Friday Khutbah (8th April 2005) delivered by Shaykh Muhammad Taher
DISCLAIMER: This reminder was originally delivered in Arabic. Any meanings lost in translation are not to be attributed to the speaker as reminders are translated by volunteers. The mosque has no official translater and volunteers often have no formal qualifications to translate on the day. Please forgive any errors as they are from our human weakness and any right guidance is from Allah.The Imam spoke about four matters concerning the prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad SAW:
1. The supplication for the coming of the Prophet Muhammad SAW
2. The purpose for the coming of the Prophet Muhammad SAW
3. What we should take from what the Prophet Muhammad SAW left us
4. Our meeting with the Prophet Muhammad SAW
1. The supplication for the coming of the Prophet Muhammad SAW
When both Ibrahim and Ismail (alayhum salaam) finished building the great
Ka’ba, they looked towards it and with all humility supplicated to Allah the
Most High.
From amongst their blessed supplications were the following prayers:
“Our Lord! Make us submissive to You and make our offspring a nation that will submit to You, and show us our ways of worship and accept our repentance. Indeed You are the One Who accepts repentance, the Most Merciful.
Our Lord! Send amongst them a Messenger of their own, who shall recite unto them Your Verses and shall instruct them in the Book and in wisdom and purify them. You are the All-Mighty, the All-Wise”. (Al-Baqara 128-129)
Brothers and sisters- This supplication shows the great concern, endeavour and compassion of the Prophets and their wish for their offspring and the generations after them to be a nation who follow their way, are led by their guidance, emulate their example and uphold what they stand for.
It is an appeal to every mother and father to ask Allah the Most High to (1)
protect their children, to (2) take care of them and (3) make them from amongst
the believers.
It is also a reminder for every mother and father that they (4) desire for their
children to be from those who carry the message of Islam, who (5) invite others
to it and who follow the way of the Prophets.
Prophet Ibrahim supplicated for this nation (for the people of Islam) by asking
Allah The Most High to give this nation the blessing of faith and belief in the
Oneness of Allah and not leave it without guidance for as long as it remains on
earth.
O Muslims!
After many centuries had passed, the prayer made by Ibrahim and Ismail (alayhum
salaam) was answered through the coming of the noble Messenger; Muhammad, the
son of Abdullah. His nation was made the final nation, a nation of the
middle-way; whose Book is the final Book and whose Messenger is the seal of all
Messengers.
Indeed, Muhammad (SAW) was sent from the offspring of Ibrahim and Ismail (alayhum
salaam), reciting Allah’s revelation, teaching the Book and wisdom, purifying
those who follow him from impurity and guiding them to the Straight Path.
2. The purpose for the coming of the Prophet Muhammad SAW
And Allah says in Sura Maida, verse 16:
“Indeed, there has come to you from Allah a light and a plain Book. Wherewith Allah guides all those who seek His good pleasure to ways of peace and He brings them out of darkness unto light, by His Will, and guides them to the Straight Way”
And in Sura Ale-Imran, verse164 Allah says:
“Indeed, Allah bestowed a great favour on the believers when He sent among them a Messenger from amongst themselves, reciting unto them His Revelation, purifying them and instructing them in the Book and in wisdom, while before they were in plain error”
In Sura Jumu’ah (verse 2) Allah says:
“It is He who has sent among the unlettered ones a Messenger from amongst themselves, reciting to them His Revelation, purifying them and teaching them the Book (the Qur’an) and wisdom (the Sunnah) and before that they had been in manifest error”
These verses are a testimony to the truth and value of the Messenger of Allah (SAW) and the great favour which Allah the Most High has blessed us with by sending a Messenger from amongst us; a teacher, a moral educator, a guide, a leader, a Prophet who was also a Messenger.
He took us from error (and guided us) to knowledge, wisdom and purification through (1) reflection on the Qur’an, (2) acting in accordance to its rules, (3) purifying the soul and (4) also through the Prophetic wisdom known as the Sunnah. The Prophet (SAW) established this and so a nation rose whose way of life was based on revelation just as Allah the Most High had wanted (this was the generation of the Companions).
And Allah says:
“Indeed, there has come to you a Messenger from amongst yourselves. It grieves him that you should receive any difficulty or hardship. He is full of concern for you; for the believers he is full of kindness and mercy” (Sura 9:127)
This Messenger (SAW) was a human being, but Allah the Exalted chose him from amongst all of humanity…He is the answer of the supplication made by Prophet Ibrahim and he is the good news which Jesus announced to the Children of Israel, for they know him (Muhammad SAW) just as they know their own children.
“The extreme depth of our knowledge concerning him is that he is a man,
And indeed he is the very best of all Allah’s creation…”
(Taken from the Poem of the Scarf- by Allamah Al-Busairi/ Qasidat Al-Burdah)
3. What we should take from what the Prophet Muhammad SAW left us
O Muslims!
We are in great need of the Prophet’s guidance (SAW), his love and his example,
as Allah says:
“In the Messenger of Allah you have a good example to follow for those of you who look to Allah and the Last Day and remember Allah much” (Sura 33:21)
We are in need of (1) establishing his character; a character which made him from those of a high rank- yet he was a human being. We need to establish his manner; a manner which calmed even his enemies and which he was known for before prophethood- yet he was human (from amongst us).
We are in need of (2) following his way of life and the way in which he behaved towards his enemies and opponents, his followers and companions, his family and wives, and the community of non-believers in Mecca and the Muslims in Medina.
We are in need of (3) taking a lesson from the sacrifices he made and the efforts he exerted in spreading the message (of Islam) in order to reach every heart and revive every soul.
And Allah says:
“If anyone saved a life, it would be as though he had saved the whole of mankind” (Sura Maida: 32)
O Muslims!
We are in great need of knowing this Messenger and connecting to him, (we are need of) his love and affection, with truthfulness and sincerity... and to love him through knowing him, obeying him and emulating him.
Our community today is in need of all these things, they are our provisions
by which we are able to face this crazy/unwarranted attack on Islam and the
Muslims…
The Divine relationship that Muslims have with their Prophet is a relationship
based on love. This grows and flourishes through (1) knowledge of his character
and nature, (2) by keeping to his way (his Sunnah) and (3) traveling upon the
Straight Path. Whoever does so leads people in this world and the next and
whoever strays from this guidance is truly in error and he is cut off from the
path and from his means of support.
“Indeed the excellence of the Messenger has no
bounds, that a speaker might be able to express,
How can the reality of him be comprehended in this world
A sleeping nation whose description of him is like but a dream”
(Allamah Busairi- The Poem of the Scarf/ Qasidat Al-Burdah)
4. Our meeting with the Prophet Muhammad SAW
On the authority of Abu Hurayrah who said that that the Messenger of Allah (SAW) went to (Al-Baqi) cemetery and said:
"Peace be upon you, home of a people who believe! We shall be among you, Allah willing. I wish that I had seen our brothers!"
The people with him said, "Messenger of Allah! Are we not your brothers?"
"No," he said, "You are my companions. Our brothers are those who have not yet come. And I will precede them to the Hawd."
They asked him, "Messenger of Allah! How will you recognise those of your community who come after you?"
He said, "Does not a man who has horses with white legs and white blazes on their foreheads among totally black horses recognise which ones are his own?"
They said, "Of course, Messenger of Allah."
He went on, "Even so will they come on the day of rising with white marks on their foreheads, hands and feet from Wudu, and I will precede them to the Hawd as if they were straying camels and I shall call out to them, 'Will you not come? Will you not come? Will you not come?'
And someone will say, 'They changed things after you,'
So I shall say, 'Then away with them, away with them, away with them!' "
(Related by Muslim)
O Allah, make us from those who are obedient and active, who are the foremost in holding onto the way of the Prophet (SAW), and let us be from those who will drink from his ‘Hawd ’(his watering-place) on the Day of Resurrection and do not deny us this on that Day, O Lord of the Worlds… Ameen
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