Prophetic Manners

Prophetic Manners

Khutbah by Abdal Hakim Murad

Opening Prayers

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

Khutbah al-Hajah (Opening Khutbah)

All praise is due to Allah, Who has sent down the Book to His servant, and allowed therein no crookedness; (He has made it) straight to warn of severe punishment from Him, and to give good news to the believers who do good deeds that they shall have a goodly reward, to abide in it forever; and to warn those who say: Allah has taken a son. They have no knowledge of it, nor had their fathers; a grievous word it is that comes out of their mouths; they speak nothing but a lie.

I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, Who has no partner. To Him belongs the kingdom, to Him belongs all praise, and to Him is the final return. And I bear witness that our master Muhammad is His servant and messenger. Allah Almighty sent him with the truth as a bearer of good news and a warner before the Hour. Whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has indeed succeeded, and whoever disobeys them has gone far astray. O Allah, send blessings, peace, and grace upon him, his family, and his companions, and grant them abundant peace. As for what follows, O you believing brothers, peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah, and His blessings.

Main Body

The Adab of Sayyidina Ayyub (AS)

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Noble Quran:

Reference: Quran 21:83

I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan. And Ayyub, when he called upon his Lord: hardship has come upon me, and you are the most merciful of the merciful.

صَدَقَ اللهُ الْعَظِيمُ

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says: "And Ayyub, when he called upon his Lord: hardship has come upon me, and you are the most merciful of the merciful."

This is the famous dua of Sayyidina Ayyub alayhi salam. From that time on, the believers, the people of tawheed have been calling upon arkhamul rahimin - the most merciful of the merciful - fissarra wa barra - in times of ease and in times of hardship.

Look at the quality of his prayer, and consider the difficulty of his situation. He has been inflicted with a painful and difficult complaint. He has been effectively exiled from his family and from his dear ones. He is the one who is supposed to be bringing the message to his people, but he has been cast out. He is in a situation of spiritual loneliness, and a situation of physical and political impossibility.

And yet what is his prayer? Anta arkhamul rahimin - "You are the most merciful of the merciful."

This is not a complaint in the sense that any of us would understand it. Instead, he is merely stating a fact. This has come to me, this is the affliction, because he knows that it is Allah's decree. But at the same time, that does not detract one atom from the quality of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as arkhamul rahimin.

And what is this? This is adabun nubuwa - This is the adab, the good manners of prophecy itself. An absolute yaqeen that makes it impossible for adab to be shaken.

It is easy for us, so much of the time, when things are going well for us, to be polite, to be nice, to be generous with others, to return people's salams, to look out for their interests. When things get tough, however, we tend to be short-tempered, and snappish, and angry. We may be angry with others, we may be angry with the world, we may even on occasion be angry with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and say, "what have I done to deserve this?"

But it is not the adab of nubuwa, because the state of tawheed, when it is deep in the heart, leads us to know that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is arkhamul rahimin, even in situations where we can't discern that. That was the adab of Sayyidina Ayyub alayhi salam.

The Hospitality of Sayyidina Ibrahim (AS)

And this adab is something that comes up again and again in the story of the anbiya alayhimu salam in Allah's book:

"Has there come to you the story of Ibrahim's honored guests? When they went in to him and said salam, and he said salam back to them, and aside, he said: 'these are people we don't know.'"

And if you're a desert man living far from society and strangers come, that's a big issue. Strangers usually mean trouble. What have they come for? But in the case of these people, they experience nothing but ikram. They experience salam.

"And he went to his family, and then he brought a fat calf" - the most precious thing that a nomad can own. He doesn't know them. He is perhaps a little afraid. What is it that they represent? But he brings to them a fat calf.

Hospitality, particularly to people we don't know, even to people who might seem suspicious, is one of these prophetic adab. And even now, thousands of years later, we can recall that simple transaction with admiration and wonder if we ourselves would do the same thing.

The Humility of Sayyidina Isa (AS)

Reference: Quran 5:116

This is another ayah and it seems to be Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala questioning Sayyidina Isa alayhi as-salam perhaps at the end of time. And he says: "O Isa ibn Maryam, was it you who said to people, take me and my mother as two gods apart from Allah?"

The greatest crime a human being can commit. The only unforgivable sin is shirk, to associate partners with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Going to the statue of a prophet and worshipping that statue and asking that statue for something. Going to the statue of the mother of a prophet and worshipping that statue and asking that statue for something. This is idolatry, this is shirk.

So what does he say?

Reference: Quran 5:116

He says: "Subhanak" - Glory be to you - "It was not for me to say that of which I had no knowledge. And if I had said it, you would have known it. You know what is in my soul. I do not know what is in yourself. You are the all-knower of the unseen worlds."

That's an extraordinary conversation. When we look at it, we see that the final resolution of this terrible phenomenon - that one of Allah's prophets has been set up as an object of worship in his own right when all he was doing was saying "Allah wahid," pointing to one that was greater than himself - this terrible catastrophe, his response is not "no I didn't."

Just as Sayyidina Ayyub doesn't say, "this is your fault" or "this is nothing to do with me." Just as Sayyidina Ibrahim (AS) isn't suspicious but accepts this gift hoping that it is a gift from heaven. Sayyidina Isa (AS) doesn't get into an argument. But he says, "subhanak."

And then he says, "what do I know? It is in your knowledge." This too is an extraordinary vindication, proof of the prophetic adab.

The Story of Sayyidina Musa (AS) and the Well

Look at the story of Sayyidina Musa, alayhi salam. What do we know about Sayyidina Musa? One of the things we know about him is that he was physically a very strong man. They say he was given the strength of ten. And why is it that he has to leave Egypt? Because he finds that an Egyptian has been maltreating a group of Israelites. He starts to fight with him. And Musa strikes him and kills him. Presumably he doesn't intend to, but he is so strong that this is what happens.

So he has to leave. And he comes across in the land of Midian the familiar scene of the girls who are standing by the well with their flock but they are unable to bring up the water from the well because presumably it is a very heavy job and they are girls and they can't do it. And the shepherds are away and their father is (أَبُونَا شَيْخُ كَبِيرٌ - "Our father is an old man") so he can't do it.

So what does he do? So he provides the water for them. It must have been quite a heavy task but he is strong and he is finished. And when it is done:

Reference: Quran 28:24

"And then he goes to the shade. And here is the important du'a. He said: 'Oh my lord, I am poor and impoverished of the good things that you have sent down to me.'"

Again, the situation is a bit like the situation of Sayyidina Ayyub. The situation of so many of the other prophets who seem to be abandoned by everybody. He had to leave his own people who are themselves in trouble and he is off in the desert with nobody except Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he comes to this place and he has helped these girls but essentially he is not one of them either. He is not of the tribe and what can he do? And his situation seems helpless.

He is in the shade and he says: "Oh my lord, look at the beauty of the du'a. Of the good things you have sent down to me I am poor, I am impoverished, I am needy." So he is not complaining.

This isn't really a complaint. He is not saying "Oh Allah, why didn't you give me some of the things that you have given to the powerful in Egypt or that you have given to whoever it is who owns this encampment and this family and these sheep and these animals." No.

He comes up with this beautiful du'a where he is not accusing his lord and actually it sounds as if he is accusing himself: "I am faqir, I am helpless." And then at this moment of beautiful adab with his lord, a new door opens:

Reference: Quran 28:25

"And one of the two girls comes walking shyly. She said: 'My father invites you so that he may reward you for having brought up water for the flocks.'"

Again a situation of adab. These are apparently rough people living in the desert but look she has haya and that in turn is going to open an extraordinary future.

The Teaching of Prophetic Adab

And haya and adab in women is something that in Islam of course we value very strongly. We are the ummah of haya. We are the ummah of satr. We are the ummah of public probity and sobriety. That is part of the adab of Islam.

When he goes to him and tells him what happened - the story of what happened in Egypt and why he had to leave:

Reference: Quran 28:25

"Don't be afraid, you have finally found safety, you have escaped from the wrongdoers."

So that beautiful adab which the girls presumably reported that Sayyidina Musa (AS) had shown as he helped the girls in their task again opened this extraordinary gate of hospitality to him. But it doesn't end there.

Reference: Quran 28:26

And one of them then pipes up and says: "My father, give him a job. Hire him. Because the best person you could hire is somebody who is both strong and trustworthy."

So she has also spotted the quality of the person. And according to some of the ulama at-Tafsir, one reason why she wants him to hang around is that perhaps she has the aspirations that this man, this extraordinary man could be her husband - this person of such dignity, such respect and such adab.

The Principles of Islamic Adab

This matter of adab becomes fundamental and one of the early ulama whose name perhaps some of you have heard - Imam Ibn al-Mubarak who was a very early Muslim, some people call him amongst the