 We begin by praising Allah, the Lord of the worlds. We praise him and we seek his aid and we ask for his forgiveness and we seek his protection from the evil of ourselves and from the evil of the world. And we bear witness that there's no God but Allah alone that he has no like and we bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam is a slave and final messenger. Allah has, we praise Allah as well for bringing the hearts together on this auspicious day of Jumu'ah, a day that we all know is a day of gathering. And this day of gathering is both a reminder and a warning. It's a reminder of our first gathering, our first gathering in the world of souls on Yum Al-Ast. On that day Allah asked us, Al-Astubi Rabbikum, am I not your Lord? And we all testified and we all took the covenant and we said, Bala, indeed you are. And so this day of Jumu'ah is a reminder of that day and a warning of the upcoming day of gathering on Yum Al-Qiyamah, when we will again be brought together before our Lord and we will be asked whether we remain faithful to that original covenant, that primordial covenant. We come in now with a new month. We enter into a new month called Rabia al-Awwal. Rabia al-Awwal in Arabic means the first spring. It's a season when flowers bloom, when animals leave their hibernation and it's as though the world comes back to life after having been dead in winter, hence the dead of winter. And spring is a season of rebirth, as is Rabia al-Awwal, as we all know, because Rabia al-Awwal is a month known for celebrating a birth, and that's the birth of our beloved messenger, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. This is not an event or an occasion that is insignificant. This is not an occasion or an event that we list on the calendar, wave at it as it passes by, and continue with our daily lives as they are. This is because in our religion, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is not just a deliveryman. He's not just a messenger who brought a message from the king of kings and then left. And unfortunately, this widespread misconception amongst the believers is something that reveals a fundamental misunderstanding, a fundamental flaw with our akhida, with our basic beliefs as Muslims. And this is because the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is ma'asum. He, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, is infallible. He is free of sin. He does not commit mistakes. He does not commit errors, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And because of that, he is not just the messenger, he is the message, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. This is our akhida. This is fundamental to our belief as Muslims. Allah Azza wa Jalla says in the Quran, وَمَا يَنْتِكُ عَنِ الْهَوَى إِنْهُ وَإِلَّا وَحْيُونْ يُوْهَى He, your companion, the messenger, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, does not speak from his whims. He does not speak from his desires. It is nothing but revelation revealed. It is nothing but revelation revealed. In other words, when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam would speak, whether it was about religious matters, whether it was about worldly matters, whether it was about family matters, he did not speak from his own ego. When he, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, spoke with his blessed tongue, his blessed tongue was perfectly aligned with the divine tongue. Hence, it was revelation revealed. Our mother, Lady Aisha, our brother, Allah Azza wa Jalla, famously described him, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, by saying, كان خُلُكُهُ الْقُرْآن. His character, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, was the Qur'an. And in another hadith, she, Allah Azza wa Jalla, said, كان الْقُرْآن يَمْشِي فِي الْأَرْبَ. He, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, was the Qur'an walking on land, walking on the earth, meaning that he, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, fully embodied the Qur'an. He was not just the messenger, he was the Qur'an, he was the message. The rank of our beloved Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is so high that Allah said, وَرَفَعْنَا لَكَذِكْرَكْ And we elevated your mention, we raised for you, for your sake, your mention. And we also know that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is called Ashshara'ah. He is the law giver. Even though in reality it is Allah who gives the law, it is Allah who reveals the Ashshara'ah. But the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is called the law giver because Allah says, وَمَا آتَاكُمُ الرَّسُولُ فَخُدُوْهُ وَمَا نَا هَاكُمْ عَنْهُ فَانْتَهُ Whatever the Messenger, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has brought, take it. Whatever he has prohibited you from, cease it. And even more explicitly, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam also says about this Prophet, من يُطَئِرُ رَّسُولَ فَقَدْ أَطَاءَ اللَّهُ whoever obeys the Messenger, has obeyed Allah. He Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is not the Messenger, he is the message. لقد كان لكم في رسول الله أسوة الحسنة verily you have in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful exemplar. And another example of this is إنسورة الفاتحة many of the scholars of Tafsir when they come to the ayah اهدين الصرات المستقيم the ayah that we recite I believe 17 times every day. The scholars of Tafsir explain that guide us onto the straight path or guide us on the straight path means guide us to the Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And so the straight path is the Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. It's not his example, it's him himself Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And so knowing the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam loving the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and following the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is of the essence of this religion. To know him is to know Allah because in knowing him you know his commandments and you know his prohibitions and they aren't abstract they're embodied, they're lived they are they're fully embodied in the human experience. And so there's no path to Allah there's no gaining Allah's nearness there's no entering Allah's presence except through this door of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and through knowing him not as an abstract concept not as someone that we pray that we pay homage to once a year and then forget no through knowing him Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam as someone real as someone that as though we can see him in front of us and loving him as Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam because when we do that we recognize his beauty Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam as inward and outward beauty and we recognize all the good he has brought brought to humankind mankind at large and also to each of us particularly In kuntum tahibbuna Allah fatta bi'a'uni yahbeb kum Allah wa yaghfir lakum dunu bakum if you love Allah follow me Allah will love you and forgive your sins ahulu qawdi hadha wa astaghfir Allah hali walakum wa lisa iril muslimi infas tawfiruh innahu wa laghfir rahim Bismillah walhamdulillah As-salatu wa s-salamu ala Rasulullah As-salatu wa s-salam Many people feel that their iman their practice it ebbs and flows sometimes they feel strong in their faith sometimes they feel strong in their practice and but other times they feel weak other times we want to do better but we find ourselves unable to without the power to without the motivation to without the discipline to sometimes we'll hear a lecture hear a hadith maybe hear a khutbah and we'll feel connected to Allah but then we'll go home and the dunya will distract us family and worldly and other worldly concerns and because of that we'll fall back into the bad habits that we promise ourselves in that lecture that khutbah that yes I'll break and sometimes this ebb and flow because it keeps happening there's a expansion and then a constriction expansion and then a constriction and expansion then a constriction because it keeps happening sometimes it can become a little bit depressing a little bit sad because nothing seems to change in the long term but there is a important hadith to know that inshallah can soothe this cause of sadness can soothe this anxiety because in this hadith we see that even the sahaba brother Allah Anhu would experience the ebb and flow of this expansion and constriction and it's narrated by Abu Khairah brother Allah Anhu and other narrations they say khandala brother Allah Anhu that he once said to the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam O Messenger of Allah when we are with you when we are in your company when we're in your presence our hearts become light and you remind us of paradise and you remind us of the fire and they become as though we're seeing them with our own eyes but when we leave you our families, children and property they busy us and we become forgetful so how did the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam respond he said by God in whose hand is my soul if you remain consistent as you are with me and in remembrance meaning in remembrance of Allah angels would shake your hand on your beds and on the streets but step by step yahandala moment by moment yahandala and so the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam's advice was gentle he advised us to be gradual to work on ourselves step by step and this working on ourselves was tied was hinged on two considerations one was that he Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned remaining in dhikr and the other thing he mentioned was to remain as you are with me if you remain consistent as you are with me were his words Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in other words if you remain with the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam then you will remain in that state if you keep the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in your heart his example at forefront of your mind in remembrance of Allah by remembering that he is watching you and that you intend in every moment to obey him and therefore that and you recognize that in obeying him you are obeying the Messenger Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and you recognize that in obeying the Messenger Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that that can only happen if you're aware of his sunnah in every moment of his life Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and that if you are aware of his sunnah Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam then he was always with you in your heart then that is the key to gradually coming out of this ebb and flow, to gradually becoming better Muslims and to eliminating these habits. The best way to know the Messenger, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, as is well known, is through knowing his Seerah, through knowing his character, his Shamail, and this is a month of knowing his character, of knowing his Shamail, his characteristics. Because when you know his Shamail, you know how he treated children, and so you learn how to treat your children. And when you know his Shamail, you learn how he was generous with people, with his wealth, with his money, and with his knowledge, and so you learn how generosity looks like when it's embodied. And when you know his Shamail, you come to know all of the minutia of his daily life, and so you come to embody those minutia, and you become prophetic in that way. The Beloved always obeys his Beloved. The Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, in an important hadith says, The Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said, Really the most beloved of you to me, and the closest of you to me in station, on the Day of Resurrection, will be the best of you in character. And he, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, also said, إِنَّمَا بُعَتُوا لِهُتَمْيِ مَا مَا مَا مَا كَارِمَا الْأَخْلَقْ as only sent to perfect noble character. Noble character is the secret of the Shamail, because through attaining the Shamail, through understanding it, through knowing it, and through embodying it, then you become beloved to the Beloved, and you become nearer to the one who is nearer to Allah, and therefore you become nearer to Allah. The Shamail then is a glimpse, it's a depiction of that prophetic heart that we're all trying to attain.