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O Prophet of Allah, where shall I find the source of my adoration for
thee. I have memorized hundreds of thy sayings since my teens, taught
thy seerah to numerous students, grown a beard, used the miswaaq, stood
for salaami (salawaat), sang and proudly taught others odes (qasidahs)
in praise of thee. None of these made me any more like thee; rather
they merely flung me into the fray of insignificant debates in the
arena of so many of the sunnahless Muslims who see thy sunnah only as
an endless array of harsh laws and practices or as some justification
for their cultural tendencies. O Allah, save me from being of those who
consider the sunnah of Thy beloved as being expressed only through
aimless imitations and who know Thy Prophet only as a conveyor of
commands and warnings.
O Prophet of Allah, I did not truly find thee in the books of fatawa,
nor in grand seminars and conferences throughout the world, and
certainly not in the harsh arguments between various groups proclaiming
mutually exclusive rights over thee. I did find the path of adoration
to thee in a dream where I appeared searching for thy holiness on the
Day of Judgement in order to beseech thy intercession. As I appeared
walking over the lush greens of Paradise I found thee amongst a group
of poor people in thy patched black cloak. I wondered what thou were
doing in their company but then remembered thy famous prayer; O Allah,
let me live among the poor and the downtrodden, let me die amongst the
poor and the downtrodden and on the Day of Judgement when You raise me
up raise me up amongst the poor and the downtrodden.
I found my source of adoration for thee in the love and respect that
the Almighty has proclaimed for thee; in the honor that He bestowed
upon thee; in His confirmation of thee as the ultimate exemplar; seal
of Prophets and mercy unto all existence. Allah has elevated the very
memory of thee and has made His boundless love accessible through
obedience to thee.
O Prophet of Allah, what despicable insolence and diabolical arrogance
leads those who know of thee not to fully acknowledge thee. Do they not
remember thee as an orphan nourished by Halima-as-Sa’diah; as a
reflective shepherd in thy teens; as the truthful and trustworthy
salesman for Khadijah; all this with exemplary excellence. Allah chose
thee, taught thee and empowered thee.
I picture thee in thy solitude longing for communion with the Divine;
thy trepidation upon reception of the first revelation in the Cave of
Hira; finding comfort in the loving arms of thy beloved wife, Khadijah.
O Prophet of Allah, how can I not adore thee for how thy lived and how
thy behaved.
I catch but a dimension of thee through the instances of compassion
thou extended to others; how thou played with the poor orphaned boy
when other children refused to play with him, how thou prolonged thy
prostration out of consideration that thy change in posture may
inconvenience or hurt thy darling grandson who had climbed on thy back;
how thou commanded thy army away from the anthill in order not to
disrupt the ants’ activities; how thou blessed with Paradise the sinful
woman for saving the life of a cat by making the water of the well
accessible with her shoes; how thou intervened and prevented a man from
abusing his wife by teaching him that the best of men are those who
treat their wives the best; how thou patched thy clothes, mended thy
shoes and did thy daily household chores; how thou wrestled with thy
nephew and raced with thy wife; how thou joked with the kids and
carried the baggage of the elderly; how thou hosted the Christians of
Najran in thy mosque and stood up to honor the bier of a Jew.
I appreciate another dimension of thee through the moments of pain and
hardship thou had experienced; how thou were orphaned in childhood and
endured grief at the loss of all thy sons in their youth and all but
one of thy daughters in thy lifetime; how thou withstood the abuse of
the Quraish and how thy beloved Fatimah dusted the dirt off thee as she
wiped her tears; how thou invited thy relatives to the Truth and they
mocked thee; how thou took the message of Islam to Taif and they stoned
thee and turned their dogs upon thee. The angels begged thee to invoke
Allah to turn the mountains on these people and thou refused, praying
that perhaps their children will someday believe. I recall the incident
when hungry soldiers physically manhandled thee demanding food at the
Battle of the Trench only to be silenced at the realization that thou
had three stones tied to thy stomach to still thy hunger; I further
recall the incident when thy Jewess neighbor received a visit from thy
companion whom thou had sent to inquire about her wellbeing since thou
had not seen her for a few days despite the fact that she used to empty
her garbage on thee when thou passed her home. O Mercy unto the Worlds,
how I adore thee for thy tenderness and thy refusal to hate yet how
disgusting are so many who try to justify hate in thy name.
O Prophet of Allah, why is it that so many of us who claim to be of
thee refuse to be like thee. We sing for thee and dress like thee, but
do not come near fulfilling the expression of love, care and beauty
that generated from thyself. Why is it that we see in thee that which
suits our cultural, organizational and chauvinistic interests, yet
ignore the essence of what is essential to thy being. Others who are
not of thee proclaim the multi-dimensional and multi-faceted nature of
thy personality. The personality of Muhammad is most difficult to get
the whole truth of it. Only a glimpse of him I can catch. What dramatic
succession of picturesque scenes? There is Muhammad the Prophet; there
is Muhammad the General; Muhammad the King; Muhammad the Warrior;
Muhammad the Businessman; Muhammad the Preacher; Muhammad the
Philosopher; Muhammad the Statesman; Muhammad the Orator; Muhammad the
Reformer; Muhammad the Refuge of Orphans; Muhammad the Protector of
Slaves; Muhammad the Emancipator of Women; Muhammad the Judge; Muhammad
the Saint… In all these magnificent roles and in all these departments
of human activities he is equally a hero. (Professor Ramakrishna Rao).
O Prophet! Thy life-example is not only an integrated biography,
history and law; it is above all a model of excellence.
O Prophet of Allah, I beg thy indulgence at my audacity in expressing
my adoration of thee. Thou have certainly been adored by many much more
worthy than I. Yet, neither the inability to capture my appreciation of
thee with the eloquence of Rumi,Sa’di or Iqbal nor my weakness as a
believer debars me from qualifying as one who adores thee; for in the
commemoration of thy being do I find the dignity and honor of my
existence.
By: Br.Sadullah Khan
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The Last Prophet
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