الحمد لله، الحمد لله الذي اختار من خلقه محمدا الهاشمي، وجعل محبتَه فرضا على الأممِ، نحمده تعالى ونستعينه، ونشكره تعالى ونستغفره ونستغيثه، نعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات أعمالنا، من يهد الله فهو المهتد ومن يضلل فلن تجد له وليا مرشدا، ونشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له، له الملك و له الحمد، يحيي ويميت، بيده الخير، وهو على كل شيء قدير،  ونشهد أن سيدنا و مولانا محمداً عبده ورسوله، وحبيبه وصفيه، بلغ الرسالة وأدى الأمانة ونصح الأمة، النبي الأمي الذي أرسله الله بالهدى والدين الحق، بشيرا ونذيرا بين يدي الساعة، صلى الله عليه وسلم وعلى آله وأصحابه ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.

أما بعد! فيا عباد الله اتقوا الله حق تقاته ولا تموتن إلا وأنتم مسلمون. يأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله وقولوا قولا سديدا يصلح لكم أعمالكم ويغفر لكم ذنوبكم. ومن يطع 

الله ورسوله فقد فاز فوزا عظيما. اتقوا الله فيما أمر وانتهوا عما نها عنه وزجر.

قال الإمام البصيري رحمه الله في قصيدته المشهورة البردة:

دَع مــا ادَّعَتهُ النصارى في نَبِيِّهِـمِ واحكُم بما شئتَ مَدحَاً فيه واحتَكِـمِ

وانسُبْ الى ذاتِهِ ما شـئتَ مِن شَـرَفٍ وانسُب الى قَدْرِهِ ما شئتَ مِن عِظَـمِ 

فَــاِنَّ فَضلَ رســولِ اللهِ ليـس له حَـدٌّ فَيُعـرِبَ عنـهُ نــاطِقٌ بِفَمِ 

 

Imam al-Busayri says in his famous poem, the Burda:

Leave aside what the Christians have claimed for their prophet -

Then praise him as you like, but do so wisely.

Ascribe to his essence what you wish of honour,

Attribute to his exalted status what you will of greatness!

Truly, the Messenger of Allah’s excellence

Cannot be overstated by two lips and a tongue.

On a day that theoretically commemorates the birth of sayyiduna isa, alayhi as-salaam, a Prophet for whom the Christians have made a monstrous claim by ascribing divinity to him and saying that he is the son of Allah, ta-ala’lluhu amma yasifun, I thought it a good opportunity to remind ourselves of our own Messenger, Muhammad, and the high regard in which Allah holds him and the wonderful character with which he was endowed. As Imam al-Busayri said, such is the rank of the Messenger of Allah, that no creature of Allah can hope to find adequate words to praise him. So we will make do with mentioning some of what Allah says about him as well as describing how he was viewed by some of his close Companions. 

 

قال الله عز وجل في كتابه العزيز: لَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِ مَا عَنِتُّمْ حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُمْ بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ رَءُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ، وقرأ بعضهم : "من أنفَسكم"

 

Allah says in His Mighty Book, the translation of which is, “A Messenger has come to you from among yourselves. Your suffering is distressful to him; he is deeply concerned for you; he is compassionate and merciful to the muminun.” And there is another reading of this ayat that has “From the most valuable of you” instead “from among yourselves”.

Allah informs the believers, or the Arabs, that He has sent to them from among themselves a Messenger whom they know, whose position they are sure of and whose truthfulness and trustworthiness they cannot but recognise. He tells them there is no Arab tribe without descent from, or kinship with, the Messenger of Allah, and that he is from the noblest, highest and most excellent of them. In other words, he enjoys the purest and highest lineage of any human being ever born. Ali said, 

 

ليس في آبائه من لدن آدم  سفاح ، كلها نكاح

 

“Going right back to the time of Adam, there has not been a single fornicator among his forefathers. Every one of them was properly married.” And Ibn al-Kalbi said,

 

كتبت للنبي - صلى الله عليه وسلم - خمسمائة أم ، فما وجدت فيهن سفاحا ولا شيئا مما كان عليه الجاهلية

 

“I wrote down five hundred of the female ancestors of the Prophet and I did not find a single fornicator among them nor anyone who engaged in the evil practices that were prevalent in the time of the Jahiliyya.” And the Prophet himself said,

 

 إن الله خلق الخلق فجعلني من خيرهم من خير قرنِهم، ثم تخيَّر القبائل فجعلني من خير قبيلة ، ثم تخير البيوت فجعلني من خير بيوتهم ، فأنا خيرُهم نفسا ، وخيرُهم بيتا

 

“Allah created Creation and He placed me among the best of them from the best of their generations. Then He selected the tribes and He put me among the best tribe. Then He selected the families and He put me among the best of their families. I am the best of them in 

person and the best of them in family.”

Then Allah continues the ayat by attributing all kinds of praiseworthy qualities to him, greatly praising his eagerness to guide people to Islam, his deep concern for the intensity of what afflicts and harms them in this world and the Next, and his compassion and mercy for the believers. And finally, Allah brings the ayat to a close by honouring His beloved Prophet by giving him two of His own names: ar-raouf (the compassionate) and ar-rahim (the merciful).

And this mercy of the Prophet is not limited to the believers: Allah says:

 

وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِلْعَالَمِينَ

 

the translation of which is, “We did not send you except as a mercy to all the worlds.” Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Tahir said in his tafsir of this ayat, “Allah imbued Muhammad with mercy, so that his very being was mercy, and every one of his qualities and attributes was a mercy to all creatures. Whoever is touched by any aspect of his mercy will be saved in both worlds from every thing hateful and will obtain everything he loves.” His mercy extended to all of creation, even the highest and mightiest of the angels:

 

حُكيَ أن النبى صلى الله عليه و سلم قال لجبريلَ عليه السلام: هل أصابَك من هذه الرحمةِ شىءٌ ؟ قال: نعم، كنتُ أَخشَى العاقبةَ فأمِنتُ لثناءِ اللهِ عز وجل عليّ بقولِه: “ذي قوةٍ عند ذي العرش مكينٍِ مطاعٍ ثم أمينٍ”

 

It is related that the Prophet said to Jibril, “Has any of this mercy touched you?” He replied, “Yes, [before you], I used to have fear about what would happen to me, but now I feel safe because of the way Allah praised me when He said, ‘Securely placed with the Lord of the Throne, obeyed there, trustworthy’” The mercy of the Prophet did not come to an end with his death but extended beyond his lifetime, as the Prophet himself affirmed when he said, 

حياتي خيرٌ لكم وموتي خيرٌ لكم

 

“My life is a blessing for you and my death is a blessing for you,” And when he said,

 

إذا أراد اللهُ رحمةً بأمةٍ قبَض نبيًّها قبلَها ، فجعلَه لها فَرَطاً و سَلَفاً

 

“When Allah desires mercy for a community, He takes its Prophet to Him before them, and makes him one who will go ahead to prepare the way for them.”

Elsewhere in the Quran, Allah addresses His Prophet, saying:

 

 أَلَمْ نَشْرَحْ لَكَ صَدْرَكَ وَوَضَعْنَا عَنْكَ وِزْرَكَ الَّذِي أَنْقَضَ ظَهْرَكَ وَرَفَعْنَا لَكَ ذِكْرَكَ

 

the translation of which is, “Did We not expand your breast for you? And We lifted your burden from you, the burden that weighed down your back. And We raised high your renown.”

Qadi Iyad says in the Shifa, “What is clear is that by these words Allah confirms the immensity of the favour He has bestowed on His Prophet, his noble station with Him and the honour in which He holds him. He expanded his breast to belief and guidance and made it wide enough to embrace knowledge and bear wisdom. He removed from him the burdens of all the things of the Jahiliyya and made their pursuance hateful to him by giving His deen victory over all other deens. He lightened for him the weighty responsibility of the message and prophethood so he could convey to people what was sent down to him, and re-emphasised the sublime position, majestic rank, and high renown of His Prophet, by joining his name to His own.” For no man can become Muslim, no man can pray but that he mentions the name of the Messenger in conjunction with that of Allah:

لا إله إلا الله وأن محمداً رسول الله.

 

“There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.”

These are but some of the many hundreds of ayats in which Allah praises His Prophet and  describes him in ways that prove him to be the greatest and noblest of all of creation. To enumerate them all in a khutba would be impossible. In fact, to do him true justice, it would be necessary to mention the entire Qur’an, for as A’ishah narrated,

كان خُلُقه القرآن

 

“His character was the Qur’an.” So we ask Allah to accept what we have mentioned as a token of our esteem for His Prophet, and increase by means of it in love for him and his noble family and Companions.

 

أقول قولي هذا و أستغفر الله لي و لكم و لسائر المسلمين من كل ذنب فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور الرَّحيم.

الحمد لله الحمد لله رب العالمين، وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له وأشهد أن محمداً عبده ورسوله، صلى الله وسلم وبارك عليه وعلى آله وصحبه، والتابعين وتابعي التابعين ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.

أما بعد! فيأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله ما استطعتم واسمعوا وأطيعوا وأنفقوا خيرا لأنفسكم. يا عباد الله أوصيكم وإياي بتقوى الله وطاعته وأحذركم وإياي عن معصيته ومخالفته.

 

 The Qur’an is more than sufficient to show us the esteem in which Allah held His Messenger and the vastness of his character, but to obtain a detailed description of his appearance and qualities of character, we must go to the hadith literature and the books of seera. One of the very best in this regard is the Shifa of Qadi Iyad, although he himself admits the impossibility of such a task, saying,

“We have told you about some of his praiseworthy qualities, glorious virtues and attributes of perfection, and provided you with ample hadiths to show you that he truly had them. However, this matter itself is far more extensive than you can possibly know, so despite the fact that this chapter about him ranges far and wide, we have hardly even begun to exhaust all the proofs. The ocean of the knowledge of his qualities is overflowing, and is barely diminished by the small bucket-fulls we have drawn from it.” 

It is not possible in a short khutba to narrate even the small bucket-fulls transmitted by Qadi Iyad, so we will have to make do with quoting a few short hadiths that at least provide us with a snapshot of who the Prophet was and how he looked and acted. 

 

قال أبو هريرة رضي الله عنه: ما رأيت شيئا أحسن من رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم، كأن الشمس تجري في وجهه، وإذا ضحك يتلألأ في الجدر

 

Abu Hurayra said, “I have not seen anything more beautiful than the Messenger of Allah. It was as if the sun was shining in his face. And when he laughed, it reflected from the wall.” 

 

قال أنس رضي الله عنه: ما شمَمت عنبرا قط، ولا مسكا ولا شيئا أطيبَ من ريح رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم  

 

Anas said, “I have not smelled amber, musk or anything more fragrant than the smell of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”

 

قالت أم معبد في وصفها له: حلو المنطق، فصلٌ لا نزر، ولا هذر، كأن منطقه خرزات نظمن. وكان جهيرَ الصوت، حَسَنَ النغمة صلى الله عليه وسلم 

 

In her description of him, Umm Ma‘bad said, “Sweet in speech, distinct, without using too few or too many words. It was as if his speech consisted of threaded pearls. He had a loud voice which was very melodious, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”

 

قالت عائشة رضي الله عنها: ما رأيت رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم منتصرا من مظلمة ظلمها قط ما لم تكن حرمة من محارم الله. وما ضرب بيده شيئا قط إلا أن  يجاهد في سبيل الله وما ضرب خادما قط، ولا امرأة

 

‘A'isha said, “I never the saw the Messenger of Allah ever retaliate against anyone for an injustice done to him, so long as it was not regarding one of the orders of Allah which must be respected. He never once struck anyone with his hand except in the course of fighting jihad in the way of Allah, and never hit a servant or woman.”

 

عن أنس أن رجلا سأله صلى الله عليه وسلم فأعطاه غنما بين جبلين، فرجع إلى بلده وقال: أسلموا فإن محمدا يعطي عطاءَ من لا يخشى فاقة

 

Anas said, “A man asked him for something and he gave him all the sheep between two mountains, so the man returned to his people and said, ‘Become Muslim, for Muhammad gives the gift of a man who has no fear of poverty.’”

 

قال أنس أيضا: ما التقم أحد أُذُن رسولِ الله فيُنحِيَ رأسَه حتى يكونَ الرجلُ هو الذي ينحيَ رأسه، وما أخذ أحد بيده فيرسلَ يده حتى يرسلَها الآخر، ولم يُر مقدِّما ركبتيه بين يدي جليس له

 

Anas said, “When anyone spoke in the ear of the Messenger of Allah, he would not move his head away until the man had first moved his. When anyone took his hand, he would not let go his hand until the one who had taken it let go. He was not seen to put his knees in front of anyone who was sitting beside him.”

Descriptions of the Messenger of Allah in this vein are too numerous to count. And they clearly demonstrate that he was the most beautiful of Allah’s creation, inwardly and outwardly, and the most perfect. This is a matter which is beyond dispute. There is not one noble quality of character but that the Prophet outstripped all of mankind in that regard. This is the man in whose umma we have been blessed to have been placed and this is the man whom Allah sent to show us how to live our lives. He is the iswatun hasanah. Allah says:

 

لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ لِمَنْ كَانَ يَرْجُو اللَّهَ وَالْيَوْمَ الْآَخِرَ وَذَكَرَ اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا

 

the translation of which is, “You have an excellent model in the Messenger of Allah, for all who put their hope in Allah and the Last Day and remember Allah much.”

We ask Allah to increase in love of His noble Messenger. We ask Him to give us a true love that translates into action and emulation of his sunna. We ask Him to give us success in embodying his noble qualities of character to make us among those about whom the Prophet said, 

من أشدِّ أمتي لي حبا ناسٌ يكونون بعدي يودُّ أحدهم لو رآني بأهله وماله

 

“Some of those in my community with the strongest love for me are people who will come after me. Some of them would give their family and wealth to have seen me.”

 

إنَّ اللهَ ومَلائِكَتَهُ يُصلُّونَ على النَّبِي يَا أَيُها الذينَ آمنوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وسَلِّمُوا تَسْليماً. اللهمَّ صَلِّ وسَلِّم وبارِك عَلَيْهِ وعلى آلِهِ وصَحْبِهِ  أجمعين. 

وارض اللهم عن الخلفاء الراشدين أبي بكرٍ وعمرَ وعثمانَ وعلي ، وعن سائر الصحابة أجمعين، خصوصا الأنصارَ منهم والمهاجرين، وعن التابعين وتابعي التابعين ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.

اللهم اهد ولاة أمور المسلمين لما يرضيك ولاتباع سنة نبيك صلى الله عليه وسلم  وثبت أقدامهم على الصراط المستقيم وأصلحهم يا رب العالمين.

اللهم بارك على شيخنا، و على أميرنا، وعلى جميع أمراءِ وزعماء المسلمين.  

اللهم بارك على المسلمين في هذه المدينة ووفقهم لما تحبه وترضاه يا أكرم الأكرمين. 

اللهمّ أَعِزَّ الْلإسلامَ والمُسِلمينَ (3)  واَخْذُلِ الكُفْرَ والكافِرينَ، وانْصُرِ المُجاهِدينَ في سَبِيلِ اللهِ. واجْعَلْ كَلِمََتَكَ هِيَ العُلْيَا وكَلِمَةَ الكُفْرِ هِيَ السُّفْلى.

ربنا ءاتنا في الدنيا حسنة وفي الأخرة حسنة وقنا عذاب النار. 

اللهم لا تضعْ في مقامِنا هذا ذنبا إلا غفرْتَه، ولا عيبا إلا سترْتَه، ولا مريضا إلا شفيتَهُ وعافيتَه، ولا مسجونا إلا طلَّقْتَ سراحَه، ولا مسافرا في برِّك وبحرِك إلا سلِمتَهُ وغنِمْتَه.

إن الله يأمر بالعدل والإحسان وإيتاء ذي القربى وينهى عَنِ الفحشاءِ والمُنكَرِ والبغي، يعظكم لعلكم تذكرون، ولَذِكْرُ اللهِ أكبر والله يَعْلَمُ ما تَصْنَعُون. وقُومُوا إِلَى صَلاتِكُمْ يرحمكم الل