Meeting Muhammad
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Celebrating With Him | Meeting Muhammad ﷺ Episode 7
Celebrations are a time to gather, eat, and connect with others. Here are some lessons we can take from the Prophet ﷺ on how he would celebrate and feast, particularly during Eid and weddings.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Celebrations are meant to be simple and expansive. And SubhanAllah, nowadays we actually see the opposite of that, where celebrations are extravagant and exclusive. And that's the opposite of how the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam celebrations were in his lifetime. So we went through what it was like to see the Messenger SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam in times of hardship. Literally in the trenches, in battle, serving alongside the people. And we talked about what it was like to see the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and pray behind him in the month of Ramadan. Now I wanna talk a bit about the feasts of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, the celebrations of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. And let's start with Eid, but let's not get to Eid yet. Let's stay in Ramadan mode InshaAllah Ta'ala. But let's start with Eid and some lessons we can glean of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and how he sets the community feel in the time of Eid. First and foremost, when the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam would come out on the day of Eid, he wore this red striped cloak, alayhi salatu wasalam, a beautiful suit from Yemen. And you looked at him SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and he was so beautiful as he came out to speak to the people. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam would say, everyone come out to the Eid Salah. He would bring them out to the Eid Musalla, all of the men, all of the women, all of the children, all of the elderly, everyone come out to the Eid Salah. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam would make it a point to greet everyone individually. And he would even give his khutbah differently on the day of Eid SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. He would be closer to the people when he gave the khutbah on the day of Eid SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, walking around to his companions, reminding them of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. A lot of times we think of Eid as a day of ghafla, as a day of heedlessness, rather than a day of celebrating the worship of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said three times at the end of his Eid khutbah, tasaddaqu, tasaddaqu, tasaddaqu. Give, give, give, give in charity, give in charity, give in charity.
So Eid is actually supposed to be a day of charity in the time of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam as well, reminding everyone that it's not like you go through this exercise of gratitude just to become ungrateful on this day, but include everyone. Make sure that you're giving on this day as well, so that everyone has Eid. That's why you have zakatul fitr and Eid al-fitr, right? That everyone is able to eat and feast on that day, not just those that can afford to do so. And of course Eid al-Adha is where the sacrifice is made. So once again, everyone is able to eat in Eid al-Adha. So the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam reminds people of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. He reminds the people to be generous. He reminds the people to be open. And of course he allows the people SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam to celebrate that day. And sometimes it was hard to know the boundaries around the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam in that regard until he sat them Alaihi Salatu Wasallam. So there's this narration that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was there and there were these two girls that were singing these old songs from the Bu'ath Wars. And Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, he reprimanded those two young girls to stop singing. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, to leave them. He said that every people has a Eid, every people have a day of feasting. And this is our day of celebration. So let them sing, it's okay. And of course there was nothing objectionable in what they were saying on that day. Aisha radiAllahu ta'ala Anha, she describes the day of Eid with the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam in a very special way. She says that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was laying down and when Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu had gone away, I asked the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam if we could go and we could watch the Abyssinians that were doing some of their Eid dances or their celebrations in the masjid with their shields and with their spears. They had their special war dances and their dances of celebration, of course, with modesty, nothing haram within them. And they particularly were doing so in the masjid at the time of Eid. So Aisha radiAllahu Anha said, can we go and watch them? So she says that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, let's go and watch them.
And he sat in front of me SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and I put my head on his shoulder. So I put my chin on his shoulder behind him SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and my cheek was touching his cheek SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and we were watching the Abyssinians doing their dances and the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, carry on. And he allowed them to go and to go and to go and Aisha radiAllahu Anha sitting behind the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam leaning her chin on his shoulder with her cheek to his cheek watching. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam says, Hasbuki, have you had enough? She said, no, keep on going. And she wanted to see if the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam would be patient with her and let her continue to enjoy the celebration. So some time went on and she was starting to get tired. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, is this enough yet? And she said, no, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, okay. And then finally she told the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam now I've had enough. So the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam takes her home after witnessing the celebration of Eid. And of course that was a form of him approving that celebration SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. Now we also know that to the Eid Salah, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam used to go one route and then he would come back another route. And there are usually individual taskia reasons that we talk about in terms of spiritually taking a new path at this point in your life. But one of the things that the ulama mentioned, they say that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam used to do that and some of the wisdoms of that include going those two paths so that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam could give salaam to everyone. Ahl-et-tareeqain. So if you lived on this path, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam could say salaam to you. And if you lived on this path, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam could say salaam to you. They also say that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam could encounter all of those that had needs on that day SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam because the day of Eid was a day of sadaqa for the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam It was another day of generosity for the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. So he goes forth and he greets everyone, alayhi salatu wasallam. He serves the people SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. He celebrates with the people SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And you could see him in all places of Medina on the day of Eid SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. What about the weddings? The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam used to encourage the people to feast. But the feasts, again, are not extravagant. Sometimes it was bread and meat. Sometimes it was just bread. Sometimes it was just some dates, some milk and some ghee, which is clarified butter. Sometimes it was hayse, which is a particular favorite of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam where you mix, you know, the milk and you mix the clarified butter and you mix some of the date paste. And sometimes it was just barley. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam would eat whatever was there and he would celebrate with the people SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. And you even find that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam made some of the feasts potluck style. So everyone bring what you have. And guess what? That was his wedding with Safiyyah radiAllahu ta'ala Anha. Just everyone bring whatever foods you have and let's eat together. And they spread these black leather mats and the people sat together and they ate the food that was brought from all of the different parts of Al-Madinah. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, and listen very, very, very carefully. He said, the worst feast is the one to which only the rich are invited and the poor are excluded. That's the worst feast that you can have. So if you want barakah in your feasts, barakah on your occasion, don't exclude the poor, don't exclude people and make it extravagant and small. Remember, simple and expansive is the way of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. And he would attend all of the weddings SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam that he could, not just a special group of people. And when someone poor was getting married, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam would encourage everyone to pitch in with the expenses. And he himself SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam would help finance the mahras of people, help finance the dowries of people, help finance their weddings. And with Ali radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, marrying his own daughter, Fatima radiAllahu Anha, we see that everyone in the household of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam participated in that wedding. People prepared all that they could prepare. The food is prepared from different directions.
And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam himself furnished the house of Ali radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. So when the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was there in celebrations, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam did not just bring his own spirit of barakah. He was changing paradigm SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam to where celebrations were meant to be community celebrations. And no one was going to be left out of celebration in the community of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam.
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