The Elevated Status Of The Prophet's Perfect Character And Form

The Importance of Prophetic Characteristics (Shamā'il)

Less than 20 gray hairs in his beard. This hadith that I just mentioned is the first hadith in Al-Shamā'il Al-Muhammadiyyah. A beautiful collection of hadith filled to the brim with different narrations and different prophetic reports — all narrated by the sahaba concerning what? They concern the beautiful and blessed characteristics, the physical features, and the decorum, the character of the Prophet ﷺ. And in these short 20 minutes I have, it is this topic, this theme of Shamā'il, as it's called in Arabic.

What is Shamā'il?

Shamā'il — or prophetic characteristics and physical features — that I want to drive home today: its importance, the importance of the Shamā'il. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Qur'an:

He's talking about the Prophet ﷺ and He tells him: We have raised your remembrance. So this has two meanings.

Number one, the first meaning of وَرَفَعْنَا لَكَ ذِكْرَكَ — and We have raised your remembrance — is that the Prophet ﷺ is completely, utterly, and unreservedly impossible to describe in all of his dimensions. Why? Because وَرَفَعْنَا لَكَ ذِكْرَكَ — because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has divinely augmented him in a way that no matter how we try to describe him, and in what way we try to describe him — his walk, his looks, his blessed smile, his face as the radiant moon or the shining sun, his message, his words, his actions — all of it is simply impossible to encapsulate in words.

But at the same time, a second meaning that works in cohesion with the first is that anything now that is associated, connected, or related with the Prophet ﷺ is now also raised in status because of its connection with the Prophet ﷺ. We consider Medina one of the holiest lands not only because it's the land of the haram, of one of the haramayn, but also because it is the resting ground of the Prophet ﷺ. We consider his ahadith, his words, his message, the greatest of all messages because it is his message. It is related to him.

And if he ﷺ has been raised in remembrance by Allah, then so too have the associations with him also been raised by Allah. And what could be more closely associated with Rasulullah ﷺ than his very figure, his very face, his very skin, his very smile, the very words he used to tell people, his very character as a person, the way he walked — and he walked every day of his life — every single moment of his life, of his shamā'il, of his physical features that were ingrained upon him and perfect, and made perfect by Allah ﷻ. What could be more raised than that?

Hassan ibn Thābit on the Prophet's Perfection

As Hassan ibn Thābit — one of the greatest poets in Islamic history, if not the greatest poet because of his status as a sahabi — we all know the famous lines he described Rasulullah ﷺ with:

(Hassan ibn Thābit, in praise of the Prophet ﷺ)

That you were created perfect, without any flaws or defect, without a single imperfection. When I look at you, I see nothing but perfection. As if you were created the way you wanted to be. As if you were given a pen and paper and asked: how do you want to be created?

That was how perfect Rasulullah ﷺ was — in his character, and in his looks and his features. And when we read about that, when we take a moment to endeavor and read the words of the sahabah, these people who were with him in the houses of Madinah to the trenches of Khandaq, these people who were with him when he walked the streets of Madinah and Makkah, when he was persecuted and tortured by the Quraysh, to when he sat with the Quraysh in front of him at Fath Makkah, who were with him in his final moments, to when he was first starting out on the mountain of Makkah calling his people.

Who could give more beautiful descriptions of Rasulullah ﷺ than them?

The Orphan Child — An Analogy

And when we read these descriptions of the Prophet ﷺ, they imbue us with love, with a sense of loyalty, with a sense of utter love of Rasulullah ﷺ. And to illustrate this — even though the example of Rasulullah ﷺ can never be truly analogized — just so we understand it, even the tip of the iceberg of what kind of feelings a person has for Rasulullah ﷺ when they read his shamā'il:

Imagine an orphan boy, a boy who has never met his father, never seen him once in his life, and no pictures of him, no recollection of him at all whatsoever in any medium or format. Now this orphan child, he asks his mother, he says, Ammi, mom, can you describe to me my father? So his mother says, oh, he was like this, his hair was like this, streaked with white, he had a crooked smile, and this and that.

And she describes him to the child who has never seen his father. What is the child's reaction to that information? Does the child simply say, oh, that's a waste of my time, I don't care about that — it's not like I'm ever going to see him? No. The child instead latches on to that, his heart clutches at that information.

Why? Because it's information about a person he loves but has never met. It's information about him that makes him love him even more, because it gives him a conception, it gives him an abstraction, it gives him a conceptualization of someone he loves. Now take that and apply it to Rasulullah ﷺ — and times that by infinity.

Where when we read about Rasulullah ﷺ — not just his words and his actions and his seerah, but even the way he looked, the way he talked, the way his smile elevated even the most depressive hearts. How the sahaba couldn't agree on whether to describe him as the shining sun or the radiant moon. Where they were looking between the radiant moon and the desert night, and between the Prophet ﷺ on those streets of Madinah — and they said, I could not tell which one is more beautiful.

Where Ali radiyallahu anhu, in describing him, said: if someone saw him suddenly, they were awed by him. If somebody saw him, they would say:

I have never seen anything more beautiful than him.

The Command to Know the Prophet ﷺ

And we read these words and they propel our hearts with a motivating love, with a love of Rasulullah ﷺ that is in abidance with the Qur'anic verse itself. Where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says:

Know that amongst you is the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. That command to know him is not qualified or conditioned by anything. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says: know his life, know his biography, know his battles, know the battles he won, know the battles he lost, know his family members. All of that is within this ayah — but so are his shamā'il. Know the way he looked.

How is a Muslim supposed to tell who the Prophet ﷺ is, if he has never seen him? In fact, it is mentioned in some seerah books that when Rasulullah ﷺ first came to Madinah, the Ansar who had never seen him before — obviously this was their first time seeing him — they couldn't tell which one was the Prophet ﷺ: Abu Bakr radiyallahu anhu or the Prophet ﷺ. Which is why, to highlight the difference between them, Abu Bakr radiyallahu anhu stood up and started shading the Prophet ﷺ — so they could tell: oh, this is the Prophet ﷺ.

So — وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ فِيكُمْ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ — know that amidst you is the Messenger of Allah. You have to know him. We have to know him as an ummah. As one united ummah, we have to realize who the Prophet ﷺ is, and build our love for him. Because that love of the Prophet ﷺ is what builds belief.

Rasulullah ﷺ said:

None of you will truly believe until I am more beloved to him than his children, his parents, and all of mankind. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 15; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 69)

That none of you will be deserving of belief until I am more beloved to him — more beloved than his children, his parents, and all of people together. Everyone in the world.

And what builds that love? Reading the seerah builds that love — but reading the seerah can never be complete without also reading his shamā'il. Because otherwise, if we only know the biography without the person of the biography — if we only know the battles he won, but not the face that won those battles, we don't know the person who was in the trenches, we don't know the person who was with his family, with his sahaba — then how can we ever truly claim to know the Prophet ﷺ and be following the command of Allah?

Recognition is Directly Linked to Belief

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Qur'an about the Quraysh:

Or did they not recognize their Messenger, that they are denying him? This ayah carries in it an expression almost of shock — as if the ayah is expressing: they knew him, how could they possibly deny him? So this ayah shows that knowing someone, irfān — having a recognition of someone — is directly correlative to your belief in that person. أَمْ لَمْ يَعْرِفُوا رَسُولَهُمْ — didn't they know their Prophet? How could they possibly deny?

So when we learn the shamā'il, and we begin to know the Prophet ﷺ even more, then it is directly correlative to our belief in him — the strength of our belief, the power of our belief, the magnitude of our belief in him. That's why the shamā'il is so important.

We don't just know that the Prophet ﷺ used to pray tahajjud that night. We don't just know that the Prophet ﷺ won the battle of Badr. We don't just know that the Prophet ﷺ conquered Makkah on that day in Ramadan, on this date in the seerah in that year. No. We know that he ﷺ was there, that he looked like this on that day. We can see him — we have a conceptualization of the Prophet ﷺ.

On that day he conquered Makkah. On the day he won the battle of Badr. That night before Badr, when he was making du'a to Allah ﷻ over and over and over again — we see him. Those nights where he was making du'a for his ummah, for us. He was making du'a for us and our success. And we see him on those nights when we read the shamā'il.

We see the Prophet ﷺ — as best as we can — through the words that the sahabah radiyallahu anhum ajma'in have given to us.

Reciprocating the Prophet's Love

So when we learn the shamā'il of Rasulullah ﷺ, we can strive — and we become one of those believers. When we learn the shamā'il of the Prophet ﷺ, one of the most important reasons for why we should learn it is that we reciprocate the love of the Prophet ﷺ. There is a famous hadith that we all know — Rasulullah ﷺ said: I wish I could meet my brothers.

The sahaba asked: "O Messenger of Allah, are we not your brothers?" He replied: "You are my Companions. My brothers are those who have not yet seen me, but will still have faith in me." (Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 226)

The sahaba radiyallahu anhum ajma'in asked: Ya Rasulallah, O Prophet, aren't we your brothers? He said: you are my companions. My brothers are those who have not yet seen me, but will still have faith in me.

What does the beginning of that hadith say? It says that Rasulullah ﷺ said he wished to see us. Isn't the least we could do — when we read the shamā'il — to reciprocate that love? To demonstrate that we too wish to see him? To see him as fully as we possibly can, because we cannot see him in this world — we can only see him in the next world.

But don't we want to be those believers who — on the Day of Judgment, when they see the Prophet ﷺ at the Hawd al-Kawthar, when they see Rasulullah ﷺ meeting the believers — can also exclaim: Ya Rasulallah, I knew you. I knew how you looked, and I knew to come running to you. Because I saw you in my life. Because I read the narrations about you. Because every moment of my life I had you in my mind — I could see you. And I knew that when I came to the Kawthar, I would see you too today. And now I am seeing you.

Wouldn't we want to be one of those believers? The believers who can say: I know Rasulullah ﷺ. The believers today in this world who, when presented with images of so many different things, say: I know Rasulullah ﷺ. I know his demeanor, his character, and I want to abide by that — not by anyone else or anything else.

I don't want to be like Shaytān. I want to be like Rasulullah ﷺ. I want to be like the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ — not mudhammam. I want to be the best I can be by trying to embody the best that he was. That is what the shamā'il does for a person. The shamā'il makes him a person who really, truly looks up to the Prophet ﷺ.

A Summary — Why the Shamā'il Matters

So to recap: the shamā'il are so extremely important because they are in abidance with the command of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala —

Know that amidst you is the Messenger of Allah. They are in abidance with the verse of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala:

Or did they not recognize their Messenger, that they are denying him?

So when we learn the shamā'il, then we strengthen our relationship and our belief in Rasulullah ﷺ. He comes out — he's not just some story character in some book anymore. He's not just some mythology that academics or orientalists like to claim he was. No. He becomes a very, very, very real person in our lives. And when we learn the shamā'il, we learn to love Rasulullah ﷺ, follow what he said, and become deserving of that belief — where we love him more than any other person. And when we learn the shamā'il, we reciprocate the love of Rasulullah ﷺ.

A Call to Action — Read the Shamā'il

So I urge you — I urge all of us together — that no matter where we are, we keep this in mind, that we obtain the shamā'il. It is the Shamā'il of Imam al-Tirmidhi — one of the most famous books of shamā'il in the entire Islamic literary tradition, comprising almost 400 narrations of just the shamā'il of Rasulullah ﷺ. And there are so many amazing English translations right here in our bookstore. We have a two-volume commentary with translation by none other than Sheikh Zakariyyā — the same author of Fadā'il al-A'māl.

And then the Imam Ghazali Institute has also released an amazing ornate translation with commentary from scholars the likes of Ibn Hajar and his teacher Allama al-'Irāqi. These are amazing books that we should have in our possession, that we should read with our families, learning with our children — so that our children grow up not seeing the Prophet ﷺ as an invisible figure, but instead seeing him as a very real person. And by being able to abide by his commandments, his words, and insha'Allah, be like him in this world and the next.

Du'a

We ask Allah ﷻ that He allows us to incorporate the prophetic characteristics, that He allows us to look like, talk like, walk like, think like, believe like Rasulullah ﷺ, that He makes us the best believers that we can be in this world. And that He allows us to see Rasulullah ﷺ in person on the Day of Judgment.

Announcements

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Alhamdulillah, coming up Sunday, August 4th, we have the sisters' monthly dars — Reflections from Hajj in the Far East — by Mufti Adli Muddeen Ahmed, our own beautiful local scholar. That is Sunday, August 4th from 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the sisters' prayer hall on the seminary second floor.

Also, the monthly seminar this month will be Cradle to the Grave: The Obligation of Learning. That will be on Friday, August 16th, after Maghrib Salah, with Maulana Tahseen Khan.

Alhamdulillah, just this week we started our new weekly Urdu Seerah program — Seerah of Rasulullah ﷺ, Qadam ba Qadam — every Thursday after Maghrib Salah with Maulana Abdul Basit.

The Tafheem Weekend Islamic Studies program for Fall 2024 enrollment is now open. The fall semester begins August 17th. The program has two tracks — Saturday and Sunday.

Registration is also now open for the Maktab After School Program for boys ages 7 and up. Please check in the office or visit our website at masjidds.org.

Team Fajr will resume tomorrow. Fajr Iqamah is at 5:15 AM. The Tuesday Tafsir will continue after Maghrib Salah — we will be continuing Surah Al-Ghafir (Surah Al-Mu'min). And the weekly Urdu Seerah program continues every Thursday. Everyone is kindly requested to attend.