highlighting of this man's special feature — that he is at 3am in the house of Allah when no one else is around — is further emphasized, further highlighted.

So similarly, Allah is saying: "We have not sent you for anything except as a mercy," meaning there is no one as merciful as you. And the greatest gift, if we can say, of Rasulullah ﷺ to the Ummah is that he is a mercy.

This is not the only place where some aspect of Rasulullah ﷺ's life has been mentioned in this form of hasr. In another place, Allah says:

"Allah has not made that incident except as a glad tiding for all of you" — talking about Badr, and the angels descending, and the help of Allah coming. What is it? It is a glad tiding for you. Don't even for a moment think that this is a musiba (calamity); there is no musiba here. Don't think you have ended up in some problem — this is only glad tiding. وَلِتَطْمَئِنَّ قُلُوبُكُم بِهِ — and for your hearts to remain at rest.

Similarly:

"Muhammad ﷺ is not but a messenger; many messengers before him have also passed on." This was speaking about when the news spread that Nabi ﷺ had passed away at Uhud. But the powerful effect of this verse — as Umar radiallahu 'anhu mentioned — it seemed like it was revealed on the day he actually passed away, which is also in Rabi' al-Awwal. And so when the day he actually passed away came, it was the day when people lost their minds, lost their wits.

The Day of the Prophet's ﷺ Passing

When Nabi ﷺ entered Medina, the entire Medina got lit up. And the day he passed away, the entire Medina fell into darkness. The Companions narrated: it wasn't even a matter of minutes — we had placed Rasulullah ﷺ in the grave, we had placed the soil and the mud over his grave, the soil was still in our hands, but we began to sense a feeling of change within our hearts. Allahu Akbar. Things were not going to be the same anymore. أَنْكَرْنَا قُلُوبَنَا — we couldn't recognize our hearts. Our hearts had changed — not the same heart that was there just moments ago when your eyes could fall upon the Prophet ﷺ. As soon as we placed him under the ground, things started to change. And how could there be any doubt in that?

It was very hard for people to fathom — including Umar radiallahu 'anhu, who said: whoever claims that he has passed away, he is lying and is going to be punished. "He has simply gone to receive revelation the way Musa 'alayhi al-salam went to Mount Tur for 40 days and 40 nights — this is where Rasulullah ﷺ has gone and he is going to come back." He couldn't handle the fact of his passing.

And it was this ayah that really made him realize — it's over. When Abu Bakr al-Siddiq radiallahu 'anhu ascended the minbar and recited this verse of the Quran, he said: "Whoever has been worshipping Muhammad ﷺ, let him know that Muhammad ﷺ has already passed away. If he was your god, he is gone. And whoever has been worshipping Allah, let him know that Allah is Hayyul Qayyum — everlasting, ever-living, in control of the entire universe." At this point, when Umar radiallahu 'anhu heard the Quranic verse being recited, that was when he realized what had happened.

As you have also heard, Umar radiallahu 'anhu is known to be a man who stood by the Book of Allah no matter what type of emotional outrage he may have been going through — sadness or anger. If someone mentioned a verse of the Quran, that was it. He would stop right there. That is a quality that we need to gain within ourselves. May Allah make us amongst those who, in front of the Quran, become a teeny tiny little ant — that is the reality of it. We would be smart if we did that. There is no intelligence in challenging the Quran.

You're in a heated argument with your spouse, a heated argument with a business partner, a heated argument with your parents or your children — if someone mentions a verse of the Quran, that's it. We need to zip it. Even if that verse may not directly apply to us at that moment, still become calm, because there is a hint, a possible application of that verse to us. So at least we should become conscious of that.

'Umar and the Verse on Controlling Anger

There is a famous story of Umar radiallahu 'anhu: a servant of his was pouring water for his wudu and in the process made a mistake. So the servant began to mention the verse of the Quran about those people who control their anger — that Jannah has already been prepared for such people, that they are the people of true taqwa:

Those who spend in Allah's path in times of ease as well as times of difficulty — that is the first quality. Those who control their anger, who literally drink their anger and control it fully. When Umar radiallahu 'anhu heard this, his face changed, his color changed, his anger subsided.

Then the servant read the next portion — "and those who forgive people" — so Umar radiallahu 'anhu said: "I have also forgiven you." And then he read the last portion: "Allah loves those who do ihsan — those who do more than they need to." So then Umar said: "I have freed you for the sake of Allah — go from here." He started off angry at his servant, and ended up giving him the greatest gift — his freedom. That is the power of the Quran upon the hearts of the Companions.

Imagine how smart those people were — even the servants and the slaves, subhanAllah, were so well-read and so educated.

The Muttaqeen — Those Who Seek Forgiveness After Sin

Let me finish this portion: who else has Jannah been prepared for? Allah says — and this is a verse straight from the 4th Juz', Surah Al 'Imran — those who do an act of lewdness or oppress themselves by committing a sin, they will seek forgiveness from their sins from Allah. The Muttaqeen are not those who never commit a sin. Who said a person who goes to Jannah has to always be sinless? No. Human beings are all sinful — we all commit sins. It is what happens after you commit the sin that is the question. If our repentance is true, honest, and sincere, insha'Allah we can still be regarded as Muttaqeen, and insha'Allah Jannah can still be prepared for us.

What amazing hope the Deen gives us. My dear brothers, as a community — who are you and I to judge someone based on a sin they have done, damning this one to hell and damning that one to hell? We can't do that. Most of the time we don't even know if there is any truth to what we are hearing — it's coming through the grapevine and the gossip vine, and social media keeps adding different things.

The Era of Deception: Technology, AI, and Dajjal

We are now, at a speed of light it seems, entering an era of dajjal — of fakeness. Using AI and using voice recordings. You saw there was this communication that happened this past week between the Facebook CEO and another famous podcaster in the metaverse, where they both put on their goggles and communicated with one another although they were hundreds and hundreds of miles away — but it was made to seem that they were sitting right in front of each other, shaking hands. The audience was allowed to see not only how they were each in their own separate rooms hundreds of miles away, but also what they were seeing through their lens.

You have people who are on completely two opposite sides of the world, absolutely not with each other, in some random room — but when you put the goggles on, it is as though you are 100% sitting right in front of that individual. And what you are seeing is not the actual person — it is a virtual depiction of that individual. But they have scanned their face so many times that the computer recognizes how this man smiles, how he frowns, how his facial expressions work. The main thing said is that the eyes carry the majority of communication — so computers are scanning all of that and come up with a model so that now you are not even speaking to the real person.

And how hard is it that the same technology — which is already there — can take even a few seconds of voice and then type in whatever you want, and that voice will read out whatever you wrote with the tone, the pitch, and the voice of that individual? What is this heading towards?

There is a hadith — and this is from Hayat al-Sahabah by Sheikh Yusuf al-Kandhalwi, may Allah have mercy on him — a hadith about Dajjal. It mentions that Dajjal, when he comes, will be using all sorts of sihr (black magic), jinns, and shaitan. He is the biggest agent of shaitan. Some have even said — I have heard one scholar say — that Dajjal will actually be a being possessed by Iblis himself. You have a shaitan in someone; Dajjal will have Iblis in him. That is why he will be able to pull off unbelievable levels of deception. May Allah protect us all and our generations from this fitna.

He will claim to be God — but remember, that claim is not going to be far-fetched in the eyes of the people, because he will build it up. He will do so many things that people will constantly keep getting impressed. Just like today people get impressed by technology — everyone is so excited by technology no matter what it is. So he will do so much through that technology that people will begin to genuinely think this man controls the world, and eventually he will say that I am God.

There are a few hadiths that come to mind right now that are amazingly connected with the way technology is moving forward. It is very important for those of you in the IT field and those in cutting-edge technology, the latest types of developments in the computer science field — you should also constantly be reading through Kitab al-Fitan; read through the books of hadith in which the trials before the Day of Judgement are mentioned so that you have studied everything with a proper perspective. Don't become so impressed by technology, Allah forbid, that we start attributing towards it what we should not. All goodness — it is not like that. It is a double-edged sword.

One hadith mentions: Dajjal is going to come and say "I am God." There will be one figure to his right and one to his left — one of them will say "he is lying." And the one on the other side will say "he is speaking the truth." Now, why would one of them say Dajjal is speaking the truth? The answer is — that one is not speaking about Dajjal. He is speaking about the other figure, affirming that his statement — "this man is not God, he is lying" — is true. But the people will not hear the first one who says Dajjal is lying. They will only hear the other one say "he is speaking the truth," and they will assume it is referring to the claim "I am your supreme God." When I read this hadith it blew my mind away. I thought: wow, there is a reason why Rasulullah ﷺ said Dajjal is going to be the hardest test that humanity has ever seen. How are you going to win this — unless Allah wants to save you?

And another narration mentions that Dajjal will show a person visions of his own deceased mother and father — come back in the form of a human that has come back to life — and will say to a person: "Please do not die on Islam; this is an incorrect religion. I am your mom, do you not recognize me? I am your dad, do you not recognize me?" So they would say, okay, this might be a jinn taking the form and shape of a deceased parent or sibling and saying "Islam is not true." But now we are already hearing the discussion of where AI is heading — that they will be able to take small video clips of deceased parents, deceased relatives, deceased friends, and allow a person to have a full conversation with them. Even if it's a black and white photo, they will put color into it; a black and white video reel — add color to it — and create a whole interactive person. Your grandson, or son or daughter who never met their grandparents, can sit and communicate with their grandparents through AI. Is this happening? Yes, you have read about this.

So now you look at the hadith and say: we don't even need a jinn to impersonate someone — AI will be able to do all of that. The idea is that where the world is headed is in a very dangerous direction, and we are bringing the Day of Judgement closer to us day by day.

True Tawbah — Sincere Repentance

Going back to the ayah of the Quran — Allah mentions that those who committed an act of lewdness, oppressed themselves, and then remembered Allah, then began to seek forgiveness from Allah — and then Allah says: who can forgive sins except Allah? Of course you are going to seek forgiveness from Allah. And they are not persistent in the sins they used to do.

A key part of tawbah, beloved students and friends and elders, is that a person not only repents but does not remain persistent on it. If a person sins and then does tawbah while already thinking about how he is going to sin again — I am sorry, that is not a real tawbah. But if someone repents and then slips again, repents again and slips again — and while he was repenting he was sincere that "I am not going to make this mistake again" — then the hadith says:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4991; also narrated by al-Tirmidhi)

Even if you make that sin 70 times in one day and repent 70 times in one day, Allah is still willing to accept your tawbah. Where are you going to find any human — any mom, any dad, any wife, any husband — who is going to be that forgiving? This is our most merciful Allah, who then sent the most merciful — the Prophet ﷺ.

Manifestations of the Prophet's ﷺ Mercy

Delaying Isha Prayer for the Ummah's Ease

Let us see some manifestations of that mercy. One time Rasulullah ﷺ came to the masjid, and it had become very dark at night — well past Isha time. People had been waking up and falling back asleep waiting for Rasulullah ﷺ. Umar radiallahu 'anhu stood up and said: "Al-salat, ya Rasulullah — we have to pray our Isha still." Eventually Rasulullah ﷺ came.

The narrator says: كَأَنِّي أَنْظُرُ إِلَيْهِ الْآنَ يَقْطُرُ رَأْسُهُ مَاءً — "I could see Rasulullah ﷺ coming to the masjid; I remember this scene so well, as though I can see him right now — and water was dripping down from his hair, from his head, from wudu." And he had placed his hand over his head, and then he said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 567; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 638)

"If it wasn't for the fear of my Ummah falling into difficulty, I would have asked them to perform Salat al-Isha this late every day." Because the better you delay it — but it would be too difficult for the Ummah to stay awake that late, and so I am not going to ask them to do that.

You have another hadith that mentions: "If it wasn't for the fear of the Ummah falling into difficulty, I would have ordered them to do miswak with every single salat" — an amr, a command, not just preferable — "you have to do it, because the rewards are so many." But he did not command it out of mercy for the Ummah.

The Prophet ﷺ was performing his tarawih salat, and then on the third day he went and prayed inside alone, away from his Companions. Why? Because of the fear that it may end up becoming fard and no longer sunnah. And instead of having 5 fard prayers we would have 6 — and the 6th one would have 20 raka'at in Ramadan at least. So due to that fear he said: "Pray on your own, I am going to pray inside." This is part of the rahma of Rasulullah ﷺ.

Not Burdening the Ummah with Excessive Obligations

On another occasion, he said: "O people, Allah has obligated Hajj for you, so go ahead and perform Hajj." A man stood up and kept asking: "Every year, ya Rasulullah?" The Prophet ﷺ remained silent, not wanting to answer. But the man kept on repeating the question three times. Then the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1337)

"If I were to say yes, then Hajj would become obligatory every year — and you would not have the capacity, the whole Ummah would not have the capacity, to go for Hajj every year." Then he said: "Please, leave me — as long as I do not say something, don't keep on pushing. Leave me, because the people prior to you were destroyed because of their excessive questions and their going back and forth with their prophets and having differences of opinion with their prophets. If I order you to do something, then do it to the best of your ability; and if I prohibit you from doing something, then leave it."

This was Rasulullah ﷺ's mercy — he did not want to say anything that would make it difficult for the Ummah to follow.

Saving His Du'a as Intercession for the Day of Judgement

On another occasion, the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6304; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 199)

"Every single prophet has an accepted du'a. Every nabi asked for his du'a to be accepted in this world" — like Nuh 'alayhi al-salam: رَبِّ لَا تَذَرْ عَلَى الْأَرْضِ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ دَيَّارًا — "O Allah, do not leave a single living disbeliever's home remaining on this earth; destroy them all" — naturally, after 950 years what are you going to do? But I, on the other hand, have kept my du'a hidden — ikhtaba'tu means to hide it for later — as a shafa'ah, an intercession, for my Ummah on the Day of Judgement. And this shafa'ah will benefit, insha'Allah, whoever passed away from my Ummah without committing shirk. If someone passed away without committing shirk, they are going to receive my shafa'ah."

That is definitely the great mercy of Allah that we are going to witness on the Day of Judgement.

The Day of Ta'if — The Greatest Test

'A'ishah radiallahu 'anha asked: "O Messenger of Allah, was there any day in your life that was more difficult than the day of Uhud — when you lost your teeth, when you bled profusely, when you fell into a ditch, when your uncle was mutilated and killed brutally, and 70 Companions were martyred?"

He responded:

"What I have faced and dealt with from your nation, the Quraysh — Allah knows how much I have gone through. And the hardest day I had to deal with their oppression was the day of al-'Aqabah, when I went and presented my message to Ibn 'Abd Yalil ibn 'Abd Kulal and he did not accept me, did not listen to me. I walked away absolutely overwhelmed with sadness and grief, so lost in my sorrow and worry, that I found myself at a place called Qarn al-Tha'alib — that is how far I had wandered. I raised my head and all of a sudden saw a cloud above me. I looked, and in that cloud was Jibril. He called out to me: 'O Muhammad ﷺ, indeed Allah has heard the way your nation has responded to you and the way they have spoken to you. Allah has sent to you the angel of the mountains — he is at your service; you may command him as you wish.' So then the angel in charge of the mountains called out to me, gave me Salam, and said: 'O Muhammad ﷺ, indeed Allah has heard the way your nation has spoken to you. I am the angel in charge of the mountains, and my Lord has sent me to you so that you may command me to do whatever you wish. If you so wish, I can crush the two mountains across this valley upon all those residing within.'"

At this occasion, the Prophet ﷺ said out of his mercy:

"Rather, I am hopeful that Allah will allow such people to be born in their generations to come who will be worshipping Allah alone and not committing any shirk."

This is the mercy of Rasulullah ﷺ. And today we are often so neglectful of his sunnah — but we know that if one day we stand and say, "Ya Rasulullah, on the Day of Judgement — yes I was weak, but I tried to follow one sunnah of yours, I tried to send salutations upon you" — we know, insha'Allah, that through his shafa'ah there is hope for us.

The Power of Salawat Upon the Prophet ﷺ

Reading the du'a after the adhan will become a means for a person to receive the shafa'ah of the Prophet ﷺ:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 614)

Sending salutations upon Rasulullah ﷺ after the adhan will become a means for a person such that وَجَبَتْ لَهُ شَفَاعَتِي — "my shafa'ah will become guaranteed for him." So when we send salutations upon Rasulullah ﷺ, beloved brothers — he is so blessed that if you simply connect to him through salawat, you walk away with so many blessings. Who else is there about whom you can say that making du'a for them brings you benefit? You send salawat upon Rasulullah ﷺ and Allah will give you 10 salawat in return — Allah will send 10 blessings upon you, raise your rank in Jannah by 10 degrees, and forgive 10 sins — every time you say Durood upon the Prophet ﷺ.

So let us make this month a time of thinking about Rasulullah ﷺ's mercy and asking: how am I going to benefit from Rasulullah ﷺ's mercy? Let me start with one simple thing — I encourage myself and all of us: let me start sending salutations upon him.

Following the Sunnah — Without Asking "Is It Fard?"

Stop saying "it's just a sunnah, even if I can't follow it." We have people online and famous scholars across the country who will say — subhanAllah — that the kufi (headgear) doesn't need to be worn, and they come up with some new explanation of whatever the case. And we all know that there are over 200 hadith that explain that the Prophet ﷺ covered his head. No one is talking about styles — you want a different style, wear a different style, whatever. But the idea is: you cover your head. This is the sunnah. Is it fard? No. Is it wajib? No. But stop asking these questions — "is it fard or wajib?" Did my Nabi do it? That's it. If my Nabi did it, then I am going to do it. Because why? Because I love him. You are not forcing me to follow him. I want to follow him. I want to look like him. I want to be like him so that I can be raised with him, so I can hold his hand and enter Jannah. He is the biggest VVVIP on the Day of Judgement and in this dunya. The closer and the more similar you look like him, the higher the chance you will be able to follow behind him, and the higher the chance he will recognize us.

So how sad it is that now people — with all the new tahqiq (research) and new types of talks happening around — have women, for example, who used to wear niqab before, covering their faces in our communities, now being told this is no longer necessary, no longer what the Deen teaches. Now the Deen teaches us to wear stylish scarves and stylish hijabs and put on all sorts of makeup and say that this is the new style of covering. So we are seeing that even religious-minded people are changing the Deen and falling further away from it. And it goes back to scholars who are promoting these things. May Allah protect us from ever being influenced by scholarship that takes us away from the sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ.

Beware of Misleading Religious Discourse

I remember one scholar — a lawyer — who told me: "I was sitting in a very famous scholar's talk. Halfway through, I walked out." I said, "Why did you walk out?" He said: "The discussion was about major and minor sins — but it wasn't about 'these are all the sins you need to stay away from, this is the punishment.' It was a technical discussion about how the number of major sins in the list of major sins have, according to that person, increased over time — implying that not everything called a major sin is truly a major sin."

He said: "I walked out because I thought this was the most useless discussion to have with a general post-Isha community. Something you can have amongst scholars in an academic circle — but the Ummah is filled with sin and running towards sin left and right. We have such a hard time getting them away from the basic, well-known major sins. And now you want to have this technical discussion about whether maybe not every so-called major sin is actually a major sin?" A lawyer figured this out — this is not an alim, he never sat in a madrasa — but he said: "This doesn't make sense to me."

Brothers, wake up. There is a lot of concerning discourse happening on social media and on the speaker circuit. Just stop and ask your fitrah — does this make sense? Is this a good thing that I should be listening to? Do I want my young son or daughter hearing this?

Places I have visited — people say, subhanAllah, "Shaykh, last week we had a scholar — also a mufti — who came to our town, and he asked all the sisters from the sister section to come into the main section and said he was not going to start speaking until the partition was removed." So now my daughter came — normal teenager, you know how it is — she came, she listened, and she loved it. Now she asks: "Will we get to sit in front or do we have to sit upstairs in the mezzanine?" Now our daughters don't want to sit in any program where they have to sit in the mezzanine.

And the worst part of it is how it is portrayed — "this is the sunnah." So all the mashayikh for the past 1,200 years, all those scholars you studied — all of them, whether in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, England, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Malaysia, Indonesia — none of them got the sunnah? They didn't get the memo? "Sunnah 2.0" — remove the veil and have a mixed gathering because "this is the original sunnah"?

Ask the mufti inside your heart: did the Masjid al-Nabawi have a parda? They didn't have a partition — the actual physical barrier. Of course, where would they get a partition? They didn't have carpet. They didn't have a ceiling. They didn't have a roof. They didn't have lights. They didn't have doors. They didn't have windows. They had nothing. Of course they didn't have a partition. But they also didn't have anything else either. Why are you taking one aspect of Rasulullah ﷺ's time and applying it, while leaving out the entire rest of the context?

Did you not know that Rasulullah ﷺ would not allow the men to stand up until the women had left the masjid? Do you not know that it comes in hadith that the women could not even be recognized because of how dark it was when they would come and leave? They came in darkness, they left in darkness — covered fully, so that no man would be able to see them. No one would even meet at the door — all the men had to stay inside. He also mentioned that the best row for men is the front one, and the worst is the back one because it is closest to the women — and the best row for women is the one at the back, and the worst is the front.

Now we have young sisters who want to come sit in mixed gatherings right in front. I appreciate the talab (desire to learn), I truly do — I know many times the sisters have more talab than the brothers. But someone has to teach them: you are not going to get reward by sitting in front here. Your reward is actually in sitting subhanAllah, away from the men — that is where your ajr is. It is potentially harmful for you to be sitting here, and harmful for all the men who are looking your way — including the speaker.

The Prophet ﷺ once saw a woman walking to the masjid and he said she was cursed. Why? Because he smelled some fragrance from her. He said: "Go back to your house, take a ghusl as complete and thorough as a fard bath, removing all trace of that perfume, before you come back — otherwise you are cursed on the tongue of the Prophet ﷺ." This is not a small matter. So you take one portion to say that it is sunnah not to have a hijab or barrier, and you leave out the entire rest of that picture — describing how Medina was 1,500 years ago, how the masjid was, how the Sahabah and Sahabiyat were.

How dare anyone compare ourselves to a Sahabi? How dare anyone compare the women of today to the Sahabiyat? Do you think they would have casual conversations in the lobby? Do you think they would sit there and comment on each other's looks, stare at each other? Is that what you think about the Sahabah and the Sahabiyat radiallahu 'anhum? What a completely misconstrued depiction of that era.

But it is happening today. And I am asking you to wake up — just because anyone with a title says something does not mean you should fall for it. We are in an era where fard obligations, modesty standards, and partition arrangements are being removed from masajid by muftis and being presented as the "new deen." The deen will continue to move forward in many avenues, and we need to be amongst those who remain firm.

It is not easy — it is very scary. Shaytan will come and tell everyone that the changes they are making in the Deen are actually the real sunnah, that the sunnah has been misrepresented by the ulama of any background — Indian, Pakistani, Arab, Malaysian, whatever — that they have not explained it correctly.

On Revisionist Claims Regarding 'A'ishah radiallahu 'anha's Age

On this issue of 'A'ishah radiallahu 'anha's age at marriage — one old friend of mine was getting all worked up and said: "You know, this makes no sense — this whole younger-age thing. I deny that. I will not accept that. And I'm so happy — there's some new research that shows she was actually 18." I said: "Wait. Listen. This research is coming because of objections. When did these objections come about? Find me in the annals of history where anyone ever objected to 'A'ishah radiallahu 'anha's marriage to Rasulullah ﷺ at a young age. This was a non-issue. These kuffar who hated Rasulullah ﷺ so much — this would have been the best place to attack him. How come we do not find a single report that the Quraysh, or anyone else, came and attacked Rasulullah ﷺ on his marriages? Not one report. This was never a controversy."

How about all those orientalists who have been attacking Islam for so many years? How come we do not find anything from the 1500s, the 1400s, the 1200s? This is a new problem, which now needs to be addressed. And you come and try to change history, force this hadith to be reinterpreted, force history to mold itself to fit a certain perception that modernist, postmodern thought has pushed down even Muslim minds.

I said: "How come this research was never done even by Muslims?" He said: "I don't know — I think the ulama have gotten their act together now." The ulama have gotten their act together today?! For 1,500 years they didn't have their act together, and now the cutting-edge research of today has surpassed them? What nonsense — to think that the scholars of today have broken records in ilm and taqwa and are going to uncharted waters. These are supposedly intelligent people speaking like this.

I ask Allah to protect us from having this type of mindset — of thinking that our generation got it right. Our generation is the furthest away from Rasulullah ﷺ's generation. That is why, if you go into the library — Dar-us-Salam library here, alhamdulillah — in every single section: hadith, usul al-tafsir, usul al-fiqh, qira'at, tajwid — any section you go to, the books have been arranged in chronological order — not based on the first letter of the last name of the author, but based on how close they are to the Prophet's ﷺ time. The ones closest are number one. Old is gold. Khayrul quruni, khayrul qurun — the best of the generations is my generation, then those who came after them, and those who came after them. This is what the Prophet ﷺ said.

So please have trust in the elders. Have trust in the people who passed away. Have trust in those whose books are there, who have written and passed away. If we hold on to those great scholars, the Sahabah, and Rasulullah ﷺ, then bi-idhnillahi ta'ala, hopefully we will be saved. And if you go with the latest trend and fashion, by the time our time on this earth is up, I don't know if we'll have a shred of sunnah left anymore — because every single sunnah is being attacked, bit by bit. "This is not necessary, that is not necessary."

Tell me — all of you brothers who are foreign-born, from whichever country you came from — you had a way of dressing for Jumu'ah. And how did the scholar dress for Jumu'ah wherever you were born? There was a haybah, a hay'ah — a dignity and a bearing — that a scholar had for Salat al-Jumu'ah. And now, subhanAllah, you cannot tell who is the IT professional, who is the CEO of a company, and who is the imam. Everyone looks the same.

People say when I travel — sometimes someone may ask me: "Oh, is it a special day?" I say: "Yes, have you seen your priest? Have you seen a rabbi — how does he dress? I am the imam of the masjid. Of course this is my Friday attire." And this is the hay'ah that the ulama of the past — and many of the present — maintained when going for Jumu'ah. But now the idea is: no, we just walk up in our slacks. You cannot even tell who is giving the khutbah and who is not. And so the honor of that khateeb, the dignity of that position, is slowly but surely leaving the hearts and minds — especially the little ones who see this and think: "I guess anyone can stand up and speak, anyone can lead the salah." The waqar and the dignity of that position is leaving. And the long-term harms of these small, small changes on the next generations — we cannot imagine them.

Closing Du'a and Announcements

I ask Allah to give us the basira and the foresight to be able to recognize what is happening. If I have said anything to upset anyone, please forgive me — that was not my intention. For all those who are listening online or will listen afterwards — I am not trying to upset anyone. I said what came to my heart on these topics. If I said something beneficial, it was from Allah. If any mistakes were made, they were from my own self, and I ask Allah forgiveness for that.

I ask Allah for guidance for me, for my children, for you and your children, and for our next generations — to be able to recognize truth as truth and be enabled to follow it, and to recognize falsehood as falsehood and be enabled to refrain from it.

Upcoming Programs

Tomorrow insha'Allah, Fajr prayer will be at 6:00 AM every day, until 6:15 AM on Monday. But tomorrow, as you have heard me announcing, we will have a great program by Shaykh Ibrahim Pandor — please join us in person if you are from Chicago. Mawlana Ibrahim Pandor is a khalifa of Shaykh Zakariyya al-Kandhalwi and was the khadim for decades of the greatest Mufti of all of India, Mufti Mahmud al-Hasan, who taught for 50 years — and Mawlana Ibrahim was his attendant for 30-40 years. Currently in India, the largest i'tikaf in India is held in South India — until pre-COVID at least — and was led by Mawlana Ibrahim Pandor. We are talking about well over thousands of people, the largest i'tikaf in all of India, led by this blessed Shaykh.

So insha'Allah, he is going to be here at Dar-us-Salam tomorrow morning. This is an opportunity for us to meet this gold — our akabir and our elders. He is also going to be joined by Hazrat Mawlana Rahmatullah Qasimi, who I am told is the most senior scholar in Kashmir. So anyone who is from Kashmir, India — please share this message, because I think they will be extremely elated. He is also a shura member of Dar-ul-'Ulum Deoband and a khalifa of Sheikh Mufti Mahmud Hasan Gangohi, the past Grand Mufti of India.

These ulama are going to be here doing a program after Fajr — just a dhikr majlis, and they will probably share some words on dhikr. If you want more proofs and dala'il of dhikr, the book downstairs at the bookstore — five dollars — is a translation of Sabahatul Fikr, the book on the permissibility of doing dhikr aloud and collectively. If any of you have doubts, please stop by and grab the book — it will have narrations as well as statements of scholars of the past on the permissibility of doing dhikr collectively.

And then tomorrow after Maghrib here at Dar-us-Salam will be a general community talk by these two hazrat. Whoever wants to speak — they are both our elders, alhamdulillah, and both are going to be here tomorrow after Maghrib. So if you cannot make it for Fajr, please join us for Maghrib insha'Allah.

October 13th and 14th — please make note — there is a Seerah Conference. On the way out, please pick up a Seerah Conference flyer. And as we talked about salawat, please try your best to take a salawat card with you and get your sons, daughters, and children insha'Allah enrolled in the salawat program. We are trying to collect 25 million salawat in the next two weeks. We request everyone from across the globe who is listening to get your families involved and send abundant salutations upon the Prophet ﷺ, and deposit it online at masjiddeas.org/salawat.

Subhanaka Allahumma wa bihamdik. Assalamu 'alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.