Our immense love for our beloved Master Muhammad peace be upon him

All Praise and thanks are due to Allah, and may Allah The Exalted, raise the rank and increase the honour of our beloved Prophet Muhammad, his kind relatives and companions and protect his nation from that which he feared for them. O Allah I humbly ask you to increase my love for your beloved Messenger and grant me his companionship in the highest level of Paradise. Amin.

Dear respected brothers and sisters in faith; Our speech today is about our immense love for our beloved Master and Leader, Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. We will also talk about some of those who truly and sincerely loved him and to what extent they did.

Once, one of the blasphemers sneaked into one of the Prophet’s sessions where the companions used to gather to take a lesson from the Prophet. Later on he returned to his people who asked him about what he had seen and heard. He answered them: You know that I have seen Cesar and Kisra (the Persian king) and the way their people respected and admired them, however, I have found Muhammad the most honored and respected. He added that the companions of Prophet Muhammad remain motionless while listening to him as if birds are standing on their heads, and if any of his hair were to fall on the ground they would compete to collect it and seek blessings from it. Al-Hafidh Ibnul-Jawziyy related through the route of Anas that he said after the battle of Uhud: “People became impatient and anxious and some women in Madinah began to scream when a rumour that Prophet Muhammad had been killed spread. A lady from the Ansar (residents of Madinah who supported the Prophet) arrived to the battlefield to find that her brother, father, husband and son had all been killed. People said to her: ‘these are your brother, father, husband and son’. Her astonishing reply was: ‘How about the Prophet?’ They said: ‘He is right in front of you’. She walked over to the Messenger of Allah and grasped part of his clothing and said: ‘I favour you over my own father and mother O Messenger of Allah, as long as you are safe, my grief shall diminish’.”

She was confronted with the bodies of her brother, father, husband and son lying still and yet she was more concerned about the safety of the Prophet, and that is why she made her way over to the most beloved, Prophet of Allah, grabbing his clothes and saying: “I favour you over my own father and mother O Messenger of Allah”.

How can we not talk about those who truly and sincerely loved Prophet Muhammad sallallahu ^alyhi wa sallam!?Khubayb Ibn ^Adiyy, who had been captured by the non-believers, was dragged out of the Haram (Holy Mosque in Makkah) in order to be killed. He said to the non-believers: “Allow me to pray two rak^ahs lillahi ta^ala”. Then he prayed two short rak^ahs and said to them: “If I were certain that you wouldn’t think of me as one who fears death I would have taken more time in my prayer, however, because I know what you would think of me, I chose to finish my prayer quickly.” He then continued: “O Allah I do not see in front of me except the face of an enemy, and I do not see a messenger who can pass a message to your Messenger (Muhammad), so I ask you O Allah for my salutation to be sent to him” And so Angel Jibril ^alayhis-salam went to the Messenger of Allah peace be upon him and passed on this information. Prior to the execution of Khubayb, the non-believers asked him: “Wouldn’t you wish if Muhammad were now in your place and you were free?” He replied with a heart full of love for the Messenger of Allah: “I swear by Allah, the Almighty, that I would not like for him to experience a thorn in his foot in exchange for my life.”

It has also been related through the route of Anas may Allah raise his rank that a man asked the Prophet peace be upon: “When is the coming of the Hour (the occurrence of the Day of Judgement)?” The Prophet replied: “And what is it that you have prepared for it?” The man said: “Nothing other than the ordinary acts of obedience except for an ultimate love that I have for Allah and His Messenger.” To that, the Prophet’s response, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam, was: “Then you shall be with whom you love (meaning the Prophet) on the Day of Judgment.”