20 June 2008

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) Is Our Perfect Role Model

The Perfect Fit !

All praise belongs to Allah, Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, Knower of the seen and unseen, Sustainer of the perfect balance of the Universe and all its inhabitants. He Alone we worship and His Aid Alone do we seek. He Alone turns in kindness to the servant who has as many sins as there are grains of sand on any beach and drops of water in any ocean. His Mercy outweighs His Wrath and His Justice will always prevail. Entirely dependent are we on His Everlasting Grace and forever do we yearn in this life to attain His Pleasure and earn His Love. Such is the Supreme Achievement.

May the most perfect peace and blessings be upon His Beloved Emissary, the Seal of the Prophets, a Mercy to the Worlds. His birth will be forever marked in the history of the Earth as its happiest moment, and his death will be marked as its most mournful. He is the perfect example, and any who strive with might and main to align their life in accordance with his sunnah will reap the benefit of this struggle, by the Will of Allah, both in this life and the Next. On the Day when our every sin and shameful deed will be displayed before all of creation and its Creator, it will be his intercession that we will yearn for, and he –out of his overwhelming mercy and love for his nation- will refuse the sweetness of Jannah until every member of his ummah is removed from the Hell they placed themselves in. It is due to the barakah of his beloved presence on this Earth that any of us weep for the sake of Allah and that imaan has entered any of our unworthy hearts.

Amma ba’d.

Imagine the following scenario: You have a shirt which you simply love. It fits you perfectly, looks great, falls just right, it’s your favourite colour and is made out of your favourite material. No other shirt you own comes close to this one. You decide that you want another made, so you give it to a tailor and tell him, “Here’s my favourite shirt. I want you to make me the exact same one.” When you return to retrieve it he gives you a shirt that’s the wrong colour, too short and made of polyester. You don’t like polyester. Naturally you’re not going to be pleased. You’ll probably tell the tailor, “I’m not paying you for this. It’s nothing like my favourite shirt. Take it back and make it again.”

Such will be the case on the Day of Judgment. Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala created His favourite being, His perfect creation, His beloved Messenger Muhammad ibn ‘Abdallah salAllahu ‘alayhi wasallim, and He commanded us to follow in his blessed example. He is the perfect mold, the perfect design for us to shape our lives after. Everything about him salAllahu ‘alayhi wasallim, from the way he wore his hair to the way he made du’a to the way he sat while he ate, each aspect of his internal and external self was made to perfection by Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala earning him the title of Habibullah, the beloved of Allah.

When we stand before Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala on that fateful Day, we will be measured and judged against the model of our beloved Prophet salAllahu ‘alayhi wasallim. Allah subhaanahu wa ta’aala will show us our heart, point out the spot of envy on it and ask us about it. Such a spot was never found on the heart of the Messenger salAllahu ‘alayhi wasallim. He subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala will look at our limbs and see how often we made wudu. If they are shining with nur like the limbs of our beloved Prophet salAllahu ‘alayhi wasallim He will be pleased with us, by His Grace and Mercy. But if our limbs are dark and dry, devoid of the barakah of wudu, then He is Most Just and may well carry out His Justice.

Now imagine- if you would refuse to pay a few dollars to the tailor who messed up your shirt, why should Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala pay us Jannah for a body and soul soiled with anything other than sunnah? It’s no different, except in one way: the tailor may say he wasn’t given enough time and may thus receive a second chance at making the shirt, but we will not be given such an opportunity. We were given a lifetime, which is nothing but time, and told to groom ourselves in accordance with the perfect example. If we want Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala to purchase our souls for Jannah, then we should eat, drink, sleep, walk, talk, breath and live the sunnah of our beloved Prophet salAllahu ‘alayhi wasallim.

We know now, as we did before, that following the sunnah of the beloved Messenger salAllahu ‘alayhi wasallim is of utmost importance. Now how do we turn that knowledge into action? One of the biggest and most powerful driving factors in any action has been, still is and always will be love. Clichéd as it may sound, the proof is all around us. Anyone who is married or has seen a sibling or close friend get married has witnessed the power of love. An ordinary man becomes completely lost in his woman. He wants nothing more than to be by her side every moment of everyday. Should she desire something, he is ready to swim the seven seas to bring it for her. Should she dislike something, he wants nothing to do with it. She fills his mind and heart, as he thinks about her morning and night, and desires no human’s company more than hers.

Such should be the love every Muslim pours upon our beloved Prophet salAllahu ‘alayhi wasallim. How can we help it? How can we not be obsessive in our love for the Messenger of Allah, salAllahu ‘alayhi wasallim? The rest of creation understands who he is. The tree from which he used to deliver khutbahs wept in agony over separation from the beloved of Allah, salAllahu ‘alayhi wasallim. The clouds above couldn’t resist keeping their course in line with that of the beloved Prophet salAllahu ‘alayhi sallim, moving when he moved, stopping when he stopped, to shade him from the heat of the burning sun. Each drop of water that fell from his blessed skin while he made wudu cries out in bitter longing for reconnection with that sweet taste. Should all the beauty in the world be gathered together it would cower in shame before the beauty and perfection of our Prophet, Muhammad salAllahu ‘alayhi wasallim.

As if his perfection and status before Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala is not enough to make us deeply in love with him salAllahu ‘alayhi wasallim, we have his love for us as another inspiration. He salAllahu ‘alayhi wasallim used to worry about us. He would fear for us and our deen. Thoughts of you and I would fill his blessed mind with concern and compassion. So much so, that he salAllahu ‘alayhi wasallim would raise his perfect hands before Allah ‘azza wa jal and would weep to Him, would cry to Him… he would beg Allah and plead with Allah to keep us firm on the Path to Him. He who is most beloved to Allah, who would be gifted the very heavens had he asked for them, cried to Allah saying, “Ummati! Ummati!” He cried for disobedient, neglectful servants like you and I, so that we would stay on the path of Islam and hold fast to the message he brought to us from our True Beloved subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala. Tears of worry would stream down his beautiful face and fill his beard out of concern that we might stray from the perfection of Laa ilaaha ilAllah Muhammad Rasul Allah.

As servants of Allah, we now plead to Him that He grant us the ability to hold firmly onto the rope of sunnah and to continue climbing to Him no matter what we may face in this temporary world. Oh Allah, please let us not disgrace our beloved Messenger salAllahu ‘alayhi wasallim on that Day. Let us not be a cause for his having to delay entrance into Jannah. Ya Allah, please fill our limbs and hearts with the nur of sunnah, so that we may become more beloved to You. Ya Allah, let us be among those who weep to you in the predawn hours, as it is so beloved to You that You made it fard upon our Prophet salAllahu ‘alayhi wasallim. Ya Razzaaq, we have strayed from the sunnah of Your Messenger. We have abandoned that which so many ‘ulema spent their lives protecting and spreading. We have become the distant servants Your beloved Messenger feared we would become. Ya Allah, please rectify our condition. Ya Muqallib al quloob, empty our hearts of the love of this world and fill them with love for You, Your Messenger, his companions and all the rightly guided who ever lived and will ever live until the Day of Judgment. Ya muqallib al quloob, make firm our hearts on Your Deen. Ya Dhal Jalaali w’al Ikraam, we are helpless creatures. Our lives and souls lie in Your Beloved Hands. If You do not help us and save us from ourselves, we will truly be lost. Ya Samee’u Ya Tawwaab, we ask You, we beg You, we plead to You that You grant us the gift of sunnah… that You fill our every cell, from the follicles of our hair to the blood running through our veins, from the corners of our souls to the depths of our hearts with the sunnah of Your beloved Messenger salAllahu ‘alayhi wasallim, so that You may have reason to smile upon us on that Day, and purchase our longing souls for Jannat al-Firdous, so we may spend our Eternity in Your Beloved Company. Allahumma salli ‘alaa sayyidinaa Muhammad, wa ‘alaa aali sayyidina Muhammad, wa barik wasallim. Wa aakhiru da’waana anilhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘aalameen.

Source : "qalbkhaalis", sunniforum.com