Loving the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم - Shaykh Mustafa Abu Rayyan

Khutbah: Loving the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم

Alhamdulillah, we praise Him, we ask His help and we ask His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the bad deeds of our actions. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whomsoever He misguides, none can guide him.

And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger, and purest of heart, of His creation, and His friend. Allah has sent him to all the people as a bearer of glad tidings and a warner.

And he conveyed the message, and fulfilled the trust, and advised the ummah. And he left us on the white path — its night is like its day, none can divert from it except they perish. And peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and upon his family and his companions, and whoever is guided by his guidance, and holds fast to his sunnah, and calls with his call to the Day of Recompense.

Those He Loved the Most

The Prophet ﷺ was talking about us, and I hope we are those that he described in this hadith. He said:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 52, Hadith 2832)

From the people that I love the most are people who have never seen me, but they have such a keen desire to see me — that they would sacrifice their wealth and their family to lay eyes on me.

فِدَاكَ أَبِي وَأُمِّي يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ — May my father and mother be ransomed for you, O Messenger of Allah.

The Prophet ﷺ is the one that we should love more than anyone else — and how many reasons do we have? My beloved brothers that are here at Jumu'ah today: when you woke up today and you were brushing your teeth, it is a sunnah that the Prophet ﷺ taught you. When you wore white for Jumu'ah, it is a sunnah that the Prophet ﷺ taught you. When you came here to the masjid, and the angels are making du'a for you as you're waiting for the Jumu'ah — it is that which you've learned from the Prophet ﷺ.

This deen that you enjoy, this iman that you have, the Qur'an that you recite — it all came to you through Rasulullah ﷺ and his efforts. It was this month that he was making that long trek from Mecca to Medina — being chased from his home — so that we today can say لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ. How can we not love him?

Love Must Be Shown

If love is measured — because many claim it, and we know we have spouses, and we often exchange expressions and words of love: "I love you, I care for you" — but often the reply can and should be: "Well, if you loved me, then why did you not do this?" And we often say to people, if you love someone, you need to show it to them.

So how have we been expressing our love to Rasulullah ﷺ? Have you been obeying him? And obeying him will lead you to Jannah — and that's all the Prophet wants for you and me. He wants you to go to Jannah, and me to go to Jannah. He made du'a for us at length, and he got tired raising his hands, making du'a for you and I. He was worried about you more than your parents; he was worried about you more than your loved ones ﷺ. So loving him is an obligation, and it has many great benefits.

The Bedouin and the Hour

A Bedouin man came to the Prophet ﷺ and asked him:

"When is the Hour, ya Rasulullah?" — Why did he want to know when the time was? So that he could prepare for it. And the Prophet ﷺ does not know when the Hour is — this knowledge is preserved with Allah alone. But the Prophet ﷺ said to him: "What have you prepared for it?"

And this Bedouin man said: "Ya Rasulullah, I have not prepared much for it. I do not have much prayer. I do not have much fasting." And this is perhaps the case of many of us today.

But then he said something. Anas ibn Malik, who narrated this hadith, said that the statement he made, and the following reply of the Prophet ﷺ, was more beloved to them than anything else from the time they had become Muslim. Nothing was more beloved to the companions than the statement this man said and the following reply of the Prophet ﷺ. It was like Eid to them — how happy they became.

He said: "I have not prepared much. But I love Allah, and I love the Prophet of Allah." And the Prophet ﷺ said:

The person will be with the one he loves. The person will be on the Day of Judgment with the one he loves. And we want to be with the Prophet ﷺ on the Day of Judgment. We want to be alongside him. We want to be entering into paradise with him. We want to be among his followers — the honored followers of the Prophet ﷺ.

Anas ibn Malik said when he heard that statement: "Wallahi, it was more of a glad tiding to me than anything I have done from the day we accepted Islam." And then he said: "Wallahi, I swear by Allah, I love the Prophet, and I love Abu Bakr, and I love Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنهم."

How the Companions Expressed Their Love

The Sahaba's love would manifest itself in several ways. One of them was a strict adherence to the Prophet's statements. They wouldn't say "it's just sunnah — we don't have to do it." They had an eagerness to obey, an eagerness to listen, an eagerness to follow. They didn't disregard his statement. When they heard "the Prophet said this," that was it for them. Done. I am doing it — for my salvation and my safety and my akhira is in following him.

Allah Almighty, our Creator, is telling us:

Indeed, within the Prophet lies for you the best example — for whoever hopes in Allah and the Last Day. So we should dress like him, and eat like him, and behave like him, and follow him, and search out his sunnah and act upon it as much as we can. And it should come from a place of wanting to do it — not as a chore.

Wallahi, if we applied his sunnah and lived the way he wants us to live, our homes would be better, our lives would be better, and everything would improve — because he was our رَحْمَةٌ لِّلْعَالَمِينَ. Allah describes him as such:

And We have not sent you except as a mercy to all the worlds.

A Female Companion's Love

Let me give you an example of a female companion and how much she loved the Prophet ﷺ. When the Muslims and the companions were attacked, and the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba had to fend off and fight their enemies, many were wounded and died as martyrs in that battle. And this particular Sahabiyyah lost family members — she lost her beloved husband. But as they were bringing back the wounded, she was saying: "Where is the Prophet? Where is the Prophet?" — before anyone else. And as long as he is okay, I am okay.

This is how we are meant to be. Allah did not gift us with his companionship. We cannot defend him from the insults that were thrown at him. We cannot defend him from the arrows and the swords. We were not there. Better men and better women were there for him. But we are here today.

How We Can Express Our Love Today

1. Truly Follow Him

The first thing, my brothers, is to follow him — to truly be followers of the Prophet ﷺ. This means that no other way of life, no other way of thinking, nothing should ever supersede his sunnah and his way. It means that you not only honor him, but you honor those that spend their lives learning about him.

Do you honor and respect the scholars of this ummah — the ulama — who have spent years and years learning, documenting, and writing about the deen that Allah gave Rasulullah ﷺ? Or do we honor the lawyers and the doctors — and may Allah preserve our lawyers and doctors and engineers and architects and all of you — but what about the one who spends his life learning about the Qur'an and the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ? Do we look down upon the ones that spend their lives learning about the greatest man that walked this earth?

And when your son and your daughter tells you, "My father, I want to spend my life learning Islam" — you say to them, "Be a doctor instead," as if it is something to look down upon. The ulama that have documented everything we know about the Prophet ﷺ reach us through a chain of scholars, every generation — the preservers. The Prophet honored them with a statement:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 3641; Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2682)

The scholars — they are the inheritors of the prophets. They should be the most honored people in our ummah. The men and women who dedicate their lives to spreading Islam and learning about it — that is how we express our love to the Prophet ﷺ.

2. Learn the Qur'an

We express our love to the Prophet ﷺ by learning the Qur'an — that we don't let Allah's speech that he came to teach us gather dust. That it doesn't become a mere cultural habit where our children are sent to madrasa but you don't open the Qur'an yourself. You're lucky if you read Surah al-Kahf on Friday.

3. Wish to See Him and Be with Him

We express our love to him by wishing to see him, by wishing to be with him. The poet said:

The sadness that I feel will never go away until I am given the glad tidings of acceptance — that my deeds are accepted, my worship has been accepted, and I've been allowed entry into Jannah by Allah Almighty. And I see my book in my right hand — may Allah make us among those that receive their books in their right hand — and my eyes lay upon the beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

The Prophet clearly loved us and spent his life loving us by preaching and spreading that which will save us. It is our turn now to express our love to him ﷺ by following his sunnah.

I say this and seek forgiveness for my sins and for the sins of the Muslims. So seek forgiveness — indeed, He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

Second Khutbah: Learn His Seerah and Honor the Salah

It is not embarrassing that we do not know enough about him. Alhamdulillah, there are plenty of resources available. Make a change today — make it a point that you, your family, and your children learn about the Prophet ﷺ. Make it a point that from today you will pick up a book on his seerah or a lecture series on his seerah. Bring the family together — whether it's a trivia night, a quiz night, or whatever the case may be — but increase the knowledge that we have about the Prophet ﷺ, so that it may increase our love for him ﷺ.

Honor the Salah

The other thing my brothers and sisters that I want to share with you is the importance of the salah. It was this month — Rabi' al-Awwal — that the Prophet passed away. One of the last times the Prophet laid his eyes on his beautiful ummah was as he drew back the curtains from his home and looked at his companions — and they were praying. And the Prophet ﷺ smiled. He became happy when he saw his ummah praying — feeling that he had passed on his mission, and seeing his ummah in worship to the Almighty, in salah.

Honor the salah. Honor the salah in your home. Honor the salah yourself. Pray often. Pray in the masjid. Don't allow your homes to become graves where the salah does not happen in them. If that's what made our beloved Messenger happy, then we should do it as much as we can.

And when the man — the Sahabi — came to him and said, "Ya Rasulullah, I want to be with you in Jannah," the Prophet ﷺ said: "If you want this, then aid me by doing lots of sujood" — meaning, lots of prayer.

Send Salawat Upon Him

Among the best ways you can express your love is by sending salawat upon him often. Every moment that you get, send salawat upon the Prophet ﷺ, and Allah will show you mercy ten times — like the Prophet ﷺ told us: Allah will send salawat upon you ten times.

Send the salawat. Read it often — in your car, in your home, especially on the day of Friday. Every opportunity you can get, send the salawat upon the Prophet ﷺ, and you will see a big change in your life and a big change in your afterlife as well.

Du'a

I ask Allah to forgive our shortcomings and to make us among those that truly love Allah and His Messenger. I ask Allah to make us not only those that love him, but those that obey him and follow him and live their lives according to his sunnah and way.

O Allah, do not separate us from each other except by the forgiveness of sins, the effort of gratitude, and the acceptance of good deeds. O Allah, make faith beloved to us and adorn it in our hearts, and make us hate disbelief, sin, and disobedience, and make us among the righteous. O Allah, make the best of our lives its end, and the best of our deeds its conclusion, and the best of our days the day we meet You. And the last of our supplications is: all praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. And establish the prayer.