Prophet Muhammadﷺ's Universal Mission & Character | Hafez Abdullah Ayyaz Qadri

Indeed, there has come to you a messenger from amongst yourselves concerned over your suffering, anxious for your well-being, and to the believers, he is compassionate and merciful. But if they turn away, oh Muhammad, say sufficient for me is Allah. There is no deity except him. On him I have relied, and he is the Lord of the great throne. After praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the Lord of the heavens and the earth, the king of all king, and the controller of all affairs, the one who knows every feeling that passes through our hearts and every thought that crosses our mind, the one who is aware of every action that we take and every intention that we make, the one who gives life, the one who takes, the one whose decree is perfect and whose mercy has no limits. To the unseen and nobody knows them except him. And he's aware of every single thing on dry land. We send our salutations upon the best of creation, It's an honor to be amongst you all. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has allowed each one of us to be here on this blessed day of Jum'ah, on the day where the angels have taken their place amongst us, this blessed month, uh this month of Rabi' al-Awwal, the month that became important with the physical birth of our beloved prophet we are nearing the end of it, and in this month it's important to renew our faith, renew our connection with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, a connection that is through the messenger of Allah alayhi wasallam, because this deen that was given to us was given through the messenger of Allah. Had Allah willed, he could have he didn't need the messengers. But they were sent and the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam specifically was sent as mercy to all the worlds, not just us, to the angels, to the jinn, to everything that is created under the power of Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala. And it's important for us to acknowledge that and to find ways to take advantage of this month to get close to him Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. His unique station is the Maqam al-Mahmud. He's the praiseworthy. He's the praised one. Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, his name the root word is hamd, praise. And to praise him is to praise Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala. Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala in the verses I recited has told us in the Quran that this messenger that is sent is anxious. He's concerned for you. He's concerned for his ummah. And this ummah, we're followers of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, but we're not blind followers. We're followers that have an obligation to understand the Quran. And not by just reading and memorizing it, but implementing it in our lives. That's what the role of the prophets were That's what the role of the prophets was, specifically the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam as he was the walking Quran. He was a sitting Quran. Everything that he did was the command of Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala. Every Every word that he spoke was was was the word of Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala. And the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in a very well-known hadith Abu Qatadah radiyallahu anhu narrated that the messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was asked about fasting on Mondays. He Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam used to fast on Mondays. And he was asked, "Why do you fast on Mondays?" And he said, "That is the day on which I was born, and that is the day on which I received revelation." And in Imam Ghazali's book, Remembrance of Death and Afterlife, it's narrated by Sayyid Ka'b al-Ahbar that this Sahaba said, "Never does dawn break without there descending 70,000 angels who circle the prophet's tomb beating their wings and invoking blessings upon the prophet judgement." Now, if we imagine this is well known that when we send salutations upon the best of creation, that those blessings that that salawat that salaam is presented to the prophet and his rank increases. If we take all the Muslims around the world sending their salutations in their in their limits, which cannot be counted, there's groups of people doing dhikr and dhikr and sending salutations by thousands. The scholars say that the rank of the prophet is continuously increasing. It's continuously increasing to the point where we have we can't even imagine what the rank of the messenger of Allah is. And this is an honor for us because on the day of judgement, when we stand in front of Allah, we will need all the help that we can get. And and and the mercy that Allah has given us is that the prophet will be there to help his ummah. And the ayah there's an ayah "Wa rafa'na laka dhikrak" that was revealed to the prophet in a time that was very uh it was tough for the prophet. Initially, when he started uh declaring the prophecy, there were very few numbers of Sahabas and they would they would secretly meet with one another to listen from the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam. But the Quraysh they would slander him salallahu alaihi wasallam. They would call him a liar. They would they would you know and and this is sometimes we see this you know in our communities well we try to ignore uh what the others say but people will try to slander the religion, slander the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam. But the Sahabas would stand in defense even though they would get beat by the Quraysh because they were outnumbered. And one of the famous Sahabas Khabbab ibn al-Aratt radi-allahu anhu for the Quraysh he was a slave and he had no backing. He had no power in that tribe. He was a slave but he found his skill of making swords. And he would he would make swords and he would sell them to the Quraysh or oftentimes he would he would be forced to to make them make the swords for them. And one day the Quraysh came to collect the swords that they had placed their order of and he wasn't there and this was strange. He was always there. He was always working but he went away. And when he came back they waited he came back quite a while later and he's just mumbling to himself that it makes me wonder and his eyes his face everything's changed. He looks like he's hypnotized. He's in awe. He's in shock. And the Quraysh ask him what makes you wonder. They try to take information out of him. He just keeps mumbling this to himself in a state of in a state of absolute shock. And then one of the Quraysh look at him and say did you see him? Did you see him Khabbab? And he tried avoiding the question and when they said it again he said yes I did see and hear him. Who is him? They're mentioning the the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. The Quraysh were fearful that the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was spreading the message of Islam and that Allah is one and that he is the final messenger. And he said as a matter of fact, I have seen him enveloped and illuminated by truth. He is a messenger of Allah to us to bring us out of darkness of disbelief into the light of belief. And when they heard this, they threw him down. They started beating him. They kept beating him. They put hot coals on his back. But what did he do? He didn't give up. He didn't say I will accept this religion again. He said no, I I accept the true religion of Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. This was a sacrifice of many Sahabas at the time. Hazrat Salman al-Farsi Hudhayfah ibn Yaman and all these Sahabas, they left their fame, they left their status, they left their titles. For what? For the true light that Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala provided them through the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And one of the miracles that is something we can try to embody as well from the prophetic character was the way the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was. Sometimes he didn't even need to say anything to to the to the people of disbelief. They would just look at his face Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and revert back to Islam. Dear brothers and sisters, we have a right to understand his maqam, his his station that Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala has given. The prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has said that none of you truly believes that none of you truly believes until I am more beloved to him than his father, his child, and all of mankind. What does that love actually demand of us? Can we question ourselves and ask, do we really love the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam more than, you know, my parents, my wealth, my my my my status, or everything that I own. We have to reflect on this. How do I improve that? We look we try to understand the Quran. We try to learn learn the Quran, memorize the Quran, but we also look into the seerah of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. This is the month where we should be maybe reading one chapter of the seerah on a daily basis. And Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala says in the Quran, "Inna Allaha Wa Mala'ikatahu Yusalluna Alan Nabi. Ya Ayyuhal Ladheena Aamanu Sallu Alaihi Wa Sallimu Tasleema." That indeed Allah and His Angels send blessings upon the prophet. "O you who believe, ask blessings upon him and greet him with peace." This is a command from Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala without any infinite limits. We don't know how Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala sends His blessings, but He sends salawat upon the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, and He commands us to send salawat upon the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Alaihi Wasallam. And second is to honor and defend him. To be able to honor and defend our prophet, we need to learn about our prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. How did he appear? How would How did he look? How did he sit? How was he with his with his family? How was he with uh not just Muslims, but those that didn't believe? This lady used to throw trash on the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam every day he used to walk by her her place. She used to throw throw trash on him. One day she didn't throw trash. What did the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam do? He went to her home to check if she was okay. And she was sick. But she said, "You're the only person who came to visit me." And she accepted Islam. It's through our actions. We have to go out. We have to lead by example. Not by, you know, mere blank claims that we love the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Alaihi Wasallam. It's giving up arguments for the sake of the love of Allah and His Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Alaihi Wasallam. And the third, again, is to obey him through characters, through changing our characters. Imam Ghazali in his book further rights remembrance of death and afterlife um it's narrated by Satan as Salman al-Farsi and that there are three things which have surprised me enough to make me laugh. A man who sets his hopes in the world while death is seeking him out. A heedless man who does not go unheeded and a man who fills his mouth with laughter although he does not know whether the Lord of the worlds is angry with him or satisfied. Allahu Akbar. And three things have grieved me enough to make me weep. Taking leave of the loved ones as in Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wasallam and his people. The terror of resurrection and the time when I shall stand before God not knowing whether I am to be consigned to heaven or to hell. These are great people who sacrificed everything they could. We don't come anywhere close to our sacrifices. But they're worried about the day of judgement. They're worried about their their rank with Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala. We have to take the Quran, the Sira, the Hadith of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam and really implement it on an individual basis within our homes, within our you know, maybe make a congregational prayer in home. One small area where we do dhikr, where we send salawat upon the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wasallam. We have to prepare our future generation because in a time where there's influx of information um there's a lot of confusion but what we can hold on to is our deen, our basic core principles love of Allah and his messenger Sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wasallam and then we build our foundation upon that and we look for ways to seek knowledge within our communities. May Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala allow us to be the best examples of this love the this message of love and peace that we can lead by example within our work spaces. We can lead by example within our within our schools, within our communities, within our neighborhoods. And we ask Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala alleviate the calamities for all the Muslims around the around the globe in Palestine and Gaza and Sham here in the United States. We have many families suffering whether it's it's it's trials of risk, trials of health. We ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala protect our communities, protect our masajids, protect our scholars and allows us to to truly implement the prophetic character in our lives. Wa sallallahu ta'ala ala Muhammad wa barik wa sallam wa salli alaihi.