Muhammad The Role Model for the West

Muhammad: The Role Model for the West

A Khutbah by Yusha Evans

Opening

(بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ - bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim)

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ، نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ، وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا، مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ، وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ، صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ

All praise is due to Allah, we praise Him, we seek His help, and we seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from our bad deeds. Whoever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whoever He allows to go astray, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, without partners, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him.

Introduction: The Perfection of Islam

What an honor for us to be able to say that Allah revealed to this ummah that He perfected His religion, He made it kamal for us and He completed His ni'mah upon us and I have chosen for you Islam as your deen.

"This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion."

Reference: Surah Al-Ma'idah (5:3)

The Prophet said these words and Umar started to cry. Umar began to cry and the Prophet said, this is a good day, what caused you to cry Umar? Umar said, Ya Rasulullah, nothing comes after perfection except that which will destroy it.

Nothing comes after that which is perfected except that which will destroy it, meaning that we, we're going to take that perfection and destroy it by our own actions, we're not going to do what it's meant to be done. And the Prophet said, Ya Umar, you have indeed spoken the truth.

What an honor was given to this ummah if we only understood that we don't need to walk around apologizing for anything. Islam has nothing that needs to be apologized for, it's perfect. That which is perfect does not need

to be apologized for. We don't need to walk around as if we have some dark cloud over our head, we are Muslims alhamdulillah, Allah has given us honor.

We are not only Muslims, but we can say, I believe in Muhammad. If you only understood what that meant, that Allah chose you, Allah could have chosen to create you at any time throughout history and put you apart of any ummah, but Allah chose you to become a follower of Muhammad.

The Weight of This Message

Alhamdulillah, the job I have today of delivering this message is one that's heavy on my heart to be honest with you, wallahi it's something that I don't think I'm able to do properly or I don't think I'll be able to do justice to it. So I ask Allah to make this task easy upon me and hopefully that there is some benefit in my very short time to this subject.

The topic is about the greatest human being to ever walk the face of this planet, the role model for the entire world, the most beloved to the heart of any believer, our prophet, our messenger, our example, Muhammad.

My goal today is to instill within you some understanding of who Muhammad is and I say is because he is our messenger. Instill into you some understanding of who he is and why we are supposed to love him so much and why he should be presented as a role model for the world and why we should be doing our best to show his example to the world, not just tell them but show them.

I could have chosen many things to talk about, many, many, many, many, I could have taken this entire conference just on this subject, this entire conference could be replete with speakers one after another talking about this very subject and we all together could not have done justice to this man and his legacy.

The Farewell Sermon and the Passing of the Torch

But I chose to do something and speak about a part of his life that has profound effect upon me and it is one of the reasons I do what I do and it's one of the most motivating factors in my da'wah and when people ask me why did I choose to do this work and travel so much and this is why.

Our Prophet during the last year of his life after the treaty of Hudaybiyyah, the treaty of Hudaybiyyah had been signed a year earlier allowing for the Muslims to make hajj the following year. Our Prophet he made hajj from Medina to Mecca and showed us how to perform the sacred rites of pilgrimage for Allah.

At the end of this pilgrimage the Prophet called all of the Muslims to gather around him and he delivered to them what would become known as the farewell sermon. The farewell sermon which all of us as Muslims have heard many times.

It is narrated in so many chains by so many companions that we have zero doubt about its authenticity and what was said. Omar ibn al-Khattab narrates his version and Imam Ahmad recorded it in his Musnad. And Omar was

standing next to the Prophet and he said our messenger first and foremost told us to pay very close attention to what he had to say for he did not know whether he would be with us again at this time at this place after this meeting that he felt that maybe he was feeling that his death was becoming imminent and maybe he would not have this chance to speak to everyone of us again like this.

The First to Abolish Racism

So he said pay close attention to what I have to say. He spoke about and he was the first human being in recorded history that we have written down, written in black and white through an authentic chain of narration to abolish racism, abolish nationalism, abolish prejudice by saying:

"The white of you is not better than the black of you and the black of you is not better than the white of you. The Arab is not better than the non-Arab and the non-Arab is not better than the Arab. You are all the same in the eyes of Allah. You are equal. The only of you that is better than the other one is the one who has more taqwa."

Reference: Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 23489

That's the best of you. But when it comes to color and when it comes to nationality, when it comes to where you're from, you're all the same. He also abolished shirk and said never worship anything other than Allah and he forbade shirk to ever enter into the Arabian Peninsula ever again.

He warned us about shaitan saying that shaitan has given up on you in the big things in getting you to worship other than Allah in these lands openly. He said, but beware of him in the minor sins. Beware of him in the small things. Look for him in the small things. This is where he will try to trick you and deceive you. So don't take your small sins and your minor things as minor.

Rights of Women

He also spoke about women and told the brothers specifically that your women, your wives, your sisters, your mothers, they are an amanah, they are a trust. Be careful in how you are dutiful towards them. And he said this many times during his life.

"The best of you are those who are best to their family and I am the best of you in regards to this."

Reference: Jami' at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3895

We can never undervalue our sisters. You have to understand that when Adam was created, Allah took from him his rib and created Hawa. He was incomplete. He became incomplete when Allah removed something from him

to create his mate and he became complete again in his relationship to her. Our mothers, our daughters, our sisters are the institutions of knowledge for our children.

He also abolished riba, abolished cheating one another in business, taking money unlawfully. Earn what you earn. But he said something in this khutbah which affects me very much in that he told the people in front of him:

"Those of you who are here today, convey this message to those that are not here. For it may be that the one you tell this message to from me may even understand it better than you."

Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3461

The Greatest Nation with the Greatest Task

You see something happened on this day that I don't think we as an ummah have realized until now. And I will continue to say this until the day we get it. We were given such a ni'mah on that day that created an ummah that would be:

"You are the best nation produced for mankind."

Reference: Surah Ali 'Imran (3:110)

You see every other prophet that came before our prophet, he delivered his message to his ummah and then his farewell message to his ummah was to hold on to the message until the next prophet came. Hold on to the message.

Allah says in surah bayyinah:

"They were not commanded except but to worship Allah, make the deen pure for him, establish prayer, that was the right way for them."

Reference: Surah Al-Bayyinah (98:5)

Why? Because another nabi was coming, another prophet was coming, another messenger was coming. Allah would continue to send wahi down. So just hold on to what you have.

But our prophet, our messenger was khataman nabiyyin. He was the seal of all prophets. He was the end of it. There would be no more after him. He said after me there will be no more messengers. He said and if there were to be a messenger after me it would have been Umar. But there will be no more.

So he understood that my life is coming to an end but there are going to be generations after me. I am only the first sign of the day of qiyamah. There will be many more people to come after me. This message from Allah has to continue to be delivered to mankind.

The Torch Passed to Us

So who is going to do the job? On that day he took the torch of conveying the message, the torch of risalah of conveying the message to mankind and that torch before him had only been handed from Jibreel to the anbiya. Our prophet looked at us and he handed us that torch and he said the job that I did for the past 23 years that's now your job. That's what you're going to do.

That's your legacy now. That's your occupation is to continue to convey this message. I don't think we understand the izzah that Allah gave us on that day.

On that day Allah made us the greatest nation because we do the greatest work. The work that Allah had only entrusted to the best of humanity throughout time. Allah now entrusted that great job, that great task, that heavy burden to this ummah.

It's not for any reason that Allah told his prophet that your ummah will be the best ummah, the greatest ummah, the biggest ummah and on the day of qiyamah I will make them the first ummah in front of everyone. That's not for no reason. That's the izzah that this ummah has is that we follow the greatest prophet who gave us the greatest task.

It's not for no reason. It's not for no reason that after on the day of qiyamah when all of the anbiya have entered into jannah because they get to go first. After all of them have entered into jannah and then the gates of jannah are closed.

All of a sudden all eight gates of jannah will open. You know each one of us if we make it to jannah and we ask Allah to grant us all jannah, say ameen, we want jannah. Each one of us will have a specific gate which we will walk through and that gate is just for you and you can only go through that gate, that's your gate.

But after the anbiya have entered all eight gates will open and every angel who guards those gates will call for one man and they will be begging that one man to enter through their gate. Give them the honor, give me the honor of you having walked into jannah through my gate.

What name will they call for? They will call for Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. Abu Bakr as-Siddiq come through my gate. That's the honor of this ummah. The next one to enter after the anbiya will be one of us. What honor this ummah has, what dignity this community has that no one has.

The Prophet's Testament

Our prophet after giving us that dignity and honor from Allah, he raised his fingers to the heavens and he said:

"O Allah bear witness. O Allah bear witness. O Allah bear witness three times I have given them the message."

Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1218

He was telling Allah you gave me a job to do 23 years ago when you told me: Get up and go warn them, you gave me a job to do. You told me to do that and I did it. Now my time is coming to an end and I have delivered that task to the greatest nation.

He's telling Allah, O Allah I delivered them the message. And Allah responded to him. This day upon the backs of this ummah, think about it brothers and sisters. On the backs of this ummah, on the backs of this nation, Allah said this day have I completed your religion.

The way of life that Allah began with Adam and he passed down through the anbiya. Allah decided that on the backs of this ummah, the ummah of Muhammad, I'm going to complete my way of life for mankind.

What an honor for us to be able to say that Allah revealed to this ummah that he perfected his religion. He made it kamal for us. And he completed his ni'mah upon us and I have chosen for you Islam as your deen.

The prophet said these words and Umar started to cry. Umar began to cry and the prophet said this is a good day what caused you to cry ya Umar. Umar said ya Rasulullah nothing comes after perfection except that which will destroy it. Nothing comes after that which is perfected except that which will destroy it.

Meaning that we, we, we're going to take that perfection and destroy it by our own actions. We're not going to do what it's meant to be done. And the prophet said ya Umar you have indeed spoken the truth.

What an honor was given to this ummah if we only understood that we don't need to walk around apologizing for anything. Islam has nothing that needs to be apologized for. It's perfect. That which is perfect does not need to be apologized for. We don't need to walk around as if we have some dark cloud over our head. We are Muslims alhamdulillah Allah has given us honor.

We are not only Muslims but we can say I believe in Muhammad. If you only understood what that meant that Allah chose you. Allah could have chosen to create you at any time throughout history and put you a part of any ummah. But Allah chose you to become a follower of Muhammad.

The Final Days of the Prophet

During the last week of the prophet's life he came back from a battle and he had eaten some food from a Jewish woman from Khyber and it was poisoned. The food was poisoned and the effects didn't take hold right away. But after a little bit of time the prophet started to feel ill. He felt sick. He started to get really sick.

So one morning he went to the graveyard of Baqi in Medina and he went with Abu Huraira and some of the other companions. You see our prophet felt like death might be approaching him. So where does he go? He goes

and reminds himself of the next life and to remind us he goes to the graveyard of Baqi and he makes a very long dua for the people of Baqi and he says to them you've beaten us.

He says to the people of Baqi you've beaten us to the next life but we inshallah we'll join you shortly. We'll join you shortly and I give you glad tidings of Jannah. And then he turns to Abu Huraira and the companions that are with him and he says something that catches them off guard.

Something that is a beloved statement from our messenger. He said the only thing that I'm going to miss, one of the things that I'm going to miss the most from this life is that I won't get to meet my brothers. Allah Akbar.

The Prophet's Love for His Ummah

He said I won't get to meet my brothers and I'm going to miss that. Abu Huraira was shocked by this statement. You know what he felt is Ya Rasulullah are we not your brothers? We're right here, we're with you, what's wrong with you? What's happening? We're here.

The prophet said:

"No, you are my companions. My brothers will come later on in time and they will believe in me like you believe in me but they will have never had the chance to meet me. I just wish I could have met them."

Sahih Muslim, Hadith 249

He was speaking about us. This is why Allah says about the prophet to the believers he is.

He said I'm going to miss not being able to meet my brothers who are going to believe in me without seeing me. And Abu Huraira asked him, oh messenger of Allah, will you ever get to meet them? Will you ever be able to meet them the way you want to meet them? And he said yes, I'll meet them. I'll meet them when I'm standing by Al-Kawthar, by the Haud, on the day of Qiyamah, I'll meet them.

I'll call them one by one. I'll call each and every one of them by their name and I will give them to drink from my fountain with my own hand. And Abu Huraira said, oh messenger of Allah, how are you going to know them? How are you going to know them?

He said, oh Abu Huraira, if there was someone who owns horses, some of them are black, some of them are black with white stripes, they have white backs, they have white faces, can that person not differentiate between the black ones and the striped ones? Abu Huraira said yes.

He said by this I will know my companions. I will know my brothers. They will come forward with white faces, with white arms and white legs from the traces of the wudu that they made.

Abu Huraira said after this he used to always make his wudu and add extra to it. He said I will know them and I will call them one by one. I will give them to drink of the water that will never make them be able to be thirsty

again from my own hand.

So I will meet them. But the fact that he said he wished to meet us, it's hard to grasp the love of this man for his ummah, for his people.

His Final Concern

On the way back from Baqi, he made another very long dua because he started to feel very ill. And at the end of it he said:

"Oh Allah, ummati, ummati. Oh Allah, my ummah, my ummah."

Sahih Muslim, Hadith 202

And Allah told Jibreel, go find out what is causing the Messenger of Allah to cry, even though Allah knows. He said, Jibreel, go find out. And Jibreel came to the Messenger of Allah and said, Allah wants to know even though he's well aware what makes you cry. He said, ummati, ummati.

I'm worried about my ummah after me. I'm afraid for them. How much he worried about us. He said, I'm worried about them, the difficulties they're going to face, and I'm not going to be there to help them.

And then Allah told Jibreel, tell my Messenger, tell the best of my creation that I will make him happy with his ummah. I will make him pleased with his ummah and I will not grieve him over them.

Allahu Akbar. He promised his Messenger, I will not grieve you over them, I will make you pleased with them. This is who we are. This is the man that we follow.

The Final Illness

After that, when he made it back to the masjid, he called all of his wives together. You see, this is the wisdom and the love of our Prophet. Very wise. He called all of his wives together and yes, he married different many women, but it was not out of any desire. He married women who were divorced. He married women from different tribes. He married the freed slaves. He married women that were older than him, younger than him, bringing everyone together and also showing the exemplar of how to take care of women and that everyone was equal.

He asked all of his wives, who do you think I should stay with tomorrow? Who do you think I should stay with tomorrow? Because he was getting sick, he was very sick. And they all understood what was meant by the question. They understood it.

And look at how beautiful their response is, how they understand their husband. And they said, you can stay at the house of Aisha. They understood how much he loved her, but he would never impose his will on them

because he gave each one of them rights.

So he asked them, who can I stay with tomorrow? They said, you can stay with Aisha. It made him very happy. And he went to the house of Aisha and she said, he laid his head on my sternum, between my neck and my chest, he laid his head there.

His Humility in Illness

And look what Aisha said to him. She said, I told him, Ya Rasulullah, I have a headache. And the reason why she said that is, you know, sometimes brothers, your wives will complain to you and tell you they don't feel well. And it's maybe that they don't feel well, but they want some attention from you, they want some compassion from you. They want something from you.

So Aisha used to do this to the Prophet often and tell him, Oh, Ya Rasulullah, I have a headache. And he used to always make dua for her when she said this. This is why she would say it, because she know the Prophet would make dua for her.

But this time and this time only was the first time he ever responded to her by saying, Oh Aisha, today my head hurts. Today I am the one who is in pain. But then he said, But if you want, I will make dua for you.

This is our messenger. He said, If you want, I will make dua for you and may Allah heal you. She said she understood at that time that he was really sick. She understood. And she heard him praising Allah. She heard him saying that he wanted to be with the anbiya. He wanted to be with the shuhada. He wanted to be with the siddiqeen.

This is the best of Allah's creation, but he's still asking that he wants to be in the best company. The humbleness of our messenger in his ibadah is something you cannot grasp. The humbleness that this man had in his ibadah to Allah.

Then he asked, had the people prayed, and I'm making a very long story short, because he couldn't get up. He was passing out unconscious. He asked for buckets of water to be brought, seven of them, and dumped them on him. This is also part of the prophetic healing.

Brothers and sisters, if your children get ill with a fever, put water on them. This is the prophetic medicine for this. If you feel feverish yourself, dump water on yourself.

After the seventh one, he said that's enough, and he felt better, and he was wiping his face. And then he was falling unconscious. He asked, have the people prayed. Aisha said, they're waiting for you. He said, have the people prayed. When he woke up again, they said, they're waiting for you.

Abu Bakr Leads the Prayer

So he had someone, his cousins, pick him up and start to carry him towards the masjid. And he told them, go get

Abu Bakr and tell him to lead the salah. And they complained. Aisha said, Ya Rasulullah, my father, he's very, the people, you know, he cries too much in his salah, and he has a soft voice. Why don't we let Omar do it?

The Prophet repeated again, tell Abu Bakr to lead the salah. They said the same thing. After that, he was very firm with them. Tell Abu Bakr to lead the salah. He was not taking any other recourse.

And Abu Bakr was hiding. Abu Bakr, they had to go find him because Abu Bakr did not want to step in front of the Prophet while he was alive. But Abu Bakr went to lead the salah, and our Prophet was brought forward.

He saw that Abu Bakr was in front of the people, and he smiled. But then Abu Bakr tried to step back, and our Prophet motioned to him to stay. No, no, no, stay. And he had a chair, he had a chair put next to Abu Bakr, and he prayed with him in the front right next to him.

The Final Sermon

After the salah, our Prophet, very weak, barely able to speak, he delivered another long sermon about taking care of the Ansar, how the Ansar were so special to him, but they would become very few in number, like salt in a big bucket of water, so make sure you take care of them. And he praised the Muhajirun.

But then listen to what he said. The first thing he said was, if I've ever harmed any of you. This is the best of Allah's creation, saying if I've ever harmed any of you, and if I owe anything to any one of you, if any one of you thinks that I owe him something, or I've done him some wrong, then take your rights back from me now.

One man said you owe me a few dinar, and the Prophet said give it to him. Another man stood up and said, O Messenger of Allah, one day you slapped me in the stomach. When the Prophet was straightening the rows for salah, he tapped the man in the stomach, his stomach was too far out.

He was either, you, know, telling him push your back or go on a diet. So he tapped his stomach lightly. But the man is saying, you smacked my stomach, I want my right. So the Prophet lifted up his shirt and said, take your right from me. And the man came forward and kissed his blessed stomach. He said, I only said that so I could kiss you.

And then the Prophet said, a man has been given a choice between staying in this world or going to be with Allah, and he has chosen to go be with Allah. And Abu Bakr cried out with tears in his eyes:

"May our mothers and fathers be sacrificed for you, O Messenger of Allah."

And the people were wondering, why is Abu Bakr crying? He's only talking about a man who was given a choice to be with Allah or stay here. And then the people started to realize the Prophet was talking about himself.

So the Prophet went back to the room with Aisha. He became even more sick. Sometime a couple of days had passed, he became sick. But on Monday, on a Monday, the Prophet was laying his head again on the chest of Aisha.

Aisha's brother walked into the room and he was carrying a miswak. And the Prophet, Aisha understood her husband because he was looking at the miswak. She understood her husband. She asked him, O Messenger of Allah, do you want it? And he motioned, yes, I want it. So she took the miswak and she brushed his teeth. He brushed his teeth the best that he could.

After that Aisha said she took it from him and she brushed her own teeth so that she could one more time taste the saliva of her husband.

Then the angel of death, this is something we're not privy to, Aisha wasn't privy to, but when the angel of death comes to you or I, when the angel of death presents himself to you or I, it's a one-sided conversation. Soul come out. Either blessed soul come out easy, evil soul is going to be ripped out, but one way or the other that soul is coming out. There is no, there's no conversation that takes place. You might say, Rabbi, my Lord, send me back. But it's not going to happen. The soul is coming out.

But with the Anbiya, there's a different modus operandus that the angel of death abides by. He needs to take permission. This is the respect that Allah gave to the Anbiya that even the angel of death needs to seek permission.

And the Prophet ﷺ said before dying, all of the Anbiya were shown their places in Jannah. They were shown their final resting place. The angel of death came and took permission from the Prophet, giving them the choice.

Aisha said she heard the Prophet:

"Be with the companion on most high, be with the companion on most high, be with the companion on most high."

She said then she started him looking up at the ceiling as the Prophet said the eyes follow the soul. And the angel of death took the greatest soul that Allah had ever created and that Allah will ever have created and placed it in the highest ranks of Jannah. And our Prophet ﷺ died on a Monday.

The Companions' Grief

And Aisha said she felt him get heavier and heavier on her chest until she realized he was gone. And she couldn't handle it. She couldn't take it. She couldn't handle it. She laid him down and she covered him with a very simple Yemeni cloth.

And she went out to the masjid and was screaming, Ya Rasulullah. Oh Rasulullah is gone. He's gone. There's no more Wahi. There's no more Quran. There's no nothing. He's gone.

The companions that were leaving, there was a few people around, they stopped. They were trying to really grasp. Did she say what she just said? This is something very, very few of them could even handle. She said he's gone.

When that word was given to Umar, when Umar was told Muhammad ﷺ is dead. Umar, this is the same man, you have to understand, this is the same man that two decades ago, this same man had a sword in his hand on his way to the house of Muhammad ﷺ ready to kill him, to end the message, to end the man, to end Islam, to end the Muslims.

Now this same man has a sword in his hand. Why? Because he cannot bear to even grasp or recognize the thought that this man Muhammad, whom he loves more than his own soul, is dead. And he is saying whoever says Muhammad is dead, you're a hypocrite and I will cut your neck.

Uthman said his legs got weak and he couldn't hold him up anymore. He fell down.

Abu Bakr's Leadership

Abu Bakr, who was a distance away, he had taken permission because the day before the Prophet seemed as if he was getting better on Sunday. He took permission to leave for a little while. The news was given to him that Muhammad is dead. He immediately dropped everything and he ran to the house of Aisha, his daughter.

He walked into the room where the Prophet was covered and he uncovered his face and they said that his tears started to fall and drop on the face of the Prophet. And he said:

"You are beautiful in life and you are beautiful in death."

And he covered his face and he went outside to the masjid and there was confusion going on. You see our Prophet knew who should be the leader after him. The one who kept it all together. Abu Bakr stood up on the minbar of the Prophet and he said:

"O people, whosoever worshipped Muhammad, know that Muhammad is dead. He's died. But whosoever worships Allah, know that Allah is al hayy. He is alive and he never dies."

Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3668

And then he recited the very beautiful verse:

"Muhammad is nothing but a messenger and the messengers have passed away before him. If he dies or he is killed, would you then turn back?"

Reference: Surah Ali 'Imran (3:144)

The companion said it was as if the Quran was being revealed to us again for the first time. Omar said when he heard that it was as if he had heard the Quran again for the first time.

This was our leader after the Prophet, Abu Bakr who kept it together, kept it together and they realized that he was gone. They said that on that day they were like sheep whose shepherd had left them on a cold dark night. They didn't know what they were supposed to do next.

The Sadness of Um Ayman

And wallahi, wallahi, wallahi, that is the saddest day in human history. The day that our Prophet died is the worst and saddest day of humanity. There was a woman on that day who completely understood what had just happened.

And this is how I will begin to wrap it up and why I'm telling you this. There was a woman on that day who understood what had happened. Her name was Um Ayman. Anybody know who Um Ayman was? She's the woman who took care of the Prophet after his mother died. She became his mother for the rest of his life.

If you want to look brothers how to treat your mother, go look at the way the Prophet dealt with Um Ayman. She was his mother after his mother. Whenever she walked into the room he would jump up, give her his spot, give her the attention a mother deserves.

She became sad on that day and she said something that is profound. She said the sadness of this day is because the wahi from Allah has stopped. She said the Prophet was gonna die, he's human, he dies, but the sadness is that the wahi, the revelation is stopped. Allah will not speak to us ever again until the day we meet him. The communication between Allah and his creation is gone.

There are no more prophets. Jibril's job is retired for now. The wahi is no more.

The Companions Understood Their Duty

But you see those companions understood something about that reality that we have failed to grasp in the 21st century. They understood that yes the wahi has stopped and that's only because Allah said everything that he needed to say and that revelation is with us. Al-Quran, kalamullah.

The companions understood that and they understood that yes maybe Muhammad ﷺ, the deliverer of that message to us from Allah has gone but that does not mean that humanity has to stop hearing the wahi. That does not mean that the words of Allah die on earth.

They knew that the only way that this wahi, this revelation would continue to live amongst mankind was if they did the job that was left to them in the farewell sermon to go and convey the message and they did it flawlessly.

They did it the best. They were the exemplars in that after the Prophet. This is why Allah said about them:

"You are the best nation produced for mankind."

Reference: Surah Ali 'Imran (3:110)

They were the best ummah. They were the best. We have to say alhamdulillah for them. We have to say alhamdulillah for Abu Bakr, alhamdulillah for Umar, for Uthman, Abdulrahman Ibn Auf, Abu Ubaidah Ibn al-Jarrah, Aisha, all of them.

We have to say alhamdulillah for them because they did their job and because of their efforts the deen spreads. Look what it's become today. One and a half billion people on earth who are living their legacy, who still say Muhammad ar-Rasulullah because of the efforts they made.

What About Us?

What about us? What are we doing with our lives? What are we doing with our lives? When the people of Norway, when the people of Oslo look at you, they should see the living legacy of the man named Muhammad ﷺ. When the people of the world look at this ummah, they should be seeing the ummah of Muhammad.

They should be seeing the legacy of Abu Bakr. They should be seeing the legacy of Uthman. They should be seeing the legacy of Aisha. They should be seeing the legacy of Fatima. They should be seeing the legacy of these people in us. We have a chance now.

Allah has given us the spotlight. I remember there was a time when there was a time we begged for media coverage about Islam. We begged for them to look at us. We begged for them to pay us attention. Now we have their undivided attention.

We have the world's undivided attention. They want to know what you are doing. They want to know what you are saying. They want to know what you're eating. They want to know where you're sleeping. They want to know everything about you and we act as if that's a bad thing.

Wallahi it's a ni'mah from Allah that they want this. Let them look. I've told the government agencies in America put a camera in my house. I don't care. Tap my phone. I don't care. I want you to see me. This is why I do what I do. I want you to see me.

I want you to see what I have. I have a message from the creator of all things delivered to me by the greatest human being to ever walk the face of this earth and carried out through history through the greatest human beings that have ever walked this planet. I have a message for you.

So look, listen, please. We have that opportunity now brothers and sisters that the world wants to know what you have. Give it to them. Give it to them. Allow them to see it in your life. Stop walking around with your head held down. Stop frowning. Stop being sad. You have Islam. You have something that will make you everything.

My Personal Motivation

I finish with this. Every time I have to go on a trip and I'm gone for many days, my three children ask me why I have to go so much. My 10 year old son asked me, dad, why are you not here to put me to bed at night? Why are you not here to take me to school in the morning? My daughter, my smallest, who is the apple of her father's eye, cries. She cries every time I kiss her goodbye and I'm leaving. It breaks my heart.

And I tell them that I'm doing this. I'm doing this in sincere hopes that I can live up to the standard of the people who followed Muhammad and that maybe, maybe through my efforts to try to emulate his life, I can get to drink that water from his hand at the hawd one day. That's all I want.

That's all I care about. That's why I do it. You think this is easy traveling? No, it's not easy. This is rough. It's a rough life. If it were being paid by per hour, wouldn't be worth enough. You'd go beg in the streets for better. But we do it because we care. There's a concern right here that I want to live up to the standard of the man whom I say I follow.

I want to live up to that. And I tell my children every day, even if I don't come back, even if I don't make it back from this trip, if you grow up with Islam in your heart, to me you will have made me the proudest father. I don't care if you end up homeless. I don't care if you end up poor. I don't care if you end up eating out of trash cans. I don't care if you're sleeping on park benches.

I don't care what else you become in this life. I don't care. If you die with that Islam deep in your heart and the last words out of your mouth are la ilaha illallah I'll be happy.

But if you leave this Islam, I've told my 10 year old, you understand, if you leave this Islam, I don't care if you become a rocket scientist. I don't care if you go to Mars. I don't care if you become the president. I don't care if you become a billionaire. I don't care what the world thinks you are. To me you failed.

You failed and you have nothing. Because with your Islam you have everything even if you have nothing else. Without Islam you are and you have nothing. I don't care if the world is at your feet.

Questions and Answers

Question: How do you meet Muhammad in your dreams?

No there's no quantifiable answer for that. Allah gives those whom he wills to see our prophet in their dreams. One thing that I do know is that your iman needs to be in check. You need to have right iman and if you see the

prophet you've been blessed.

And our prophet said:

"If you see me in your dream then you truly have seen me because I am the one person shaitan cannot imitate."

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6993)

Shaitan cannot imitate me so if you've seen me then you actually see me and we know many people who have seen the prophet. We ask that we have that blessed opportunity to see him in our dreams inshallah and if not inshallah we see him on the day of qiyamah when we take that water from his hand from the hawd inshallah.

Question: When the angel of death asked prophet Muhammad about whether he wanted to die or not did he actually have a choice to live on?

That's a tough question to answer. Only Allah knows. But for sure for him the choice was easy. The choice was easy to be able to go and be with Allah. That was that was his greatest desire. The only thing greater than his desire to meet Allah is to see good for his ummah.

That was the prophet's two main concerns throughout the rest of his entire life. From the time he received prophethood to the time he died he had two concerns. Number one to please Allah and meet him and be with him. And number two was to see the good in this ummah. To protect this ummah from hardship.

Allah says in the Qur'an:

"When hardship befalls you it grieves him."

(Surah At-Tawbah (9:128))

This is how much he cared about us. So yes he desired to meet Allah. It's a dignity that Allah gives the anbiya to ask them this question. It's a dignity for them. But the anbiya's choice would have been very simple. That they wanted to meet Allah. And the prophet knew that he had done his job and he had left in good hands. So he willingly went to meet Allah.

The Qur'an and Sunnah Are Inseparable

Question: Did Allah ever allow the prophet ﷺ to compromise anything with any tribe or in any situation which can be relevant for our situation today as Muslims?

No. No part of the religion was the prophet able to compromise. Allah even said if he tried to change something Allah would have struck him. So no he was not. He delivered the message exactly as it was delivered to him. He did not change anything. He did not compromise any part of it. He delivered it exactly exactly verbatim the way it was given to him. And he lived that message.

This is why the Qur'an by itself you were supposed to have an attachment to the Qur'an. You're supposed to have a connection to Al-Qur'an. This is your connection to Allah in this world. I once was sitting with Shaykh Abdullah Amin Ash-Shinqiti after fajr in Medina and he was talking about the Qur'an and its connection between us and Allah that it was our connection and I asked him about the salah. Is not the salah our connection?

He asked me a very beautiful question that changed how I think about the Qur'an. He said Yusha what salah are you going to pray that doesn't have the Qur'an in it? Which salah are you going to give to Allah that doesn't contain his book? He said so even in that primal act of worship the salah it still has to have the Qur'an in it. He said so this is our connection this book never let go of this book.

So this shows us the beauty of Al-Qur'an. But now being so far disconnected from the time of the prophet the Qur'an is sufficient. It is sufficient but it needs to be understood on its implementation. This is where the sunnah comes in. This is why the two are inseparable. You cannot take the Qur'an and sunnah and separate one from another.

They are part and parcel to one another. The prophet said:

"I was given the Qur'an and that which is like it."

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4604)

The sunnah - what is the sunnah? The sunnah is the living embodiment of the Qur'an. It is the living exemplification of the Qur'an in our lives. That's how you do it. This is why the prophet said:

"There is nothing that would bring you closer to Allah except that I already commanded you to do it. And there is nothing that will distance you from Allah except that I have already commanded you to stay away from it."

This new idea about separating the Qur'an and sunnah. That you can have just the Qur'an and no sunnah. That you don't need the sunnah. This is madness. This is a witchcraft almost on some levels. To believe in this nonsense that you can have al-Qur'an without the sunnah. The prophet forbade us of this idea.

He said:

"Never let me find you reclining on your couch and saying that the Qur'an is sufficient for me."

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4604)

And I had a debate with one of these people who professed this idea of Qur'an only. And it's taking hold very firmly in the west. It's starting to enter into America. This crazy idea. And I told him look I'll give you a challenge. If you can do it I will submit to your ideology.

I said take a Qur'an. A kitab. A book of Allah. Take a Qur'an. Go into a closet. Into a closet. Close the door. Turn off the light. And read that Qur'an for me. Open the page. Any page. And read from it.

He said there would be no way to do that. It would be dark. I said this is the Qur'an without the sunnah. It's dark. You can't understand it like that. You're not able to just read Qur'an and say I'm supposed to implement this way.

Your mind was not gifted like that. None of us was. Even the companions were not gifted like this. They followed the example of the Prophet. They did what he said do and it was very serious. We cannot take that matter lightly anymore.

The Commands of the Prophet Were Revelation

That is destroying this ummah. When the Prophet told the companions to do something it was wahi. It was revelation. There was one companion who said one day we were leaving the masjid. And everybody was leaving after salah. And the Prophet called out to his gathering to sit down.

He said the people who were standing outside they sat down. Outside. The people who were inside they sat down. He said I was in halfway in the door halfway out the door. He said I sat down in the door. This is how they responded to the commands of the Prophet.

And all he wanted to tell them was that the door for women was always the door for women. This door is going to always be for women. Let no one else ever come in through this door. But this is how they took what he said.

There's a reason why the Prophet said:

"If I did not think it would be burdensome on you I would have commanded you to use a miswak before every salah."

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 887)

Why did he say if I didn't think it would be a burden on you? Why? Because he knew and understood that had he told us to do it it would become part of the arkan of the salah. You would have to do it or your salah wouldn't be right. And that would be a hardship.

Every day we got to go you got to go run. Oh I left my miswak. I can't pray. We'd have to go dig up a tree and cut a stick or go find a store. It'd be very difficult for us. No miswak no salah.

And the Prophet understood his words were like that. If he told us to do something we had to do it. His commands with regards to the deen were wahi. They were from Allah and not from his head. So when he told us to do something do it.

He said:

"Every one of my ummah will go to jannah except those who refuse."

All of my ummah will end up in jannah except those who refuse. They said who would refuse ya Rasulullah? He said:

"Those who follow me they will enter. They will go to jannah. Those who disobey me they have disobeyed."

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 7280)

We don't want to be like these people. This is our connection. If our connection to Allah is the Qur'an our connection to the Qur'an is Muhammad . That's how we know it. You separate one you sever the whole connection. You can't have one without the other. They are both very very important.

The True Sunnah: Caring for People

But let me just add on two small things. The sunnah is not just eating with your right hands. That's not the entirety of the sunnah. The sunnah is not just wearing a thawb. This is not the whole sunnah. Sleeping on your right sides. Entering the bathroom with the left. This is not the entirety of the sunnah. These are all part and parcel to the sunnah.

But the sunnah of the Prophet was to deliver the message to care about human people. You see our Prophet ﷺ was the best humanitarian that ever walked the face of this earth. He really cared about people. It wasn't just a fake concern. He truly cared. When he saw people disobeying Allah it hurt his heart. He cared about people. He grieved over them. He worried about them.

We don't show that same concern. That is the sunnah of the Prophet is to care. To have that heart that cares about people and their relationship to Allah. That concern needs to come back to this ummah.

We have to act like we care. Not just doing it just for face value. But when we see these people in the streets we need to care about whether or not they go to Jannah or Jahannam. We have to show them that we care. When there are hungry people in the streets of Norway even if they're not Muslim we have to show them that we care about that. That we care about the poverty of the world.

That we care about the homelessness of the world. That we care about the abuse, the spousal abuse, the child abuse, the drug abuse, the alcohol abuse. We care. We have concern because we want to live in a good world.

We want to raise our children in a good world. So we care about you.

Our Prophet had that concern and it showed in his actions. It showed in what he did and how he spoke and how he dealt with people and his interactions with non-Muslims. It was evident his concern and his care.

Our Responsibility as Da'is

We have to start caring more than about ourselves. On the day of judgment you can be worried about you nafsi nafsi. But right now we also have to be concerned with those who are lost.

We are the shepherds of this world just like all of the prophets were the shepherds of humanity. We are the shepherds of this world trying to guide humanity away from the chaos of disobedience to Allah, of shirk, of ignorance, of the sins, of the crimes. We are the shepherds trying to lead them away from this.

This is our job and we need to take it seriously. Every Muslim whether you accept this or not is a da'i or a da'ia. You have no choice in the matter. You don't have an option.

Allah says in surah an-nahl:

"Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction."

(Reference: Surah An-Nahl (16:125))

The word da'wa Allah said in the command state grammatically calling you and ordering you to give da'wa and we all have the excuse that we don't know how. All of us have to understand that if Allah gave you a command you have to fulfill it and ignorance in the matter is not an excuse.

If I were to tell you I've been Muslim for 18 years but I don't pray because I never learned how to pray would you excuse me for that? Am I excused from not praying? No. Why? I don't know how. What's my responsibility? To learn how to pray.

So if Allah commands you to fast not knowing how doesn't excuse you. You have to learn how. That which is obligatory the knowledge of it is always also obligatory.

So if Allah has commanded you to da'wa and you say you don't know how then you need to be learning. That is your role right now. We cannot excuse ourselves any longer because that excuse won't work on the day of judgment.

When you have a neighbor who you lived beside for 20 years when you have people who have entered into your business for 20 years who die without Islam and they knew you they knew who you were you knew them. They won't have any excuse in front of Allah but they will have the right to complain about you. That my neighbor fulan was a Muslim he knew about Allah he knew about you he knew about all of this he knew what was going to happen to me when I died he didn't tell me anything.

It might not excuse him but it might shackle us because we are responsible. Is the world lost? Yes or no? What can fix a lost world? The truth. The truth fixes lost people.

Who are the only people on this world as part of our aqeedah, a yaqeen for us? Who are the only people in this world with absolute truth? The Muslims. So if the truth is the solution to a lost world then whose responsibility is it? The people who have that truth. And we are going to be asked.

Allah will ask you and if you don't think so then you're fooling yourself. Allah is going to ask you what did you do with all of those people that you were living you were living in the west you were living as a non-Muslim minority. What did you do? How did you help them? What did you do with this message this ni'mah I gave you? How did you share it? It will be part of your questioning.

Believe me the prophet himself even worried about this questioning that he would be given by Allah for his job of conveying the message. That's what kept him up at night. That's what kept him up.

He would stand at night and cry and pray until his feet cracked open. And Aisha asked him:

"Why do you do this when you've already been forgiven?"

He said:

"Then should I not be grateful?"

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 4836)

How much gratitude do we show? How much gratitude do we truly show to Allah for the gift that he gave us that we didn't even ask for? Some of us we wanted it. We wanted it. We came to Islam but Allah had already written it for us. So where is our gratitude?

Closing Dua

May Allah bless all of you and I look forward to seeing you for the rest of the day and tomorrow inshaAllah.

Glory be to You, O Allah, and all praise is for You. I bear witness that there is no deity except You. I seek Your forgiveness and I repent to You.

End of Khutbah