In Adoration of the Beloved of Allah
O Prophet of Allah, where shall I find the source of my adoration for thee. I have memorized hundreds of thy sayings since my teens, taught thy seerah to numerous students, grown a beard, used the miswaaq, stood for salaami (salawaat), sang and proudly taught others odes (qasidahs) in praise of thee. None of these made me any more like thee; rather they merely flung me into the fray of insignificant debates in the arena of so many of the sunnahless Muslims who see thy sunnah only as an endless array of harsh laws and practices or as some justification for their cultural tendencies. O Allah, save me from being of those who consider the sunnah of Thy beloved as being expressed only through aimless imitations and who know Thy Prophet only as a conveyor of commands and warnings.
O Prophet of Allah, I did not truly find thee in the books of fatawa, nor in grand seminars and conferences throughout the world, and certainly not in the harsh arguments between various groups proclaiming mutually exclusive rights over thee. I did find the path of adoration to thee in a dream where I appeared searching for thy holiness on the Day of Judgement in order to beseech thy intercession. As I appeared walking over the lush greens of Paradise I found thee amongst a group of poor people in thy patched black cloak. I wondered what thou were doing in their company but then remembered thy famous prayer; O Allah, let me live among the poor and the downtrodden, let me die amongst the poor and the downtrodden and on the Day of Judgement when You raise me up raise me up amongst the poor and the downtrodden.
I found my source of adoration for thee in the love and respect that the Almighty has proclaimed for thee; in the honor that He bestowed upon thee; in His confirmation of thee as the ultimate exemplar; seal of Prophets and mercy unto all existence. Allah has elevated the very memory of thee and has made His boundless love accessible through obedience to thee.
O Prophet of Allah, what despicable insolence and diabolical arrogance leads those who know of thee not to fully acknowledge thee. Do they not remember thee as an orphan nourished by Halima-as-Sa’diah; as a reflective shepherd in thy teens; as the truthful and trustworthy salesman for Khadijah; all this with exemplary excellence. Allah chose thee, taught thee and empowered thee.
I picture thee in thy solitude longing for communion with the Divine; thy trepidation upon reception of the first revelation in the Cave of Hira; finding comfort in the loving arms of thy beloved wife, Khadijah. O Prophet of Allah, how can I not adore thee for how thy lived and how thy behaved.
I catch but a dimension of thee through the instances of compassion thou extended to others; how thou played with the poor orphaned boy when other children refused to play with him, how thou prolonged thy prostration out of consideration that thy change in posture may inconvenience or hurt thy darling grandson who had climbed on thy back; how thou commanded thy army away from the anthill in order not to disrupt the ants’ activities; how thou blessed with Paradise the sinful woman for saving the life of a cat by making the water of the well accessible with her shoes; how thou intervened and prevented a man from abusing his wife by teaching him that the best of men are those who treat their wives the best; how thou patched thy clothes, mended thy shoes and did thy daily household chores; how thou wrestled with thy nephew and raced with thy wife; how thou joked with the kids and carried the baggage of the elderly; how thou hosted the Christians of Najran in thy mosque and stood up to honor the bier of a Jew.
I appreciate another dimension of thee through the moments of pain and hardship thou had experienced; how thou were orphaned in childhood and endured grief at the loss of all thy sons in their youth and all but one of thy daughters in thy lifetime; how thou withstood the abuse of the Quraish and how thy beloved Fatimah dusted the dirt off thee as she wiped her tears; how thou invited thy relatives to the Truth and they mocked thee; how thou took the message of Islam to Taif and they stoned thee and turned their dogs upon thee. The angels begged thee to invoke Allah to turn the mountains on these people and thou refused, praying that perhaps their children will someday believe. I recall the incident when hungry soldiers physically manhandled thee demanding food at the Battle of the Trench only to be silenced at the realization that thou had three stones tied to thy stomach to still thy hunger; I further recall the incident when thy Jewess neighbor received a visit from thy companion whom thou had sent to inquire about her wellbeing since thou had not seen her for a few days despite the fact that she used to empty her garbage on thee when thou passed her home. O Mercy unto the Worlds, how I adore thee for thy tenderness and thy refusal to hate yet how disgusting are so many who try to justify hate in thy name.
O Prophet of Allah, why is it that so many of us who claim to be of thee refuse to be like thee. We sing for thee and dress like thee, but do not come near fulfilling the expression of love, care and beauty that generated from thyself. Why is it that we see in thee that which suits our cultural, organizational and chauvinistic interests, yet ignore the essence of what is essential to thy being. Others who are not of thee proclaim the multi-dimensional and multi-faceted nature of thy personality. The personality of Muhammad is most difficult to get the whole truth of it. Only a glimpse of him I can catch. What dramatic succession of picturesque scenes? There is Muhammad the Prophet; there is Muhammad the General; Muhammad the King; Muhammad the Warrior; Muhammad the Businessman; Muhammad the Preacher; Muhammad the Philosopher; Muhammad the Statesman; Muhammad the Orator; Muhammad the Reformer; Muhammad the Refuge of Orphans; Muhammad the Protector of Slaves; Muhammad the Emancipator of Women; Muhammad the Judge; Muhammad the Saint… In all these magnificent roles and in all these departments of human activities he is equally a hero. (Professor Ramakrishna Rao). O Prophet! Thy life-example is not only an integrated biography, history and law; it is above all a model of excellence.
O Prophet of Allah, I beg thy indulgence at my audacity in expressing my adoration of thee. Thou have certainly been adored by many much more worthy than I. Yet, neither the inability to capture my appreciation of thee with the eloquence of Rumi,Sa’di or Iqbal nor my weakness as a believer debars me from qualifying as one who adores thee; for in the commemoration of thy being do I find the dignity and honor of my existence.