 We begin with the praises of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and I bear witness under no compulsion and without any hesitation that Muhammad of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is the last and final messenger alhamdulillah all praises due to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and we thank Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for allowing us to be here today on this blessed day of Juma alhamdulillah brothers and sisters the topic and theme of today's khutbah is that to know him sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is to love him sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that to in order to really love the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam we have to know who he was sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and in today's day and age there is a lot of confusion about Islam and about Muslims and what we believe and how we live our lives and there is a very big task on every single one of us here there's a very big task on every single one of us here mothers and sisters we live here in the West we live here in the United States of America this is not a Muslim country this is not a Muslim majority country it probably will never be in Muslim majority country and our brothers and sisters of other faith traditions they are not reading the Quran they are not reading the hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam they are not picking up his sida and reading his biography they're not reading any of these texts but they are reading one thing and that is every single one of you that is what they're reading they're reading your character they're reading how you carry yourself they're reading how you speak you are the representative of Islam you are a representative of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam every single one of us here is a representative of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam we are we are his ummah we are his followers and that's a big task and that's a heavy task and we need to be aware of it and we can't feel sorry for ourselves we have a very big task ahead of us every day when we go to work every day when we go to school we should be proud that we're Muslim and we shouldn't be ashamed that we're Muslim and we should be our best selves so that when people see us and they read us they say whatever that person has is something that I want and that is what will draw people to Islam inshallah so we have a big task ahead of us and unfortunately brothers and sisters there always seems to be something going on right there always seems to be someone doing something who claims to represent all of us and it affects all of us and it makes our jobs harder and from the second that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed the holy Quran to the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and instructed the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to start to teach this religion from that very second there have been people who don't want this religion to succeed from the very second so much so that if you read the sida of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam you'll see that it greatly affected how he lived his life for the first few years of the message of Islam the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam taught Islam in secret they were hiding they did hijra from Makkah to Medina because people wanted to destroy Islam and nothing has changed nothing has changed right there are still people that want to take this religion down that want to paint us in a negative light and so that makes our job we have to rise to the occasion we have to rise to the occasion so unfortunately brothers and sisters you're all familiar with the recent attack that happened on a very prominent author I won't mention his name his name does not deserve mentioning in this khutbah but many of you are familiar and this person was stabbed by someone who claimed to be a Muslim and now this is making us in the media as Muslims look very backwards it makes us look like we do not value freedom of speech and that we do not value the in inalienable rights that this country and the west was founded on etc etc and so in today's khutbah inshallah I want to briefly discuss how the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam dealt with people who disagreed with him how the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam dealt with people who disagreed with him because they're saying in the media that if you disagree with Islam then Muslims come and they attack you and they stab you and they do all of these things and this is not true and we know what's not true because we know the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and how he dealt with people who disagreed with him and so inshallah in today's khutbah we're going to share three stories from the seed of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam that highlight how he interacted with people who disagreed with him so the first story this is a very famous story and many of you all know it but it is worth highlighting again the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam every day when he would come out of his house or when he would go back to his house he would find garbage littering his path every time there was garbage littering his path and people found out very quickly that there was this one lady who was not Muslim who despised the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and she made it her daily practice to take the filth from her house and to spread it on the path that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam was gonna walk on she would watch his movement say I know he's gonna go from here to here and I'm going to make sure that I put garbage on this path so that his path is filthy this is this type of hate it's it's I mean it's it's it's a subhanallah you can't even put words that she would take this time day in and day out to do this to make his life difficult to spite him to show him and she would do this every single day and every single day the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam was very patient he would avoid the trash he'd walk through it and go about his day one day the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam came out of his house and the trash wasn't there the trash wasn't there this is a daily practice he's used to seeing the trash the trash is it wasn't there so he inquired he asked some of the companions there was this lady who used to put trash out onto my on my path at my doorstep why isn't there any trash right now and they told they informed the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam she's very ill she's very ill and she that is why you know you're not seeing any trash on your path so what did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam do he went and visited at her he went and visited at her he went to her home and checked in on her and asked her how were you doing and this affected her so much she was so shocked she couldn't understand that she said Ashadu walla ilaha illallah wa ashaduanna Muhammadur Rasulullah like that she became Muslim subhanallah that's story number one story number two from the seat of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam a Jewish rabbi came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam in Medina there's different narrations that explain how it happened one of the more popular ones are strong generations is that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam was standing with his companions in the masjid and a Jewish rabbi came into the masjid and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam he owed this Jewish rabbi some money he did he borrowed some money and he owed he owed the Jewish rabbi some money but the deadline to give this money back was still a ways out the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam still had ample time to pay off his debt and the Jewish rabbi came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam while he was standing with his companions and he said where's my money and then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said he said he to he went to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and he said where's my money and before the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam could respond he said you're a liar you're a liar I want my money you're a liar you don't repay your debts and guess what your entire family are liars. Now imagine that someone comes to you right now in the masjid and says you're a liar, you're this and you're that. And guess what? Everyone you love is this and that. How would you react? You'd be pretty upset. So this is what this Jewish rabbi did. And Umar radi allahu anh got very upset. He got very upset. And he threatened the rabbi. He said how dare you talk to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam like this. How dare you come into his masjid and you call him this and you insult your family, you're about to get it. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam stopped Umar radi allahu anh. He stopped him. He instructed some other sahaba. He said go get the money that is owed to this man and actually bring some extra money. Bring some extra money as well. And when they asked why are we giving him extra money, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam explained we scared him. Umar radi allahu anh threatened him. He's scared. And so we are going to make up for that. The Jewish rabbi said wait, wait, wait, wait. I've heard about you sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. They're saying that you're a prophet. I came in here and I said all of these rude and mean things to test you, to test your character, to see if you're the real deal. And I can see that you are. No one would respond this way. Ashadu an la ilaha illallah wa ashadu anna Muhammadur Rasulullah. He took Islam right there. And he said I'm a very rich man. Now that I'm a Muslim, half of my wealth is dedicated to Islam. Subhanallah. Story number three. Story number three. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was on the outskirts of Makkah. He was entering the city of Makkah. This is before, this is right when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam started to preach the religion publicly. And when he started to preach the religion publicly, the Quresh started to put out slander, smear campaigns on the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and they started to tell the people, the pilgrims coming from out of town. They used to stand out the outskirts of the city and they used to say beware of this man Muhammad. He's this and he's that and they would have the poets write poetry to say mean things about the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So word was spreading about the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam at this time. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was entering Makkah from outside and this elderly lady was also entering Makkah. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam saw that she was carrying a lot of things and so he went to her and offered to help him, help her. He offered to help her with her burden. And so he helped her and he grabbed her things and he started to walk with her to her home, to her destination. And they started chatting, they started conversing. And the lady said to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, she didn't know who he was. She has no idea who he is. And she said to him, you know I've heard of this Muhammad and he's a very problematic man. And so my advice to you as you're entering the city is beware of Muhammad. Beware of Muhammad. Stay away from this man, Muhammad. He is encouraging the poor. He's giving rights to the poor. He's, you know, upending the balance. He's doing all of these things. And so stay away from him. And the whole time the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is walking with her and he's quiet. The whole time he's walking with this lady and he's quiet. And she goes on and on about this man Muhammad and he's this and he's that. And as they enter, as they reach her destination, she turns to him and says, you know, you've been very kind to me. Thank you for all your help. I didn't actually catch your name. What is your name? He said, my name is Muhammad. She said, Ashadu an la ilaha illallah wa ashadu anna Muhammad ar-Rasulullah. This is how our religion spread. This is how our religion spread. This is the prophetic character. This is what it means to be a Muslim. This is what we are attempting and trying to emulate. This is the character that we're trying to emulate. And this is what we need to go out and show the world every single day. We have our work cut out for us, brothers and sisters. We have our work cut out for us. One person goes and does something and then all of us are painted in a bad light. And then we all just sit at home and we complain about our situation. This is what it means to be a Muslim. This is how our religion spread. They lie about our religion. They say that our religion spread by the sword. But now secular historians are going back and looking at the history. And they're admitting that no, this is not how the religion spread. Part of it did spread by the sword. Every empire in the history of the world spread by some military campaign. That is a fact. But that is not the core way that Islam spread. The core way that Islam spread was to ikhlaq, was to good character, was to good manners. People are now finally going back and looking at India, right? Because there's a lot of political strife happening in India. Our Muslim brothers and sisters are being oppressed there. May Allah be gentle with them. How did Islam enter India? It entered India through the traders from Yemen. They went to the south of India near the coast and they started trading. And the people there saw how good the adab and ikhlaq of the Yemeni Muslim traders was. The traders were. They said these people are so honest in their trade. Nobody's this honest in their trade. We want what they have and they became Muslim. And then they married their daughters to the Yemenis and then little by little Islam spread and it went all over the Indian subcontinent. This is how the religion spread. Throughout history, through good character. And so this is what we have to bring back. In every single story that we share today, what is the common theme? The common theme is good character. The character of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He told us an authentic hadith. I have not been sent except to perfect good character. And so we need to fix our character. We need to look internally and fix our character. When the lady was throwing trash, he was patient every day and he visited her because she was sick. She took Islam. When the Jewish rabbi came and was mean to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, when he insulted the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was more concerned about his right. He just insulted the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He was more concerned about he got scared. This Jewish rabbi is a guest. And he got scared. Let's make it right. And the Jewish rabbi took Islam. This lady was bashing and smearing on the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to his face. And his response was patient. He didn't say anything. She asked him a question. He said, what's your name? He said, my name is Muhammad. And sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said, my name is Muhammad. And his character did all the speaking. In that situation, his character did all the speaking. The fact that he saw her, the fact that he saw that she needed help, the fact that he took her things and helped her, the fact that she's smearing him the whole time. And he didn't respond. And he wasn't angry with her. And then he just said, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, my name is Muhammad. His character did all the speaking. Our character needs to do the speaking, brothers and sisters. Our character needs to do the speaking. We need to go out there and show everyone who we are by our beautiful character. May Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam grant us Tawfiq. To know him sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is to love him sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Let's reconnect with the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Alhamdulillah, tumal, alhamdulillah. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, Allahumma sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, Allahumma innaka affoon tuhibbu al-afua faafu anna ya kareem, ya arhamar rahimin, ya Allah, ya Allah, ya arhamar rahimin, ya Allah. Bring all the Muslims into your hearts right now. In this moment, all the Muslims suffering all over the world, whether it be in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, wherever it is, bring the Muslim ummah into your world, into your heart right now and pray for them. We beseech you, ya arhamar rahimin, ya Allah, ya arhamar rahimin, ya Allah. We are here today in Pleasant in California. Asking you for your lotf, your khair, your rahmah, ya arhamar rahimin, ya Allah. N'ash'dum wa layil hailalah, we are asking Allah to forgive you. N'as'alu kal-janata wa nawda bi kamala narallahum, innaka affoon tuhibbu al-afua faafu anna ya kareem, amin amin wa al-qamaat al-sala.