 Allah ﷻ says that the Prophet ﷺ takes precedence in the lives of the believers over their own lives. The life of the Prophet ﷺ is more important for the Mu'mineen than their own lives. He said ﷺ in a hadith that is rigorously authenticated. I swear by him who holds my soul in his hand. None of you truly believe until I am more beloved to him than his parents, his children, and the whole of humanity. And the scholars of hadith, the muhaditheen they say here, there's two types of love that is indicated in this hadith. The first type of love is a love that is based on the rational faculty. It's called khuba'akli that we love the Prophet ﷺ because we know that it's good for us to love the Prophet ﷺ. For example, somebody who just converts to Islam may not necessarily love the Prophet ﷺ more than he loves himself, but he knows that he should. So the ulama they use an analogy of a bitter pill like someone who's sick, someone who's ill, someone who has a disease. It's a pill because he knows it's good for him because it's rational faculty. The aqal tells him this is good for me. This is a type of love. But then through ma'rifah, through noses, through knowing the Prophet ﷺ, we come to love him. So this ma'rifah is converted into pure muhabba. So this khuba'akli becomes khuba'imani in which we love the Prophet ﷺ more than anything, more than our parents, more than our own selves. It's part of our aqeeda. This is what we believe that he ﷺ is khair al-khalqil laa. We love him more than anything. Imam Ali, Karamallahu wajah. He said, He ﷺ was more beloved to us than anything even more so than cold water. What's this analogy he's using? What is cold water for the desert Arab? It symbolizes life itself. That they love the Prophet ﷺ more than life itself. This is someone who is annihilated in the love of the Prophet ﷺ. And this is for the sake of Allah ﷺ. Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, radiolat al-anhu. He said to the Prophet ﷺ, Oh Messenger of God, I would prefer that Abu Talib becomes Muslim over Abu Quhafa. Who is Abu Talib? This is the uncle of the Prophet ﷺ. This is his paternal uncle, the man who raised the Prophet ﷺ. Who is Abu Quhafa? His own father. Abu Bakr is saying, I prefer that your uncle go to Jannah over my own father. This is what he's saying to the Prophet ﷺ. Why would he say this? Because the Prophet's happiness is his happiness. It would make the Prophet happier. When he used to laugh ﷺ, the Sahaba would laugh. When he used to cry, the Sahaba would cry. There was a Sahabi named Khubaib ibn Adi, radiolat al-anhu. Who was captured by the Quraish. And he was put in prison in Mecca until the sacred months were passed. And then he was taken out to a place called Tan'im, where he was crucified. And the Quraish were laughing at him as he was nailed to the cross. Deriding him, jeering at him, laughing at him, mocking him. And they said, don't you wish that Muhammad was in your place? And you were home with your family resting? Khubaib said, I don't wish that a thorn pricked the finger of the Messenger of Allah. I don't wish that a thorn pricked his finger. And then he said, Ya Allah, there is nobody here to convey my salam to your Habib. And while the Prophet ﷺ was in Madinatul Munawara at that time, sitting in a Majlis with Zaid ibn Haritha and others. A feeling came over him as if he was receiving the Tanzeel from Allah. And he said, Wa alaykumussalamur rahmatullah, Ya Khubaib. And they said, what happened? Your companion is being martyred right now in Mecca. And then Abu Sufyan ibn Harib who was not Muslim at this time. Obviously, when he was in Mecca and he was witnessing this. He said, Mara eitu ahadan, yuhibbu ahadan, kuhubbi ashabi Muhammadin Muhammadan. I have never seen anyone, love anyone. Like the companions of the Prophet ﷺ. Love the Prophet ﷺ. And Ghazwad Uhud, the Sahaba formed a human shield around him ﷺ. And amongst them was a woman. A blessed woman, Nusaybah bintu ka'ab, radiya Allah ta'ala anha. Who picked up a sword and stood in front of an armed horseman. This armed horseman, Ibn Qami'a, who had just killed Musa'ab ibn Umair. And now wants to kill the Prophet ﷺ. He stops dead in his tracks because there's a woman standing in front of him with a sword. This jahali Arab who wants to kill the Prophet ﷺ, he has enough common decency not to strike a woman on the battlefield. Think about that. We have so-called First World Nations right now dropping bombs on men, women and children sleeping in their beds. What kind of barbarism is that? This man will not strike a woman on the battlefield. He has enough chivalry not to do that. So he turns the blade of his sword over and he starts tapping her on the shoulder. As if to say, get out of the way. She's not budging because she said, I turned around and the Prophet ﷺ is under siege. I'm not going to move. So he brings the sword down hard on her shoulder, fractures her clavicle and she falls and he goes around. And her son was there at the time named Zaid. And he comes running, ummi, ummi, my mother, my mother. And what does she say to him? She says get away from me and protect the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ takes precedence in the lives of the believers over their own lives. There's an ayah in the Quran called Ayatul Imtihan, the verse of examination, which Allah ﷺ says Say, if you love Allah, if you claim to love Allah, you have to follow me. Then will Allah love you and forgive you your sins? Allah is forgiving and merciful. Why is this called Ayatul Imtihan? Who's being tested? Who's taking the examination? Our own selves. We have to see where we fare on this test. Do we pass or do we fail? If we love Allah, if we love Allah, do we have itiba'a of the Prophet ﷺ? Are we following him? Who are we following? Because that's whom we love. That's how you can tell. Do we have itiba'a of the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ? Do we have itisam? Do we hold on? Wa atasimu bihabilillahi jami'an. Do we hold on tightly with every ounce of our being to the Kitab of Allah ﷺ? This is interesting because there's a pseudo gospel going around America right now. And a lot of Muslims are buying into it. This is the prosperity gospel. It basically says that the amount of love that God has for you is commensurate with the amount of money you have in your bank account. The more money you have, the more God loves you. That's not our theology. Don't be deluded into that. That's not our theology. Qul in kuntum duhibbun Allah fattabi'uni yuhbib kum Allah. Yuhbib, present, active, justif. This is a result clause. If you love Allah, you have to follow me. Then will Allah love you. What determines the level of love that Allah ﷺ has on us is a measure of itibaa we have with the Prophet ﷺ. Now I want to look at this ayah a little more closely. Because we should have good Tadabbur of the Quran. Afalaya tadabburun al-Quran. Allah asks a question in the Quran. Don't you have deep reflection of the Quran? Allah begins this by saying qul say. This is an imperative fi'il amr in its second person, masculine singular. Allah ﷺ is telling the Prophet ﷺ. And this is very interesting. Sometimes the du'at, they go on the stage in front of like a Christian audience. And they'll say something like, did you know the name of Isa alayhi s-salam is mentioned more in the Quran than the Prophet ﷺ? They say 25 times. The Prophet has mentioned only 5 times. For as Muhammad and once as Ahmad. But 5 more times the name Isa alayhi s-salam, this is true. It's true. The name of Isa, his name is mentioned 5 more times. Right? But which servant is more honored? The one that the king is talking about in the third person, who's not there. Or the one that the king summons to his throne room and speaks to him directly. Allah ﷺ could have said, ألم نشرحلي محمد صدره وما أرسلنا محمدا إلا رحمة للعالمين. He could have said that. But what does he say? وما أرسلنا كا إلا رحمة للعالمين. كاف الخطاب. Allah ﷺ speaks directly to the Prophet ﷺ. This shows the ta'zim and the takreem of the Prophet ﷺ. Something to think about. In Surah At-Tawbah, Allah ﷺ, he says و الله رسوله أحقوا أن يردوا هو. He says Allah and His Messenger. It is more befitting that you please Him. This is very interesting. On the surface, it looks like it's incorrect grammar. And some of the Orientalists who don't know a lot of Arabic, they try to say, Oh, there's a grammatical mistake here in the Quran because there's two subjects. Allah and His Messenger. But the pronominal suffix, right? The object pronoun is singular. It's third masculine singular. المفرد الغائب. Who? It should be who ma. Because Allah and His Messenger. But it's singular. Why is it singular? إمام القرطب. He says this demonstrates the very intimate relationship of Allah ﷺ with the Prophet ﷺ. That Allah ﷺ made the Prophet's pleasure his pleasure. Allah ﷺ made the Prophet's obedience his obedience. Who says this? Allah ﷺ. ما يوتي الرسول فقط أطاء الله. Whoever obeys the Messenger is obeying Allah. Why? Because the Messenger and Allah are the same person? Of course not. This is unfortunately where some of our Christian friends with all due respect, our Christian friends and neighbors, this is where they went into the impermissible in their theology. They're not the same people. They're not the same person. They're equal on the level of obedience and will, not on the level of ontology. No one shares in the essence, the attributes and the actions with Allah ﷻ. But the Prophet ﷺ said من أطاءني فقط أطاء الله ومن عصاني فقط عص الله أو كما قال whoever obeys me obeys Allah. Whoever disobeys me disobeys Allah. فاطمة بدعت مني فمن أخضبها فقد أخضبني ومن أخضبني فقد أخضب الله فاطمة is a piece of my flesh. Whoever makes her angry angers me. Whoever makes me angry angers Allah ﷻ. This is a close personal relationship they have. Allah ﷻ in his حبيب. صلى الله عليه وسلم. Allah ﷻ there was a break in the revelation after the first إقراء was revealed and then a few verses of Surat Al Qalam and then there was the fatra. There was a break in the revelation. Imam al-Suyuti says 15 days خمسة عشر يوم that the revelation did not come to the Prophet ﷺ. And the mushrikīn started making fun of him. They started saying to him about him إن ربه ودعه وقالاه that his Lord has forsaken him and hates him. And Allah ﷻ a beautiful Surah وضوحا taking an oath. The oath formula Al Qasam is one of the ways in which Allah ﷻ in the early Meccan Surahs will use as a tool of consoling his Habib صلى الله عليه وسلم I swear by the morning light. And Imam al-Tabari says this means the revelation. It also means the face of the Prophet ﷺ in a sound hadith. Anas ibn Malik said when the Prophet would enter into a room, the walls of the room would be eliminated. They would reflect his light. وضوحا by his face, by the revelation. Imam al-Tabari said this means the heart of the Prophet ﷺ. Because where did he receive the Tanzeel, the Qur'an على قلبه upon his heart. Now the heart is still because the revelation is not coming. In other words, whether you're receiving revelation or not receiving revelation ما ودعك ربك وما قالاه your Lord has not forsaken you and does not despise and this is the right way to translate because Allah ﷻ if you look at this ayah. The verb قلاء is a transitive verb. We have to start learning these things. It's very important. We have to learn our scripture. Other people learn our scripture. Non-Muslims learn scripture. Non-Muslims, they go learn Farsi and Arabic and Urdu to do God knows what. What are we doing? Oh, it's too hard brother, I can't do it. Where do you have your degree? I have a master's from UCLA. Masha'Allah, you're a genius. You can't learn Arabic a little bit. قلاء is called فئة المتعدد قلاء is called فئة المتعدد It's a transitive verb. Means you need to have a direct object but Allah ﷻ did not say قلاءك He did not say he doesn't hate you or despise you. He left off the calf because Allah ﷻ will never even suggest that he hates the Prophet ﷺ even when he's negating the statement. ﷺ We read the Qur'an. There's multiple levels of meaning in the Qur'an. Jafar al-Sadaq says there's four levels of meaning to every verse in the Qur'an. There's the expression. There's the illusion. What it eludes to and then there are subtleties and then there are حقائق there are realities. Like a verse we read that we think is just one-dimensional. Allah ﷻ commanding قبلة to be changed. What's the story behind this ayah? We read it over and over again. We don't even think about it. We don't have تدبر of the Qur'an. We have to have تدبر. What does Allah ﷻ what happened in the context of the story? The Prophet ﷺ, one day he cast a glance to the sky. He cast a glance to the sky and he had شوخ in his heart. He had a longing or a desire. He didn't even articulate it. What was his desire? That the قبلة be changed to مكة which is the first house of worship In أول بيتن ودي علي الناس للذي بكة مباركة The first house ever dedicated to the worship of the one true God was مكة and بكة. What's the name for بكة? For مكة بكة or مكة? بكة is mentioned in the book of Psalms 84.6 in the Hebrew Bible بكة it says in the Hebrew passing through the valley of بكة So this is what he had in his heart ﷺ What does Allah ﷻ say قد نرى تقلوب وجهك في السماء Revelation comes down قد حرف التحقيق indeed نرى We see Allah is أحد وحد means one Right? One person He refers to himself as نفس قتبر رحمان على نفسهر رحمة أحد means he's one of a kind So why is he saying We This is called نونو تعظيم جمون منكي the royal plural When Allah ﷻ uses the royal plural in verbs The object, the person he's addressing also has تعظيم according to the people of grammar and rhetoric Indeed we see We see you turning your face Who is Ka? The Prophet ﷺ في السماء towards the heavens فَلَنُوا الْلِيَنَّكَ How do we translate this? Impossible to translate نونو تعظيم كاف الخطاب We're going to translate Indeed indeed Indeed indeed Turn you To a qiblah That you are pleased with Think about it Allah changed the qiblah Because the Prophet ﷺ one day He cast a glance to the heavens With shock in his heart And immediately Allah ﷻ He changes the qiblah This shows a very close intimate relationship Between Allah ﷻ And his Habib ﷺ So Turn your face in the direction Of the inviolable Masjid Now watch what happens here وَحَيْثُمَ كُنْتُمْ فَوَلْلُوا الْجُوْهَكُمْ شَتْرَةً Where ever you all are What happened? Again the Orientalist is thinking There's a grammatical error in the Qur'an here It changed from the singular وَجْهِكَ To the plural وُجُوْهَكُمْ There is an error in the Qur'an No, it's called التِفَات Now Allah ﷻ is speaking To the ummah of the Prophet ﷺ So not only does this ayah show A close relationship Between Allah ﷻ and his Habib But also between And the ummah Of the Prophet ﷺ Which is us He said some of our Muslims They say the Prophet ﷺ was a delivery man He delivered the news And then he's gone You don't see him again, you don't hear from him again The rand corporation A right-wing extremist group This is how they want to give us our humanitics How they're presenting us Something, a theology That the Prophet ﷺ does not have a transcendent nature He's historical, he's gone Forget about him And we're buying into this If this is true, why did the Prophet said He said What did to From Muwadda I would have loved to have seen I would have loved to have seen them The Sahaba said Are we your brethren? Who are the brethren? Those who come after me Who never saw me But they're willing to sacrifice everything Just to look at me one time Why does the Prophet ﷺ keep reaching out to the ummah If he's a delivery man and he's gone You don't hear from him or you don't contact him Nothing ever again You don't care about him, he delivered the news and he's gone This is what they want us to believe In America They're presenting this theology to us And we're buying into it This is not our theology Imam al-Sufqi says He couldn't stay in Medina Because everything reminded him of the Prophet ﷺ So he went to Damascus He was there for over a year The Prophet comes to him in a dream Ya Bilal, what is this distance What is this aversion If he's a delivery man Why is he coming to the dreams of people You know what the Prophet ﷺ said In a mutawatir hadith Multiply attested hadith That you have to believe in According to the majority of the ulama And if you disbelieve in it, then we're in big trouble He said Whoever sees me in a dream Has truly seen me Satan cannot imitate me In another hadith in Bukhari He says Whoever sees me in a dream Has seen the truth The Prophet ﷺ continues to reach out to his umma This means he's reaching out Why? To establish that relationship And this is done by You have to understand No one is giving divine qualities To the Prophet ﷺ No one is saying that the Prophet ﷺ Has omniscience and omnipotence This is clear No one is saying the Prophet ﷺ Of course not But we have that relationship With the Prophet ﷺ There is neither strength nor power Except by the permission of Allah This is our theology In his book Read this book We need to have marifa of the Prophet ﷺ To get in touch with the Prophet ﷺ And love the Prophet ﷺ He begins his book 55 chapters The chapter concerning The physical attributes of the Prophet ﷺ And you might say Why is this even important? A lot of Muslims will make this argument Who cares what he looks like? Who cares what he looks like? Why did the Sahaba mention it? The Prophet ﷺ said The best generation is my generation And the Sahaba Describes the Prophet ﷺ With such meticulous detail That Ibn Omar said He has seen white hairs on his temple What is he doing that? Going up to him and counting white hairs on his temple For what? Why did they record these things? Do you know why they recorded them? Because they loved him This is why you describe these things They are annihilated in his love For the sake of Allah His final chapter In his book The chapter on Seeing the Prophet ﷺ In a dream We forget about these aspects of our belief Why does he structure his book like this? Because first chapter You get to know about what he looked like And then if you study the book properly You actually see him That's the point of the book May Allah ﷻ increase us In the obedience of the beloved And may Allah ﷻ increase us In the obedience Of grabbing on And seizing his book The Kitab of Allah With every ounce of our being We ask Allah ﷻ to forgive us So forgive us We ask Allah ﷻ to forgive us All praise is due to Allah Allah ﷻ Allah ﷻ Allah ﷻ Allah ﷻ Allah ﷻ Allah ﷻ Allah ﷻ Allah ﷻ Nabi. Ya yuhalladina amalusallu alaihi wa salimu taslima. Allahumma salli ala Muhammadan wa ala ala Muhammadan kama salita ala Ibraheem wa ala ala Ibraheem fil alamin innaka hamidun majeed. Allahumma baraka ala Muhammadan wa ala ala Muhammadan kama baraka ala Ibraheem wa ala ala Ibraheem fil alamin innaka hamidun majeed. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala he issues a warning in the Qur'an. I'll end with this inshallah. He issues a warning in the Qur'an. It's different types of ayat in the Qur'an. Different scholars have said there's seven types of verses in the Qur'an. There's ahkam, there's legal rulings that deal with the legislation of law, things that deal with you know badaniyah, things with the body, things that deal with the heart, the qalbiyyah, things with ibadah, that's one type of ayah. And then there's verses that deal with ma'ad which deals with the afterlife or hereafter. And then you have qasas, you have stories or narrations, you have verses that talk about rububiyyah, theological verses, and verses that talk about nubuwah, prophetological verses in the Qur'an. And then you have verses in the Qur'an that are wa'ad which are promises, promises of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala wa'adah allahi haq wa man astakwimina allahi qeela. And the promise of Allah is always true. The promise of Allah you can take to the bank and cash it. And then Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala he has another type of verse called wa'id. And this is a threat and we have to take the threat of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala very very seriously. Because a human being threatens us, we can't sleep at night. But when Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says in surah to Toba ayat number 24, that if any of these ephemeral things, your houses, your bank accounts, your cars, your women and children, your husbands, your whatever it is, your your your houses, your what do they call them? Your summer homes, whatever you have, your stocks and bonds. If any of these things, if any of these things, If any of these things are more dear to you than Allah, His Messenger and struggling in His way, then just wait. We don't want to wait. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala issues a wa'id. He issues a threat. We take the threat seriously, very seriously. We submit to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. We submit to the guidance of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And to see them fitnah or you see them adabun aleem. Let those be forewarned who go against the Amr of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Lest a humiliating tribulation come to them or a painful punishment. Fa la wa rabbika la yu'minuna hatta yu'haktimuka fee ma shajla beinuhum tumma la yajdu fi anfusihim haraja mimma qadaita wa yusallimutaslima. They have no faith unless they make you the judge in all of their affairs. Unless they make you the judge in all of their affairs and they find no resistance in their hearts and they come to you with submission. Sometimes our submission, right, sometimes the akal, I should say, gets the better of our submission. We like to think we're smart, so-called postmodern Muslims. They say, oh, we're progressive now. We don't follow the way of the antiquated traditionalists who fast, they pray, they cover their heads. No, we're open-minded. We don't do these things, right? Fasting, that was for back then. This is going on in Western Academy amongst Muslims and other places as well. Fasting was for back then. You know, there's a shortage of food, so they had to fast one month every year. That's why they did it. There's a shortage of food. Oh, making wudu, that's because they were dirty. This is what they say. What? Kutiba aleykum usiyam. You have to fast. This verse is mutlak. It's unconditional and it's aam. It's general for all the Muslims. Sometimes our so-called intellect, we have to know that things are beyond our intellect. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam, end with this one minute inshallah ta'ala. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam was invited to a dinner party. And the host was a man named Abu Urbaid. And Abu Urbaid, he cooked a sheep because the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam likes to eat sheep, the shoulder. And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam, and he brought some other companions. He said, now will the adhira, serve me the forequarter, the shoulder of the sheep. And he said, here you go, O messenger of God. And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam, he took a few bites. He didn't eat a lot, sallallahu alaihi sallam, did not eat a lot. And then he passed it to the Sahaba, and they take Tabarak from his leftovers. He's in the hadith. And then he said, now will the adhira, give me another shoulder. Here you go, O messenger of God. And he took a few bites, and he passed it to the Sahaba. And he said, and then he said, yeah, Abu Urbaid, now will the adhira, give me a shoulder. Ya Rasulallah, wakam lishati min dira. He said, O messenger of God, how many shoulders does the sheep have? How many shoulders? Maybe he lost count. Listen to the response of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam, wala di nafsi biyadi. I swear by the one who holds my soul in his hand. Lo sakat, lo sakat, lana wal tani adhira ama da'ut. O kamakala alaihi sallallahu alaihi sallam, if you had just stayed quiet, you would have served me a shoulder every single time I asked you. Sometimes we have to have teslim. We just have to submit to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and recognize that the intellect is in fact limited. InshaAllah ta'ala.