Class 10 – Reward Of Loving The Prophet
REWARD OF LOVING THE PROPHET ﷺ
Loving and Following the Prophet ﷺ
Believers are encouraged to act in accordance with the sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the Quran as follows:
“If ye do love Allah, follow me: Allah will love you and forgive you your sins…” (Aal-i-Imran, 31).
It means the sign of loving Allah; and the way of making oneself loved by Allah is adopting the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and acting in accordance with it. A person who loves Allah really will definitely try to resemble the person whom Allah loves and is pleased with, and try to imitate his deeds.
There are many virtues and rewards of acting in accordance with the Sunnah. The issues of the Sunnah, and even the smallest manners of the Sunnah inform Muslims how to act in the complicated roads of life and show them the safest and most reliable roads like a compass. The Sunnah makes believers obtain the unfailing and unchanging criteria of value.
In short, “The Sunnah of the Prophet is the cornerstone of the happiness in the world and in the hereafter and it is the source of making a person mature.”
Adhering to the Sunnah means several things:
- Doing obligatory duties and avoiding haraam things.
- Avoiding innovations in actions and beliefs.
- Striving to do Sunnah and mustahabb deeds as much as one is able.
- Calling people to goodness and trying to reform them as much as possible.
REWARDS OF LOVING & FOLLOWING THE PROPHET ﷺ
You will be (on the Day of Judgment) with those whom you love.
Allaah says that which translates as:
“And whoever obeys Allaah and the Messenger – those will be with the ones upon whom Allaah has bestowed favour of the prophets, the steadfast affirmers of the truth, the martyrs and the righteous. And excellent are those as companions.” (An-Nisaa’: 69).
‘Aa’ishah, may Allaah be pleased with her, reported that a man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said:
“O messenger of Allaah! You are dearer to me than my family, my children and even myself. Sometimes I am sitting in my home and I remember you, and then I am overwhelmed with the desire to come and see you. When I think about your death and mine; I realise that when you die you will at the rank of the Prophets in paradise, but I fear that if I enter paradise, I will not be able to see you.” ‘Aa’ishah, may Allaah be pleased with her, continued: “The Prophet ﷺ did not answer this man until Allaah revealed this verse (given above).” (At-Tabari and others).
Anas bin Maalik, may Allaah be pleased with him, said that a man asked the Prophet ﷺ: “When will the (last) hour come?” He ﷺ replied: “What have you done to prepare for it?” The man replied: “”I did not prepare for it with many prayers, fasting or charity, except the love I have for Allaah and His Messenger.” The Prophet ﷺ replied: “You will be (on the Day of Judgment) with those whom you love.” Anas bin Maalik, may Allaah be pleased with him, said: “We (his companions) never rejoiced at anything more than his words, when he said “You will be (on the Day of Judgment) with those whom you love.”’ Anas, may Allaah be pleased with him, continued: “I love the Prophet ﷺ, Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, may Allaah be pleased with them both, and I hope to be with them (in the Hereafter) due to my love for them, even if I cannot do (the same amount of righteous deeds) as they do.” (Bukhaari, Muslim and others).
Shaykh Al-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said commenting upon similar Hadeeth: “The meaning of this Hadeeth is obvious, because it is natural for someone who loves another to be with him. The closeness to the beloved will be proportional to the intensity of love that exists. If this love is perfected then it entails that one must do all that the beloved requests and commands, provided that one is able to do so. The more one willingly differs from ones beloved, the weaker the love is that exists. Loving someone necessitates hating all that they hate all and whom they hate, provided they are aware of this hatred. This is why Allaah says (that which translates as): “You will not find a people who believe in Allaah and the Last Day having affection for those who oppose Allaah and His Messenger…” (Al-Mujaadilah: 22) loving and befriending are from the deeds of the heart. Believing in Allaah necessitates loving Him and His Messenger, which is of course in stark contradiction to loving those who hate and oppose Allaah and His Messenger.”
Adhering to the Sunnah when there is Corruption
And the Prophet ﷺ said:
“Ahead of you there lie days of patience, during which being patient will be like grasping a hot coal. The one who does good deeds then will have a reward like that of fifty men who do such deeds. – And someone else added – They said: O Messenger of Allaah, the reward of fifty of them? He ﷺ said: “The reward of fifty of you.” [Narrated by Abu Dawood & al-Tirmidhi].
In some reports of the hadeeth it says: “They are the ones who will revive my Sunnah and teach it to the people.”
Drink from Al Kawthar by the Prophet ﷺ
The Prophet ﷺ said:
“I have been given al-Kawthar, and it is a river that flows on the face of the earth. Its banks are domes of pearls and it is not covered. I struck its dust with my hand and its dust was the most fragrant (or pure) musk, and its pebbles were pearls.” Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in al-Saheehah, 2513.
The Prophet ﷺ said:
“In it can be seen vessels of gold and silver whose number is as the stars of the sky.” (Muslim) According to another report, “More than the number of stars in the sky.”
The Prophet ﷺ said:
“I will reach the Cistern ahead of you. Whoever comes to it will drink and whoever drinks from it will never thirst again”. [al-Bukhaari & Muslim]
Follow some Sunnahs to Build a Palace in Jannah
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:
- Build a Masjid; “Whoever builds a Masjid seeking by it the Pleasure of Allah, Allah will build for him a similar place in Jannah“. (Bukhari)
- Perform 12 Sunnah Rakahs; “Whoever prays twelve extra [supererogatory] rak’ahs every day, Allaah (swt) will build for him a house in Paradise.” (Muslim)
- Do not Argue; “He who gave up disputing while he is right, a palace of high rank in Paradise will be built for him“. (At Tirmidhi) The Prophet ﷺ also said, “Myself, and the person who sponsors an orphan will be in Jannah like this (and he pointed to his index and middle fingers).” (Bukhari & Muslim).
- Help a Widow & the Destitute; “The one who helps widows and the destitute is like one who fights in jihaad for the sake of Allaah (swt).”“The one who helps widows and the destitute is like one who fights in jihaad for the sake of Allaah (swt).” [Saheeh Muslim,]
- Be Easy with others; “Allah, the Almighty let a man enter Jannah because that man was easy when buying, easy when selling to others, easy when he passed a judgement and easy when he sought a judgement.” (Bukhari)
- Seek Knowledge; “Whoever treads a path in search of knowledge, Allah will make easy for him the path to Jannah”. (Muslim)
- Memorize 99 names of Allah; “Allah has ninety-nine Names, one hundred minus one, and whoever believes in their meanings and acts accordingly, will enter Jannah”. (Bukhari)
THE DANGERS OF NOT FOLLOWING THE SUNNAH
Allah warns against it
Opposing his command and changing his Sunnah is misguidance and innovation. It is threatened by Allah with utter bereftness and punishment.
Allah says, “Let those who oppose his command beware of a trial that might strike them or a painful punishment that might befall them.” [Al-Qur’an 24:63]
And “Whoever splits from the Messenger of Allah after the guidance is clear to him and follows other than the path of the believers, We shall entrust him to what he has turned to.“ [Al-Qur’an 4:114]
Driven away from from Al Kawthar
Abu Hurayrah said that once the Messenger of Allah went to visit some graves and, while there, described his community, saying: “Some men will be driven away from my Fountain as a stray camel is driven off. I will call to them, ‘Come here! Come here!’ It will be said, ‘They made changes after you.’ Then I will say, ‘Get away! Get away!’” (Muslim, Malik, Abu Dawud and An-Nasa’i)
It was narrated by al-Bukhaari (2194) and Muslim (4257) from Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet ﷺ said: “By the One in Whose hand is my soul, I will drive men away from my Cistern as strange camels are driven away from a cistern.”
It is like one is rejecting to go to Jannah
Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Everyone from my nation will enter Paradise except those who refuse.”They said, “O Messenger of Allah, who will refuse?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever obeys me enters Paradise and whoever disobeys me has refused.”(Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī)
‘Anas related that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Anyone who dislikes my sunnah is not of me.” (Muslim and Al-Bukhari)
Abu Bakr as-Siddiq said: “I have not omitted doing anything that the Messenger of Allah used to do. If feared that I would deviate if I left out any of his commands.”
Agreed, it is not easy or rather is very difficult to act in accordance with the whole sunnah. But everybody can have the intention of acting in accordance with the Sunnah and be in favor of the Sunnah. Thus, a person will not be deprived of the intercession of the Messenger of Allah and will not be away from the abundance of the Sunnah since he has the intention of acting in accordance with the Sunnah and is in favor of the Sunnah.
We should always have the desire and intention of fulfilling sunnahs although we cannot fulfill them due to our own weaknesses and conditions. We should not ignore the sunnahs that we can fulfill without any excuses and due to laziness.
May Allah make us Love and Follow the Prophet ﷺ the way the Sahaba did and give us the Hidaya to revive sunnahs in our lives.
May by His Mercy make us all inhabitants of Jannah!
ASSIGNMENT
Please do this assignment before taking the test, there will be a question asked about the Assignment worth 10 marks in the test: –
- Choose any three topics from the five classes and talk to 5 people (friends or family) about it.(Choose what you feel is needed in your community) – (5Marks)
- Share the Course and its benefits with at least 10 people – (5Marks)
Please take this assignment as a motivation to start talking about Islam and make it part of your regular day (even if you do not know too much, spread the little that you know, as the Prophet ﷺ said “Convey from me, even if it is one verse”), most of us are too shy to talk about Islam but are ok to talk about anything under the sky.
May Allah make us all amongst those who call others to good by spreading the Deen of Allah and help us in this noble path.