Loving the Prophet (PBUH), but how?

marwatone · #1 Friday, March 21, 2008

Loving the Prophet (PBUH), but how?

By Naureen Aqueel

Love is a potent emotion and it is one of the most vulnerable avenues by which Satan attacks and misleads people. When limits are crossed in love, we often fall into the most despised sin in the sight of Allah, and that is the sin of Shirk (associating partners with Allah). We have the example of the people of Nuh (Alaihis Salaam) who, because of their great reverence and love for their pious elders, ended up making idols of them, which later generations began to worship. Whenever the expression of love deviates from the method taught to us by Allah and His Messenger (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam), it opens doors to shirk and innovation and we fall into sin while thinking we are involved in worship.

Love for the Prophet (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) is an essential part of our faith. A Muslim’s faith cannot be complete unless he/she loves the Prophet (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) more than all other creation. The Prophet (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) said,

"None of you believes until I am dearer to him than his father, his child, and all of mankind." (Bukhari, Muslim)

And the Muslim must hold Prophet Muhammad (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) dearer than his/her own self. This is made clear by the following Hadith. Narrated Abdullah bin Hisham: "We were with the Prophet ( Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) and he was holding the hand of Umar bin Khattab (Radhi Allaho anho). Umar said to him, "O Allah’s Messenger (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam)! You are dearer to me than everything except my own self." Allah’s Messenger (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) said, "No, by Him in Whose Hand my soul is, (you will not have complete faith) until I am dearer to you than your own self." Then Umar (Radhi Allaho anho) said: "However, now, by Allah, you are dearer to me than my own self." He (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) then said: "Now, O Umar, (now you are a believer)." (Sahih Bukhari)

We see, nowadays, that it has become fashionable to claim to love the Prophet (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) and to sing elaborate praises to him and make exaggerated claims of all that we could do for him. Sadly, these claims stand void when it comes to practising what we say. Allah says:

"O you who believe! Why do you say that, which you do not do? Most hateful it is with Allah that you say that, which you do not do." (Qur’aan, 61:2-3)

The best way to express our love for Prophet Muhammad (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) is to follow his teachings and his Sunnah. The companions who greatly loved the Prophet (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) expressed this love by following him in every deed to the extent that even if he had his upper button open, they would follow him. Urwah bin Masood speaking about this to the Quraish, once said:

"O people, I swear by Allah that I have visited kings. I went to Caesar, Chasroes and the Negus, but I swear by Allah that I never saw a king whose companions venerated him as much as the companions of Muhammad venerated Muhammad. By Allah, whenever he spat it never fell to the ground, it fell into the hand of one of his companions, then they would wipe their faces and skins with it. If he instructed them to do something, they would hasten to do as he commanded. When he did wudoo, they would almost fight over his water. When he spoke, they would lower their voices in his presence; and they did not stare at him out of respect for him." (Bukhari)

The Holy Prophet (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) said,

"All of my ummah will enter Paradise except those who refuse." They (the people present) said: "O Messenger of Allah, who would refuse?" He said: "Whoever obeys me will enter Paradise and whoever disobeys me has refused." (Bukhari)

Thus, we see that the true way of expressing our love for the Prophet (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) is to obey him and follow his Sunnah. This sincere advice of the Prophet (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) is particularly pertinent here:

"I urge you to follow my Sunnah and the way of the rightly-guided caliphs after me; adhere to it and cling to it firmly. Beware of newly-invented things, for every newly-invented thing is an innovation (Bid’ah) and every innovation is a going astray." (Ahmad, Tirmizi)

A paradox of ours is that we can spend thousands of rupees on a gathering the Prophet (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) never held, but we cannot feed seventy needy people or build one school for the poor. We can take out time to listen to people singing elaborate praises to the Prophet (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam), but we cannot take out time to learn the Sunnah way of offering prayers. We can illuminate our homes and streets with lights commemorating the birth of the Prophet (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam), but we cannot illuminate our lives with the two things he brought — Qur’aan and Sunnah.

We sing excessive praises to the Holy Prophet (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam), but we forget that he taught us:

"Do not extol me as the Christians extolled the son of Maryam (ie Jesus Christ). For I am just His (Allah’s) slave, so call me the slave of Allah and His Messenger." (Sahih Bukhari)

We claim to sacrifice our lives for him, but we cannot sacrifice one un-Islamic festival that has become a part of out weddings and which goes against the teachings he brought. What kind of love is this?

If the Prophet (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) were to come today to spend time with us, would we feel happy or restricted? Would we keep living our day-to-day life the way we do, or would we have to change our ways significantly? Would he be proud to see how our homes are decorated and how we spend our time or would we have to do a quick but temporary makeover only to please him?

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