Love for the Prophet Muhammad (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) is a measure of one’s iman (faith and inner conviction) and our iman is completed and perfected only when our love for the Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) exceeds our love for everything else in this world, including our own lives. The Holy Qur’an says:
“The Prophet is preferable for the believers even to their own selves…”
(33:6)
This is a definitional sentence which tells us what it takes to be a believer: preferring the Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) even to one’s own life. In confirmation of this the Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) is reported in Hadith to have said:
“None of you becomes a believer until I am dearer to him than his children, his parents and all mankind.”
[as reported by Bukhari and Muslim]
Some versions add: “his life, his wealth and his family”.
The best of believers, the sahaba (companions of the Prophet), did show such love for the Prophet, especially the noblest of them. Hadhrat Ali (RadiyAllahu Anhu), speaking on behalf of all the community of sahaba in Medina, is reported to have said:
“The Holy Prophet (SAWS) is dearer to us than our wealth, our children, our fathers, our forefathers, our mothers and cool water at the time of severe thirst.”
Love of the Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) is love of all the beauty and nobility of character, truthfulness, justness, humility and inner strength of which man is capable and which the Prophet as al-insan al-kamil (the Perfect man) possessed in the utmost degree. Love for the Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) means to acknowledge, cherish and glorify all the potential of goodness and greatness that Allah has created within Man.
THE PROPHET (SAWS) ALSO LOVED US
The Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) loved the faithful first. The Qur’an testifies to this when it says:
“(The Prophet) is greatly grieved at your loss and extremely anxious for your good. For the believers he is full of kindness and rahmah (mercy, love).”
(9:128)
The Prophet’s (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) love was not limited just to the believers. In a way he loved all of Allah’s creation. Allah says in the Qur’an:
“We have not sent you (O Prophet) but as rahmah to all the worlds.”
(21:107)
HOW THE PROPHET (SAWS) SUFFERED FOR MANKIND
Among the indications of the Prophet’s (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) love for mankind is the untold sufferings he endured at the hands of his opponents whom he forgave with such ease after his victory.
When the Holy Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) started his work almost all the people of his city opposed him even though they had known him for all of his life as a man of exceptional integrity and intelligence. They at first subjected him to verbal attacks, jeers and insults. But later they started to combine verbal attacks with physical aggression. They would lay thorns in his way and throw garbage and dust on him. On one occasion he returned with dust still on his head. One of his daughters rose, with tears in her eyes, to wipe it off. The Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) was more hurt to see tears in his daughter’s eyes than the treatment he himself received from his fellow citizens. He comforted her, saying:
“My daughter, weep not, for verily the Lord will be your father’s helper.”
These and many other things did the Holy Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) suffer over a period of many years. He did not have to. Just before he started his mission he had everything that men generally hope for: health, a prosperous business, a loving wife, fine children, faithful relatives and friends as well as the trust and respect of his fellow citizens. If he wanted he could have led as comfortable a life as any in Makkah.
But he chose the road of suffering and hardship. He did so for the love of the very people who ignorantly persecuted him and for the welfare of the whole of mankind.
Like all aspects of the Prophet’s (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) life, his suffering has profound lessons for us. It teaches us that this world is a battlefield between good and evil, truth and falsehood, justice and oppression and that although Allah has willed that in the long run goodness, truth and justice will always be victorious. He has also willed that this victory will not be made too easy.
Thus the Prophet’s (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) suffering should make us think of the potential of evil that we all have within us and make us determined to overcome that evil. The best way to overcome evil is to love the Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam), for the more we love the Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) the more we will strengthen the element of goodness in us and the more capable we will become to overcome evil.