3 Qualities of the Prophet ﷺ | Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed | Seerah Intensive 2024

Introduction to Shamā'il: The Mannerisms of the Prophet ﷺ

Dear brothers and sisters, first of all, it's a privilege and honor to be taking some of the time with you all in the seerah intensive. Obviously Shaykh Abdullah covers the entire seerah. There are many subjects that are attached to the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ that are not covered in the seerah. Because seerah specifically refers to the life of the Prophet ﷺ, the stories in his life — actually it's just a history of his life and the facts and the wisdom that we can extract from it.

There are other subjects that you could call like the add-ons, such as his mu'jizāt — the miracles of the Prophet ﷺ. That's not covered per se in his seerah, but there's an entire subject called i'jāz al-nabī, the different things that the Prophet ﷺ was able to do that were unique to him. Similarly, there is a subject that was first written about by Imam Tirmidhi — who was a teacher of Imam Bukhari — which is called the shamā'il. Many of you have probably already seen it, it's called shamā'il and probably heard it a few times.

But I do know that many people have also asked, and have heard it just by walking around, what is shamā'il and what is the subject? Shamā'il is the plural of the word shamla. Shamla, in simple words, refers to the mannerisms of a person, the habits of a person, the ādāt of a person, the personality of an individual — the way this person carries themselves, the way this person walks, the way this person talks, the way this person sits, the way this person deals with others, the way this person looks, what he eats, what he doesn't like to eat. This is not a sunnah — these are his mannerisms.

These are ādāt. This is something that is a part of a person's temperament. Everyone can slightly shift their ādāt, they can slightly shift their personality, but normally some of it comes with your fitrah. And therefore, some of the things that we're going to be learning about today are not such that we're learning them for the sake of implementing them, but rather they are aspects that we learn about the Prophet's life to fulfill the ultimate goal — which is that we fall in love with him.

The ultimate goal of learning seerah is not to write the facts on a paper. The ultimate objective of learning the Prophet's life is not so that we can quote certain things that we learn. Rather, the ultimate goal is:

— that we fall in love with the Prophet ﷺ. And that love sometimes can come because we've learned about him, and sometimes can come just from one story. So many of us have been touched by one story — that one story is what got me. There's many examples of this in the seerah — that one incident is all it took for the individual to be won over by the Prophet ﷺ. Just one incident.

Ibn Ishaq mentions that more than 33 people accepted Islam just by looking at the Prophet ﷺ — just by looking at him and being in his presence ﷺ. Another example of this is, Ibn Ishaq mentions we can count more than 50 people who accepted Islam just by sitting in the gatherings of the Prophet ﷺ. Sometimes we think that words are what impact people. People are more so impacted by — we call it the vibe, the environment. They're impacted by how you make them feel. And how you're able to, without saying a word, make them feel comfortable or uncomfortable. Sometimes we say, "I like that person." What did they say to you that made you like them? Nothing. They didn't say anything, but just their presence was filled with so much comfort. And hence was the reality of the Prophet ﷺ. This is called shamā'il.

In today's session, we will be covering the aspect of his physical beauty. Because in the shamā'il books, the first chapter that is covered is the physical beauty of the Prophet ﷺ.

The Three Reasons We Love Someone

Imam Ghazali mentions that normally in life we love someone because of three main reasons — three main elements that make us fall in love with someone. These are rational factors, not emotional. Because emotional love is not taught. We're born with it. We're born to love our parents. We're born to love our siblings. And similarly, our children are born and we just love them.

That love can be distanced and it can be pulled away from us. But the natural love that is an emotional attachment will always be there for those who are certain family members. So when we say the Prophet ﷺ mentions that we need to love him to have full faith — more than we even love our own children, more than we love our own families — sometimes we hear this narration and we say, "I know it's an authentic narration, but it's something which is beyond the scope of a normal individual." That's not true.

Loving the Prophet ﷺ at an emotional level is a given. We all love him because he is a Habib. But even at a rational level — Imam Ghazali makes the argument that even at the most rational level that an intelligent person racks their mind and brain upon — there is no one that deserves to be more loved than our Habib ﷺ. Even if you just think about it.

Like, no one sits there thinking, "Why do I love my son for?" If that's what's happening then it's a problem. Why do I love this person? Because it's family. But if we were to think about why we love people that are not directly in that sphere or circle, there are three main reasons that we love them. And when the Prophet ﷺ is saying that you love me more than your children, he's not asking for an emotional love. He's asking for a rational love.

That if my son or daughter was to say something negative about our Prophet ﷺ, we would get upset. That's us having priority of the Prophet ﷺ over even our own children. Like Umar at his time of khilāfah — his son says to him that there's too many things happening right now, the masjid expansion is going on, and maybe it's better if we tell the women not to come and pray in the masjid. So he's making this appeal to his father. And Umar looks upon him and he says, "The Prophet of Allah ﷺ says very clearly that you cannot prevent the sisters, the female slaves of Allah, from going to the masjid. This is the Prophet's statement. How do you want me to act against it?"

The son then says, "O father" — and he's being genuine. Because sometimes we say that we are being genuine, but us being genuine doesn't change the fact that we're still wrong. Like, "I genuinely hurt you" — I'm still messed up. So he was being very genuine. He says, "O father, that was a different time, it was a different era." Like how we say — it was a different era and that's why that sunnah made sense, it was a different time, that's why that worked.

I urge you that even if we are unable to apply a certain sunnah that we hear about, not to go on the defensive end and act as if that sunnah has become somewhat of an anomaly or strange. Sunnah will always be relevant because relevance is attached to something that can solve our problems. Being relevant simply means that we have something that can solve a problem — that's called being relevant. The Prophet's sunnah will always be relevant. It will never become something strange even if it's not the norm. So this concept that "it was of that time, it was of that culture" — we don't need to say it. Even if we can't act upon it, it's sunnah. If we can't do it, we simply know that it's our own weakness and call it a day.

Sometimes someone will say a hadith and someone will say, "That doesn't even sound authentic" — as if we've studied hadith sciences for 12, 13, 15, 20 years. What do I know about a hadith sounding authentic? This is why the Salaf would say, when someone would refer to the Prophet's name, if we didn't know about the reality of it, we would choose to waqf. We would just remain silent. And this is the reality even with elders and parents, and those who are senior members in the community. When they say something and we don't fully understand it, silence is not approval. The waqf means, "I just won't respond right now." And that is the best thing to do at that moment.

So this son — in the same generation of the Prophet ﷺ, he's not a companion — he says, "O father, look, it's a different time. You don't understand. It's not the same era. It's not the same country that you came from. Now we should prevent them from coming to the masjid." It sounds weird — how can you say it's a different time? We do the same thing to make things permissible. He's doing it to make things impermissible. The father says, "I'm saying the Prophet ﷺ said, don't prevent them from coming to the masjid. And you're telling me what you think? And you are of the opinion through your speech that your statement is somehow equivalent to the Prophet's statement? I will never speak to you again." And he had hijrān from him, and he never spoke to him again.

I'm telling you the Prophet ﷺ said something, and you're saying you think this ain't gonna happen — we won't speak again. This is called loving the Prophet ﷺ and his sunnah more than we even love our own children and our own family members. And many of us have dealt with this situation — if not us, at least our parents have, who made a change in their life. Whenever we make a slight change, there are certain distances that we create unwillingly — they just happen naturally. And when that happens, we say, "Well, you don't love me?" We love you, but we love the Prophet more. We love the Prophet's deen more.

So if I see my son or daughter, or if you see your family members — your children or your siblings — disrespecting the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, that the Prophet's hadith is being mentioned and they're speaking over it, or the Prophet's name is being mentioned and they're not reciting durood upon it, salawāt upon him ﷺ, or a certain sunnah is being highlighted and their demeanor is minimizing it or they're just completely denying its significance — as a parent, that should offend me. So I love the Prophet more than I love my children.

Similar to how a parent will get offended even if the teacher of that child criticizes the child. We don't have kids of that age, but we have a boarding school just a mile away. We have about 180 students that live on campus. Because these people give up their entire youth to learn about deen — ten years of their life are committed. Giving up their comfort, their needs, not even their desires. To be with your parents is a need. And they give it up to learn about the Prophet ﷺ, to learn deen, to become huffādh, to become scholars.

So sometimes when a kid does something wrong and we have to call upon their parents, and we say, "Your son did so and so" — the first response the mother or father would have is, "He can't be my son. You're talking about a different Ahmed. I know my son." And even parents, though they love you — the fact that you're criticizing their child will offend them to some degree. And hence, when we do correct other people's children, think of it to be such that — how would you want your children to be corrected? And with that mentality, we should correct people.

People don't mind receiving advice. They just don't like receiving advice in a manner that you wouldn't like receiving it. Giving advice and receiving it is not a problem. It's the tone, it's the mannerisms, it's the flow, it's even the words. Sometimes the tone is right but the words are wrong. And it happens quite often with us because we're ultra-sensitive for ourselves or somehow ultra-tolerant towards others' feelings. "I don't think that would hurt them." But would it hurt you? Yeah. So why would it not hurt them? They're humans too.

So the Prophet ﷺ — if we have that love for him, when someone even has any form of disrespect towards him, it would hurt us. This is called ghīra — having a certain level of self-respect for our deen and dignity for our deen and for our Prophet ﷺ. So all of this is learned through shamā'il. When we learn about his mannerisms, this is something unique and special. How Anas ibn Malik would say:

Not only was he the most beautiful in his character, but he was also the most beautiful in his appearance — just the way Allah had created him ﷺ.

The First Quality: Physical Beauty

The first of the three reasons we love someone is physical beauty. Like, no one's gonna look at the house they want to purchase and say, "Well, the outside looks bad, but I'm sure the heart is good." We keep saying external doesn't matter — that's actually wrong. Internal matters more, but the external does matter. That's why we have a certain dress code in Islam. That's why we have a certain way of speaking in Islam. That is why we have a certain way of walking in Islam. We don't walk with our shoulders out and our head up like this, as if we are the focus of the earth.

My father would say this story to humble us at times — he still does. He says, "You know this ant — a jundī, an amla — an ant when it sleeps, it sleeps with its legs sprawled up behind it. And when it lies down like this, the other insects would ask the ant, 'Why do you sleep like that?' And the ant says, 'Well, someone has to carry the weight of the sky so it doesn't fall on us.'" Like, "I have to carry the weight of the world, so that's why I walk like this."

If external things didn't matter, we wouldn't have shamā'il. It does matter. Every aspect of our external being is attached to the Prophet's shamā'il. We want to resemble him, so that when he sees us on the Day of Judgment, he can recognize us. Just like how we recognize our children and our loved ones through features, the Prophet will recognize us through the way we carry ourselves.

The Second Quality: Internal Beauty

Number two is internal beauty. You can have the best looking car — it has the right paint job, the right lights, it looks the best — and then the engine is knocking. No one's gonna want to buy that car. It's a shell. Most people, since they make such an effort on their external presence, internally they're a shell of what they look like externally. Internally, they're hollow. And hollow people... your external simply impacts you. Your internal impacts people. The reason why we struggle to impact others is not because we don't have the external means. It's simply because we don't have the internal presence, that within our presence people are impacted. Without saying much, people were accepting Islam — because it was a presence.

The Third Quality: Reciprocal Love

Number three is how much that person also loves us. Love is reciprocal. Love is reciprocal even when it comes to parents, to a degree. After a certain while, like if we keep acting up as kids, our parents will say, "Well, you know what? You guys are paying rent." Even for parents it is reciprocal to some extent. The only non-reciprocal love in this world is Allah's love for us. It's non-incentivized. Because there's nothing Allah gets from our 'ibādah. This is what we get wrong.

Since we're so used to the system of a hierarchy of the corporate world, we always believe that when we do something for those who are our superiors, it actually benefits them. Allah does not benefit from our obedience, neither is He affected by our disobedience. Allah says:

Well, if you do good, you're simply doing it for yourself. This is the qā'ida kulliyya of life. If we can take this from today's session, it will be really beneficial. The qā'ida — this is the maxim of life. That if you do good, you're the first beneficiary of that good. And then everyone else in the world benefits.

So for example, what this means is — if I forgive someone, why is it a struggle to forgive people? Because we actually believe that the primary beneficiary of my forgiveness is the person being forgiven. So now we're thinking twice, "Why do I want to benefit them?" Whereas the reality is the opposite. The Prophet ﷺ says:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 6494; also referenced in Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 78)

That you forgiving someone actually has the greatest benefit for you. Because the moment you forgive someone and I forgive someone, Allah forgives us. The cyclical nature of Allah's system continues to exist till the Day of Judgment.

So for example, we see someone committing a mistake. They have a flaw — an 'ayb — it's not something beautiful. They would not like it for you to mention behind their back, or even in front of their face. You say, "Well, I won't mention it because it benefits you." That's again the way we've been wired. But Allah's Prophet ﷺ says, no, that's not the reality. He says:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 32, Hadith 6264)

Whoever hides the flaws of a believer, Allah hides their flaws on the Day of Judgment — the day where everyone's flaws will be on a Jumbotron screen. With Allah's system, everyone will see one person's deed at a time:

But Allah will hide the person's mistakes who hid other people's mistakes. We believe that when I give charity, the one who primarily benefits is the recipient. The Salaf, Imam al-Muhasibi would say, it was almost makrūh within the lives of the Salaf to ask someone, "What can I do for you?" That was something which was disliked because it came with a connotation of superiority. Rather than that, they would say, "Is there anything that you need? What are you looking for?" Not "What can I do for you?" Because:

So when I say, "What can I do for you?" Allah will take away the tawfīq from you to even do something for that person. Because for that moment, you were under the impression that there was power within the person. And there is no power in that person. Relying upon power that is powerless is a sign of immaturity. We rely upon power that is a source — which is Allah.

So even when we give charity, the Prophet of Allah taught us an entirely different system — what happens when we give charity? Whose wealth increases? The person who gives.

We do something good for someone — the best way to avoid riyā' and arrogance is to know that you're also benefiting from it. So it will keep you humble because you're not living with that impression that "I'm the doer." You're actually living with the impression that "I'm a receiver as well. I'm actually benefiting from what I'm doing."

The Prophet ﷺ Surpasses All Three Qualities

So the idea of each of these qualities — going back to the three qualities that I was referring to: the first one was physical beauty, the second one was internal qualities, and the third one was how much this person also loves me. It's reciprocal — how much this person is ready to give up for me.

Going backwards: there is no one, even our parents, that have given up more for us as an ummah than the Prophet ﷺ. Nobody who has expressed and proven their love for us more than our Habib ﷺ — in every instant in his life. And even on the Day of Judgment:

Rahmatan lil-'ālamīn was not confined to a time, nor was it confined to a space. That's why it's called 'ālamīn — this works beyond space and time. This is similar to how Allah said:

'Ālamīn — it works beyond space and time. So it's not like those who were close to the Prophet ﷺ were the only people who were able to experience his rahmah, or those who lived in his era were the only people that were able to benefit from his rahmah. That's not true. Rahmatan lil-'ālamīn means that even us today we're benefiting from his rahmah. And on the Day of Judgment, where time becomes still and becomes a non-factor — even there the only way that we get to Jannah is through his shafā'ah ﷺ and the mercy and forgiveness of Allah. So even there he's saying, "Ummati, ummati."

In Ta'if he said, "Don't crush them." The angels came and they said, "We'll crush these people for what they did to you. They physically, and even more so mentally, abused you. They said to you, 'Could Allah not find someone better?'" What a hideous, demeaning thing to say to someone. "Just say the word." No. "What if there will come a time where the progeny of the people of Ta'if will be Muslim."

And when Banu Thaqeef came to become Muslim — after the Prophet ﷺ's transition and demise in this world — they became Muslim at Fath Makkah, in Hajjat al-Wada', and in the Battle of Hunayn. But when they came to Abu Bakr to do their second bay'ah after the Prophet ﷺ had left this world, they came with such a large delegation. And when they came, Abu Bakr said, "Who are you guys?" And the leader responded by saying, "We are the people of Thaqeef, people of Ta'if." And he just began to cry. So there was a time when the Prophet ﷺ said that there is khair that will come from the progeny of these people.

The Prophet ﷺ could see khair from the people who completely annihilated his honor — like literally just left him out for the ditch, like "Hey, figure it out." The Prophet ﷺ told Ikrimah when he became a Muslim, "I knew there would be something good that comes from your father" — though his father was Abu Jahl. "I could see something good would come. It didn't come from him but it came from you because you became a Muslim." Like, that's how much farsightedness he had for just humanity — Muslim or not Muslim.

So he loves us more than anyone else. Going backwards, we're not speaking about his characteristics today because that will be for one of the other sessions. But his qualities are unmatched — whether it be his bravery. Sometimes we think about what Ali said. Ali says, "Well, in the battlefield when stuff would start going and people would start clashing their swords, and things would get rough, we would all look for shelter with the Prophet ﷺ. We would all come around him. And he would be the closest to the enemy."

(Reported in Musnad Ahmad and referenced in descriptions of the Prophet's bravery in battle)

The most brave — there was an incident in Madinah where there was a noise, like a loud noise, as if there was an intruder in Madinah al-Munawwara. And the Prophet ﷺ — Umar says, "We got up so quick, and we jumped on our horses, and we were rushing towards the intruder. As we were leaving our homes in the city, the Prophet of Allah was riding back from that area." He says:

"Relax, relax, I've already went there, checked it out, you can sleep. Like, it's all good, I already went." His bravery, his generosity, his kindness, his softness — all of that was found in him. Rather, in one statement, it is mentioned in Imam Suyuti's al-Khasa'is al-Kubra that:

(Imam al-Suyuti, al-Khasa'is al-Kubra)

Allah consolidated and cultivated all the unique qualities of every prophet in the Prophet ﷺ. Where it was said — there was a voice that was heard when the Prophet was born — give him the character of Adam, the recognition of Sheeth, the submission of Ismail, the friendship of Ibrahim, the power and strength of Musa, the voice of Dawood, the abstinence of Isa, the obedience of Ilyas, the beauty of Yusuf — every Prophet had a unique quality, give the Prophet all of them. And he was hence:

The leader of all Prophets, because Allah gave him excellence above all other Prophets through his internal characteristics. And through all of this, we come back to the first quality — physical beauty.

Narrations on the Physical Beauty of the Prophet ﷺ

I only have about ten minutes left and I'll share maybe one narration about the physical beauty of the Prophet ﷺ and then we'll leave it at that. I mentioned earlier that Ibn Ishaq says more than 33 people became Muslim just by looking at the Prophet ﷺ. So I'll give you just maybe one or two examples of this.

Abdullah ibn Salām: "This Face Cannot Be the Face of a Liar"

There was a man by the name of Abdullah ibn Salām who was a Jewish rabbi. So when the Prophet ﷺ came to Madinah al-Munawwara, he says that everyone came together to welcome the Prophet ﷺ. "I was also there — I was just looking from a distance to kind of gauge whether or not this person really had substance or was he just fluff. Was there something there or was he just empty like a shell? So I was just at a distance looking, and as I was just observing him and looking at him, I could not take my eyes off his face. And as he was sitting there, I would find myself being pulled in — there was this magnetic pull."

So he comes closer and closer and closer — like people that have gone to sport games, most of us will probably buy the nosebleed tickets and somehow magically find seats all the way in the first few rows. This man is just so driven — the Prophet's pull is so heavy, his aura, his persona — he just comes closer and closer till the point that he says, "I'm sitting right in front of him." And the Prophet of Allah then turns towards him and smiles. No words needed. He says, "Yā Rasulallah, I'm ready." He says, "I was looking at you and I said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Kitab al-Qiyamah, Hadith 2485; also referenced in Ibn Hisham's al-Sira al-Nabawiyya)

"I was looking at your face and I realized that this face cannot be the face of a liar. It just can't be."

Tufayl ibn 'Amr al-Dawsi: When Truth Appears, Falsehood Disappears

There is Tufayl ibn 'Amr al-Dawsi — from the tribe from which Abu Hurayra became a Muslim. So he entered into Mecca and the Meccans said to him, "You're a leader of a tribe — do us a favor, don't get caught up in the propaganda of this man." We've always had mainstream media make it seem like the truth was propaganda. It's not new. The social media at that time was poetry, and the Quraysh had that. So when people would come in from the external areas, from the neighboring cities, so there's no influence that spreads, they would tell them, "Don't spend time with this man. Just ignore him. He's crazy — na'ūdhubillah from that."

So Tufayl ibn 'Amr al-Dawsi says, "No problem, I'll just ignore him." He's doing his tawāf, he's doing his thing, he's doing his own worship — and as he's doing his tawaf, his eyes fall upon the Habib, and he's like, "Oh, who's that guy?" And he's told, "This is the person that we were talking about, you gotta avoid this person." He said, "Really? He doesn't look like he's crazy." "Just trust me." No problem. So he continues.

Another maxim of life:

When the truth appears, falsehood disappears. The power of the truth is not that it has to be loud — it simply has to be there. The truth of Gaza is not the truth because the whole world is speaking about it. It's the truth even though it may not be the loudest voice. Because when the truth appears — even though it's not from the mainstream media, it's from people like you and I — the truth is powerful. It doesn't have to be loud. Falsehood will disappear. But it has to at least appear. It has to show up. And if it doesn't show up, falsehood will continue playing the role of the truth.

For example, if I enter into a gathering where people are backbiting — we are a manifestation of the truth, Allah has given us imān — if I enter into a gathering and people are backbiting and they continue to backbite, that means they don't see me as a reference of the truth yet. Al-haqq — when it appears, bātil remains quiet. It stops talking.

So he sees the Prophet — the truth. He said, "Look, I'm such an intelligent person — how will I be swept off my feet by a person who's crazy? If it's poetry, I'm the greatest poet. If it's sorcery, I'm intelligent, I can tell. Let me give this man a shot." And he says that he goes closer and he hears the Prophet ﷺ reciting Quran — in one narration, he hears him reciting khutbat al-hāja:

And just by seeing him and hearing this, he said, "This man has to be a prophet," and he accepted Islam.

Hassān ibn Thābit: The Poet Who Was Struck Silent

There is a narration that Hassān ibn Thābit — before he accepted Islam, he was also from the Jews of Madinah, and the Jews of Madinah were the religious authority in Madinah. So they said to Hassān ibn Thābit, "Allah has given you such a sharp tongue. You are our voice. This man is trying to take our influence away and overshadow us — when he walks down into this gathering where everyone is sitting, we want you to stand up and say something that will just take away his honor from people. Tarnish his respect. Just drop a line — pretty much like a diss track."

So he's standing there, he's waiting. He has his lines prepared in his mind: "I'm gonna hit him like this, I'm gonna throw this at him." And he's standing, waiting, waiting, waiting. And the Prophet ﷺ descends. He looks up. And whatever he had prepared in his mind:

It just vanishes. And he's just looking. And he says:

He says, "The moment my eyes fell upon the anwār — the light of the Prophet ﷺ" — for us the greatest example of this is when you first see the Ka'bah or the Green Dome. It's overwhelming. Like even if you don't want to cry, you cry. Right, it's just so overwhelming. Imagine seeing the Prophet ﷺ in flesh with his beauty.

"When I saw the rays of the Prophet ﷺ — his face fall upon my eyes — I took my palm and I covered my eyes. I did not cover my eyes because he was not a beautiful sight to enjoy. Rather I covered my eyes because I was overwhelmed by the light of his face. Khawfan 'alā basarī min husni sūratih — I was afraid that if I continued looking — it was so much beauty. But it was so beautiful that I still wanted to look. So I would look up, then I would look down. I would look up, then I would look down."

This is what Anas ibn Malik says — that in the Prophet's gathering, as companions would be sitting, each and every one of them would be conflicted by two thoughts: look up and gaze upon the most beautiful human being, but then he had such a presence that they would just look down. They would look up when he would look away, and they would look down when he would look at them — out of respect for him. He says that from this one incident, he accepted Islam and he became the poet of the Prophet ﷺ.

Hassān ibn Thābit would later say:

What a beautiful statement — he would say, "If the Prophet, as a Prophet, had brought no miracles down to us, and there was no revelation, and he was simply a person who sat silently upon a chair — just his mere presence would be indicative of him being a Prophet. Just because of how he was."

Umm Ma'bad: The Most Vivid Description of the Prophet ﷺ

The last narration will go from Maghrib. The Prophet ﷺ on his way and his journey towards Madinah al-Munawwara — for migration, for Hijrah. Shaykh Abdullah will cover this part of course in his session as well. But as he was going from Mecca to Madinah, one of the rest stops that he had was in the house of a woman called Umm Ma'bad. He stops at her house, and as Shaykh Abdullah was mentioning, the Arabs were known for their hospitality — if travelers showed up, you take them in for at least three days. That's their right.

There is no applause for giving someone their rights — there is simply taking away your sin. When you give someone their right, you don't applaud yourself, you relieve and alleviate sin from yourself. For example, a right of a believer is to say Wa 'alaykum al-salām. If I say Assalāmu 'alaykum and you say Wa 'alaykum al-salām, it alleviated and relieved the sin that would have fallen upon you and vice versa. When someone becomes sick, it is a fard — it is their right — that you visit them. So when we visit them, it's not one of those moments that we have to take a picture of because it's very ordinary. No one thinks that when they pray Maghrib they've reached the level of a walī of Allah. It's fard, right? You have to pray Maghrib. Similarly, going to someone's house to visit them when they're sick is a fard — we had to do it. So when we show up, it just removes sin from us. It doesn't add, and of course there's a reward for it nonetheless.

So when the Prophet shows up, he says, "Is there any food in the house?" She says, "No, it's a famine — alanā al-qaht. We have no food. We're stricken by a famine and there's nothing that we have." He said, "Well, there must be something. You must have something that I can just eat or drink." She said, "Well, you must have milk." She says, "I don't even have milk, but I do have an animal — like a goat — that is hazīla: it's so weak and skinny that if you were to slaughter it there would be no meat, and if you were to try to milk it you would get nothing from it." But the Prophet says, "Well, you know what? Show me where this animal is."

So she takes the Prophet to this animal, and the Prophet with his blessed hands — the Prophet's hands were also blessed, that his touch was unique, when he would touch someone there would be a unique effect. There's an entire chapter in the Shamā'il about the Prophet's touch. Shaykh Abdullah refers to it in the Seerah Intensive — it's extremely emotional and extremely enjoyable. So he touches this animal and its udders are filled with milk. He milks the animal. He gives it to Abu Bakr — he drinks. He gives it to the other person that was with him in the travel — they drink. He drinks himself. They continue to drink. And then he gives it to the people of the house.

Umar — when he heard this story — all the companions knew this story because Umm Ma'bad became a famous person in seerah for them. They would visit her when they would come from Mecca — later on, whenever they would travel to Mecca and Madinah, they would try to stop over there because the Prophet stopped over there.

You know the story of Abdullah ibn Umar — when he was traveling for Umrah, he would duck in a random place. Imagine someone just walking normally and they do one of these ducks — like you've seen some jinn or something! And the people would say to him, "Are you okay?" He said, "Yeah, I'm okay. When the Prophet took us for Hajj, there was a tree here, and when he was traveling by this area he didn't turn away from the tree — he simply ducked. And no one else behind him turned away, because if the Prophet didn't turn, I shouldn't turn either." Now there's no tree there, but this man is still doing it. It makes no sense — but this is hubb, this is love.

So they would all go to Umm Ma'bad. Umar, as Amīrul Mu'minīn, said, "I drank from that same animal as a Khalifa." At least twelve years later — because the Prophet lived in Madinah for ten years, Abu Bakr was a Khalifa for two years — twelve years later, "I drank from that same animal."

So when the Prophet left and went to Madinah, the husband comes home later on in the evening. He asks the wife how her day was, and she says, "Today I saw something very strange — something was just different." And she explains what happened. The husband was so compelled and mesmerized by the Prophet's mannerisms, the way he spoke — his entire being. I said earlier that some people would hear one story of the Prophet and they would accept Islam. One. We're here for seven days, we will learn about his entire life. They would hear one story and that would be enough compelling evidence that this person has to be a Prophet.

Hassān ibn Thābit would say: law lam takun lahu āyatun mubīna — lakāna manẓaruhu ya'tīka bil-khabar — just his presence would be indicative. So the man hears the story and he says, "I'm gonna go meet him to accept Islam. But how will I recognize him? Can you explain him to me? Can you tell me how he looked?"

She says, "I can't." He says, "No, please tell me something." And generally — at times, women can describe people better than men. Like, if you ask a man how did he look? The man will say, "He had two eyes, a nose, and he had ears." Aunties can kill it. Women are really descriptive — it's a beautiful quality. So she was very good at describing people, and she went on this beautiful explanation of how the Prophet looked. For many of us, it may be the first time we actually hear about how the Prophet looked.

She says:

(Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya; al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak; the description of Umm Ma'bad is referenced in major seerah works)

"I saw a man of a striking appearance — like he just demanded my respect — beautifully created, excellent in character. Qasīm wasīm — he was a specimen of creation — referring to every body part of his being perfectly placed. There was nothing that Allah had placed on his body that didn't look like it fit there." And she explains that by saying that his head was not protruding, neither was his stomach sticking out — every part of his body was perfectly fixed, as if it was designed to be that way.

Hassān ibn Thābit says:

"No eye can ever see such beauty. No mother could ever give birth to such a beautiful child." Aisha would say, "If the women of Yusuf saw my Habib, they would not have cut their hands — they would have cut their hearts, if they saw his beauty ﷺ." He says: "Ka'annaka qad khuliqta kamā tashā'" — such a beautiful statement. "It was as if you told Allah, 'O Allah, just make me like this.'"

Imagine if we could be the designer of our own body — "O Allah, do this for me, O Allah, do that." That's why we're not allowed to change our body — because we don't design our body. Allah designs our body. Hence any type of change in that body needs permission from the Creator. If I let you borrow my car, you can't change the car. It's my car. You have to ask me before you change it. Our body is Allah's amānah to us. So anything that we wish to do, we have to first seek Allah's permission.

Anas ibn Malik says:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3561; Sahih Muslim, Book 43, Hadith 79)

"I never touched any silk or cloth that was softer than the palms of the Prophet ﷺ. When we would be in pain, we would seek the Prophet's touch. His soft touch would be like the touch of a mother — such soft palms." When he would be next to them, the companions would aim to steal from his fragrance. And Maymunah says that she smelled the fragrance of the world, and when the Prophet would come to her home, she would collect the sweat of the Prophet ﷺ — because there was nothing that had a more beautiful scent than the sweat of the Prophet ﷺ.

So every aspect of the Prophet's physical creation — it was as if he asked Allah to make him this way. Then she says:

fī 'aynayhī da'aj — he had a strong contrast in his eyes. The white was excessively white and the black was immensely black, which is a sign of beauty indeed. And he had larger eyes. His hair would have three lengths — one to his ears, one to the back of his nape, and one to his shoulders. And Ali says that it would only reach his shoulders when he was in travel. So that was not the ideal state of his hair.

So some people — I loved growing my hair out. When I was younger my father would say I have the most expensive haircut because I would not let him cut my hair. I would prefer to grow my hair out and I would use the word sunnah. He would say, "Yeah, if it's sunnah then you should be doing this as well." He would use one of those cards. "But this is also sunnah." So nonetheless, growing it to your shoulders for males is not impermissible — but you don't have to defend it by saying it's sunnah. It's permissible, but it's not per se a sunnah — except for when you don't have time to cut it. The Prophet ﷺ was traveling, and that's why it would grow that long.

His forehead was large, which was a sign of wisdom. His mouth was wide, which was a sign of eloquence. His nose had a natural elegance to it — it looked long from a distance, but when you were close it looked like a normal size. His neck was longer, which is also a sign of beauty. Like even in the desi culture people speak about someone's neck — "the most beautiful animals have long necks" — they start giving you justifications. "Giraffes are beautiful, ostriches—" And I'm like, "Who's trying to marry a giraffe? It's a human being." But necks are a sign of beauty — people would wear these plates around their neck in the Persian culture to try to make their necks longer, which is really interesting. But till today, because the definition of beauty doesn't change in humans — the packaging can change but the definition doesn't change — we still see beauty for what it was at that time.

So he had a beautiful long neck. His hands were big — they weren't small hands, so he could actually pick up things, and he had strength. His chest was wide — it would extend beyond his body. But his stomach was always inside. He had broad shoulders. He had thick, heavy bones — so he was not weak. He had feet that had flesh, and he had hands that had flesh — meaning they were soft. So when he would walk, it wouldn't make that much noise. He wouldn't be a burden in you when he was in your presence. He wouldn't try to make sure that everyone knows that "I entered the house — I'm here." No. He would just walk in. He would say that even when you walk into your own home, knock on the door and say salām — because surprising someone out of curiosity is not permissible.

Even your own children — it is not permissible to enter. Even though they're your responsibility, you have to knock on their door before you enter. But nonetheless, she continues. She says his eyes had a contrast. She says that his cheeks were naturally rosy — it was as if he had a natural blush on his cheeks. And then she says it was as if akhal — that his eyes always had kohl, though he would wear kohl at times, but his eyes naturally looked that way. And then at the end of it, she says his beard was thick. His voice had an echo — it would demand your presence. The Sahaba say when the Prophet ﷺ spoke, it was as if even the bird stopped chirping. It was just quiet. And he would speak softly. You don't have to speak loud to demand presence — but just his demeanor was such.

And then she says, "He was the most beautiful person from a distance" — you know like when we take pictures, what do we say to people? "Yeah, it's too close, man, chill out." Or, "Take a picture from this side — that's my better side." Normally a car looks nice when it's far, but when it comes closer you see the flaws — oh look, that's a dent, that's a scratch. She says, "I thought he was beautiful from a distance, but the closer I came to him, he looked more beautiful." Like every time he would come closer, his beauty would increase. This was the beauty from the divine ﷺ.

And then she says that when he would speak, it was as if everyone was quiet. And when he would stay quiet, even his silence had power in it — that when he was silent, they would also remain silent. Until there would be times when the Prophet ﷺ would be silent and they would be in what we would call an awkward silence — they would not speak until the Prophet ﷺ spoke. Like we find it to be awkward when there's silence, they found it to be awkward when everyone was speaking. Like, it was okay not to be speaking. When you're sitting in a car with someone and there's silence — do dhikr, it's perfectly fine. You don't always have to be speaking. The Prophet ﷺ's silence was more than his speech. But nonetheless, these are a few examples of the physical beauty of the Prophet ﷺ.

There are so many more narrations — where the companion by the name of Ja'far, the Prophet's cousin, would say, "I came and saw the Prophet ﷺ in Mecca, and I saw the moon, and I said, 'Wow, what's more beautiful — the moon or the Prophet ﷺ?' And I came to the Haram and the Prophet ﷺ was praying there and he had this shawl that was red — it had red lines. And I looked at the Prophet ﷺ. I examined the moon. I said, 'Wow — the Prophet's ﷺ face is far more beautiful than the moon.'"

This is why Badr — in a place that was the heat of Mecca — was a sign of not just beauty but a sign of comfort. Because it was so hot that when the moon would come out, it would bring comfort to people. So his beauty was a comforting beauty. It wasn't an overwhelming beauty. It wasn't a beauty that would demand you to recognize him. The Prophet ﷺ would never tell people to stand for him, and people would look at him in his gatherings and ask, "Who is Muhammad amongst you ﷺ?" — because he wouldn't ask for people's attention.

May Allah allow us to fall in love with our Prophet ﷺ.