The Rights of the Prophet S upon us

Opening

Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen, wasalatu wasalamu ala rasoolil kareem.

Allah says in His noble Book — after seeking refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan, in the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful:

And the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 15; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 44)

Sadaqallahu al-Azim. Sadaqa rasooluhun nabiyyul kareem. And we upon that are amongst the witnesses and the grateful, and all praise be to Allah, Lord of all the worlds.

The Greatest Blessing: Being Part of the Ummah

Allah says in the Quran:

That if you are to count the blessings of Allah, you would never be able to do so. And amongst our individual lives, Allah showers many blessings — many blessings. But perhaps one of the greatest blessings that Allah has given us is the blessing to be part of the ummah of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

This can be seen through many different ahadith, but one I'll narrate — and this is a hadith narrated in Tirmidhi — the Prophet ﷺ said that there will be 100 rows of people who will enter Jannah without any hisab. These 100 rows of people are from the time of Adam عليه السلام until the end of creation. So he said that from the entire mankind that was ever created — from Adam عليه السلام until Qiyamah — there will be 100 rows of people who will enter Jannah without any hisab. And the Prophet ﷺ then said that 80 of these rows will be from my ummah. The 80 of those 100 rows that will enter Jannah without any hisab will be from the ummah of the Prophet ﷺ.

When this hadith was being narrated, when the Prophet ﷺ was saying this to the companions, there was one companion by the name of Okasha. He saw that there is this blessing associated with being part of the ummah of the Prophet ﷺ, so he immediately asked: "Ya Rasulullah, make du'a that I am amongst them — make du'a that I am amongst these 80 rows." The Prophet ﷺ then said: "Anta minhum" — you are amongst these rows. Another companion got up and said: "Ya Rasulullah, make du'a for me too." The Prophet ﷺ said: "Sabaqa ka Okasha" — Okasha already asked before you; you were too late.

Which means: whenever there is an opportunity to do good, a person should rush to it. The opportunity was there for Okasha to ask for du'a, and he did it immediately. So this is one of the virtues associated with being part of this ummah of the Prophet ﷺ.

Every Blessing Comes with a Responsibility

However, we learn that whenever a person is given a blessing, it is not their blessing to do as they wish with it. With every blessing comes a responsibility. Every blessing comes with a test. And it is whether or not we pass that test that came with the blessing which will determine whether that blessing is a means of reward for us or a means of punishment for us.

Allah gives an example in Surah An-Nahl about a town that He had given multiple blessings — He had showered upon them a numerous amount of blessings. He said: Allah strikes an example of a town that had security, that they were content, and these people's rizq would come to them in abundance from every part of the world, from every area. They were getting their rizq; it was coming in abundance. This is a blessing of Allah. It came with a test of whether or not they would show gratitude to Allah.

Allah said that they showed ingratitude — they were not grateful for these blessings. So Allah took that blessing away of security and of abundant rizq, and Allah replaced it with fear and poverty. So Allah is showing in this ayah that if we do not fulfill the responsibilities that come with the blessings, then it will not be a means of reward for us — neither in the hereafter nor in this dunya.

So we learn that amongst the greatest blessings that we have is to be part of the ummah of the Prophet ﷺ. Now — what are the rights of the Prophet ﷺ upon us?

The Five Rights of the Prophet Upon His Ummah

The Quran mentions four rights of the Prophet ﷺ, and in the hadith we learn one additional right. So we know that there are five rights that the Prophet ﷺ has in regards to his ummah. What are they?

The First Right: Believing in Him as the Messenger of Allah

Allah says that the first right of the Prophet ﷺ is to believe in him as a messenger of Allah. Saying that he was the most influential personality in history does not fulfill that right. Saying that the Prophet ﷺ was the best in whatever capacity does not fulfill that right. Rather, believing in the messengerhood of the Prophet ﷺ is one of the rights.

The Second Right: Honoring and Respecting Him

The second right of the Prophet ﷺ — Allah says — is for those who honor the Prophet ﷺ. Why? Allah says in Surah Al-Imran that we were all on the brink of being thrown into the Hellfire — each and every one of us was just a little bit away from being thrown into the Hellfire. And then Allah saved us. How? The Mufassirun write that the way Allah saved this ummah from the Hellfire was by allowing the Prophet ﷺ to bring us the ni'mah of Islam. Therefore, it is the right of the Prophet ﷺ upon us that we honor him and that we respect him.

The Third Right: Helping Him in His Duty — Exemplifying Islam Through Character

The third right is helping the Prophet ﷺ in what? In regards to his task, his duty. His duty was to teach people about Islam who did not know it. His duty was to spread the noor of the Quran, to spread the noor of Islam, to spread the noor of Haq. And the common responsibility upon everyone to do that is not necessarily to proclaim it with speech, but rather to exemplify it with actions — to exemplify it with character.

And this is really — wallahi — this is one of the things that we find: regardless of what situation we find the ummah in, something happens on the news and our religion is associated with it. People may look down upon us. But if they see the true character of Muslims, then they can hear whatever they want on the news, they can read whatever they want in the newspaper — but when they see akhlaq from you, they will not believe what they've heard.

Why? The Prophet ﷺ says:

That hearing something — hearing about news — is not the same thing as seeing it in front of your eyes.

I have a twin brother and he used to work in a place, in a cafeteria. The non-Muslims that were working with him were seeing things being said about Islam on the news — that Islam is a barbaric religion, that Muslims do not show mercy — and they were seeing all of this displayed. And I remember my brother said that his co-workers were hearing this on the news and one of his friends said: "You know, I don't believe that that's how Muslims are. Why? Because my co-worker is a Muslim" — he was referring to my brother — "and he only shows me the nicest of character. He only shows me generosity. And so I will believe what I see, as opposed to what I hear."

This is what our job is. Everyone's responsibility, at an individual level, is to exemplify the akhlaq that the Prophet ﷺ came and showed us — that Islam is supposed to give birth to. And people will hear whatever they want, but they will see us and they will believe what we are displaying to them with our character, as opposed to what they are hearing in the news and in the media.

The Fourth Right: Following the Nur of the Quran

To follow the nur that was sent upon the Prophet ﷺ — that was revealed upon him — which is what? Which is the Quran. So amongst the rights of the Prophet ﷺ directly associated with that is fulfilling the rights of the Quran. If we fulfill the rights of the Quran, we are fulfilling one of the rights of the Prophet ﷺ upon us. And if we neglect one of the rights of the Quran, then it is directly neglecting one of the rights of the Prophet ﷺ upon us.

I'll give one example. In Surah Al-Furqan, Allah says that the Prophet ﷺ will say:

That the messenger will say: "This group of mine had abandoned my Quran." Now the Mufassirun write — why is the Prophet ﷺ saying this? They write that there were a group of people who denied the prophethood of the Prophet ﷺ in this life, and then in the Hereafter they will try to associate themselves with the Prophet ﷺ. How will the Prophet ﷺ disassociate himself from them? He will not say "Ya Allah, they didn't believe in me." He mentions this one statement — "Ya Allah, they have nothing to do with me. Why? Because they took my Quran and they abandoned it." So the Prophet ﷺ is disassociating himself from them by disassociating them with the Quran.

So the fourth right of the Prophet ﷺ upon us is to follow and fulfill the rights of the Quran.

The Fifth Right: Loving the Prophet More Than Anyone Else

Now that was the basic four things that we see in the Quran — and really a khutbah can be given about each and every one of these points. But the one point I wanted to highlight was the right of the Prophet ﷺ that is mentioned through the hadith. What is it? The Prophet ﷺ says:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 15; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 44)

"None of you truly believe." What does that mean? That doesn't mean that our iman is being negated — that means the perfection of our iman is being negated. That if we claim to be people who have perfected our iman, the Prophet ﷺ says that will never happen unless this becomes manifest: none of you have perfected your belief unless I — meaning the Prophet ﷺ — am more beloved to you than your children, more than your parents, and more than all of humanity combined. The most beloved personality to us should be the Prophet ﷺ.

A Sign of Love: Frequent Remembrance

And you know, one of the ways that we can gauge within ourselves whether we love the Prophet ﷺ or not — there are multiple ways, but one of them is:

Whoever loves something, they mention it more. Whoever loves something, they mention it abundantly. Just ask ourselves — we have to ask ourselves on an individual basis: if we look into our conversations, if we look into our dialogues, if we look into our discourses that we have with other people, or when we're contemplating on our own — is it at any time dictated by the love of the Prophet ﷺ? Are we mentioning the Prophet ﷺ? And are we mentioning other things more than the Prophet ﷺ? If that is the case, then we know where our priorities lie.

The Story of Ibn Umar and the Sunnah

One of the ahadith that really struck my heart is this: if we truly had love for the Prophet ﷺ, things would be automatic. We wouldn't have to be told and convinced to follow the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.

One example: it comes in the Shama'il of Tirmidhi that one time Ibn Umar رضي الله عنه was walking on the streets and the Prophet ﷺ saw him and saw that his pants were below his ankles. He said to Ibn Umar: "Why are your pants below your ankles?" Ibn Umar responded: "Ya Rasulullah, I'm not doing this out of arrogance; I'm not doing this out of pride." The Prophet ﷺ responded with one statement — and we should write this statement in gold and ingrain it within our minds. What did the Prophet ﷺ say?

"O son of Umar — don't you find in me the best example?" Meaning: even if you're not doing it out of arrogance, even if you're not doing it out of pride — don't you see that I am doing this, and don't you find in me the best example? So why do you have to be convinced? If you see me doing it, that should be enough.

And that was enough for the Sahaba. Wallahi, that was enough. They saw the Prophet ﷺ do something, and that was enough for them to want to follow it.

The Story of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud and the Fallen Food

Another hadith that comes to mind: Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه one time was with some of his companions and they were eating in an area amongst the chiefs and leaders of the Qawm. It was a sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ to not waste any food. If something falls on the floor — you know, today we have what's called the "five second rule": something falls on the floor in five seconds, okay, throw it away. There is no such thing in the life of the Prophet ﷺ. What happened if something fell on the floor? The sunnah was to pick it up, regardless — so long as it wasn't contaminated. Meaning if it was contaminated to the extent that it would harm you by consuming it, then of course you don't consume it. But if that's not the case, then you pick it up, you wipe it, you clean it, and then you eat it.

So Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه was sitting amongst the chieftains and leaders of the Qawm, and something from his plate of food fell. Because he loved the Prophet ﷺ so much, he went to go pick it up. Another companion said: "What are you doing? We're amongst the leaders of the Qawm — they'll look at you and see you as someone who is barbaric, as someone who is very low in society. Just leave it alone so we can maintain our self-dignity and self-respect."

Abdullah ibn Mas'ud picked it up and said:

"Should I leave the sunnah of my beloved for these fools who don't even believe in him?"

They loved the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ so much it didn't matter what society or what environment they were in — that was not going to influence them in changing their priorities. The number one thing was: we have to follow the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.

And really my purpose in mentioning this is because — when our youth, or even our elders, when we are amazed by certain people — one of the signs of Qiyamah is, and this is a hadith, that a Muslim will be amazed by a person, and that person will not even have a drop of iman inside of them. Is that not the case? Look at all the sports stars that our youth are running after. Not even our youth — sometimes we blame our youth; our elders too. Look at all the politicians that we strive to be like, or whatever the case is. If we truly understood this manifestation of the last days coming, then we would understand there is a crisis going on that we have to address and that we cannot ignore.

So this is one of the things — if we truly understood the seerah and the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, we would love him, and we would not have to be convinced to follow him. We would not have to be told "why do you have to do this, why do you have to do that?" The fact that the Prophet ﷺ did it would be enough for us to do it.

The Story of Amr ibn Al-As: The Power of Love for the Prophet

There are many things that can be said about loving the Prophet ﷺ, but amongst them I'll mention one story — that when the companions recognized who the Prophet ﷺ was, they loved him. To them, there was no one better.

Amr ibn Al-As رضي الله عنه — he says before Islam, and this is a hadith narrated in Muslim (it is actually a very long hadith, and I'm only sharing a part of it) — he says that before he accepted Islam, in his heart he hated Islam and he disliked Muhammad ﷺ. And then he said: suddenly Allah placed the love of Islam inside of his heart. So he said: "I want to go accept Islam from the hands of Rasul Allah ﷺ."

So Rasul Allah ﷺ extended his hand. As he did this, Amr ibn Al-As already had his hand extended — but when the Prophet ﷺ extended it, Amr ibn Al-As took his hand back. The Prophet ﷺ said: "What's wrong? Why did you take your hand back?" He said:

"I have a condition to make." The Prophet ﷺ said: "What is that condition?" He said: "I want to make the condition of clemency" — which is that everything that I did in the past, you ignore, you forgive me for it. Because he knew that some of the things he had done before his accepting of Islam was enough to render his punishment. So he said: "I want clemency."

The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 121)

"O Amr ibn Al-As — don't you know that when you accept Islam it erases everything before it, that when you perform the Hijrah it erases everything before it, and when you perform Hajj it erases everything before it?"

Amr ibn Al-As then extended his hand and accepted Islam at the hands of the Prophet ﷺ. He said: "At that moment, from those days onwards, there was no one that I loved more than Muhammad ﷺ." And then he says — and he is saying this actually on his deathbed, speaking to his son who is consoling him (it is a long hadith) — he says: "If you were to ask me to describe Muhammad ﷺ, I would not be able to do that." Why? He said: "I had so much respect for him, so much love for him, that I didn't have the audacity to look up directly at him. So if you were to ask me to describe him, I wouldn't be able to do so."

So this is what we learn — that when the Sahaba understood who the Prophet ﷺ was, they loved him. And likewise, if we read the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, if we look into his life — wallahi — there is no personality that we will love more, and there is no lifestyle that we will want to follow more.

Sending Salat and Salam Upon the Prophet

There are so many other things that can be said about loving the Prophet ﷺ, but I'll conclude with one thing. I mentioned earlier that the narration says that the one who loves something mentions it more. And this is particularly a good thing to do on Yawmul Jumu'ah — and also something that we can include within our habits, whether we already have a habit of dhikr that we're doing every day or not — which is what? Sending salat and salam upon the Prophet ﷺ.

It comes in a hadith: one time the companions gathered and said who is going to volunteer to take care of the needs of Rasul Allah ﷺ, who is going to accompany him? Abdul Rahman ibn Awf رضي الله عنه said: "I will go." And that night the Prophet ﷺ went to Baqi' — the graveyard. Abdul Rahman ibn Awf says that when he entered, the Prophet ﷺ made sajda — and he made sajda for such a long time that Abdul Rahman ibn Awf thought he had passed away. He said: he had made sajda for such a long time that I thought he had passed away, and I began crying.

Then the Prophet ﷺ saw that he was crying, got up, and said: "What's wrong?" Abdul Rahman ibn Awf said: "I thought you had passed away." The Prophet ﷺ said: "No. I came and I made sajda because Jibreel عليه السلام just came to me and told me something, and I made sajda out of shukr to Allah — to show gratitude to Allah. What is that?" He says: "Jibreel عليه السلام came and told me that whoever sends salat and salam upon me once, Allah will send ten blessings upon them. So I was so thankful to Allah that I made sajda."

And on the Day of Judgment, there will be such a situation that people will be wanting Qiyamah to start — this is called shafa'atul kubra or shafa'atul 'amma. Then the Prophet ﷺ will ask Allah to begin Qiyamah, and that will be an intercession upon the entire ummah. Then there will be a shafa'atul khassa — a shafa'ah which only a small group of people will receive — which is what? The Prophet ﷺ will come on behalf of an individual and say: "Ya Allah, forgive this person and allow this person to enter Jannah."

How do we gain that shafa'ah? How do we gain that intercession? It takes only a few seconds. The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Al-Mu'jam al-Awsat, Al-Tabarani; also referenced in Majma' al-Zawa'id)

Whoever sends the salat and salam — just saying:

— the shortest form the Prophet ﷺ had taught to the Sahaba — whoever says this ten times in the morning after Fajr salah and ten times in the evening after Maghrib salah, Allah will allow the Prophet's ﷺ shafa'ah to reach that individual.

So we ask Allah to allow us to build love for Rasul Allah ﷺ. We ask Allah to give us tawfiq to send salutations upon him. Ameen.

Everyone may pray the sunnah.