 We've heard it time and time and time again. And this ayah is usually translated as indeed you are upon a sublime character, about our Messenger ﷺ. But what does this mean? You know, we hear this again and again that the Prophet of Allah ﷺ had the most perfect character. We know this to be a fact, just like we know water is wet. We know the Messenger ﷺ had the greatest character in conduct. However, I thought let's look at some examples and try to unpack this ayah in a way that would make it more and more relevant to us. You know, the quality of a person's character in conduct is contingent upon their interactions with other people. So you can tell that a person has excellent character and is of the highest moral authority if that person has the best conduct with other people. If that person interacts with people in a good way, you can tell that this person is made of some real stuff. So how did the Prophet ﷺ interact with those around him? How did he make them feel? Let's look at some examples. There was once an instance where Nabi ﷺ, he goes to make, to go and use the restroom. So he goes Qada'il Hawa'ij. And he's the last one, he goes and he sets out and at this time, Abdullaibna Abbas Rdilalahu, who was his cousin, he's a teenager at this time, so we have a lot of teenagers here. He's a teenager at this time, he sees the Prophet ﷺ going to use the restroom and he knows that, you know, the Messenger of Allah always liked to be in a state of wudu, always liked to be in a state of wudu. So let me go and make it a little easier for him. So he gets a bucket of water and he goes and he puts it down. When the Prophet ﷺ comes back, he sees the water there, so he makes wudu and then he asks, who put this water here? He says, it was Abdullah. So the Messenger of Allah ﷺ goes and he looks for Abdullah, he finds him and he sees him and, you know, if somebody did you a little favor, how would you thank them? A good looks, man. That's what we're going to say, right? Yeah, thanks, bro. He ﷺ goes to him and he gives him a big hug, holds him tightly and then he makes du'a for him. Allahumma Allimhu Al-Kitabu Al-Hikmah. Allah gives him knowledge of this book. What book is this, the Qur'an, of course? And give him wisdom. Today, you cannot open any book of tafsir, except that you will find the name of Abdullah ibn Abbas al-Radiullah on every single page because of the du'a of the Prophet ﷺ. If someone has made your life easier, even by just a couple of moments, that's it. The Prophet ﷺ didn't have to go and get that water himself. He made his life that much incrementally easier and he ﷺ showed his gratitude to somebody as a teenager. And you might think that, well, you know, man, this is what kids have to do, you know, they have to look after their, you know, superiors. They have to look after the people older than them. That's not how our Messenger ﷺ, he would show appreciation and gratitude even to those kinds of people that might be overlooked by others. There's a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ wherein he says that a person is not from the prophetic community, from the community of Muslims who does not respect those who are older than him and who does not honor and show tenderness and kindness to those who are younger than him ﷺ. So we see this, you know, the people who are younger, you're like, yeah, I can take care of people older than me. I can take care of my parents. I can take care of the uncles and the aunties at the Masjid. What about people younger? So those who are a little bit on the, let's say, you know, you're climbing up there in age, right? I'm getting up there too myself, alhamdulillah. I found the first white hair in my beard the other day, right? So we're still young at heart, so it's okay. And so there's once an incident where Nabi al-Assalam, he sees a little kid. This is in Medina. He sees a little kid and he goes up to him ﷺ and he says, man, aunt, who are you? Now, you know, children just run around the Masjid all the time and we find them to be sometimes a little bit of a nuisance. That was not our Messenger ﷺ. And this kid, by the way, was very, very young. His name was Asaib. So he turns to the Messenger ﷺ, my name is Asaib. That's it, Asaib. And the Prophet ﷺ plays with his hair, puts his hand on his head and he plays with his hair. And at this time, he was maybe six, seven, eight years old. Because Nabi al-Assalam, when he left this dunya, Asaib was only seven or eight. That's it. And the Prophet ﷺ made dua for him after he, you know, he patted his head, he made dua for him. Now, the unique thing about this individual, you might say, okay, this is the Prophet ﷺ, did this with many people, you know, showed kindness to a lot of little kids. So what's the big deal here? Asaib ibn Yazid, all the Allah, who would live on until he was 88 years old, another 80 years, he would go on to live. And he had a very unique physical feature about him. Even after he got very old, his beard had turned white and his hair had turned white, except for one part. So on the sides and the back of his hair, it was all white and the beard was all white. But the top of his head was still pitch black. People would see this as like an old man, you know, in his 80s. Like, what's with your hair? Why is this like, do you just dye this part of your hair? And he said that when I was a kid, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ padded my head, he rubbed my head and he made dua for me. And wherever his hand touched, that part of my head never turned white. Imagine that. Imagine that. This is the mercy of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The sahaba, the companions of the Prophet ﷺ were a living embodiment of the proof of the Prophethood of the Prophet ﷺ. That's what they were. They were the greatest proof of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ's Prophethood. There's a statement by Kirq Gagard, where he says that, God creates out of nothing. And as wondrous as that is, even more so wondrous is he makes saints out of sinners. God turns people who are the vilest of people, the worst of people, into the best of people. And our Messenger ﷺ won the hearts of all those around him. Exactly what he did. A story of Amir Ibn al-Asr and his son Abdullah. Amir Ibn al-Asr was on his deathbed, he's about to pass away. And you and I might know about him, a lot about him actually. He's there on his deathbed and he's crying. His son comes to him, he's like, Dad, why are you crying? The Prophet ﷺ encouraged you, he said all these good things about you and now you're upset, don't you want to go meet him? And he turns to his son and he says, Ya Bunei, Qundu ala atbaqan thadath. He said, I spent my life in three stages. In the first stage of my life, there was no one I hated more than the Messenger. Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. He said, all I wanted in life was to get close enough to kill him. It was all I wanted. And the second stage of my life, Allah guided me towards Islam and I took the hand of the Messenger ﷺ and I accepted the faith. And from that moment forward, there was no one more beloved to me than the Messenger ﷺ. I mean, if you think about it, what did he do, Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam? That he turned people who were his staunchest enemies into his biggest friends, into his biggest admirers and supporters. This is what it means when Allah ﷻ says, that you have the best character in conduct. There's no way anyone can deny that. That all of the creation, even his enemies, they have to admit that he is a great person. And true virtue is something even your enemies and your haters can't deny. No one can deny that about him, Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. We see, Umar, was someone who was set out with a sword in his hand. Today, he's buried next to him, Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. It's an instant, you know? Nabi ﷺ, in one word, he's able to capture people's hearts. In one word. You know, a man by the name of Ka'b ibn Marek, he comes to Makkah. He comes with another man, Al-Bara' ibn Ma'roor. Both of them, they come into the Masjid, or into the Ka'bah and they get there and Nabi ﷺ is there. This is before the Prophet ﷺ moved to Medina, before. So he is sitting there and Al-Abbas is also there as uncle. And so these two individuals, they come in and they sit down with the Prophet ﷺ. And at this moment, you know, the Prophet asked, okay, he asked his uncle, who are these two guys? Do you know who they are? He says, yeah, I know who they are. The first one is Al-Bara' ibn Ma'roor. He's Sayyid al-Qawmi. He's the leader of his people. So he's like a big shot. And the second is Ka'b ibn Marek. Now let's have a little context. Who is Ka'b ibn Marek? At that time, he was a poet and one of the biggest poets in all of Medina. This is before Medina was called Medina, it was called Yathrib. At that time, he was one of the biggest poets. Today, you and I, we might consider him a celebrity. He was one of the biggest celebrities around. And yet the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, it seems like he doesn't know who he is. He is used to having fanfare. He's used to having like, you know, a red carpet rolled out for him. He's used to everyone knowing who he is and to ask for his autograph. And yet when he sits with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he kind of feels a little bit dejected, a little bit like, maybe I'm not as important as I thought. Maybe, you know, I don't, maybe the Messenger, he doesn't know who I am. How is he gonna know? This is before I stem. How is he gonna know who I am? And so he says, when Abbas al-Dilawna introduces, he says, this is Ka'b ibn Malik. The Prophet ﷺ stops him. He looks at him. And the hadith mentions what Ka'b said. He says, He said, I'll never forget when the Messenger looked at me at that moment and said, oh, you're the poet? You're that guy, right? The one that everybody knows about, the one everyone talks about? And from, in that one moment, that one moment we talk about first impressions, right? In that one moment, he went from feeling like dejected, feeling like, oh, no one knows me, man, to feeling like he's on cloud nine, like the most important man in the room. They're outdoors. But still, the most important person there. In just one word, the Prophet ﷺ is able to win people over. And it wasn't just in his speech. It's a statement by Jareed ibn Abdullah al-Bajal, i.e. Allah and him. And he mentions, he says that, you know, when I accept, since the day I accept Islam, since the day I accept Islam, the Messenger ﷺ was never too busy for me. Anytime I needed to talk to him, he was available. Anytime. Now, I know that might be a little difficult for us. You might think, okay, how can I bring that into my life? Maybe not that part. But the second part, every one of us can definitely act on. Ma ra'ani illa tabasama. The Messenger ﷺ never looked at me, except he was smiling. Now, this is somebody who would see the Messenger ﷺ multiple times a day, day after day, week after week, years after years. Think about that. And by the way, Jareed ibn Abdullah has narrated many, many hadith. So he saw the Messenger ﷺ for a long time. He said, every single time he looked at me, he smiled. Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And sometimes it smiles all you need. It's all you need. We hear these things about our Messenger ﷺ and it's not just stories. These are all practical things that we can do. All of us can show gratitude to those people around us who do us even the smallest of favors. All of us can smile at those around us. All of us can leave good impressions. All of us can recognize, all of us can recognize the benefits of other people around us. All of the things they have done for us and they continue to do for our communities. And we can recognize the virtues of other people like our Messenger did, Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. I'll end with this one final encouragement. That the Messenger ﷺ, how he would encourage other people? How he would encourage other people? One night is he's in Madinah ﷺ. After Isha he's walking around the streets of Madinah. As he used to do, most people are asleep. He walks by a house and he hears a voice reciting Quran inside of that house. He hears a voice reciting Quran inside of that house and he stops at that, at the wall and he begins to listen. And he listens to the recitation for a long time and then he continues on his way. The next day in front of everybody, in the Masjid, in front of everyone in the Masjid, the Meyya Rasulatullah ﷺ turns towards the man and he says to Abu Musa al-Ashari, radiallahu anhu, لو رأيتني و أنا أستمع إذا قراعتك في البارحة. He said, if only you had seen me last night, I got to enjoy your recitation last night. I was just listening to your Quran. How do you think Abu Musa felt? How would you feel if the Messenger ﷺ said, hey, I saw you doing that thing, keep it up? How do you think he felt at that moment? This is how he would do ﷺ. He would encourage every one of us, every single person he was around. If he was here, he would encourage you for the smallest good deed that you do. Unfortunately today, the way we look at it, it's not how far we've come, but how far we have to go. Especially when it comes to the kids, right? If they're praying twice a day, why aren't you praying three times a day? Your cousin does this, your sister does that. That's what we look at, right? Our Messenger ﷺ, that was not his way. Remember where you came from? Like I tell people all the time, I wasn't born with a beard, right? Where were we before? And Allah ﷻ favored us. And today, we come to the Masjid regularly, we pray regularly. And you want to be like that for other people. He ﷺ, he met people where they were and he encouraged them to continue. So when we hear this, these are not just stories. These are, this is a how-to. It's a how-to guide that we should be like our Messenger ﷺ, may Allah ﷻ give us the tawfiq to do this. I say this and I ask forgiveness from Allah ﷻ and I ask forgiveness from the Muslims and I ask forgiveness from Allah ﷻ. Praise be to Allah, I ask forgiveness from Allah ﷻ and I ask forgiveness from the Prophet ﷺ as well. When we hear these kinds of things and we see how the Messenger ﷺ treated people around him, it creates within us a longing and a desire to meet our Messenger ﷺ. When we wish, you know, I wish I was there. I wish I was there in the midst of the Prophet ﷺ and he would praise me for some things, he would hug me, he would give me a look, he would call me out. Oh, you wish for that. You desire that. Well, let me tell you something. Your Messenger ﷺ wished he could have seen you. Your Prophet ﷺ explicitly said, I wish I could have met you. There's a hadith one time in the Prophet ﷺ and his companions, they go into the graveyard and when you go to the graveyard, what happens? You begin to ponder on your own mortality. He ﷺ, he is there and he ﷺ says upon the people in the graveyard and then he says, what did you know I saw my brother? Or, yeah, my brother. He ﷺ says, I wish I had seen my brothers. The companions are there, they're like, our brothers are brothers, aren't we your brothers? The Messenger ﷺ says, but you are my companions. No, no, no, you are my companions. You are my companions. My brothers are those who have yet to come. They will be in the generations to come after. They will believe in me though they never got to see me. I will be waiting for them at my fountain. This is what he ﷺ says. Who doesn't want to be among that category? And he ﷺ says, the people who will be closest to him, closest to him on that day are the people who had the best character and conduct. Now, you know, these are minutia, some of these things. Okay, this little thing about yourself, this little thing, sometimes it's hard for us to pinpoint the things that we need to work on. So I will give you just one quality. If you have this quality in your life, I have this in my life, this will cover all the bases, all the bases. And this is from a Hadith of the Prophet ﷺ and it's about Bilal ﷺ. It should be easy to remember because my name is also Bilal ﷺ. So he ﷺ, one day, after Fajr, he addresses the people. And he turns and he had a dream the previous night. And he turns and he says, Ya Bilal ﷺ, in front of everyone, in front of everyone. He says, Bilal ﷺ, Haddithni bi arja amalin amiltahu fil islam. I need you to tell me about the one deed that you have done as a Muslim, that you feel Allah will definitely reward me for. There's something that you have done that you have a lot of hope in. I don't know what it is, but I need to know. فَإِنِّي سَمِعْتُ دَفَّنَ عَلَيْكَ بَيْنَ يَدَيَّ فِي الْجَنَّةُ Because I heard the sound of your footsteps in Jannah in front of me. Now, the surface level of this Haddith is quite obvious. Nabi ﷺ is giving a Bushra of Jannah. He's giving glad tidings of Jannah to a person in front of everyone. How do you think he felt? كَيفَ كَانَ شُرُؤُرُ بِدَادْ فِي ذَالِكِ? How did he feel at that moment? That's obvious. We know that. Okay, the second level of the Haddith is what? Bidad al-Diyyallahu al-Ansir is he says that, you know, every time I made Wudu, I would pray two rakahs extra. That's it. This is how the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to teach people. He could have said this in private, but he did it in public because he wanted to honor Bidad and he wanted to teach people how do you get easy access to Jannah? That's the second level. Okay, now I said that I will teach you a quality that if you have this one quality in you, you will have all the prophetic qualities within you. What is that? Having genuine care and concern for the people around you. Sincere, genuine care for the people around you. How do we get that from this Haddith? Which is the third part I want you to remember. He ﷺ, did he say, I saw you in Jannah? Is that what he said? Did he say, oh Bilal, I heard you in Jannah, you were talking to me in Jannah? He said, Bilal, I heard your footsteps in Jannah. Which means what? The Prophet ﷺ was able to identify one of his companions just based on the way they walked. Think of that for a moment. How much he cared for the people around him? That he could tell even the minutest details about them. Someone would knock on his door. Oh, I know who's knocking. Someone walks up to his door. Yeah, I know who that is. Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. If he was that careful about the smallest details of their lives, what do you think about everything else that he, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, cared about? Now, if you and I wanna be with him, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he's already told us a recipe for that. Which is what? Improve your character and conduct. He's giving us a how-to list. He, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, has given it to us already. Just follow in his footsteps and do what he did. Treat others like he treated others. That's it. And finally, he says, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, that the people who will be among those who are closest to him are those who do the most Salat and Salam upon him. The one who send the most peace and blessings upon him. And Allah, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, says, Inna Allaha wa Madaikatahu yusalloon ala nabi. Ya'iyuhal ladina aamunu sallu ala alaihi wa sallimu taslima. Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barika ala sayyidina Muhammad wa a'ra a'rihi wa sahbihi wa sallim. Taslimin kathira.