Seerah Series | Part 2: Specialties of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) | Shaykh Yasir Qadhi

And the Prophet once was reciting the Qurʾān and he came across a number of verses. Of them is the famous verse when Ibrahim says, [Ibrahim is making a duaa for his people] “Oh Allāh whoever follows me, then he is of me. Whoever disobeys me, then You are forgiving.”[Even him, oh Allāh, forgive. This is what Ibrahim is saying, basically.] For those who are following me, then of course he’s with me, oh Allāh, protect him. But even those wa man asaanee, even those, fa innaka ghafurur raheem, forgive them.

And he came across the verse of Isa , and this is in Surah Maidah, “Oh Allāh if you punish them, then it’s your right, they’re your servants. But if you forgive them, then you are Azeezun Hakeem” [in other words, I want you to forgive them]. So he recites two verses. Both of them are regarding prophets making duaa for their ummahs. And then he starts thinking of his own ummah. And he raises his hands to Allāh and he says, “Allāhumma Ummati...Oh Allāh, my Ummah, oh Allāh my ummah”. And he began to cry thinking about his ummah. And we are a part of that ummah. Thinking about his ummah. After reading Ibrahim’s duaa for his ummah and Isa’s duaa for his ummah, now he’s thinking of his ummah and he is saying, “Oh Allāh my Ummah, Oh Allāh my ummah.” And so Allāh azza wajjal told Jibreel, “Go to Muhammad and ask him why is he crying?” This hadith is in sahih Muslim, authentic hadith, very beautiful hadith. “Ask him: why is he crying?” So Jibreel came to him and asked him, “Why are you crying?” And of course Allāh knew why he was crying and Allāh knew why he was crying when he sent Jibreel. And Jibreel found out and the Prophet said that, “I am crying thinking of my ummah and thinking of what will be their fate.” And so Jibreel went back to Allāh and Allāh azza wajjal said, “Oh Jibreel go back to Muhammad and tell him We are going to please you for your ummah. Because We want to please you, We’re going to bless your ummah. And We’re not going to cause you any irritation”. In other words, because of you Ya Rasul Allāh, that you want your ummah to be blessed so much, We’re going to please you and We’re not going to cause you any harm and irritation.

And the greatest indication of the love that the Prophet had for us, the greatest indication, and this is something that each and every one of us should think deeply about, I want you to think about this not just today…for the rest of your lives. What sacrifice the Prophet did with this particular issue. And that is that Allāh has given every single prophet one request. As we say in English, one wish, one request. Every single prophet, this is a blessing that Allāh has given them. That one duaa that they really want to be answered, they will get that duaa. And some of the prophets, they used it against their people who disobeyed them. Because they were so frustrated, they used it against their people. And so for example Nuh after making da’wah for 950 years, he became so frustrated he said, “Oh Allāh I don’t want you to leave one house of kaafirs on this earth.” And so Allāh destroyed all of the humanity of the time, and that was one town. The whole town was destroyed and only Nuh and his three daughters came from there. Nuh and his three daughters, that’s it. All of humanity started again because Nuh made that duaa.

And Ibrahim made that duaa for the Prophet , “Oh Allāh send from amongst them a Rasul.” So the Prophet said, and we’ll talk about this next week inshā’Allāh, “I am the duaa of my father Ibrahim. This was the duaa he made. I am that duaa.”

And Musa made duaa against Firawn because Firawn was a mass murderer, he was a genocidal killer. He had killed these babies of…imagine you know, basically he was the Hitler of his time, Firawn. So Musa made a duaa that, “Oh Allāh, do not guide this person. Whatever happens then, never guide this person.” And that’s exactly what happened, that Firawn was never guided, until even he tried to accept Islam, it was too late

And we can give so many examples, Sulayman …Sulayman made the duaa, this was the special duaa, his duaa was, “Give me a dominion.” A lot of people translate this as a kingdom, this is not correct. Mulk here is control. Not just a kingdom. Give me a dominion, give me that control that you have given to no other human before me. This was his duaa. I want powers that nobody has had. So Allāh gave him powers that nobody had. “We made for him the wind.” And so the whole legends of the flying carpets and stuff, it comes from Sulayman. Sulayman would sit on a carpet and the carpet would take him. One night it would take him the journey of one month and bring him back. And the trapping of the genies in the bottles…it all comes from Sulayman. “And the shayatheen, we made them subservient.” They were building and they were diving deep and they were doing everything for Sulayman. Bringing the treasures of the ocean and building palaces for him. So Allāh gave the control of the jinns, mighty and powerful creatures, the control of the jinns was given to Sulayman.

“We told him how to speak to animals.” So all of the animals became his servants that he had…he had the beasts that were under his command. This is the duaa of Sulayman. You see now what this duaa can give you if you want it. It can give you a lot. Our Prophet had the biggest duaa and he had the greatest duaa. He has this one duaa and so what did he use it for? The Prophet said that every single rasul and every single nabi, Allāh has given him one duaa that He has guaranteed that He will respond to. And every single nabi has used up this duaa for himself in this world. Everyone has used it up, except for me. I have saved it and I have not used it. And I will not use it in this dunya. I have saved it, I have kept it for my ummah. I have kept it for my ummah and I will use it for them on the Day of Judgment and the duaa will be, “Oh Allāh, forgive my entire ummah.” Billions of people. This is the duaa of the Prophet . Anybody who believed in me, Oh Allāh forgive him. And Allāh will accept that duaa in that every single muslim, as we know, shall eventually enter jannah. From the duaa of the Prophet Muhammad . Every single muslim who believes in this Prophet and who acted upon even a little bit of his teachings, no matter how sinful he was, eventually you will be forgiven and you will enter jannah. And where did this come from? Because the Prophet saved that one duaa, that one request that he could have done, he saved it and he sacrificed it for us and there can be no greater sacrifice than that and that shows us the love that he had and what is the purpose of all of this love?

We conclude by mentioning a beautiful hadith in Bukhari that Anas ibn Malik narrates when he says that a man came to the Prophet and he said, “Oh Messenger of Allāh, when is the Day of Judgment?”  And this is a question that has no benefit and it’s not going to gain you anything. And the Prophet doesn’t know when the Day of Judgment is. Instead of saying, “I don’t know,” instead of saying, “what do you care?” he directed him to a more pertinent question. He said, “What have you prepared for it when it comes?” Instead of asking when is the Day of Judgment, what have you prepared for it? And so the man was silent for a while. It completely jolted his perspective, right. And this shows us when somebody comes and asks you a foolish question, don’t make fun of him, direct him to something more pertinent, more useful. And so the man was completely shocked, he remained silent. And then he spoke and he said, “I really don’t have that much salah and that much siyam and that much sadaqah. But I have a genuine love of Allāh and His messenger.” So the Prophet said, “The man shall be with he whom he loves.” Anas says, “Fa wAllāhi we were never as happy and overjoyed as we were than on that day when we heard that a man shall be with he, whom he loves because we loved the Prophet and we wanted to be with him but we thought that because our levels would be so different, we’d never get to see him. But when he said this hadith, we were never as happy as we were on that day.”  With the realization that the person is with he, whom he loves. And so let us have a genuine love for the Prophet . Let us understand the sacrifices he made for us. Let us understand what a great personality he was and most importantly let us study his life and times so that we can implement and follow his teachings and come closer to Allāh .

Allāh says in the Qurʾān: Say if you truly love Allāh, then follow me, Allāh will love you and forgive your sins. Follow me, Allāh will love you and forgive your sins. May Allāh make us amongst those who truly follow the Prophet and may He forgive our sins.