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1. EP 001 - 010 [PDF] [DOCX]

2. EP 011 - 020 [PDF] [DOCX]

3. EP 021 - 030 [PDF] [DOCX]

4. EP 031 - 040 [PDF] [DOCX]

5. EP 041 - 050 (coming soon, insha'Allah)

6. EP 051 - 060 (coming soon, insha'Allah)

7. EP 061 - 070 (coming soon, insha'Allah)

8. EP 071 - 080 (coming soon, insha'Allah)

9. EP 081 - 090 (coming soon, insha'Allah)

10. EP 091 - 101 (coming soon, insha'Allah)

Sunday, November 29, 2015

001 - Specialties of Prophet Muhammad SAW

Insha'Allah (إن شاء الله - God willing), before we embark on the journey of seerah, we will study the Prophet's PBUH (ﷺ - May Allah Sends Blessings and Peace Upon Him/Peace Be Upon Him) shama'il (شمائل - characteristics) to build up even greater eagerness and motivation to learn about the life and times, the lessons and morals, the incidents that occurred, in the life of our Prophet Muhammad PBUH.

Where do we begin when it comes to describing the one whom Allah (الله) has chosen above the entire creation. How can we do justice to him when Allah AWJ (Azza wa Jal/عز وجل - Mighty and the Majestic) Himself says, "We have raised up your remembrance and mention" [see Quran, 94:4]. And indeed, Ibn Abbas (ابن عباس) and other scholars of the sahaba (صحابة - Companions of the Prophet) said, "Allah has raised up his remembrance such that whenever Allah is mentioned, the Prophet PBUH is mentioned right after." Allah SWT (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala/سبحانه وتعالى - Glorified and Exalted be He) Himself called our Prophet PBUH a "Rahma li al-Alamin (رحمة للعالمين - Mercy to the World)" — He is the embodiment of rahma (رحمة - mercy); he is the channel of Allah's mercy. Indeed the Prophet PBUH is mercy, his sending is mercy, his message is mercy, his teachings are mercy, and believing and acting upon what he has come with is mercy. He is everything associated with mercy. So how then can we begin to do justice to the Prophet PBUH when Allah has praised him so highly.

However, even if we cannot mention all of his blessings and characteristics, let us at least mention some.

The Names of Prophet Muhammad PBUH

We begin by mentioning some of the names that Allah AWJ gave our Prophet Muhammad PBUH. He had many names. Many of his names were given by later people (i.e., the sahaba, tabi'un, and the early scholars), and one of the famous scholars of the seerah has derived over 250 names for the Prophet PBUH; but we will only mention some of the names that Allah has given him, because those are the primary names that have the deepest meaning.

From Jubayr ibn Mut'im (جبير بن مطعم), in Sahih Muslim, he said the Prophet PBUH said: "I have a number of names. I am Muhammad, and I am Ahmad, and I am al-Mahi —the one whom Allah erases kufr (كفر - disbelief) through—, and I am al-Hashir —people will be resurrected after me—, and I am al-Aqib —the one who has no prophet after—."

And in another narration: "And I am Nabi al-Rahma, and Nabi al-Tawba, and al-Muqaffa, and Nabi al-Malahim."

The two nouns that the Quran (قرآن) explicitly mentions are Muhammad (محمد) and Ahmad (أحمد).

The name Muhammad is mentioned 4 times in the Quran (see [3:144], [33:40], [47:2], [48:29]), and the name Ahmad is mentioned 1 time from the tongue of Isa (عيسى - Jesus) AS (Alayhi al-Salam/عليه السلام - Peace Be Upon Him) in the Quran, "A messenger after me whose name will be Ahmad" [Quran 61:6]. Both names come from the root ح م د (h-m-d); and "hamd" means "to praise," but not any type of praise, it means to praise not in return for some favor given to you; a praise that is given simply because of the inherent characteristics in the one that you are praising; that is, he deserves to be praised for who he is. An object of perfection. He is worthy of being praised regardless of what he has done or has not done. And both of the Prophet's PBUH names —Muhammad and Ahmad— come from "hamd." Why? Because Allah has praised him, the angels have praised him, all the prophets have praised him, and every single one of mankind praises him directly or indirectly. As for praising him directly, these are the Muslims — we praise him directly; and as for praising him indirectly, these are the non-Muslims — even those who reject the Prophet PBUH by the tongue, they must praise his character and qualities. So he is praised in the heavens and the earth, in the previous umam (أمم - nations) and the present umam, in this dunya (دنيا - world) and the akhira (آخرة - Hereafter). This is the ultimate praise. There is no human before, now, or after, who is praised more than the Prophet PBUH.

002 - Specialties of Prophet Muhammad SAW (Part 2)




In our last halaqa (حلقة), we mentioned only around 15 khasa'is; but realize there are close to 50 special qualities that only the Prophet PBUH was given.

Today, insha'Allah, we will begin by talking about his physical appearance PBUH.

The Physical Appearance of Prophet Muhammad PBUH

It is the sunnah of Allah (سنة الله - the custom of Allah) that He sends prophets with the most perfect characteristics, inner and outer, so that mankind has no reason to reject the messenger. As we know, Prophet Yusuf (يوسف - Joseph) was given half of all beauty. Some scholars say this means half of all beauty of mankind (this is the majority opinion); but some scholars say it means half of the beauty of Prophet Muhammad PBUH because —according to this opinion— the Prophet Muhammad PBUH is the most handsome and beautiful of the entire creation.

We have many narrations that describe the physical features of our Prophet PBUH. It is reported in al-Tabarani's (الطبراني) al-Mu'jam al-Kabir (المعجم الكبير) and Bukhari's Kitab al-Manaqib (كتاب المناقب) that once, a son of an old sahabiyya (صحابية - female Companion) asked his mother al-Rubayyi' bint Muawwidh (الربيع بنت معوذ) after the Prophet PBUH had passed away, "What was the Prophet PBUH like?" She said, "O my dear son, if you were to have seen him, you would have thought that the sun had risen up." It is amazing that she described him as a sun, and another sahabi Ka'b ibn Malik (كعب بن مالك) described him as a moon. Ka'b said, "Whenever the Prophet PBUH was happy, his face would light up as if it was the full moon." It is beautiful that the sahaba are describing the Prophet PBUH with what they know to be the most beautiful.

There is a tradition that almost makes you want to cry: The tradition of Amr ibn al-As (عمرو بن العاص). He used to be of the leaders of the Quraysh (قريش) who were against Islam, and he only had the opportunity to be a sahabi for a few years. Later on in his life, he would say, "There was nothing sweeter or more beloved to me than to stare at the face of the Prophet PBUH." The beauty and nur (نور - light) of the Prophet PBUH was so great that Amr is saying there is nothing sweeter than to simply look at his face PBUH. "I could never get enough of looking at him. And yet were you to ask me how he looked, I couldn't describe him. Because along with this desire to stare at him, there was also this awe I had that couldn't allow me to stare directly at him, and I had to look down." So there were two types of powers emanating from the Prophet PBUH: the first of them was attracting Amr's vision to him, and the second was making him look away. "Even though I loved to stare, I couldn't." This is coming from a nobleman of the Quraysh, and this is how humbled he was just by the appearance of the Prophet PBUH.