You Cannot Love the Prophet ﷺ Without Knowing Him - Shaykh Mustafa Abu Rayyan

This recording was produced by Green Lane Mustard. For more information on the activities and services the mosque provides, please visit www.greenlane-mustard.org I bear witness that Muhammad is his servant and messenger and his servant of his creation and his servant. Allah sent him to people who were infatuated, submissive and warner. He sent the message and provided security and advised the nation. He left it on the white mark. It was like a day of night. It was not more than that. So, the salutes of Allah and His peace be upon him and his family and his companions. He was guided by His guidance and He waited for His age and invited His call to the Day of Judgment. O you who believe, fear Allah, the Truth of His creation, and do not die except when you are Muslims. O you who fear Allah, the One who created you from the soul. And created from it her husband. And she gave birth to many men and women. And fear Allah, the One who is asked for His mercy and mercy. Surely, Allah is most merciful to you. O you who believe, fear Allah and say a harsh word. He will do good deeds for you and forgive your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His messenger has won a great victory. My love for Allah and Islam, I seek refuge with you and myself with the power of Allah and the good. My beloved brothers and sisters, I start by praising Allah and sending blessings and salutations upon the beloved messenger Muhammad, peace be upon him. My dear brothers and sisters, our prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was a mercy that was sent to all of mankind. He says, And we have not sent you Muhammad except as a mercy to all of mankind. The prophet, peace be upon him, was a mercy. Being around him was a mercy. Learning from him was a mercy. Learning his teachings is a mercy. Acting upon it is a mercy. The prophet, peace be upon him, was a mercy. It is his teachings. And it is his message that we are meant to live by and accept and convey. Rasulullah, peace be upon him, without him we would not be here. Ba'ala Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. And he has hukuk, rights over us. And insha'Allah, I will use this khutba to speak about that. Because my dear brothers and sisters, today we are in great need of reminding ourselves and more importantly the shabaab and the youth, the importance and the sensuality of Rasulullah, peace be upon him. We live in a time today where people do not appreciate the messenger, peace be upon him, nor his message. We have those that are trying to separate the prophet from Islam. Telling us that we can follow Islam without learning about him, his life, his seerah, his teachings and the ahadith that was generated from him. We have those that are problematizing Rasulullah, peace be upon him, and this will lead to people. If they go away from Rasulullah, peace be upon him, they will have nothing left. He, peace be upon him, is the hidayah that Allah sent to us. He is the uswa and the one that we are meant to follow. He says, may Allah's peace be upon him, that he is the one that we are meant to follow. He says, may Allah's peace be upon him, that he is the one that we are meant to follow. Indeed within the message of Allah lies for you a great example. We have those that are trying to separate men and women. And they will somehow create an image that Rasulullah, peace be upon him, because he was a man, he cannot be followed by the women folk as if Islam is that shallow. When we know that the greatest companions of Rasulullah, peace be upon him, and the greatest narrators of his sunnah were the female companions. Number one being his beloved wives and our beloved mothers, Ridwanullah, peace be upon him, and so many, so many others. It is almost as if when Allah chooses to tell us about Marjah, peace be upon him, that the message around Marjah is only for the women folk. Or when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala praises Asiya, that a man cannot take lessons from that. We are not this shallow. The deen is for everyone. And the righteous that we are meant to follow are all of them, men and women. And this is the understanding that we have to appreciate that when we speak about the righteous, every single Salah, what do we read? Every single Salah we say, siraat alladina, an'amta alayhim. Oh Allah, we want to be guided upon the straight path, the path of those whom you favored, who are those people? Allah mentioned this, that they are the Nabiyeen, wa siddiqeen, wa shuhadai, wa s'aliheen. Na'am, and that includes righteous people that came before us, whether they were men or women. And because there is a message that is being pushed to put people off of Islam, they always use different gateways, and one gateway that is being now used is Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he is above all of that. Allah says in the Quran, warah fa'ana laka dikrak. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is promised by Allah that Allah will raise his mention high. And some of the scholars, they say, la yudkara Allah, Allah is not mentioned, illa wa yudkara Muhammadun ma'aahu sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, sharafen, except for if Muhammad is mentioned alongside him. So what is his haqqoq and how, what does it mean when one says, Ashhadu an la ilaha ila Allah, wa ashhadu anna Muhammadun rasulullah. What does it mean when you say the Shahada, specifically when you say I testify that Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is the messenger of Allah. The first thing that means my dear brothers just to us is an imanubihi that we believe in him. Wa bi kulli ma jahaa bihi, and everything that he came with, every word he uttered, everything he said, we wholeheartedly believe in it. Look at our Bakr sadiq radiya Allah wa anhu, look at the iman that he had. When Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam mentions to the Quraish that he did the Israa and Mi'raj, that he went to Al Aqsa and Qudus, and when he informed them, they became happy. They said finally we have something we can use against Muhammad. He is claiming that his Lord took him from Makkah to Jerusalem in one night and he came back. Abu Bakr did not hear this from the Prophet first, radiya Allah wa anhu. He heard it from the people, and the statement that he said is so important. He said if indeed he said it, he is truthful. If indeed he said it, he is what? Truthful. Because Abu Bakr already understood once you accept Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam as a messenger, that means every statement that he said is truthful, not only truthful, it is from Rabi al-Alamin, it is Wahyun, from Rabi al-Alamin. And because of that, he did not even need to hear from them. He said if he indeed said this, now what does that mean for us? Sometimes you will come across a hadith, you will come across a statement, you will come across a video of someone saying the Prophet said this or the Prophet did that, sallallahu alaihi wa ala ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. And sometimes you may have never heard this before, or it may sound something that you are not familiar with, or maybe this news you are unsure. Go by the way of Abu Bakr and say if the messenger truly said this, then it is truthful. Then it is what? Truthful. Today we have the opposite, may Allah guide our youngsters. Where some people are saying I cannot believe in a messenger who said that. Who are you to decide? Who are you to imagine when the Prophet came with the Quran, the Sahaba started to edit and say no, we don't believe in this ayah, we don't believe in that ayah, we don't believe in this hadith, we don't believe in that hadith. That is not iman, that is kufr, that is denial. So from the rights of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is that you believe in him and everything that he came with. Everything that he came with. With the condition being what? As long as he said it, it is what? It is truthful and we believe in it. That's not enough. That's not enough, those are not the haqoos only. The second haqr that he has, so that sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is what? It is طاعته فيما أمر which سنات فيما أنها عنه وزجر that we obey in that which he commands sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. The Sahaba understood this. Why do you think Allah became pleased with them? When Allah mentions رضي الله عن المؤمنين If you buy a oona, you get a sajr. When Allah says رضي الله عنه مرضو عن all the time we hear Allah being pleased with the companions. What did they do to gain this great honor? They obeyed the messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and some of the narrations are amazing in how they obeyed sallahu the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. You are all familiar when the prohibition of alcohol came that it did not take them any time. Immediately they started to pour it out even though they spent money on it. It doesn't matter. The prophet spoke we follow. The prophet commanded we follow sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. This is what the companions were. I'll give you an example. One day the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was delivering a sermon and he told the companions to take a seat, to sit down. At the Rahim Masood, رضي الله عنه was outside about to walk in but he heard the beloved Masjid Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam telling people to sit down. Guess what he did? He sat down outside. How? How can I do the opposite when my messenger is commanding me? Until the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam told him to come inside. They were immediate in their following of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. They understood when Allah mentions وَاَطِيْعُ اللَّهَ وَالْرَّسُولَ obey Allah and His messenger if you want to be successful. Obey Allah and His messenger if you want to be successful. One Sahabi one day was wearing a golden ring. A golden ring and we know that it is prohibited for men to wear gold. And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam reprimanded him and told him what are you doing? Are you putting fire on your hand? O kamal qaal, the Sahabi took the ring off and threw it on the ground. When the prophet left some of the others they said هَلَّا تَنْتَفِقُ بِهِ Why not take the ring and sell it? And then you can use the money. You don't have to wear it. It's not haram. What's haram is to wear it, not to keep it. Or to, he said how? How can I pick up something the prophet took off me? How? They understood what it means to obey Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Now Allah did not give us the privilege and the father and the beauty of seeing him in this dunya. May Allah allow us to see him in Akhirah. However, when we hear his sunnah, when we hear the ahadi, when we hear qaal Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam the prophet said, امران نبی صلى الله عليه وسلم When you hear that, what is your action? What do you do? Are you quick to obey? Are you quick to follow? Or are you the opposite? فَلْ يَحْدَرِ اللَّذِنَ يُخَالِفُونَا نَامْرِهِ أنْ يُصِيبَهُمْ فِتْنَا أوَ تِصِيبَهُمْ عَدَابٌ أَلِيمَ Be careful. This obeying the prophet has grave consequences. It is not something small. It is not something small. Every Juma'a, what do we say? Every Juma'a in the khutbah, the khutbah of the Hajjah I believe the khutbah of the Hajjah, we always recite it but one day we need to delicate a khutbah and explaining why we always recite the ayat? Ya Ya Yaladil Allah, we are going to recite these ayats Among them is what? وَمَنْ يُطَعِ اللَّهَ وَرَّقْ وَنْ يُسَيْ Ya Ya Yaladil Allah, we are going to recite Allah وَقُولُ وَقَولُنْ سَدِدَى يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ اَعمَالَكُمْ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ دُنُوبَكُمْ وَمَنْ يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَرَّسُولْ فِقَدْ فَازَهَ فَوْزٌ عَظِيمَةً And whoever obeys Allah, the messenger will indeed be greatly successful Our success in this dunya, it hinges on our obedience of the Prophet like he said كل أمتي يدخل للجنة All of my people are into Jannah إلا من أبا أكثر من رفوس And when he mentioned, he said من أطاعني دخل للجنة And whoever obeys me enters Jannah ومن عصاني فقد أبا And whoever disobeys me, the Prophet said has refused أقول لقولي هذا وَاستَغْفِرْ رَهْلِ وَلَكُمْ وَاللِسْسَالْمِ وَمِنْ كُلِّ ذَمْنِ فَاستَغْفِرُهْ الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام وعلى رسول الله Among the rights of our messenger Muhammad, is to hold him in high regard and to have the greatest deal of respect for him صلوات الله و سلامه عليه That when we mention him, I want to speak about him that we understand how important and how great he was صلوات الله و سلامه عليه This is something that is often missing The ʿihtiram that we ought to have for our messenger Muhammad, peace be upon him And Allah commands us this اللي توقروه الله mentions You show him respect and honor and dignity اللي تؤمنوا بالله و رصوله و تعزروه و توقروه So this is an extremely important right of his as well Similarly my dear brothers and sisters and this one is really important اتحاكمو إليه و إلا سنتي That we refer things back to him اُرهِ السُنَّ And there is an important ayah where Allah mentions فَلَا وَرَبِّكَ لا يؤمنونوا حَتَى يُحكِمُوكَ فيما شجر بيناهم Allah mentions, by your Lord or Muhammad they have not believed until they go back to you in judgment يُحكِموكَ When they go back to you Oh Muhammad So when it comes to judgment right and wrong, justice what should be done about anything that we go back to the messenger Muhammad peace be upon him و عليه And because we cannot directly go back to him we go back to his sunnah and those who learn and carry his sunnah the ʿulamā and the scholars going back to that And then the ayah continues ثُمَّ لَا يَجْدُوا حَرَجَنَ That they don't feel any issue that they don't feel any ill will to that which the prophet has decreed وَيُسَلْلِمُوا تَسْلِمَا And they submit to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala Pay attention to this It is not enough Allah is telling us It is not enough that you go back to the prophet ʿaláahu ʿalayhi wa sallam for your affairs No Once an affair has been decreed once something has been declared right or wrong ʿarām or Ḥalāl Do it or don't do it Whatever the case may be from the deen from the ʿulamā from the sunnah once that has happened you are meant to submit to it happily you are meant to submit to it happily because that's what it means to say ʿashhadu ʿanā muḥammadan ʿrasūlu Llāh And I testify that muḥammad is the messenger of Allah that you don't have any issue any ill will any problem when it comes to that which the prophet ʿaláahu ʿalayhi wa sallam has decreed to that the commands that he has given this is important to understand because there's two things because what happens when we have believers that say yes I accept the sunnah but they accept it but they feel an issue towards it unhappy with it this is not the iman that Allah wants you to have this is not true iman this is not the iman that you are meant to have my dear brother or sister so finally my dear brothers and sisters the among his haqq is to send much salawat upon him to send much salawat upon him ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa sallam and Allah commands us ʿinna ʿAllah wa ʿmalā'ikatu hū yusallūna ʿalā n'abī yā ayyuhal ladīna āmalū ʿsalū ʿalayhi wa ʿsalīm ʿu ʿusallīmā ask yourself how often do you actually send salawat upon him how often do you send salawat upon our beloved muslim muḥammad ʿalā ʿalā ʿasallīm and to do this is a sign of respect a sign of love an act of worship to Allah ʿsūbhanu ʿawta ʿāla in fact there are some range that mention you are meant to make the majority of your ʿthikr ʿsalawat upon him ʿsalawat ʿu ʿalāhi wa ʿsalāmu ʿu ʿalayhi and look my dear brothers and sisters especially in yom ul-jumā especially in yom ul-jumā I mentioned a lot of things I mentioned about what it means to believe in the Prophet we spoken about what it means to go back to him for judgment we spoke about what it means to obey the Prophet ʿsallāhu ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi and to stay away from that which he taught us to stay away from none of that none of that can you do properly if you don't know who he is كيف تحب من لا تعرف كيف تطيع من لا تعرف كيف تؤمن بمن لا تعرف how are you going to believe obey follow obey follow respect someone you do not know so it is important that every single one of us spends time learning about the Prophet ʿalā ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi and I guarantee you one thing no one sits down and learns about our messenger about his character his kindness his mercy his justice his worship his devotion how he raised his family how he was with his wives how he helped others everything no one learns about the Prophet ʿalā ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi except it increases their love for him it increases their imān in him ʿsallāhu ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi and that's what we are missing if we properly armed ourselves and our children with the knowledge of who Prophet ʿul-Muḥammad ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi was was no amount of shubuḥah and doubts and counter messaging would have an impact on anyone the problem is lack of knowledge may Allah increase our knowledge and our love for the Prophet ʿalā ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi wa ʿalayhi Allahumma jaal khayru umalina awakirah wa khayru aamalina khawatima wa khayla aayamina yawmil anqaaka fihi wa akhiru da'wanan ilhamdulillahi rabbil alamin wa akimisala