Meeting Muhammad
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When You Thought You Were His Best Friend | Meeting Muhammad ﷺ Episode 11
We long to spend time with those who love us. The Prophet ﷺ had a talent for making all those around him feel like his most beloved friend. No doubt that if a former enemy of Islam believed he was the Messenger’s best friend, we would have felt that way, too.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. So at this point, you have invited the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam to your house. He knows your name. He jokes with you, alayhis salatu was salam. And he had a way SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam of making you feel like you were the most beloved person to him. Even if there were many people that were ahead of you on the list, and that was from his mercy SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. Ali radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu has an interesting way of describing the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam in this regard. He says that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam used to attract the people to him. He was the opposite of someone who turns people away from faith, right? You saw the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. You wanted to be around him. You naturally loved Allah more when you were around him. He would not repel people SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. So he was like a magnet alayhis salatu was salam. And people would get close to him. And he said that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam would take the person that was noble amongst the people and he would charge them with their affairs, meaning he would uphold their position SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. And at the same time, of course, and this is not the description of Ali radiAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, but what we've established thus far of how the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam would take people that had no status in society and he would uplift them alayhis salatu was salam and in charge them with the affairs of the people on the basis of their piety. But then he says that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was actually wary of people. He was guarded alayhis salatu was salam, but that wouldn't cause him to deprive them of his warm smile or his blessed conduct alayhis salatu was salam, his good character. And what that means is that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was not naive, right? The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was someone that showed people the best akhlaq, but he wouldn't be an effective leader alayhis salatu was salam if he didn't have some type of guard, not one that caused him to mistreat you, but one that caused the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam to make sure that he was upholding the integrity of the community.
And so it was easy for you to think that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was your best friend. And that was due to his good character alayhis salatu was salam. And how many ahadith do you find of personal nasiha that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam gave to people? Personal advice, right? A companion whose name you might not have ever heard before, but you hear it in the capacity of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam giving personal advice to people. And how many times do you find the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam turning towards someone and giving them very involved advice that makes its way into the books of ahadith and becomes a guide for us on how to live as well. So the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam gave personal attention to people. He gave personal advice to people. He also liked to exchange gifts with people SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. At Rubai' radiAllahu ta'ala Anha, she says that I brought the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam a tray of dates and some small cucumbers. Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam used to like cucumbers. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam gifted me in return a handful of jewelry SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. And that's why Aisha radiAllahu ta'ala Anha says that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, if someone gave him a gift, he wanted to gift that person as well. And you can imagine how many people would go to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and give him a gift. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam would make note of that. And he'd want to gift that person immediately in return, or he would gift them at some later point SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. So now we're in a place where I have personal conversations with him SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. He is joking with me SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. Jareer Ibn Abdullah radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, he says, I never saw the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam except that he was smiling at me. So you see the difference here that it's not just that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was always smiling. No, like he always smiled at me. I felt his warmth SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. And on top of that, we are exchanging gifts as well. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam takes gifts from me. He gives me gifts and that's something that's special. Right?
And so you have this really beautiful narration from Amir Ibn Al-As radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, the same Amir radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu who waged war on the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam for all of those years, who tried to take back the refugees in Habasha and Abyssinia, convince the Najashi to give them up, who persecuted the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam in Mecca, who fought against the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam in numerous battles, who in Uhud was actually one of the main engineers of that plot in Uhud that led to the deaths of many people, but he embraced Islam and he became a beloved companion of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. And you imagine that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam treated him in such a way that he thought that he might now be the best friend of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. And he narrates this by giving us the full picture. He says that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he used to speak to and show love and affection to Ashar al-Qawm, to the worst person of a people, to where they would think they are Ashraf al-Qawm. They would think they're the best people, right? Because the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam gave them so much love and attention. And he says, this was a form of ta'leef, a form of bringing hearts together that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam employed as part of his mannerisms. And so he would give me this attention and he would speak to me in this special way. And he showed me such love that I started to think that maybe I'm the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam's best friend. So one day I went to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, and another hadith by the way, he explains that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, you know, put him at the head of an army. So this is serious now, right? Like I'm up there with the rest of them. So he said, I went to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam one day in front of the people. And I said, Ya Rasulullah, ayyun nasi ahabbu ilayk? Oh, messenger of Allah, who is the most beloved of people to you? So you can imagine the scene, right? Amr radiAllahu anhu is looking out to the people. Ya Rasulullah, go ahead and tell them, who's the most beloved person to you? The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam doesn't lie.
Rasulullah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said Aisha radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. And Amr radiAllahu anhu says, no, no, no, minal rijal, I mean, from the men, because it was weird, right? I mean, that's one of those things like kissing your kids in public. What do you mean? You love your wife more than everybody else. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam says, well, abuha, her father, I'm being honest, right? And he didn't say Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. He said, abuha, her father, who of course is Abu Bakr. But it's like the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam is still connecting the love that he has for Abu Bakr to the love he has for Aisha. So I love Aisha. And then you asked me from who, from the men? Well, it's Abu Bakr. And then he says, okay, then who? Because it's understood, right? You know, Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and Abu Bakr radiAllahu anhu. Abu Bakr was the first from the men to embrace Islam, the best friend of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. Okay. That makes sense. Then who, Ya Rasulullah? He said Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. And Amr radiAllahu anhu says, okay, fine. You know, the two sheikhs, it was known, right? The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam used to say, I, Abu Bakr and Umar all the time. I, Abu Bakr and Umar did this. I, Abu Bakr and Umar saw this. I, Abu Bakr and Umar agree with this. So he said, fine. Who else after Umar? Who's next? So the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said Uthman. So he said, I didn't want to ask the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam anything else. And I felt horrible for even asking him because I was afraid he'd never mentioned my name SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. Now, of course, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam did not want to make him feel that way, but the point was, is that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam had made him feel such a way that he felt like he could ask the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam that question and he would be his best friend. He would be the most beloved person in the world to him. And can you imagine how many people that did not use to assign value to themselves, that did not use to think highly of themselves, that did not think they had access to anyone, that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam made feel like they were the most beloved and most important people to him in the world,
SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, as he certainly was to them.
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