بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Bismillah is the beginning of all things good!
My Master Muhammad
The Messenger of Allah
May Allah’s everlasting blessings and peace be upon You, Your Noble Family and Companions
How can my life not be dedicated to Your way?
More radiant than the full moon
More beautiful than Prophet Joseph
More generous than Hatim Al Ta’i
More brave than Alexander The Great
As Hasan Ibn Thabit said, “And (the truth is that) by my poetical compositions I could not praise Muhammad. Rather my poetical compositions have become praiseworthy due to its contents being blessed with the sacred mention of Muhammad.”
You are the light of Allah, the Lord of the universe!
You were a Prophet when Adam was still between Water and Clay!
You are the reason the entire universe came into existence!
If not for You there would be no me!
How can my life not be dedicated to Your way?
“Verily in the Messenger of Allah ye have a good example for him who looketh unto Allah and the Last Day, and remembereth Allah much.” Qur’an (33:21)
Commentary:
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
All praise and thanks be to All Mighty Allah. Choicest blessing and peace on our Master, Allah’s Noble Messenger Muhammad, His family, his companions and all those who follow his guidance until the Last Day.
The above poem, dedicated to Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him), was imparted to my heart on the 29th of Ramadan 1440 (2019). It was the final moments of Ramadan and I had just participated in a class taught by Ustaadh Moulana Abdurrahmaan Khan on the merits of the Allah’s Noble Messenger. I was driving home and I couldn’t stop reflecting on the remarkable nature of Allah’s Noble Messenger. Then this poem came to me. I quickly jotted it down and sent it to Moulana Abdurrahman Khan who endorsed it. Towards the end of Ramadan of 1441 (2020), Allah Most High has inspired me to write a short commentary on the poem.
Bismillah is the beginning of all things good!
In the Islamic tradition we begin everything with the Basmalah, ‘In the name of Allah, The Merciful the Compassionate.’ In his contemporary Quranic commentary, The Risale-i-Nur (Treatise of Light), Ustaadh Bediuzzaman Said Nursi says:
“Bismillah, ‘In the Name of Allah,’ is the beginning of all things good. We too shall start with it. Know, O my soul! Just as this blessed phrase is a mark of Islam, so too it is constantly recited by all beings through their tongues of disposition.
O man! Understand that there is a way to ascend to the throne of divine mercy, and that is, ‘In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.’ If you want to understand the importance of this ascent, look at the beginning of the one hundred and fourteen suras of the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, and at the beginning of all estimable book, and the start of all blessed works.
A clear proof of the Allah-determined grandeur of ‘In the name of Allah’ is that Imam Shafi’I (May Allah be pleased with him), one of the very foremost Islamic scholars said that, ‘In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the compassionate’ is only one verse, yet it was revealed one hundred and fourteen times in the Quran.”
My Master Muhammad
As a title of respect before we mention the name of Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him), we use the title ‘Sayyidina’ which means Our Master. Sayyid is also one of the names of the Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him).
The Messenger of Allah
Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him) was both a Messenger and a Prophet. All Messengers are Prophets but not all Prophets are Messengers. What is the difference? A Messenger is a Prophet who is sent with a Sharia (Divine Law) to a disbelieving people. A Prophet is sent to a believing people and implements the law of the previous Messenger sent to them, Hence Allah says in Surah 5 verse 44 of the Quran, “Indeed, We [Royal plural] sent down the Torah, in which was guidance and light. The prophets who submitted [to Allah] judged by it for the Jews, as did the rabbis and scholars by that with which they were entrusted of the Scripture of Allah, and they were witnesses thereto. So do not fear the people but fear Me, and do not exchange My verses for a small price. And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed – then it is those who are the disbelievers.”
May Allah’s everlasting blessings and peace be upon You, Your Noble Family and Companions
Sending blessings on Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him) known as salawaat in Arabic is imperative every time we mention or hear his blessed name. Imam Ahmad recorded that the Prophet said, “The stingy person is one who mentions me without sending salutations upon me.” Tirmidhi recorded that Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him) said, “May his nose be robbed in the dust, one in whose presence I am mentioned and he does not send blessings upon me.”
Pablo Beneito and Stephen Hirtenstein in the introduction to their translation of Sheikh Abd al-ʿAzīz al-Mahdawī’s Prayer of Blessing [upon the Light of Muhammad] succinctly explained the significance of sending blessings on Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him). They said:
The tradition of calling down blessings upon Muhammad (taṣliya), which is such a characteristic of Islamic devotion, dates back to the time of the Prophet, and is mentioned as a divine order in the Quranic verse: “Indeed God and His angels call down blessings upon the prophet. O you who have faith, call down blessings upon him, and greet him with peace” (Q. 33. 56). As many Quranic commentators have pointed out, the divine/angelic prayer upon the Prophet is an already existing reality, in which those who have faith are invited to participate. It was usually considered to be a general obligation conditional on belief, not restricted to a specific time. Any ritual prayer performed without blessing the Prophet was taken to be incomplete.
To pray blessing and peace upon the Prophet was also to invoke God’s blessing upon oneself. The often-quoted tradition “whoso calls down one blessing upon me, God shall call down on him ten blessings” is corroborated in a Divine Saying (ḥadīth qudsī), reported by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf:
I entered the mosque and I saw the Messenger of God leaving. I followed him, walking after him without him noticing me. Shortly afterwards he went into a palm-grove, turned towards the qibla and prostrated. His prostration lasted such a long time that from behind I began to wonder if God had caused him to die. So I approached him and bent down to look at his face. He raised his head and said, “What is the matter, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān?”
“O Messenger of God,” I replied, “when you made such a long prostration, I feared that God, may He be glorified and magnified, had taken your soul, and so I came to look.”
The Prophet declared, “When you saw me enter the palm-grove I met Gabriel, upon him peace, who said to me,
‘I bring you good news. Indeed God, may He be exalted, says to you: “He who greets you with peace, him shall I greet with peace. He who blesses you, him shall I bless.”’”[16]
There are several traditions that state the requirement to pray upon the Prophet as a formal part of any supplication, without which the prayer was taken to be “suspended between heaven and earth”, as ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb put it. When Muhammad himself heard someone making a supplication in his prayer without the blessing upon the Prophet, he explained to the man and those present that “when one of you prays, he should begin with praise of God, then pray upon the Prophet, and then make whatever supplication he wishes.”[17]
The form of the blessing was also instituted by the Prophet himself: “Say: O God, bless Muhammad and his family as You blessed the family of Abraham, and grant blessing to Muhammad and his family as You granted blessing to the family of Abraham. You are Praiseworthy, Glorious.”[18]
[16] This is the full text of the thirty-eighth hadith cited in Ibn ʿArabī’s collection entitled Mishkāt al-anwār (to be published as Divine Sayings, trans. S. Hirtenstein and M. Notcutt, Oxford, forthcoming).
[17] Reported by Faḍala ibn ʿUbayd. See Muhammad, Messenger of Allah, Ash-Shifa of Qadi ʿIyad, by Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā al-Yaḥsubī, trans. A. Bewley (Granada, 1991), pp. 250–63. Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ (d.544/1149), a judge in Ceuta and Granada, composed this comprehensive book on the greatness of the Prophet, which became “perhaps the most frequently used and commented-upon handbook in which the Prophet’s life, his qualities and his miracles are described in every detail” (A. Schimmel, And Muhammad is His Messenger: the Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety [Chapel Hill, NC, 1985], p. 33).
[18] As reported by ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṯālib. There are several slight variations on the blessing, depending upon the transmitter.
How can my life not be dedicated to Your way?
Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him) came to teach us how to conduct ourselves in the best possible manner during our temporary time on this earth. His way is known as sunnah in Arabic. It is the responsibility of every Muslim to learn and implement Allah’s Noble Messenger’s (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him) sunnah in their life.
More radiant than the full moon
It is related from Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: “I once saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) on the night of a full moon. On that night he wore red (striped) clothing. At times I looked at the full moon and at times at the messenger of Allah. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that the messenger of Allah was more handsome, beautiful and more radiant than the full moon.” And Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) says, “I did not see anyone more handsome as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). It was as if the brightness of the sun had shone from his auspicious face. Both narrations are from Tirmidhi’s Shama’il
More beautiful than Prophet Joseph
The Prophet Yusuf (Peace be upon him) is considered the paradigm of beauty. In Sahih Muslim, Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him) said that he was given half of beauty. Yet Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him) was more beautiful then him! Tirmidhi records his wife Aisha (May Allah be pleased with her) saying, “The women of Egypt cut their hands upon seeing Prophet Yusuf (Peace be upon him), but had they seen the Messenger of Allah (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him) they would have cut out their hearts.” Ibn al-Munayyir thus held the opinion that the Prophet Yusuf’s beauty does not mean half of the beauty in the world, rather, half of the beauty that Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him) was given, as he reached the limit, while Yusuf (Peace be upon him) only reached half of that.
Aisha’s (May Allah be pleased with her) above statement on the beauty of Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him) references Surah Yusuf, “And women in the city said, ‘The wife of al-‘Azeez is seeking to seduce her slave boy; he has impassioned her with love. Indeed, we see her [to be] in clear error.’ So when she heard of their scheming, she sent for them and prepared for them a banquet and gave each one of them a knife and said [to Joseph], ‘Come out before them.’ And when they saw him, they greatly admired him and cut their hands and said, ‘Perfect is Allah! This is not a man; this is none but a noble angel.’”
More generous than Hatim Al Ta’i
Hatim Al Ta’i was a Christian Arab chieftain who lived in Ha’il (central Arabia) during the time of Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him). He is considered the paradigm of generosity and his stories of generosity immortalized him. He is well known across the Arabic, Persian and Urdu speaking worlds until today. “More generous than Hatim” is an expression used in all of those languages.
His daughter Saffanna (May Allah be pleased with her) embraced Islam at the hands of Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him). Being the daughter of Hatim Al Ta’i, Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him) generosity towards her impressed her most and she encouraged her brother Adi (May Allah be pleased with him) to accept Islam. Adi headed her advice and went to Madina and accepted Islam at the hands of Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him). He subsequently become one of the most important companions and played a significant role in the Islamic expansion during the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs (Khulafa Ar-Rashidoon.)
The generosity of Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him) is one of his most well-known traits even before he started calling people to Monotheism at the age of 40. After He first received revelation from the arch-angle Gabriel (peace be upon him) in the cave of Hira, he ran to his wife Khadjiha (May Allah be pleased with her) in a state of panic. She comforted him saying, “Allah would never humiliate you, for you are good to your relatives, you are true to your word, you help those who are in need, you support the weak, you are generous to the guest and you answer the call of those who are in distress.” In Sahih Muslim Ibn ‘Abbas (May Allah be pleased with him) said, “Allah’s Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) was the most generous of people in charity, but he was generous to the utmost in the month of Ramadan. Gabriel (peace be upon him) would meet him every year during the month of Ramadan until it ended, and Allah’s Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) recited to him the Qur’an; and when Gabriel met him Allah’s Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) was most generous in giving charity like the blowing wind.”
More brave than Alexander The Great
Alexander The Great was a well-known King and conqueror, who was tutored by Aristotle and reigned from 336–323 BC. One of the things that immortalized him was his bravery.
Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him) was also well known for his bravery. Imam Bukhari recorded Anas (May Allah be pleased with him) as saying, “The Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) was the best among the people (both in shape and character) and was the most generous of them, and was the bravest of them. Once, during the night, the people of Medina got afraid (of a sound). So, the people went towards that sound, but the Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) having gone to that sound before them, met them while he was saying, ‘Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid.’ (At that time) he was riding a horse belonging to Abu Talha and it was naked without a saddle, and he was carrying a sword slung at his neck.
The Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) said, ‘I found it (the horse) like a sea, or, it is the sea indeed [i.e. it was very fasy].’”
Imam Ahmad recorded Ali ibn Abu Talib (May Allah be pleased with him) as saying, “If the fighting became fierce when the two nations met, we used to seek protection from the Messenger of Allah (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him). And none of us were nearer to the enemy than he was!”
Imam Muslim recorded Al-Bira’ (May Allah be pleased with him) saying, “By Allah, when the battle became fierce we used to seek protection from the one who was the brave one among us and who used to be next to the enemy, that is, the Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him)!”
As Hasan Ibn Thabit said, “And (the truth is that) by my poetical compositions I could not praise Muhammad. Rather my poetical compositions have become praiseworthy due to its contents being blessed with the sacred mention of Muhammad.”
Hassan Ibn Thabit (May Allah be pleased with him) was the official poet of Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him). He composed poetry in praise and in defence of Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him). Bukhari narrates Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him) saying, “O Hassan! Reply on behalf of Allah’s Messenger. O Allah! Help him with the Holy Spirit [Arch angel Gabriel].”
You are the light of Allah, the Lord of the universe!
Allah has described His Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him) as a light from Him. “O People of the Scripture, there has come to you Our Messenger making clear to you much of what you used to conceal of the Scripture and overlooking much. There has come to you from Allah a light and a clear Book.” Quran (5:15)
Sheikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller commenting on this verse said:
“…the word Light has been explained by a number of classic Qur’anic exegetes as follows:
(Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti:) “It is the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace)” (Tafsir al-Jalalayn, 139).
(Ibn Jarir al-Tabari:) “By Light He means Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace), through whom Allah has illuminated the truth, manifested Islam, and obliterated polytheism; since he is a light for whoever seeks illumination from him, which makes plain the truth” (Jami‘ al-bayan, 6.161).
(Fakhr al-Razi:) “There are various positions about it, the first being that the Light is Muhammad, and the Book is the Qur’an ” (al-Tafsir al-kabir, 11:194).
(al-Baghawi:) “It means Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace), or, according to a weaker position, Islam” (Ma‘alam al-Tanzil, 2.228).
And Qurtubi (Ahkam al-Qur’an , 6.118) and Mawardi (al-Nukat wa al-‘uyun, 2.22) mention that interpreting Nur as “Muhammad” (Allah bless him and give him peace) was also the position by [the Imam of Arabic grammar Ibrahim ibn Muhammad] al-Zajjaj (d. 311/923).”
You were a Prophet when Adam was still between Water and Clay!
The Shakh Al Akbar ibn Arabi often cites this hadith in his magum opus The Futuhat Al Makiya (The Meccan Revelations) as well as in the Fusus al Hikam (The Bezels of Wisdom). ” Tirmidhi, Ahmad, Hakim and Bukhari in Tarikh cite it as, “I was a Prophet when Adam was still between spirit and body.” This phenomenon is known as the Muhammadan Reality (al-ḥaqīqa al-Muḥammadiyya). Michel Chodkiewicz explains this concept in his book, The Seal of the Saints: Prophethood and Sainthood in the Doctrine of Ibn Arabi
“For a saint, to be the heir of one of the prophets is always to be the heir of Muhammad. Indeed, ‘the prophets were his deputies in the created world when he [i.e. Muhammad] was pure spirit, aware of being so, prior to the appearance of his body or flesh. When he was asked, ‘When were you a prophet?’, he replied, ‘I was a prophet when Adam was between water and clay’, meaning: when Adam had not yet come into existence. And this was so until the appearance of his most pure body. At that moment the authority of his deputies came to an end … the authority, that is to say, of the other messengers and prophets.’ As we will see later, other texts by Ibn Arabi define more clearly the nature and function of this primordial Muhammadan Reality (haqiqa muhammadiyya), of which every prophet since Adam, the first prophet, is but a partial refraction at a particular moment of human history.”
You are the reason the entire universe came into existence!
In the Islamic tradition The Light (Nur) of Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him) was the first thing Allah created. In a well-known narration Jabir ibn Abdallah (May Allah be pleased with him), said that Allah’s Noble Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him) said to him, “O Jabir, Allah created the light of your Prophet out of His Light before he created things.”
If not for You there would be no me!
Refer to the above two comments.
Conclusion
Allah suffices, and praise is His – firstly and lastly, inwardly and outwardly. Prayers upon His Noble Messenger, in gratitude and remembrance.
Al Abd al Faqir ila Allah ta’ala Sufyaan bin Sa’ad bin Talib Al Tai Al Hatimi Al Iraqi
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