To Know Him is To Love Him
By Yaseen Shaikh | 2026-01-19T11:36:29.825091+00:00 | Topic: General
To Know Him is To Love Him - Imam Yaseen Shaikh
Opening
"In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful"
"Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings"
"Indeed, all praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, seek His help, and ask for His forgiveness."
"And we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and from the wickedness of our deeds."
"And I bear witness that there is no deity other than Allah, alone without any partners."
"And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His messenger, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him."
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and seeking His blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad Mustafa صلى الله عليه وسلم his companions and all the believers.
Gratitude for Allah's Blessings
We're very blessed that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala selected us for Islam and Iman. In fact, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala showered many blessings upon us. And it's our duty that we repay Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala by showing gratitude and to be grateful.
As Allah ta'ala reminds us in Surah Al-Baqarah:
"So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me, and do not deny Me."
Thank me and don't be ungrateful. In fact, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that thankfulness and gratitude would be a means for increase. Allah says in Surah Ibrahim:
"If you are grateful, I will surely increase you [in favor]. But if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe."
If you are thankful, we shall increase you. And we shall increase you many fold. As Allah ta'ala is emphasizing here, (لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ - la'azidannakum) We shall increase you. But if you are ungrateful, then our punishment is severe.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says. Now Allah has blessed us with many ni'ma. Allah has blessed us with many favors.
In Surah Luqman, Allah reminds us:
"And He has completed and perfected His Graces upon you, [both] apparent and hidden."
Allah has completed His favors upon you, some of which are internal and some of which are external. In fact, if we ponder over the blessing of life, and life being dependent on our breathing, then this ni'ma and favor of breathing itself requires that we make shukr to Allah twice. The fact that we are able to inhale and then exhale.
These are two separate favors of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala upon us. And both of these individually require that we show gratitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for this favor. Now imagine how many times we breathe in one single day.
It's absolutely difficult and probably impossible for us to fully repay Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the favor of life itself. Now imagine, if our savior and security in this life is dependent on our breathing, and we are unable to pay Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala back for this great ni'ma, then imagine the savior of our akhira and our salvation is dependent upon wahi and revelation that Allah sent and the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم who He sent to teach us the wahi. This was also a favor of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The Greatest Blessing - The Prophet
How can we then repay Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for this great ni'ma? Allah reminds us of this ni'ma in surah Al-Imran. He reminds us of this favor when He says:
"Certainly did Allah confer [great] favor upon the believers when He sent among them a messenger from themselves, reciting to them His verses and purifying them and teaching them the Book and wisdom, although they had been before in manifest error."
Indeed Allah has blessed the believers. Allah is reminding us that the sending of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was to recite to us his words, to recite them to us, to purify us as a result of that revelation, and to teach us the kitab and the wisdom which Imam Al-Shafi'i said is sunnah.
The hikmah means sunnah, meaning the articulation of hadith. All of this is a blessing from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to teach us how to live life on this world. Because it's unthinkable and unfathomable that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would create man and leave him in vain.
Rather Allah ta'ala created man, placed him on earth, and then prepared for him provisions for his salvation. And amongst those provisions was the sending of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم . So the question then arises that as a faithful believer, I must repay Allah ta'ala for his favors upon me. And amongst those favors, one of the greatest is Nabi'ul Karim صلى الله عليه وسلم's ba'tah, and the fact that Allah sent him for the guidance of mankind.
How can I repay Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for this? My dear respected brothers and sisters, this requires that we ponder deeply over our deen. And it requires that we carefully study the status of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم
The Rights of the Prophet
One of the rights of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم is to believe in him:
"O you who have believed, believe in Allah and His Messenger and the Book that He sent down upon His Messenger and the Book that He sent down before."
Allah is commanding us in the Qur'an to have firm faith in him.
One of the other rights of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم as we learn from the sunnah, is the right to love him:
(Sahih al-Bukhari)
"None of you will have complete faith until I am more beloved to him than his father, his children and all the people."
None of you is a true or complete believer until I become more beloved to him than himself, his parents, and his children, and everyone in this world.
So these are two rights of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم that are primary rights of his that every believer is required to fulfill. The right to have faith in him and the right to love him صلى الله عليه وسلم
But the greater question is, how can we love someone if we don't know them properly? How can we love an individual if we don't know who the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم is?
Current Challenges and Looking to the Seerah
Now, anyone sitting in this room will tell you that the current situation Muslims are going through here in this country of ours is one of a miniature crisis. Many Muslims are afraid, many Muslims are expressing fear, anxiety towards some of the sentiments and the rhetoric that's been prevalent during the recent election campaign. And whilst I must encourage the Muslims not to be fearful or not to express anxiety, it's important that we have role models at this particular moment in time.
In times of crisis, people look towards those who are similar to them and then do what those people do. So if we are collectively suffering from a miniature crisis, we need to dig deep into our tradition and to study how the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم would have responded to a crisis in his time. Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم did experience many crisis.
Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم encountered many challenges during his nubuwwah and his prophethood. And we must look at the seerah and the sunnah to see how he responded. Because the seerah and the sunnah is for ibar and lessons.
The seerah and the sunnah is not for storytelling. Allah says regarding the stories of the prophets in the Quran:
"There was certainly in their stories a lesson for those of understanding."
In the stories of the messengers are ibar and lessons for those who are intellectual and intelligent, for those that ponder, for those who use their mind, think and reflect deeply upon the instances in the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم's life to see if we can derive valuable lessons for our current context. And this is an extremely important endeavor for us.
When we hear the name of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم,we think about different things. We're reminded of his beautiful appearance. We're reminded of his beautiful qualities.
And sometimes we think about the incidents that occurred in his life صلى الله عليه وسلم. But we must also look at the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم from the angle and perspective of being a human. And that he was a father, he was also a child. And Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم was a community member and he was a statesman and he played many different roles.
So we must view the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم as our mentor. And we must view his sunnah as shining and bright light for our current existence to help us respond to some of the challenges that we're facing as a community. And that's why the learning and teaching of seerah was of great importance in our tradition.
The Unparalleled Documentation of the Prophet's Life
In fact, the collection of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم's life and the compilation of the events that occurred in his life are unheard of for any other figure in human history. No individual in human history has as much written about him as the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم has. No figure in human history has biographies worth volumes and volumes written on their life.
Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala selected the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to be the final messenger for the guidance of the entire mankind. So it's really important for us brothers and sisters to look at the seerah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to understand the world that he lived in and the world around him at that time and how he responded to challenges during his time and whether those challenges that we are facing are similar and how we could then respond to the challenges in our context learning from صلى الله عليه وسلم the seerah of the Prophet
Benefits of Studying Seerah
And the seerah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم learning has many other benefits too. Learning the seerah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم gives us perspective in understanding the Qur'an.
If a person studied for example the surah of daybreak:
And they were unaware of the reason of its occurrence and revelation, then they would misunderstand the verses. So learning the seerah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم gives us perspective when studying the Qur'an deeper. Learning the seerah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم allows our iman to rise when we hear about the incidents in which the Prophet was challenged and he responded with strong faith.
Learning the seerah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم gives us tathbeetul quloob, strengthens and consoles our hearts. When we learn the best of Allah's creation went through sacrifices, then it's easier for us to cope with the miniature crisis that we are going through as a Muslim community. Learning the seerah of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم teaches us about the humanness of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم . That the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was also a human and he had human emotions and human feelings.
Yet the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم responded to incidents around his time, difficulties around his time with sterling qualities, with great akhlaaq, with great action. And this was the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.
What we also learn when we study a seerah is a methodology for revival. When we study the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم's early Madinan period, then it compares to the period that we're living in right now in this country in the sense that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم had to establish ties with neighboring communities.
He had to enter into pacts and treaties. And likewise he was able to establish his message amongst the people and influence affect the hearts of the people. So these are very important reasons for which we صلى الله عليه وسلم must study the seerah of the Prophet
The Prophet's Response to Crisis
Now when we look at the life of the Prophet, and we look at the instances and incidents that caused difficulty and pain to him. And when we see the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم's response to those challenges, we don't see a person who's downbeaten. We don't see a person who isolated himself. We don't see a person who just stood in a corner and complained.
We don't see a person who locked himself up in the home and decided not to interact with people around him. This is not what we learn from the seerah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. What we do learn is that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم engaged with people. We learn that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم demonstrated beautiful qualities to the people around him.
And it was through these interactions that he was able to affect the hearts and the minds of the people. To the extent that people who were affected would say, that this man came and he took us away from the worship of servants towards the worship of the creator of the servants, Allah rabbul alameen. And the people who disliked his message initially, Allah Ta'ala then created mawaddah between them.
Allah says when you respond to a bad deed with a good deed, the person who had animosity towards you, it will now turn into a very strong friendship.
The Prophet's Success in Dawah Through Character
And this is the truth my dear respected brothers and sisters. When we learn about the seerah and study it carefully, we will find that Rasulullah's efforts of da'wah in the Medinan life earlier, and also in the Meccan life did not result in mass conversions of people. Look carefully, in the 13 years of da'wah in Mecca Mukarrama, after Nubuwwah, and the 7 years at the initial phase of his Medinan life, until that time, there was no evidence of mass people converting to Islam despite da'wah being so strong and powerful.
Yet from the 7th year of his hijrah till the last year of his life, in a span of 3 years, many groups converted to Islam and came into the fold of Islam. Imam Zuhri who was one of the leading muhaddithin, he mentions a really beautiful reason for this. He says, look, after the 6th year, when the Muslims signed the treaty with the Meccans, a treaty of peace, which allowed Muslims to freely interact with people around them, it was an occasion and opportunity for people to really see the akhlaq of Muslims, to really see the qualities of Muslims.
Before that, Muslims were barred or banned from publicly engaging with people. And after the Sulh Hudaybiyah, the neighboring tribes and the wufud and the qabail were able to interact with the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم openly. And as a result, they were impressed by his adal and justice, by his fairness, by his good qualities.
And we know that historically, one of the largest Muslim populations is Indonesia. And there is no evidence historically to suggest that Muslims ever entered that country with the sword. It was rather the akhlaq and the sterling qualities that Muslims had adopted and people were able to witness that allowed people to be influenced by Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلمby the deen of Islam.
Our Responsibility as Muslims Today
And this is, my dear respected brothers and sisters, our responsibility as Muslims. We have a lot of decency to give the people. We have so many examples from the seerah of Rasulullah's justice, Rasulullah's ability to make peace.
When we look at the incident before his nubuwwah, when one man was being wronged and oppressed, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم entered Hilful Fudul. And this was a way for the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to stand up for justice for those that are wronged, for the downtrodden in society. And he looked back at that incident and said that if I had an opportunity to enter such a treaty after Islam, I would do so again and again and again.
When we look at Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم's incident in Ta'if, when the people had beaten him, and the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was given an option by Allah to crush the people. Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
(Sahih al-Bukhari (Hadith 3477))
Allah, they are my people, they don't know. Forgive them, they don't know. Perhaps somebody from them shall become a Muslim later on.
When we look at the treaty of Hudaybiyyah, whilst Umar رضي الله عنه viewed this as a disadvantage for Muslims, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم had foresight and he was prepared to agree on a treaty. In fact, at that time, the person who the Quraysh had sent, Suhail bin Amr, he said, don't write Muhammad رسول الله on that treaty, because we don't recognize you as Rasulullah.
And Ali رضي الله عنه became upset, and Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم agreed and said, write whatever they agreed to write. This is another example of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم displaying sterling qualities in the face of hardship and challenges.
The Prophet's Justice and Character
We know that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم eliminated racism from the ranks. He elevated the status of Bilal ibn Abi Rabah رضي الله عنه by making him the muezzin, by also citing that he heard his footsteps in paradise. This eliminated the roots of sectarianism, the roots of racism within the Muslim community. This is the beauty and the decency that Islam has to give the people.
And this is what the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم took with him to Madinah Munawwarah. This is what the companions learned from him. And this is what they established, my dear respected brothers and sisters.
The learning of seerah is so important, even something we may view as a small thing. The Prophet صلی الله عليه وسلم being selected to work as a shepherd, has so many lessons in it. And the fact that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was a shepherd of sheep, this in itself has 4 or 5 lessons to learn from it.
And these are the lessons we learn when we study seerah closely with the lens of amal, with the lens of ibrah, with the lens of being productive and not just story telling, my dear respected brothers and sisters.
When we look at Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم after the story of the Fatah Makkah, the liberation of Makkah, when the Prophet is returning victoriously to his town, he has the opportunity to take revenge against the people that became a thorn and obstacle in his path of da'wah for so many years. Yet, when Rasulullah was in this advantageous position, he did not take revenge but he said:
(Quran 12:92)
He said to his brothers, Allah forgive you for your injustices.
You guys are free, you can go. This is the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم's akhlaaq and his great khuluq.
We learn from Anas ibn Malik رضي الله عنه Rasulullah never once said to me, why didn't you do this? Or why did you do it like this? Ten years he served the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم . Aisha رضي الله عنها The wife of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم is praising him.
How many of us can say that our wives will publicly praise us or say good things about us? Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم's wife, Aisha رضي الله عنها is saying that he was a very decent person:
(Sunan at-Tirmidhi (Hadith 2016))
He wouldn't shout in the marketplace. He was a refined person with good qualities.
Bringing Islam to Society
This is how we are going to influence the people. When we truly teach the decency of Islam, many people that came into the fold of Islam in the 60s and 70s were influenced by the writings of Malik Shabazz, Malcolm X. Because Malik Shabazz told people and he wrote that Islam has the solutions for the breakdown in society, for the injustices in society, for the institutional racism we see in society. Islam has the solutions to bring people up, to create a balance in the society, to give people their rights.
Four decades away from there, four decades after that, we are still asking the question, where is that Islam that we should have shown people? The Islam that we claim has the decency to offer society. Why have we failed to offer that decency to people? Because my dear respected brothers and sisters, we did not understand our responsibility. Many amongst us are indigenous Muslims, but many amongst us are immigrant Muslims.
Embracing Citizenship and Responsibility
And the Muslim community in this country is financially strong. In fact, we're the second or third largest religious group in this country. We're fully embedded in American society.
We have professionals working in very high posts and positions. But while we're embedded in American society, we're not part of the establishment that makes decisions for American society. And the reason for that, my dear respected brothers and sisters, despite our history in this country being connected to Islam, with so many millions of Muslims brought here historically, despite the fact that this country cannot speak about its future without speaking about Islam, and that Islam is part of this country's present, and that Islam is indigenous to this country as is any other religion, and that Muslims can be as American as any other religious group.
Despite all of these facts, we came here to live the American dream for ourselves, but not for others. We didn't take care of our civic duties and engagements. We weren't concerned for the people around us.
And we weren't able to articulate the beauty of Islam. And what I mean by this is, that if I'm a Muslim and I open a business in a certain area, then what is my presence in the area going to bring the people of that town? If I'm a Muslim, what is the presence of my business gonna do for the homeless people in that town? How am I gonna help those that are downtrodden? If I'm a Muslim working in a corporation, how am I going to affect that space? If I'm a Muslim working in medicine, how is my deen and my akhlaq gonna affect that space? These are important questions. If I have a masjid in a community, how will that masjid be a beacon of guidance and light, and a center of hope for all the people in that community, whether Muslim or not Muslim? My dear respected brothers and sisters, these are the questions that we need to be contemplating on.
Dawah vs. Citizenship
Sometimes when you ask people, what is your role here? They say that my role is da'wah. And sometimes we conflate our responsibility of da'wah with our roles of being a citizen. It's important that we realize our role of citizenship first.
And the way that we can realize that role is to embrace this land as our home, and to consider ourselves to be American Muslims. Yet many times when we ask people from the immigrant community, where are you from and what are you? They would say that I am a Muslim from such and such country.
And they will never say that I'm an American Muslim.
So we still romanticize about home being somewhere else. And we treat ourselves as a foreigner. And if we treat ourselves as a foreigner, then others will also see us as foreign people.
So it's important that we embrace our citizenship. Rasulullah embrace it. Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, when he moved to Medina Munawwara, we find that he embraced his citizenship of Medina.
He established treaties with the people. The charter of Medina was established. He engaged with peaceful dialogue with opposition groups.
Allah Ta'ala revealed:
As an example of peaceful dialogue. In fact, when we look at Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam's akhlaaq, we find that Rasulullah engaged with one of the delegations from Najran. That was a Christian delegation that came to the masjid of Rasulullah.
A large group of Christians to debate him and to ask him questions. And it was during that visit that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam gave them a space in the masjid to pray in. This was the sterling quality
that Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam showed.
This is the akhlaaq that we have to also adopt when Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam's city of Medina is now being attacked in khandaq. Him and the companions are committed to protect it. They embrace that citizenship.
When he liberates Makkah in the 8th year, he has the opportunity to return and move back, but he doesn't because he's taken Medina as his new home. When the companions of the Prophet were feeling sick, when they first arrived in Medina as the muhajirun, Rasulullah did not tell them to move back. He told them to clean up the town so there is less pollution.
In fact, he gave them incentives and said that if anybody cultivates a piece of land, that land should belong to them. And this was incentive for the people to take care of Medina Munawwara. So what we're learning, my dear respected brothers and sisters, is that we have great examples in our seerah for us to respond to our current challenges.
Learning from History
And the way that we can respond to crisis is by digging deep and looking inside ourselves, looking at our community. When we look at Muslim communities historically, we find that they were in decent positions. When we look at Muslims in Spain, they were in decent positions.
They had many institutions, many ulema. But they were an isolated Muslim community. They didn't take their responsibility of da'wah seriously. And the fire of sectarianism and racism killed the Muslim community. And my dear respected brothers and sisters, even today, unfortunately, sectarianism and racism is killing the Muslim community. The way that we treat other fellow Muslims, we see them as the other.
The way that newcomers to the faith are treated by those who consider themselves to be monopolizing the faith, is another example of this. The way that we haven't opened our doors to people is an example of this. So again, it requires us to dig deep and look at the seerah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم . So we can learn how we can respond to crisis in our time.
The Path Forward
Because the only way to respond to these crises is action and not isolation, not disengagement. But by engaging with people respectfully as the seerah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم has repeatedly shown us. Also Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم's love that we speak about can only be developed after studying the seerah.
It can only be developed when we learn about his beautiful akhlaaq. When we read about him, our love for him will increase. Just as when we want to know about someone, we read about them.
And the more we read about them, the more of an impression grows on us for that person. The more we read about the Prophet, we learn about his akhlaaq. We learn that he was also the most beautiful and the
most handsome. And that's why people loved him too. Like when one of the companions, Hassan bin Thabit radhiallahu anhu, he says in a beautiful poem:
My eyes have never seen anyone more beautiful than you, and women have never given birth to anyone more handsome than you.
You were created free from all defects and flaws. It's as if you were created as you chose. This is Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلمmy dear respected brothers and sisters.
The beauty of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم his akhlaaq, the way that he communicated with people, the way that he treated people, the way he gave respect to people in his community. These are all beautiful things that we can learn from. So we can be active in our communities and we can influence and affect the lives of people around us.
So we can help our situation before time is out and time is run out. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to give us the ability to understand these words, to act upon them, to be an extension of the rahmah that Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم was for the rest of humanity and the rest of mankind.
Closing Du'a
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My dear respected brothers and sisters, at this time I would also like to request everybody to make du'a for the Muslims around the world that are oppressed, that are going through difficult times and situations whether it's in Syria or Yemen, whether it's in Iraq or Egypt, whether it's also in Rohingya the Burmese Muslims make dua that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala relieves all of those who are mazlumeen that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala uplifts the burden and the difficulty that they are going through that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala finds for them a good refuge and we pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala makes none of us complicit and we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that he allows us to pray for them and to do whatever is within our capacity effectively to help the grief of other people around the world we also pray
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala strengthen us and strengthen our position as Muslims we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us steadfastness and thabat.
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