Love of the Prophet ﷺ
There could not be a better description, nor a more fitting title; undisputed by friend or foe, admirer or critic. It is that praise for which the apex of humility would eagerly come down to embrace, and proudly wear on its sleeve, as a medal of excellence: The love of the Prophet ﷺ. Everything Alahazrat did or said was in the love of the Prophet ﷺ. He was drowned in this sublime love and to this day he is identified by it and InShā’Allāh, he will be raised on Judgement day with his beloved ﷺ – because on that day, one shall be with those whom he loves. In a şaĥīĥ ĥadīth, it is reported that RasūlAllāh ﷺ has said:
None amongst you has truly believed until I have become more beloved to you than your children, your parents and the whole of mankind.[1]
In a letter of authorisation to a scholar, Alahazrat wrote:
Among sciences and knowledge – by which, and for which I live – I have been blessed with the love of these three subjects:
First of all and the best of all, the most superior and the most precious: the defence of my Master, the Chief of Messengers ﷺ. Defending his ﷺ honour from the unbridled tongue of every mean and contemptible Wahābī who insolently says disrespectful things about him ﷺ. This alone is sufficient for me – if my Lord Almighty accepts, and this is my expectation from my Lord; and He has said: “I shall be, just as my slave expects Me to be”.
Second: refuting all other heretics, who claim that they belong to the religion and are religious – but nay, they are not; they are corrupt and nefarious.
Third: issuing fatāwā to the best of my ability according to the well-grounded and abundantly clear Ĥanafī madh’hab.[2]
His poetry and his prose are brimming with the love of the Messenger ﷺ which only the jealous or the inimical will refuse to acknowledge. Such rich expressions are a product of sincere love, and surely, such sublime verse cannot be written without a genuine emotion. When his enemies attacked him and slandered his forebears, he wrote:
I will remain content, that as long as they are busy abusing me, slandering and reviling me, they are prevented from speaking ill of my master Muĥammad ﷺ or diminishing his rank. I have said this before in print, and I write again: the coolness of my eyes is in the blessing, that my honour and the honour of my forefathers be sacrificed for the sake of Muşţafā’s honour and be a shield for his honour. O Allāh let it be thus indeed.[3]
He did not hesitate to forsake and refute anyone who disrespected RasūlAllāh ﷺ regardless of the person’s standing. He had imbibed the spirit of love as described in Sūrah Mujādilah; he also calculated the year of his birth from the same verse:
Shaykh Khālid Thābit, an Egyptian scholar says that he was misled by Deobandīs, and he was under the impression that Alahazrat’s followers were out of Islām, similar to the Bahā’is and the Qādiyānīs. He was then introduced to Alahazrat and his books, by an Indian student at Al-Azhar, which led him to reconsider his previous position. He has since written a book in Arabic, introducing Alahazrat, and in its preface he writes:
This I have learned – and observed – that the love of the Prophet ﷺ is an exalted station which Allāh táālā does not bestow upon a heretic, an innovator, a hypocrite or a charlatan. When a man is elevated to this rank, then you trust him and his religion and take [knowledge] from him with full confidence, because the immaculate Prophet ﷺ has said: ‘A man shall be with whom he loves.’ Every innovator has a serious shortcoming, which is the absence or paucity in his love for the Prophet ﷺ.
His love for Muşţafā ﷺ was immense and everyone in his sphere of influence is imbued with it, until this day. Even ordinary and common folk, who come in contact with his students and followers, irrespective of their level of knowledge, are aware and cognisant of the Muslim ethos – that is, the respect and love of our master Muĥammad ﷺ.
