 Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Wa salatu wa salamu ala Sayyidina wa Habibina wa Shafi'ina wa Qa'idina wa Habibina Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salim. Ya Rabbana lakal hamdul kama yambaghidu jalali wajhika wa azaimil sultanik. Allahumma ftahalayna ftuhal harifin. Allahumma alinna ma yamfawna wa alfa'nna bima al lamtanaya ar-Rahmanirrahimeen. First of all, I would like to thank MCC for hosting me to start this new series. And I would like also to pass a special welcome to everyone who is attending these classes, which will be once a week for 12 weeks, inshaAllah. In these classes, we are going to talk about the companions of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam about them. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala said in Ayah 29 of Surah al-Fatheh. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Muhammadur Rasulullah. Wa aladheena maahu ashibda. Wa ala al-kuffariruhama. Wa baynahum tarahum rukka'an sujjadayyabtahu na fadlam minallahi wa ridwana. Seema'hum fi wujuhihin min athari sujood. Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah and those with him are forceful against the disbelievers, merciful amongst themselves. You see them bowing and prostrating in prayer, seeking bounty from Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and his pleasure. Their mark is on their faces from the traces of prostration. Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam praised his companions and he said, Ashabika nujum bi ayyihumuh adadaytum muqtadaytum. My companions are like the stars, whichever of them you follow will be truly and rightly guided. So in these classes, we will, inshallah, learn about the stories of the companions, their marvels, their etiquettes, their manners, their utter devotion to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and to the Messenger Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and we will dig into their sincere love to Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Of course, we are going to choose some of the companions, not all of them. But before we go any further, I want everyone to say Allah Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, whenever you hear me mention his blessed name, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Now, if we ask ourselves, who is the Sahabi? Who is the companion of the Prophet? The Islamic scholar Ibn Hajar defined a Sahabi as a person who believed in Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, met him and died as a Muslim. So this definition of the Sahabi includes those who spent long time or short time with the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Those who reported or did not report hadith from Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, those who joined or did not join a battle with Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and those who saw him or did not see him due to some reasons like blindness such as Ibn Umma Qtum. Now, let's stop for a second and ask ourselves, what made the elite of the people like Abu Bakr, Al-Zubayr bin Al-A'wab, A'ufman bin Al-A'ufan, Abdulrahman bin Al-A'uf, Zaid bin Al-Haritha, Mus'ab bin Al-Aumayr, Abu Ubaida bin Al-Jaraah, Khalid bin Al-Waleed, Sa'ad bin Al-Muaz and the list goes on and on. What made these people hasten to follow Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam? What made them leave everything behind and follow him, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam? What made the weak poor people with him? What made them be with him? What made them obey him when they know that he is Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had no money and so many challenges were facing him? What made the most powerful Amr bin Al-A'wab go on his way to be heads of Ibn Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam with his own sword and come back to cut off the heads of the enemies of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam with the same sword? What made their hearts strong and firm on the right path? What was the strong magnet that attracted their hearts? There's only one answer to all these questions. It's the true love of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. But why and how did they love him so much? How did they love him the way they loved him? Why? Allah SWT created his messenger Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He loved him the most. He loved him to the degree that he associated his prophet's name with his own name. And we hear this all the time during the Adhan when the Adhan says, Now imagine that you love something. You keep it to yourself. You hide it from others. You keep it away from everyone. But Allah SWT did not keep his Habib for himself. He rather gave us the permission to love him. And he even promised a big reward to those who love him. In Ayah 31 of the Surah to Ali-Amran, Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tells us about the reward of those who love him and follow him. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. Say, if you love Allah, then follow me. And Allah will love you and forgive you wrong actions. Allah is ever forgiving and he is the most merciful. The companions may Allah be pleased with them, understood Allah's order and acted accordingly. They loved the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And consequently their words and action were a physical indication of this love. They willingly sacrificed their lives and their money in Allah's goals and due to their love to the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So this love was clear in many different situations. And today, inshallah, we will go over different examples that clearly show the real love of the companions, of the companions to Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Our first example will be, of course, about Sayyidina Abu Bakr al-Dinik who believed in the Messenger of Allah, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and loved him a unique love. We know that he kept making dua and dua and asked Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to make dua for him, to accompany him in his journey, in his migration, hijra to Medina. So during the hijra, during this hijra journey with the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and right at the entrance of the cave before entering it to hide from the non-believers who were following them, Sayyidina Abu Bakr said to the Messenger of Allah, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, wait here, O Prophet, until I check in, I check that there is no danger inside. So Abu Bakr entered the cave and quickly blocked all the holes in that cave. He wanted to make sure that there is no snake, no scorpion, no nothing that might hurt the Messenger of Allah, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Love, this is true love. Being sure that the cave is safe, he asked Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to enter. Now, they are in the cave, hiding. The Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was sleeping on Sayyidina Abu Bakr's lap and suddenly Sayyidina Abu Bakr, so one open hole, he had not blocked it, so he blocked it with his foot. Just a little later, something stung Abu Bakr, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He withstood the pain in order not to bother Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam during his sleep. He was crying from the pain until one of his tears fell on the blessed face of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam woke up. He looked at Abu Bakr and asked him why he was crying. And Abu Bakr immediately replied, may I raise my mother and father for you, O Prophet. Consequently, Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam spat lightly on the place that hurt Abu Bakr and Abu Bakr was immediately cured. So here we had an example of Sayyidina Abu Bakr's love to the Messenger of Allah, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He wanted to sacrifice himself just to make sure that Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is safe. Other love incidents by the companions towards Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was the love of Sayyidina Zayn ibn Haritha. So Sayyidina Zayn was Sayyidina Zayn. Sayyidina Zayn was eight years old when he was traveling with his mother and some people kidnapped him. So his father and his family were so sad that they lost their child and his father did not despair of finding him. Zayn was sold in Suf al-Qas and the person who bought him was Sayyid Hakim ibn Hizam. He bought him with a lot of money, 400 dirham at that time and he gave him to his aunt Khadija bint Walid. And later on Sayyid Hakim Hizam became the wife of Sayyid Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and she gave him Zaid as a gift. So his father kept looking for him. But Zaid was living with Sayyid Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam enjoying his time with him, learning from him, loving him. So his father, Haritha he is Zaid Muhammad Haritha so his father Haritha got the news from some people who were visiting Makkah that they met his son. So he immediately went, traveled to Makkah with his brother and his son to talk to Sayyid Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam So when he came to him, he said to him Yabna Abdullah, Yabna Abdul Mutli Yabna Hashem, Yabna Sayyid Aqoumeh You are the people of Harami and Jirani You are the people of Harami and Jirani and when you are at home you spend the year and you learn the secrets that you have in your children. Take care of them, take care of them So he told Sayyid Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he called him by the son of Abdullah he called him the son of the leader you are the true good people who are good who feed the captures and we came we want to take our son back from you we want to buy our son back from you so make it a good Fida and Sayyid Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam asked him who are you talking about and they said Zaid ibn Harista and he said anyone else he said no well Sayyid Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said I don't want any ransom from you call him if he chose to go with you in return but if he decided to stay then I would not say tell him no I would not ask him to go with you and his father was so happy that he told him you made a just decision we are so pleased with your answer and of course when they called Zaid and Sayyid Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam asked him do you know these he said yes my father my uncle and my brother so he said you have the choice and you are free to choose either to stay with me or to go with them immediately without hesitation Zaid sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said I am not going to choose anyone else other than you other than you so no one other than you so you are like a father and a mother so his father said would you choose slavery over freedom would you choose to be with any other people than your father and uncle and you said yes so what has Zaid so in prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam how did he love Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam so much well in return Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam loved him and whenever one of his wives would say anything about him Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would say leave me with leave me with him if they say he did not do this he did not do that he would say no no no leave him if Allah wanted him to do it he would have done it he used to love him he never Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam never told him why did you do that and why did you not do that another another incident that shows the love of the companions of Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was truly manifested during the battle when prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was surrounded by the non-muslims they wanted to kill him so the Sahaba formed a fence in front of him and to the back of him just to get the arrows so to have the arrows hit him they hit them instead of hitting Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and they would say our death is not is to be today you are not going to die we are going to get all the arrows so this was their love to Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam they sacrificed him with their lives and during this battle not only men showed their love but also women showed their true love to Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam there was a woman from Benidinar whose father, brother, husband and son had just died in the battle of Uhud and she thanked Allah SWT that they are all that they all sacrificed their lives for the sake of Allah SWT she knows that they are murders and they will be in high heavens but she was so worried about Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and she was so relieved when she saw him she said a few words were as valuable as gold today she said all prophet all prophet as long as you are safe from any harm then all calamities all calamities are easy another example Sayyidina Khubaib ibn Adi when he was taken as a hostage in Mecca by the non-believers and was taken far to be beheaded he listened to what he said to them now listen to that he gave them he said give me the time to close give me the time just to pray to Rakaas so he prayed to Rakaas quickly and said to the person in charge if you if it wasn't for that fact that it wasn't for the fact that you would wrongly think that I'm scared of death I would have prolonged my prayer before beheading him they tortured him and then they raised him on a stick to behead him they asked him do you prefer that you are safe with your family and Muhammad is in your place he said I swear by Allah I swear by Allah I don't love to be safe with my family to be safe with my family while Prophet Muhammad SAW is touched with even a thorn in his foot he means even if I am safe me and my family are all safe even if we are all killed then I don't wish for the Prophet to be in my place all not even be hurt with a thorn in his foot when Muhammad SAW passed away listen to this amazing also incident could not call for the event anymore he even could not stay in Medina so he asked the permission of SAW to go to Sham to live there and he did and at his death bed his wife was crying and she said how sad and he SAW said to her rather say what a joy tomorrow we shall meet the loved ones Muhammad his companions he was so happy that he is going to die so that he would reunite with his Habib and the other companions who died before him this is the true love that filled the hearts of the companions of the messenger of Allah SAW these are just a few stories and the list goes on and on and on now the question each and every one might be thinking of is how can we follow the companions in their love to the Prophet the messenger of Allah SAW gave us an answer to this question in one of his narrations I said to Abu Huraira if you wish not to be separated from me on the Day of Judgment until you get the love of Allah SAW if you wish not to be separated from me on the Day of Judgment until you get the love of Allah SAW if you wish not to be separated from me on the Day of Judgment until you get into Paradise with me then love me Allah you won't forgive me you won't forget me and know that when you love me you will not leave three things being guided as per my guidance to me sending lots of salawat to me so let's all take this now as a chance to renew our love to the messenger of Allah SAW let's make this love greater than any other love we may have in our hearts children, wealth anything anything you might think of let's follow the Prophet and his sunnah and let this following lead us to Paradise let our love for the Prophet SAW not limited to just words this love has to be clear in our actions and that can happen by following his orders and avoiding his prohibitions let our love make us loving to be to have the same manners that's Ibn Muhammad SAW and one of the most important things is having good manners and having good manners once Sayyidina Abu Huraira was talking also about it with Sayyidina Muhammad SAW and Sayyidina Muhammad SAW said to him what is Hassan Al-Huluk he said malaa haalaka so you would forgive people this is the essence of the good manners you would forgive them if they mistreat you if they do anything bad to you just take with an open heart expand your heart i haven't read expanded your heart heart. Let's have this quality of Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam applied to our art also. So be good to people, to those who mistreat you, who do bad things to you, forgive them. Do you think this is easy? No, no it's not. But when you remember that whatever Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam did is the best, you can be like him. Get connected to those who don't want to to get connected to you. You can't just keep good ties with your relatives and give those who deprive you. Some people might deprive you of their love, love them. Some people might deprive you of their money. Don't be like them. Get connected to them. Show them the good way, show them good manners so they would feel sorry that they did something bad to you. Our true happiness, real true happiness in this life is to have a good love relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, with his Habib Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and with the Holy Qur'an. This is our love in this dunya. This is our happiness in this dunya to have true love. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will put special light in our hearts when we love him. This light will direct us during ease and also during hardship. This light will make us follow the manners of Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. With this light, we will understand what it means when we say ihdina al-sirata al-mustaqeem. One of the narrations say, explain one of the people, explain that this siraat al-mustaqeem is Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Ya Allah, we want you to guide us to follow Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam who is on the right path. Whose path will lead us to the high heavens. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will put special light in our hearts when we love him. And with this light, love itself will have another different meaning. It will be manifested in so many different ways. One of which is the love that runs in the family, the love of the husband to his wife, the love of the wife to her husband, the love of the parents to their children and of springs, the love of the children to their parents and grandparents. So different love relationships starts in the family. And when the family is secure with love, then each family will have this love. So the whole society is secure. The families are secure. We will not see these countless problems that we are facing in this society nowadays. It all starts within the family, within the house. When we are able to build a safe and a firm and a happy house, then the society will be happy. And this happiness does not come just of getting all and everything that we need in this dunya. No, it comes from the close relationship with Allah SWT and with Sayyidina Muhammad SAW, with the Holy Qur'an. This is what this Sahaba understood. This is what the companions of Sayyidina Muhammad SAW had in their hearts toward their Prophet. So with this light, with this light that Allah SWT would put in the hearts when we love him, when we love his Prophet, the family ties will have a different meaning. By default, parents love their children. They do their best to provide them the best life. Well, education, everything they might need for this dunya, but this love can be a different love when the parents want to guarantee that their children are saved in the day after, in the year after. This is our concern in raising our children. We have to have them saved in the day after. This is the true love to our family, children. So Sayyidina Muhammad SAW showed us the way to do it and he said, bring up your children, raise your children to my love, to the love of the Sahaba. And this is what we have to do with our children. So when they know, when the parents know that their children are saved in the day after, this is their happiness. This is the true happiness. A mom would see her children in love with the Qur'an, in love with doing so much, so much good things for themselves, for their family, for society, helping others, no selfishness. So the parents would work hard to get that fulfilled. They would choose good friends for their children. And this is very important because a Sahib, the friend is going to guide your child the same way that he is to his path, to the path that he follows. So we have to know who our friend, who the friends of our children are. We cannot just leave them. Oh, we trust our children. No, Shaytan did not die, dies. Shaytan is there. He goes in the blood stream of the person. He would keep whispering, whispering, whispering, whispering until the first thing happens. And it's so difficult at the beginning when it happens. But when this sin is repeated, it gets easier until more sins are made. And with each sin, there will be a thought on the heart, a thought of blackness on the heart. If this blackness is not erased with istighfar with dowbah, then one day the whole heart will be covered with blackness. And the person will not be able to differentiate between right and wrong, between true and false. And that's why you see, people are heedless. They don't know what they are doing. They kill each other and they don't know why they killed each other. They do bad things and they don't know what made them do bad things. You will hear it right and left that people are having anxiety, people are bored, people are not happy. And the cure to this is to love Allah SWT, is to have a good relation to Allah, with Allah SWT. And this is what Sahaba understood. This is what the companions of Sayyidina Muhammad SAW understood and applied to their lives. They loved Sayyidina Muhammad SAW, and their love was manifested in their actions. It wasn't just words. We love you, Ya Rasulullah. Okay? What are you doing with this love? What? So the parents are working hard. They would care about the recitation and the memorization of the Qur'an for their children. They would instill the love of Sayyidina Muhammad SAW in their hearts. Now imagine, if Allah SWT has a look into our hearts and our children hearts, and he finds it filled up with his love and with the love of his Habib SAW, the love of the Qur'an, then Allah will be satisfied with us. Allah will be happy with us. Allah will be pleased with us. And by this, we will be of those whom Allah SWT praised and mentioned several times in the Holy Qur'an, in Surah Al-Ma'idna, Surah Al-Tawbah, Surah Al-Mujadil, Surah Al-Baghina, when he says, Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with him. He is pleased with them because of the righteous life they lived, and they will be pleased with Allah because of the countless reward he prepared for them. So our family should have a different meaning of love. The parents should be the model for their children. If you don't have something, you cannot give it to others. You cannot spread it. If you did not taste the true love of Allah SWT, then get yourself prepared to do that and do it because you are a model to your children. Your children will see, how are you doing it? What are you doing? I always tell my students, do not read the Qur'an from your iPad or from the phone. Children will be thinking, your children, when they see you all the time on your devices, they think you are wasting your time. Let your children see that you are holding the Holy Qur'an in your hands and you are reading it aloud. Be a good model. Show them that you love Allah, show them that you love his Prophet, show them that you love the Qur'an, so they will do the same as you and let you work me sincere for the sake of Allah SWT. So to end up our session today, I would like to remind you of an amazing good news that the Messenger of Allah SWT has given us in one of the narrations. Once a companion asked the Messenger of Allah SWT, he told him, when is the day of judgment? So the Prophet SAW said to him, what have you prepared for it? And the companion said, I did not prepare much except that I love Allah and his Messenger. So the Prophet said to him, on the day of judgment, one shall be resurrected with whom he loves. What an amazing great good news is that. Ya Allah, we witness that we love your Prophet SAW. We witness that we love your beloved SAW. We ask you, Ya Allah, to keep us steady fast on the right path, on his path, his path that will make us winners in the day of judgment. Ya Allah, we want you to help us, love you, we want you to help us, love SAW, we want you to help us, love the Qur'an, we want you to help us raise good righteous children whom SAW will be happy with on the day of judgment, who they will be close to his eye. So here we are raising our hands. We are asking Allah SWT to grant us true love, true love with which we will be closer to him, true love that will make us love SAW the same way his companions loved him. Ya Allah, we said, Ya Allah, and I am to my slave as he thinks of me. And our thinking of you, Ya Allah, is that we are sure that you will fulfill our du'as. You will fulfill our sincere du'as. We want to be united with the Prophet SAW in this dunya and in the day after. We want to feel his closeness to us. We want to feel that he is witnessing, witnessing over everything that we are doing. He is a witness and a witness cannot be a witness if he doesn't see what he is going to witness on. So he is alive with us. He is over watching everything. And he says, SAW, Your deeds will be presented to me. If I find something good, I will thank Allah SWT. And if I find something bad that you have done, then I will ask Allah for forgiveness for you. Ya Allah, resurrect us with your Habib. Keep us with him on the day of judgment. Keep us with him on the day after. Keep us with him on the next life, Ya Ar-Rahman Al-Rahimin. We were not his companions in this dunya, in this life, but we want to be his companions in the hereafter.