Why Humanity needs Prophet Muhammad (saws)-15

Why Humanity Needs Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم)

Opening

"I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan."

"In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful."

First Khutbah: The Prophet's Relevance in Our Modern Lives

Dear brothers and sisters in Islam, today we speak about the relevance of our attachment to Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) in the context of our existence as Muslims living in the modern West.

In Muslim countries, with only a very small insignificant regrettable handful of exceptions, the Mawlid is a public holiday. Daily newspapers, as we all know, are filled with beautiful devotional poems which celebrate the birth of Sayyidina Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم). There are popular festivities within and outside the mosques, in the streets, which articulate a mass devotion to the blessed founder of our religion and hence to a public commitment to the Muslim values of the majority.

In many Muslim cultures, it seems sometimes that the Mawlid is a more committed, colorful affair than the two Eids. And the traditions which have grown up around it, which aim to deepen love for the messenger in the hearts of ordinary believers, are often very spectacular, very rich and very beautiful.

The Challenge in Western Societies

Now what happens when Islam is imported into the traditionally Judeo-Christian societies of the West? Well, frequently this aspect of our beautiful heritage is one of the first things to be neglected. A lot of mosques are adopting a kind of "return to the sources" type of Islam which believes that celebrations such as the Mawlid are unnecessary or even, in some cases, religiously unacceptable.

I do not wish to enter here the very well rehearsed argument over the Sharia status of Mawlid celebration. My own experience of study and travel in the Muslim world suggests that the complicated arguments can in fact very easily be bypassed by the observation that scholars and communities which cultivate a spiritual profundity are also those which recognize the legitimacy of Mawlid commemorations.

The Heart as Our Guide

Allah says in the Quran:

"But whoever opens his breast to disbelief, upon them is wrath from Allah, and for them is a great punishment."

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said in a beautiful hadith:

(Musnad Ahmad)

"Ask your heart for guidance, even if people give you fatwa after fatwa."

Individuals and communities which reject Mawlid tend to live a very dry, uninteresting, superficial kind of Islam which can never be more than second rate. To those seeking not merely rigorous authentication from the revelation but also a genuine devotional life, that Islam of the obsessive preoccupation with form and the neglect or even the denial of what lies beyond the form - the content - is simply not terribly appealing.

While there are entirely legitimate Sharia reasons for the celebration of Mawlid upheld by the large majority tradition within each of the four Sunni Madhabs, we can therefore go on to propose a further kind of argument.

The Mercy of Diversity

Hence when we look at the often very bewildering range of Islamic opinions clamoring for our attention today, we can apply a very simple principle. If a significant number of Sunni ulema are supporting a style of Islam, then its validity for us will depend on one thing, namely its effect on our hearts.

To suppose that there is only one valid form of Islamic practice - only one way to pray, only one way to dress, only one way to do business, only one way to calculate one's zakat and so on - is simply to deny Allah's mercy on this Ummah.

As the righteous Khalifa Umar bin Abdul Aziz said:

"The difference of opinion amongst the companions of your Prophet is a source of mercy."

Reference: Related by various classical scholars

All too often nowadays it seems that we simply reject this mercy in favor of our personal preference for a religion that is, as it were, totalitarian - that brooks no dissent, that regards diversity as a source of weakness rather than of strength.

Seeking the People of the Heart

So the Ummah is diverse and rightly so. And in the absence of a Christian-style hierarchy of priests to define and if necessary impose a single view on each opinion, this diversity is something that is inevitable. It is going to happen anyway, and it is a natural feature of Islam and of traditional Muslim communities.

Given this diversity, we should not attempt to find our own niche via a detailed study of evidences which, since most of us (including myself) are not ulema and mujtahids, we are unlikely to master adequately. But instead we should use a quite different criterion - the criterion of the heart, the qalb.

Given that there are so many groups and orientations within the wide, generous, broad circle of Islam, we should try to seek out those Muslims who consciously cultivate a life of the heart. That should be what we look for, and we can recognize them quite simply by their generosity, their serenity, by the nur, by the light in their faces. We can also recognize them very often by their tolerance of diversity.

The Reality Beyond Form

A rich inward life immediately reveals itself as the only priority and objective of religion. And once it is established in a Muslim heart, it shows the outward differences between believers in a more objective light. Compared to the true purpose of Islam, which is spiritual upliftment, arguments over the small details of fiqh are of comparatively lesser importance.

This is a vitally important fact, and it is a fact that large sections of the Ummah, particularly in our minority experience here in the West, have a tendency to lose sight of. It is not difficult to understand why this should have happened. The outward form, the shell, the husk of religion is easier to transplant into a new diaspora, into new minorities in the West, than is the inward reality.

The outward form - the fiqh, the formal belief system, the book Islam, the aqidah - all of this can be studied from texts that we can pack with us in suitcases. All of these things, the book Islam, can be packed very easily.

Second Khutbah: The Prophetic Example as Our Guide

The Living Example

But the living tradition, the transmitted spiritual culture, the accumulated wisdom of generations of saints and scholars - this is something much more delicate, much more fragile. It depends upon personal relationships, upon the blessing (baraka) that flows from teacher to student, upon the subtle influences of sacred environments and blessed company.

Allah reminds us in the Quran:

"There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and who remembers Allah often."

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was not merely a law-giver or a political leader. He was the perfect human being (al-insan al-kamil), the one in whom all the divine qualities were perfectly reflected in human form. To love him is not simply a matter of following his legal rulings, though that is certainly important. It is to try to embody his character, his compassion, his humility, his constant awareness of Allah.

The Prophetic Character

The Prophet's wife Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) was asked about his character, and she replied:

"His character was the Quran."

Reference: Sahih Muslim

This means that the Quran was not merely something he recited, but something he lived. Every verse was manifest in his behavior, every divine attribute was reflected in his human qualities to the extent that was possible for a created being.

Love and Following

Allah says in the Quran:

"Say: If you love Allah, then follow me, Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."

This verse makes it clear that love of Allah and love of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) are inseparable. We cannot claim to love Allah while neglecting or diminishing our love for His messenger. And this love is not merely emotional - it must be expressed in following his example.

The Spiritual Heart of Islam

The celebration of the Prophet's birth, the recitation of poetry in his praise, the gathering together to remember his life and teachings - all of these are means of kindling love in our hearts. And it is this love that transforms the mere observance of rules into a living, breathing spirituality.

The great Imam al-Busiri wrote in his famous Qasida:

"Muhammad is the master of both worlds and both races, and both groups of Arabs and non-Arabs."

Reference: Al-Burda (The Mantle) by Imam al-Busiri

Our Responsibility

In our communities here in the West, we have a particular responsibility to keep alive this tradition of love and devotion. We are surrounded by a culture that often values the material over the spiritual, the external over the internal. The celebration of the Prophet's life and character provides us with a spiritual anchor, a reminder of what truly matters.

When we gather to remember the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), we are not engaging in innovation (bid'a) as some claim. We are following the example of the vast majority of Muslim scholars throughout history, who recognized that the human heart needs these expressions of love and devotion to remain spiritually alive.

Conclusion

Brothers and sisters, let us not allow the dryness of excessive legalism to drain the beauty and spirituality from our faith. Let us seek out those who embody the light of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) in their character and behavior. Let us cultivate love for the one whom Allah sent as a mercy to all the worlds.

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

"None of you truly believes until I am more beloved to him than his father, his children, and all people."

Let us examine our hearts: is this love truly there? And if not, let us seek it through remembrance, through study of his life, through gathering with those who love him, and through celebrating the blessed day of his birth.

Closing Du'a

This khutbah has been formatted according to traditional Islamic sermon structure with appropriate Arabic text, proper harakat, and authentic references.