He (ﷺ) SUFFERED for YOU All His LIFE! - The Last Words of Prophet Muhammad@yaqeeninstituteofficial
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Is there a moment when the Messenger of Allah was almost killed? Did the Prophet (saw) ever make jokes or was He always a very serious person? How did the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) die, and what was His last words? The Prophet (saw) was taking punches, was getting spit at, was being hit with shoes, there is no Khadijah (ra) to receive the Prophet (saw) after that trip. There is no Abu Talib to say, "I'll protect you from the people of Mecca now." "It's enough. You've been hurt by these people so long. All of the rejection. Mecca is done. Ta'if is done.
What good is left in these people?" And the Prophet (saw) said that "Maybe from their children there will be those who say, la ilaha illallah." every stone that hit Him in Ta'if, hit Him for me but the Prophet (saw) still had faith in humanity, in His Ummah to to grow out of that. Then it becomes very, very, very different, so... Jazakallah khairan Ya Rasulallah. Assalamualaikum Sheikh Omar Suleiman. Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. As Towards Eternity, thank you so much for hosting us at Yaqeen Campus in Dallas. Jazakallah Khair. Welcome to my side. Welcome to Texas. Alhamdulillah. We have some questions about our Prophet, our beloved Prophet (saw) today.
And I want to start by the first one. I once heard a saying that the Prophets are the ones who suffer the most in this world. We hear that the Prophet (saw) also suffered great calamities. Which period do you think was the heaviest one for Him? Subhanallah, when it comes to the Prophet (saw), indeed, He suffered in every way, and He had a share of every Prophet suffering before Him. And so that's why the stories of the Prophets before Him affected Him so deeply. Like if you think about, say, Yousuf (as) the Prophet (saw) was the most beloved son of Mecca, and then He was thrown away by His brothers, and then He was taken by another land after estrangement as a leader.
And then He came back and He forgave His brothers. When Maryam (as) was slandered, the Prophet (saw) was slandered despite His purity and Allah (swt) absolved Him from that slander. Musa (as) or Isa (as). "Don't be like those who hurt Musa (as)." So the Prophet (saw) had a share of every Prophet's trials before Him. But as Ibn Masud (ra) was touching His body with the fever and he said, "It's so hot!" Subhanallah, like, how can any human being bear the heat of the fever? The Prophet (saw) said "That is because I have two rewards." So double the reward, double the test. His most difficult trial, though, is not the one that was physical.
Aisha (ra) asked the Prophet (saw) if Uhud was the worst day of His life. Why? Because His teeth were knocked out. The blood was all over His face. He lost His companions in martyrdom, in Shahada in the battlefield. It was a very difficult day. And He said, "No, it was Ta'if." Aam-ul Huzn, the Year of Grief. And the Prophet (saw) was alone, and He is walking away from people, and they're not even acknowledging Him. Before they stoned Him, before they spit at Him, before they punched Him (saw). He had a lot of hopes in them. He thought that this was going to be the answer to His dream. And, you know, when you have high hopes and expectations the hurt and the pain of disappointment is more.
They wouldn't even talk to Him. They were talking about Him as if He's not in the room. And that's the most hurtful thing for you. When people talk about you as if you're not even in the room. Say, who is this man? I'm not going to talk to him. They mocked Him, and then they lined up the two rows of the people, the hoodlums and the children of Taif to stone Him, to spit at Him, to beat Him (saw). For a span of over 20 kilometers. The Prophet (saw) was taking punches, was getting spit at, was being hit with shoes, and you can imagine that He remembers (saw) the things that were said to Him that never got recorded in the books of Sira, because only He heard those insults (saw).
And then He said, "I found myself completely alone, you know, in this strange garden." And that's where the Prophet (saw) makes His famous duas. But you know what's amazing, Subhanallah? Two things. Number one, there is no Khadijah (ra) to receive the Prophet (saw) after that trip. There is no Abu Talib to say, "I'll protect you from the people of Mecca now." And that's why it's Aam-ul Huzn. He lost Khadijah (ra), and that was compounded by the pain of humiliation, of oppression from the people of Ta'if. And with that, Subhanallah, with that the Prophets (saw) made dua the entire night at Taif.
And we don't have access to those duas, because no one was with Him (saw), except Zayd ibn Haritha (ra) who was around. But we don't know how beautiful, how painful, how powerful those duas were. And He told Aisha (ra) that was the worst day of His life (saw). Everything that He experienced, that was the worst day. Some of the scholars say it combined the pain of rejection at Safa with His initial call, with the pain of the hits at Uhud in one place in Ta'if. Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Subhanallah. Jibril (as) comes to the Prophet (saw) and the blood is still fresh on his body, the insults are still fresh.
And Jibril (as) introduces the angel who moves the mountains to the Prophet (saw) and says, "I can crush all of these people between al-akhshabayn." That's not just the people of Ta'if, by the way, it's also the people of Mecca. So everyone between those two mountains, meaning, "It's enough. You've been hurt by these people so long. All of the rejection. Mecca is done. Ta'if is done. What good is left in these people?" And the Prophet (saw) said that "Maybe from their children there will be those who say, la ilaha illallah." Allah took the Prophets (saw) on the night journey of al-Isra al-Miraj after that difficult journey.
So Subhanallah, after being rejected by the people and stoned by the people, He's welcomed in the Heavens. And all of the Prophets are talking to Him, and the angels are talking to Him. And there's a moment on that night that always gives me shivers. The Prophet (saw) saw us. He saw His Ummah (saw). So imagine, He looked out and He saw one Ummah, And He said, "Is this my Ummah?" And Jibril (as) said, "No." He turns Him and he shows Him an Ummah that was twice as big, that was much bigger, than the Ummah Banu Israel. He says, "This is your Ummah, Ya Muhammad (saw)." So Rasulallah (saw) looked out at that Ummah.
In that Ummah, there are descendants from Ta'if, descendants from Mecca, and then people from all over the world. All generations, that speak different languages and look different. But they're all united by, "La ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasulullah" And He was looking at us (saw). And you wonder, you know, at times, did the Prophet (saw) see me? Did the Prophet (saw) recognize me? Did I stand out to the Prophet (saw)? And you know, Allah made it as such that if we didn't, we'll never know here. But we will know. We ask Allah that when we meet him at the Kawthar. Inshallah that the Prophet (saw) be excited to see us as we're excited to see Him (saw).
When He brought Islam, almost all of His tribe rejected Him. Didn't they try to assassinate Him? Is there a moment when the Messenger of Allah was almost killed? The Prophet (saw) was almost killed multiple times. You know when you have a beast like Abu Jahl. He's the Firaun of this Ummah. Abu Jahl was the first one to normalize the shedding of the Muslim blood, in the Haram and outside the Haram, shedding the blood of the Muslims. And he wanted the Prophet (saw) dead. And there were times that he contemplated it, and he even thought about crushing the Prophet (saw) in his sujud. Abu Jahl was a huge man. The size of his body was huge, physically a large man.
And the Prophet (saw) said, if he does it, then Jibril (as) would have killed him. If he would have tried to do what he said he was going to do that day, Jibril would have taken him at that moment. But there's the attempt on the Prophet (saw) that obviously takes place during the Hijrah, and a Firaun is not someone who's just physically oppressive. He's also someone who's psychologically oppressive. You look today at the Firaun of the world in Israel and what they are doing. Netanyahu is a pharaoh. He's not just playing physical games, but also the psychological games and tactics, right? And so Abu Jahl came up with this idea of having multiple tribes, right?
And the elders of Quraysh had this idea of having multiple tribes to kill the Prophet (saw) so that they could spread the blame amongst them, so that no one group could be blamed. And Allah (swt) saved the Prophet (saw) on that day. They intended to kill the Prophet (saw) on Badr, they intended to kill the Prophet (saw) on Uhud. The one man who was killed by the hand of the Prophet (saw), Ubay bin Khalaf. There's only one human being the Prophet (saw) ever killed with His hand. And the Prophet (saw) said, "The worst person is someone who kills his Prophet or his Prophet kills him." And in His Ummah, there's only one person He ever killed.
And it was Ubay bin Khalaf who swore that on that day of Uhud, "I will not survive if He survives." Meaning one of us is going to die. And the Prophet (saw) threw a spear at him as he was charging that just nicked him at the side of the neck, and it wasn't even a severe wound. And he started to say, "The Prophet (saw) killed me." And they said, no, it's just a light wound. And Subhanallah, the wound was infected and he died from it. The one man the Prophet (saw) a mercy to the world, ever killed with His hands (saw). But they tried to kill Him in Uhud. They wanted to kill Him in Khandaq.
It was a genocide attempt in Khandaq, right, to circulate Medina from all directions and to force them into a tight spot, and then to sacrifice them all to their idols. They wanted so many times, even at Fath al-Makkah, some of them were still plotting to kill the Prophet (saw). So, multiple assassination attempts. But with that, look at the tawakkul of the Prophet (saw). Look at His trust. When there was a noise that would be heard outside of Medina if He ran to the outskirts of Medina before anyone else got there, the bravest people of this Ummah, they would see the Rasulallah (saw) on His horse with His sword unsheathed, protecting the people of Medina.
So the Prophet (saw) was not afraid because He had trust in Allah (swt). He knew that His life and His death were all in the hands of Allah (swt). So He's not worried about that (saw). Ali (ra) says "When the battle used to become tough, we used to get behind the Prophet (saw) in the battle." But the Prophet (saw) would not kill. He would disarm and He would fight forward. But He wouldn't kill (saw). Except for Ubay bin Khalaf. For the oath that he took to kill the Prophet (saw). Did the Prophet (saw) ever make jokes or was He always a very serious person? This is one of the most amazing things about the character of the Prophet (saw).
If someone buries six of His seven children, two of his wives, Khadija (ra) and then Zaynab bint Khuzayma, has lost His father before He was born, then His mother, then His grandfather, then His uncle, has lost Hamza (ra) and seen him shredded to pieces, has lost all these people around Him, has been oppressed this way. You'd think this person would be a jaded person. But the Prophet (saw) was He would always smile and make other people smile, and He would always laugh and make other people laugh. But the Prophet (saw) had a dignified laughter. When He would laugh, (saw), it was a wider smile so you could see the back of his teeth. So it wasn't like an audible, obnoxious laugh.
It was a dignified laugh. The believer's laugh, as Hasan al-Basri (ra) says, is a dignified laugh. It's not a laugh of ghaflah, heedlessness, because the Prophet's (saw) heart was always attached to Allah (swt). So the laughter is also Prophetic. But He was always smiling (saw) and He was always laughing (saw). But His laughter was dignified and His jokes were pure (saw). And there's something deeply profound about that, that the Prophet (saw) would not lie. He would not taunt, He would not mock. Usually our jokes come at the expense of the other person. When the Prophet (saw) joked with you, He made you feel better about yourself. You know, when we joke, we put each other down.
The Prophet (saw) would make a joke that would make you feel great about yourself. So, He wouldn't give you a bad nickname. He'd give you a good nickname. He wouldn't mock your appearance. He would make you feel good about your appearance. He wouldn't say something bad about your tribe. He'd say something good about your tribe. The Prophet (saw) made jokes that made people feel more honored, which is very rare. And he didn't debase himself by lying, because lying debases yourself. So He didn't do that (saw).
But the thing that amazes me, especially right now, with everything happening in Gaza, you know, some would say, "How can you smile?" "How can you smile when everything is happening in Gaza right now?" And the reality, and around the world, the reality is, that the Prophets (saw) smiled during the worst of times (saw). Because the Prophet (saw) always had perspective. All of those people that have been killed in Gaza are Shahada, are martyrs. They're enjoying a transcendent life that is far greater than this life. Snd those that are left behind, we trust Allah (swt). We trust Allah with them, as we trust Allah with us. So, do we cry? We cry.
The Prophet (saw) used to cry for his Ummah, but He'd also smile at His Ummah. That's the beautiful mix here. He smiled at you, and then He cried for you. When He did Da'wah (saw) He even smiled at those people in Mecca to hopefully bring them to Islam, to soften their hearts. And then He cried, making dua for them to be guided. So the Prophet (saw) had an intention, a niyyah. You know, we always talk about intention. He had a niyyah for smiling, and He had a niyyah for crying. Actions are but by intentions. And so we should smile for Allah. We should cry for Allah. We should smile to alleviate pain, and we should cry out of pain for our Ummah all at the same time.
One of my favorite jokes of the Prophet (saw), because I've seen many of the companions that He joked with (saw), is a joke with a man named Zaheer (ra). Zaheer was a young man with low self-esteem and he didn't look very good, and he knew he didn't look very good. And he didn't come from a powerful tribe and he didn't have a lot of money. So he used to look down on himself. So when he'd come into the gathering, the Prophet (saw) would always notice him, and the Prophet (saw) would uplift him. And the Prophet (saw) would say, "Zaheer is our man in the desert." Like, Zaheer is watching things for us. Like He's giving him severe importance (saw).
But the most beautiful joke is when the Prophet (saw) finds Zaheer (ra) in the marketplace. You know, think about how we walk past the poor. We walk past the custodians. We walk past the people that are doing that type of work. We don't even say salaam to them, as if they're not even Muslims, as if they're not even there, human beings. For the Prophet (saw) to notice, in that society, with all of the people you can imagine rushing towards Him at all times (saw), for Him to notice Zaheer (ra) and then to say, "Let me go make a joke with him." And then He goes behind Zaheer and He picks him up and He starts saying, "Who's going to purchase the slave?
Who's going to purchase the slave?" And Zaheer (ra) initially thinks that it's just someone. Then he realizes, you know, the grip of the Prophet (saw). So he says, "Once I realized that it was the Messenger of Allah (saw) I just let myself go." Who would not want the Prophet (saw) to be embracing them? Right? So when he's doing that, he makes a comment and he says, "Ya Rasulallah, who would want to buy me anyway?" Imagine how low he thinks of himself. Like, even if I was a slave, no one would purchase me for anything. The Prophet (saw) says to him, and you can imagine, like a loving father, a loving brother.
"But you're priceless in the sight of Allah." "You have no idea your worth in the sight of Allah." Imagine how Zaheer came to the marketplace that day and how he went home. He went to the marketplace thinking he has no worth. He left the marketplace, being told by the Prophet (saw) that his worth is too much to be quantified by the creation. That in the sight of Allah he's worth so much. And the Prophet (saw) was the opposite of every bad quality in the Quran, and he was the manifestation of every good quality in the Quran. So when Allah says, "Don't mock people, don't be little people." The Prophet (saw) hated mockery and the Prophet (saw) was on an exalted standard of character.
And he wanted to bring everyone to a higher level of akhlaq. So the time ibn Masud (ra), his leg showed, right, and they were so skinny. And some of the Sahaba laughed at how skinny his legs were. The Prophet's (saw) said, "Why are you laughing?" "Ya Rasulallah, look how skinny his legs are!" He says, "Those two legs are the size of Uhud on the Day of Judgment." Can you imagine a man walking around with legs the size of Uhud and being placed in the Mizan, the scale of good deeds with Uhud as his legs? So the Prophet (saw) hated mockery and most of our jokes contain mockery. And the Prophet (saw) never humiliated, He always honored.
And our jokes should also be jokes that honor people, not jokes that degrade people. If you were given one minute in a Super Bowl commercial to tell millions of people about Prophet Muhammad (saw), what would you tell them? I would tell them that there is a man, the last Prophet. The beautiful last brick of the structure of Prophethood, made up of thousands of beautiful bricks, including Noah and Jesus and Moses and Abraham and David. Peace be upon them all. And the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, as that final beautiful brick of the structure, the missing brick of the structure. He's a child of Ishmael. Peace be upon him, Ismail (as).
And He calls you to everything that those Prophets called to. But He also has a scripture that is completely unaltered, the divine Word of God Himself, and His example, which is the most perfect manifestation of that perfect Word, is documented perfectly as a roadmap for all of us to get to know the God of Moses, the God of Jesus, the God of Abraham, the God of Muhammad. May Allah send his peace and blessings upon them all and you should get to know Him so that you can know your purpose in life. Beautiful commercial. Will you pay for the Super Bowl commercial? The Prophet Muhammad (saw) was also inviting Jews and Christians to Islam.
And we know that the coming of Muhammad (pbuh) is written in their holy books as well. Why did the Christian and Jewish scholars of that time not believe in him? It's often not about the religion itself. It's about what makes people approach religion in the first place. And so if someone was seeking the Prophet (saw) and seeking the purity of the message of Abraham, Ibrahim (as), then when they saw the Prophet (saw), they got excited.
And if someone was seeking an authority in religion or seeking some sort of access to power or desires in religion rather than true purpose and sincerity of God, then anything that undermines that is going to immediately be isolated and then thrown out of the religion, even if it's the Prophet of Allah himself. And so you look at the example of two men, Abdallah ibn Salam (ra), Hussein ibn Salam, who was the chief rabbi of Medina. When he heard about the Prophet (saw) he immediately went and inquired. He saw His face. He said "I knew that that's not the face of a liar." And he heard Him speak.
And the Prophet said, "Spread peace and feed the people, and pray at night while other people are sleeping, and establish your ties of kinship. You'll enter Paradise in peace." And he heard the message of the Prophet (saw) and he said, "That's Him." And he immediately embraced the Prophet (saw). The most learned rabbi in Medina. Huyayy ibn Akhtab, on the other hand, who was also claiming to be waiting for the Prophet (saw).
As soon as he heard that the Prophet (saw) had come, and he realized that this would mean bad thing for his power, bad news for his power, then Huyayy ibn Akhtab said, "He is my enemy as long as He lives, and I am His enemy as long as I live, I will fight him until the end." So it wasn't about the purity. Allah says, "They know him as much as they know their own children." Does anyone not recognize their children? They recognized Him right away.
But the difference between Najashi in Abyssinia, who bore witness that not only was he the Prophet of Allah, and Najashi is a learned Christian scholar whose eyes swelled with tears and who sent a message to the Prophet (saw) and said, "If I could come to you and carry your shoes, I would. But I have a responsibility here in Abyssinia." The difference between him and Heraclius in Rome was not the lack of recognition. It was the willingness to sacrifice on one hand and the lack of willingness to sacrifice on the other hand. They both knew He was Him (saw).
And so what I say to people is that, look, if you're really seeking the faith of Abraham, the message of Jesus, the message of Moses, the message of Muhammad, the message of the Prophets, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon them all, then it is upon you to seriously inquire into who He was, peace and blessings be upon Him, into the claims to Prophethood, into the proofs and evidences that He presented, and do so with an open mind and an open heart.
And it is very hard to study the proofs and character of the Prophet Muhammad (saw) and walk away and say, "Yeah, He's just an ordinary man or a false prophet" It would be very, very, very hard, near impossible for any sincere inquirer to come away with that type of a conclusion. Did the Messenger of Allah ever get angry? If He was angry, what was it about? So the description of the Prophet (saw) is that He never got angry for Himself. He only got angry when Allah's law was transgressed upon or Allah's sacred creation was transgressed upon. And so it was transgression that angered the Prophet (saw). And not even transgression against Him (saw).
So He's always very willing to overlook things against Him (saw). But if you exploited in front of Him another person, then you'd see the anger of the Prophet (saw). And if you transgressed the law of Allah (swt) even though He's the Messenger of Allah (saw), then you would see His anger, but because His anger (saw) was for the right reasons, it never came out in the wrong ways. So if it's anger for Allah, then you're not going to curse and be egotistical and beat your chest. You're going to show your anger with dignity as well, with perspective as well. I give people this example.
Aisha (ra) says, "I never saw the Prophet (saw) angrier than this moment." It's when she said about Khadija (ra), because the Prophet (saw) would mention Khadija so much. And Aisha got jealous, even though she never met Khadija, right? She was too young and she never met Khadija. So one day she said, "Hasn't Allah given you someone better than the old toothless woman of Quraysh?" Talking about Khadija. These are our mothers fighting. Aisha (ra) and Khadija (ra). And she said the Prophet (saw) was so angry. She saw His face turn red. She saw His hair stand, (saw). Like, how dare you? Right? Now, there are two ways that the Prophet (saw) could have reacted.
He could have degraded Aisha or honored Khadija. Which one did He choose? He said, "I swear by Allah that Allah did not give me better than her." "She believed in me when no one else believed in me. She spent on me when other people withheld from me. She supported me when no one else would support me. And Allah gave me children through her and He did not give me children through other than her, she's the mother of my children." So the angriest the Prophet (saw) is, and he's responding to the one who provoked the anger, and the Prophet (saw) did not curse, the Prophet (saw) did not hit, the Prophet (saw) did not degrade. Because His anger was not for Him. It was for Allah (swt).
And in this case that meant defending Khadija (ra) who was not in the room at the time. If you had the opportunity to watch just one of His days when when He was alive, which day would that be? Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. There are so many days. So many days I wish I could be with Him (saw) but there are kind of two things for me. It's either when the Prophet (saw) was very sad. So I think of the Prophet (saw) burying Khadija (ra) and the pain that He felt receiving Khadija (ra) in the ground. And the Prophet (saw) was with her. And He didn't pray. There was no janazah. It was in Ramadan, there was no fasting. Khadija never prayed the five daily prayers.
She died before the Salawat were obligated upon this Ummah. And so on the one hand, like, I'd want to be with the Prophet (saw) on that day. But more than that, I think to... Like, I think of the Fath al-Makkah, the conquest of Mecca. They say, you know, you really see the character of a man when he's on top, when he has power. I would have loved to be riding a horse next to the Prophet (saw), doing tawaf with Him, standing next to Him when He stood on Safa again, this time not rejected, but this time with hundreds of thousands, or over 100,000 people following Him (saw). Seeing that Allah's promise came true, being able to celebrate that with Him (saw).
I think that's what recently I've just been thinking about that day of victory. So a day of great pain or a day of great victory. Those two things are the things that are there. And I know I'm giving you more days, but I also think about Ramadan. Like, imagine 27th night with the Prophet (saw) or the last ten nights with the Prophet (saw). Like, the state of His heart. It's always pure and beautiful. But like, can you imagine if people's iman rubs off and like being in the companionship of the righteous rubs off on you? Can you imagine being with the Prophet (saw) in the last ten nights of Ramadan? I can't even imagine what it would be like.
I can't imagine being with Him (saw) outside of the last ten nights of Ramadan. I really can't imagine how beautiful it would be to be in His companionship in the last ten nights of Ramadan (saw), and maybe catch a Rak'a of Qiyam with Him, or two Rak'as of Qiyam with Him, or pray Witr with Him, or listen to Him read the Quran or read the Quran with Him (saw). So those last ten nights of Ramadan are from a seasonal perspective. There is a moment every Ramadan where I'm like, "Ya Allah, it would have been beautiful." All right, so may Allah give us that, that moment with Him (saw). So there was this incident that I really am affected, to the most heavy, in terms of the dignity of a believer.
Was there an incident that the Prophet (saw) emphasized in His lifetime? You know, when he was saluting the Kaaba, and, you know... So it's actually, Subhanallah, very interesting because the Prophet (saw) in the Hajjatul Wada, in the Farewell Hajj, you know, most of the Sahaba became Sahaba because of Hajjatul Wada. Because you have to see the Prophet (saw) and believe in Him to be a Companion. Most people met the Prophet (saw) that would be considered Sahaba, on Hajjatul Wada, on that one Hajj, and achieve that status. And His messages (saw) are very clear.
Now, the Prophet (saw) used to warn, "Do not go back to being kuffar, to being disbelievers, striking at each other's necks again." Right? So He's warning (saw) about division in the Ummah. And that day, as the Prophet (saw) is making tawaf on the Eid of Hajjatul Wada, the Prophet (saw) addresses the Kaaba and He says, "How beautiful are you? How pure are you, how sacred are you? But with all of that, by the one in whose hand is my soul, the sanctity of the believer, his wealth, his blood, his honor is more than yours." Can you imagine being a new Muslim? You're coming out of tribalism and you're seeing the Prophet (saw) elevate the sanctity of the believer to that level.
So don't you dare go back to striking each other's necks, and killing one another and fighting one another. Because the message of tawhid, the Oneness of God, unifies, and it allows us to melt our differences through that transcendent cause of tawhid, that tawhid overtakes it all. "All of you, grab on to the rope of Allah." The rope of Allah is the Qur'an. Transcends all of our differences. So, Ummah of Muhammad (saw), do not go back to fighting each other the way that you used to before this religion came. If the only thing the religion has become to you is another tool for division, and ego and agenda and cult and tribe, then you're failing to internalize it properly.
This deen is not a tool for you. This deen is a way by which Allah (swt) unites an Ummah and makes us one. And so that's the message of the Prophet (saw), the dignity of the believer. Can you imagine if we saw someone attacking the Kaaba? What it would provoke, in the Ummah of Muhammad (saw)? You're seeing the Kaaba being destroyed every day in Gaza, every single day on your screen. You're seeing it be destroyed in Gaza. That should provoke something in each and every single one of us. That's the honor of a believer, the blood of a believer, the property of a believer just being taken away right in front of us all the time.
May Allah (swt) forgive us for our incapacity and allow us to do more for our brothers and sisters. How did the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) die, and what was His last words? The Prophet (saw) died of a sickness when He was 63 years old. And His last words were spoken in the lap of His wife, Aisha (ra). When the fever had become severe and the angel Gabriel had entered upon Him, and the Prophet (saw) said, "Rather I choose the highest companion," because He was given the choice between living amongst His people here or going to the highest companion, and He chose the highest companion. And He recited verses and words to that extent.
And so His last words were words of glory and words of longing to be with the Lord who sent Him here in the first place. Last question. If Allah grants you Jannah, Inshallah, and you see the Prophet (saw) for the first time, what would you want to say to Him? I remember interviewing people. I got to ask the question. I would just thank Him for everything He bore for us, (saw). Everything He endured for us, (saw). You know, like, when you think about it, if you start to think about, you know, every rock that hit Him, every insult, He did that for me. Someone took a beating for you.
Why did he have to lose Khadija (ra) and Abu Talib and lose His reputation and Mecca for those days and suffer all of that? What kept the Prophet (saw) going, except the sincerity to His Lord and His sincerity to the people that He was calling back to His Lord? So I would just thank Him (saw), for all that He bore for us. And you know, if you start thinking about things differently, like, look, that, every stone that hit Him in Ta'if, hit Him for me but the Prophet (saw) still had faith in humanity, in His Ummah to to grow out of that. Then it becomes very, very, very different, so... Jazakallah khairan Ya Rasulallah. May Allah reward you and I hope it was worth it.
When you hear all the salawats coming towards you and you see the size of your Ummah coming to you lovingly on the Day of Judgment. Jazakallah khair for your sincere answers, Sheikh Omar Suleiman. As Towards Eternity, Inshallah, we really thank you and we hope to meet our beloved Prophet (saw). Jazakallah khair. Allah bless you.
What good is left in these people?" And the Prophet (saw) said that "Maybe from their children there will be those who say, la ilaha illallah." every stone that hit Him in Ta'if, hit Him for me but the Prophet (saw) still had faith in humanity, in His Ummah to to grow out of that. Then it becomes very, very, very different, so... Jazakallah khairan Ya Rasulallah. Assalamualaikum Sheikh Omar Suleiman. Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. As Towards Eternity, thank you so much for hosting us at Yaqeen Campus in Dallas. Jazakallah Khair. Welcome to my side. Welcome to Texas. Alhamdulillah. We have some questions about our Prophet, our beloved Prophet (saw) today.
And I want to start by the first one. I once heard a saying that the Prophets are the ones who suffer the most in this world. We hear that the Prophet (saw) also suffered great calamities. Which period do you think was the heaviest one for Him? Subhanallah, when it comes to the Prophet (saw), indeed, He suffered in every way, and He had a share of every Prophet suffering before Him. And so that's why the stories of the Prophets before Him affected Him so deeply. Like if you think about, say, Yousuf (as) the Prophet (saw) was the most beloved son of Mecca, and then He was thrown away by His brothers, and then He was taken by another land after estrangement as a leader.
And then He came back and He forgave His brothers. When Maryam (as) was slandered, the Prophet (saw) was slandered despite His purity and Allah (swt) absolved Him from that slander. Musa (as) or Isa (as). "Don't be like those who hurt Musa (as)." So the Prophet (saw) had a share of every Prophet's trials before Him. But as Ibn Masud (ra) was touching His body with the fever and he said, "It's so hot!" Subhanallah, like, how can any human being bear the heat of the fever? The Prophet (saw) said "That is because I have two rewards." So double the reward, double the test. His most difficult trial, though, is not the one that was physical.
Aisha (ra) asked the Prophet (saw) if Uhud was the worst day of His life. Why? Because His teeth were knocked out. The blood was all over His face. He lost His companions in martyrdom, in Shahada in the battlefield. It was a very difficult day. And He said, "No, it was Ta'if." Aam-ul Huzn, the Year of Grief. And the Prophet (saw) was alone, and He is walking away from people, and they're not even acknowledging Him. Before they stoned Him, before they spit at Him, before they punched Him (saw). He had a lot of hopes in them. He thought that this was going to be the answer to His dream. And, you know, when you have high hopes and expectations the hurt and the pain of disappointment is more.
They wouldn't even talk to Him. They were talking about Him as if He's not in the room. And that's the most hurtful thing for you. When people talk about you as if you're not even in the room. Say, who is this man? I'm not going to talk to him. They mocked Him, and then they lined up the two rows of the people, the hoodlums and the children of Taif to stone Him, to spit at Him, to beat Him (saw). For a span of over 20 kilometers. The Prophet (saw) was taking punches, was getting spit at, was being hit with shoes, and you can imagine that He remembers (saw) the things that were said to Him that never got recorded in the books of Sira, because only He heard those insults (saw).
And then He said, "I found myself completely alone, you know, in this strange garden." And that's where the Prophet (saw) makes His famous duas. But you know what's amazing, Subhanallah? Two things. Number one, there is no Khadijah (ra) to receive the Prophet (saw) after that trip. There is no Abu Talib to say, "I'll protect you from the people of Mecca now." And that's why it's Aam-ul Huzn. He lost Khadijah (ra), and that was compounded by the pain of humiliation, of oppression from the people of Ta'if. And with that, Subhanallah, with that the Prophets (saw) made dua the entire night at Taif.
And we don't have access to those duas, because no one was with Him (saw), except Zayd ibn Haritha (ra) who was around. But we don't know how beautiful, how painful, how powerful those duas were. And He told Aisha (ra) that was the worst day of His life (saw). Everything that He experienced, that was the worst day. Some of the scholars say it combined the pain of rejection at Safa with His initial call, with the pain of the hits at Uhud in one place in Ta'if. Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Subhanallah. Jibril (as) comes to the Prophet (saw) and the blood is still fresh on his body, the insults are still fresh.
And Jibril (as) introduces the angel who moves the mountains to the Prophet (saw) and says, "I can crush all of these people between al-akhshabayn." That's not just the people of Ta'if, by the way, it's also the people of Mecca. So everyone between those two mountains, meaning, "It's enough. You've been hurt by these people so long. All of the rejection. Mecca is done. Ta'if is done. What good is left in these people?" And the Prophet (saw) said that "Maybe from their children there will be those who say, la ilaha illallah." Allah took the Prophets (saw) on the night journey of al-Isra al-Miraj after that difficult journey.
So Subhanallah, after being rejected by the people and stoned by the people, He's welcomed in the Heavens. And all of the Prophets are talking to Him, and the angels are talking to Him. And there's a moment on that night that always gives me shivers. The Prophet (saw) saw us. He saw His Ummah (saw). So imagine, He looked out and He saw one Ummah, And He said, "Is this my Ummah?" And Jibril (as) said, "No." He turns Him and he shows Him an Ummah that was twice as big, that was much bigger, than the Ummah Banu Israel. He says, "This is your Ummah, Ya Muhammad (saw)." So Rasulallah (saw) looked out at that Ummah.
In that Ummah, there are descendants from Ta'if, descendants from Mecca, and then people from all over the world. All generations, that speak different languages and look different. But they're all united by, "La ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasulullah" And He was looking at us (saw). And you wonder, you know, at times, did the Prophet (saw) see me? Did the Prophet (saw) recognize me? Did I stand out to the Prophet (saw)? And you know, Allah made it as such that if we didn't, we'll never know here. But we will know. We ask Allah that when we meet him at the Kawthar. Inshallah that the Prophet (saw) be excited to see us as we're excited to see Him (saw).
When He brought Islam, almost all of His tribe rejected Him. Didn't they try to assassinate Him? Is there a moment when the Messenger of Allah was almost killed? The Prophet (saw) was almost killed multiple times. You know when you have a beast like Abu Jahl. He's the Firaun of this Ummah. Abu Jahl was the first one to normalize the shedding of the Muslim blood, in the Haram and outside the Haram, shedding the blood of the Muslims. And he wanted the Prophet (saw) dead. And there were times that he contemplated it, and he even thought about crushing the Prophet (saw) in his sujud. Abu Jahl was a huge man. The size of his body was huge, physically a large man.
And the Prophet (saw) said, if he does it, then Jibril (as) would have killed him. If he would have tried to do what he said he was going to do that day, Jibril would have taken him at that moment. But there's the attempt on the Prophet (saw) that obviously takes place during the Hijrah, and a Firaun is not someone who's just physically oppressive. He's also someone who's psychologically oppressive. You look today at the Firaun of the world in Israel and what they are doing. Netanyahu is a pharaoh. He's not just playing physical games, but also the psychological games and tactics, right? And so Abu Jahl came up with this idea of having multiple tribes, right?
And the elders of Quraysh had this idea of having multiple tribes to kill the Prophet (saw) so that they could spread the blame amongst them, so that no one group could be blamed. And Allah (swt) saved the Prophet (saw) on that day. They intended to kill the Prophet (saw) on Badr, they intended to kill the Prophet (saw) on Uhud. The one man who was killed by the hand of the Prophet (saw), Ubay bin Khalaf. There's only one human being the Prophet (saw) ever killed with His hand. And the Prophet (saw) said, "The worst person is someone who kills his Prophet or his Prophet kills him." And in His Ummah, there's only one person He ever killed.
And it was Ubay bin Khalaf who swore that on that day of Uhud, "I will not survive if He survives." Meaning one of us is going to die. And the Prophet (saw) threw a spear at him as he was charging that just nicked him at the side of the neck, and it wasn't even a severe wound. And he started to say, "The Prophet (saw) killed me." And they said, no, it's just a light wound. And Subhanallah, the wound was infected and he died from it. The one man the Prophet (saw) a mercy to the world, ever killed with His hands (saw). But they tried to kill Him in Uhud. They wanted to kill Him in Khandaq.
It was a genocide attempt in Khandaq, right, to circulate Medina from all directions and to force them into a tight spot, and then to sacrifice them all to their idols. They wanted so many times, even at Fath al-Makkah, some of them were still plotting to kill the Prophet (saw). So, multiple assassination attempts. But with that, look at the tawakkul of the Prophet (saw). Look at His trust. When there was a noise that would be heard outside of Medina if He ran to the outskirts of Medina before anyone else got there, the bravest people of this Ummah, they would see the Rasulallah (saw) on His horse with His sword unsheathed, protecting the people of Medina.
So the Prophet (saw) was not afraid because He had trust in Allah (swt). He knew that His life and His death were all in the hands of Allah (swt). So He's not worried about that (saw). Ali (ra) says "When the battle used to become tough, we used to get behind the Prophet (saw) in the battle." But the Prophet (saw) would not kill. He would disarm and He would fight forward. But He wouldn't kill (saw). Except for Ubay bin Khalaf. For the oath that he took to kill the Prophet (saw). Did the Prophet (saw) ever make jokes or was He always a very serious person? This is one of the most amazing things about the character of the Prophet (saw).
If someone buries six of His seven children, two of his wives, Khadija (ra) and then Zaynab bint Khuzayma, has lost His father before He was born, then His mother, then His grandfather, then His uncle, has lost Hamza (ra) and seen him shredded to pieces, has lost all these people around Him, has been oppressed this way. You'd think this person would be a jaded person. But the Prophet (saw) was He would always smile and make other people smile, and He would always laugh and make other people laugh. But the Prophet (saw) had a dignified laughter. When He would laugh, (saw), it was a wider smile so you could see the back of his teeth. So it wasn't like an audible, obnoxious laugh.
It was a dignified laugh. The believer's laugh, as Hasan al-Basri (ra) says, is a dignified laugh. It's not a laugh of ghaflah, heedlessness, because the Prophet's (saw) heart was always attached to Allah (swt). So the laughter is also Prophetic. But He was always smiling (saw) and He was always laughing (saw). But His laughter was dignified and His jokes were pure (saw). And there's something deeply profound about that, that the Prophet (saw) would not lie. He would not taunt, He would not mock. Usually our jokes come at the expense of the other person. When the Prophet (saw) joked with you, He made you feel better about yourself. You know, when we joke, we put each other down.
The Prophet (saw) would make a joke that would make you feel great about yourself. So, He wouldn't give you a bad nickname. He'd give you a good nickname. He wouldn't mock your appearance. He would make you feel good about your appearance. He wouldn't say something bad about your tribe. He'd say something good about your tribe. The Prophet (saw) made jokes that made people feel more honored, which is very rare. And he didn't debase himself by lying, because lying debases yourself. So He didn't do that (saw).
But the thing that amazes me, especially right now, with everything happening in Gaza, you know, some would say, "How can you smile?" "How can you smile when everything is happening in Gaza right now?" And the reality, and around the world, the reality is, that the Prophets (saw) smiled during the worst of times (saw). Because the Prophet (saw) always had perspective. All of those people that have been killed in Gaza are Shahada, are martyrs. They're enjoying a transcendent life that is far greater than this life. Snd those that are left behind, we trust Allah (swt). We trust Allah with them, as we trust Allah with us. So, do we cry? We cry.
The Prophet (saw) used to cry for his Ummah, but He'd also smile at His Ummah. That's the beautiful mix here. He smiled at you, and then He cried for you. When He did Da'wah (saw) He even smiled at those people in Mecca to hopefully bring them to Islam, to soften their hearts. And then He cried, making dua for them to be guided. So the Prophet (saw) had an intention, a niyyah. You know, we always talk about intention. He had a niyyah for smiling, and He had a niyyah for crying. Actions are but by intentions. And so we should smile for Allah. We should cry for Allah. We should smile to alleviate pain, and we should cry out of pain for our Ummah all at the same time.
One of my favorite jokes of the Prophet (saw), because I've seen many of the companions that He joked with (saw), is a joke with a man named Zaheer (ra). Zaheer was a young man with low self-esteem and he didn't look very good, and he knew he didn't look very good. And he didn't come from a powerful tribe and he didn't have a lot of money. So he used to look down on himself. So when he'd come into the gathering, the Prophet (saw) would always notice him, and the Prophet (saw) would uplift him. And the Prophet (saw) would say, "Zaheer is our man in the desert." Like, Zaheer is watching things for us. Like He's giving him severe importance (saw).
But the most beautiful joke is when the Prophet (saw) finds Zaheer (ra) in the marketplace. You know, think about how we walk past the poor. We walk past the custodians. We walk past the people that are doing that type of work. We don't even say salaam to them, as if they're not even Muslims, as if they're not even there, human beings. For the Prophet (saw) to notice, in that society, with all of the people you can imagine rushing towards Him at all times (saw), for Him to notice Zaheer (ra) and then to say, "Let me go make a joke with him." And then He goes behind Zaheer and He picks him up and He starts saying, "Who's going to purchase the slave?
Who's going to purchase the slave?" And Zaheer (ra) initially thinks that it's just someone. Then he realizes, you know, the grip of the Prophet (saw). So he says, "Once I realized that it was the Messenger of Allah (saw) I just let myself go." Who would not want the Prophet (saw) to be embracing them? Right? So when he's doing that, he makes a comment and he says, "Ya Rasulallah, who would want to buy me anyway?" Imagine how low he thinks of himself. Like, even if I was a slave, no one would purchase me for anything. The Prophet (saw) says to him, and you can imagine, like a loving father, a loving brother.
"But you're priceless in the sight of Allah." "You have no idea your worth in the sight of Allah." Imagine how Zaheer came to the marketplace that day and how he went home. He went to the marketplace thinking he has no worth. He left the marketplace, being told by the Prophet (saw) that his worth is too much to be quantified by the creation. That in the sight of Allah he's worth so much. And the Prophet (saw) was the opposite of every bad quality in the Quran, and he was the manifestation of every good quality in the Quran. So when Allah says, "Don't mock people, don't be little people." The Prophet (saw) hated mockery and the Prophet (saw) was on an exalted standard of character.
And he wanted to bring everyone to a higher level of akhlaq. So the time ibn Masud (ra), his leg showed, right, and they were so skinny. And some of the Sahaba laughed at how skinny his legs were. The Prophet's (saw) said, "Why are you laughing?" "Ya Rasulallah, look how skinny his legs are!" He says, "Those two legs are the size of Uhud on the Day of Judgment." Can you imagine a man walking around with legs the size of Uhud and being placed in the Mizan, the scale of good deeds with Uhud as his legs? So the Prophet (saw) hated mockery and most of our jokes contain mockery. And the Prophet (saw) never humiliated, He always honored.
And our jokes should also be jokes that honor people, not jokes that degrade people. If you were given one minute in a Super Bowl commercial to tell millions of people about Prophet Muhammad (saw), what would you tell them? I would tell them that there is a man, the last Prophet. The beautiful last brick of the structure of Prophethood, made up of thousands of beautiful bricks, including Noah and Jesus and Moses and Abraham and David. Peace be upon them all. And the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, as that final beautiful brick of the structure, the missing brick of the structure. He's a child of Ishmael. Peace be upon him, Ismail (as).
And He calls you to everything that those Prophets called to. But He also has a scripture that is completely unaltered, the divine Word of God Himself, and His example, which is the most perfect manifestation of that perfect Word, is documented perfectly as a roadmap for all of us to get to know the God of Moses, the God of Jesus, the God of Abraham, the God of Muhammad. May Allah send his peace and blessings upon them all and you should get to know Him so that you can know your purpose in life. Beautiful commercial. Will you pay for the Super Bowl commercial? The Prophet Muhammad (saw) was also inviting Jews and Christians to Islam.
And we know that the coming of Muhammad (pbuh) is written in their holy books as well. Why did the Christian and Jewish scholars of that time not believe in him? It's often not about the religion itself. It's about what makes people approach religion in the first place. And so if someone was seeking the Prophet (saw) and seeking the purity of the message of Abraham, Ibrahim (as), then when they saw the Prophet (saw), they got excited.
And if someone was seeking an authority in religion or seeking some sort of access to power or desires in religion rather than true purpose and sincerity of God, then anything that undermines that is going to immediately be isolated and then thrown out of the religion, even if it's the Prophet of Allah himself. And so you look at the example of two men, Abdallah ibn Salam (ra), Hussein ibn Salam, who was the chief rabbi of Medina. When he heard about the Prophet (saw) he immediately went and inquired. He saw His face. He said "I knew that that's not the face of a liar." And he heard Him speak.
And the Prophet said, "Spread peace and feed the people, and pray at night while other people are sleeping, and establish your ties of kinship. You'll enter Paradise in peace." And he heard the message of the Prophet (saw) and he said, "That's Him." And he immediately embraced the Prophet (saw). The most learned rabbi in Medina. Huyayy ibn Akhtab, on the other hand, who was also claiming to be waiting for the Prophet (saw).
As soon as he heard that the Prophet (saw) had come, and he realized that this would mean bad thing for his power, bad news for his power, then Huyayy ibn Akhtab said, "He is my enemy as long as He lives, and I am His enemy as long as I live, I will fight him until the end." So it wasn't about the purity. Allah says, "They know him as much as they know their own children." Does anyone not recognize their children? They recognized Him right away.
But the difference between Najashi in Abyssinia, who bore witness that not only was he the Prophet of Allah, and Najashi is a learned Christian scholar whose eyes swelled with tears and who sent a message to the Prophet (saw) and said, "If I could come to you and carry your shoes, I would. But I have a responsibility here in Abyssinia." The difference between him and Heraclius in Rome was not the lack of recognition. It was the willingness to sacrifice on one hand and the lack of willingness to sacrifice on the other hand. They both knew He was Him (saw).
And so what I say to people is that, look, if you're really seeking the faith of Abraham, the message of Jesus, the message of Moses, the message of Muhammad, the message of the Prophets, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon them all, then it is upon you to seriously inquire into who He was, peace and blessings be upon Him, into the claims to Prophethood, into the proofs and evidences that He presented, and do so with an open mind and an open heart.
And it is very hard to study the proofs and character of the Prophet Muhammad (saw) and walk away and say, "Yeah, He's just an ordinary man or a false prophet" It would be very, very, very hard, near impossible for any sincere inquirer to come away with that type of a conclusion. Did the Messenger of Allah ever get angry? If He was angry, what was it about? So the description of the Prophet (saw) is that He never got angry for Himself. He only got angry when Allah's law was transgressed upon or Allah's sacred creation was transgressed upon. And so it was transgression that angered the Prophet (saw). And not even transgression against Him (saw).
So He's always very willing to overlook things against Him (saw). But if you exploited in front of Him another person, then you'd see the anger of the Prophet (saw). And if you transgressed the law of Allah (swt) even though He's the Messenger of Allah (saw), then you would see His anger, but because His anger (saw) was for the right reasons, it never came out in the wrong ways. So if it's anger for Allah, then you're not going to curse and be egotistical and beat your chest. You're going to show your anger with dignity as well, with perspective as well. I give people this example.
Aisha (ra) says, "I never saw the Prophet (saw) angrier than this moment." It's when she said about Khadija (ra), because the Prophet (saw) would mention Khadija so much. And Aisha got jealous, even though she never met Khadija, right? She was too young and she never met Khadija. So one day she said, "Hasn't Allah given you someone better than the old toothless woman of Quraysh?" Talking about Khadija. These are our mothers fighting. Aisha (ra) and Khadija (ra). And she said the Prophet (saw) was so angry. She saw His face turn red. She saw His hair stand, (saw). Like, how dare you? Right? Now, there are two ways that the Prophet (saw) could have reacted.
He could have degraded Aisha or honored Khadija. Which one did He choose? He said, "I swear by Allah that Allah did not give me better than her." "She believed in me when no one else believed in me. She spent on me when other people withheld from me. She supported me when no one else would support me. And Allah gave me children through her and He did not give me children through other than her, she's the mother of my children." So the angriest the Prophet (saw) is, and he's responding to the one who provoked the anger, and the Prophet (saw) did not curse, the Prophet (saw) did not hit, the Prophet (saw) did not degrade. Because His anger was not for Him. It was for Allah (swt).
And in this case that meant defending Khadija (ra) who was not in the room at the time. If you had the opportunity to watch just one of His days when when He was alive, which day would that be? Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. There are so many days. So many days I wish I could be with Him (saw) but there are kind of two things for me. It's either when the Prophet (saw) was very sad. So I think of the Prophet (saw) burying Khadija (ra) and the pain that He felt receiving Khadija (ra) in the ground. And the Prophet (saw) was with her. And He didn't pray. There was no janazah. It was in Ramadan, there was no fasting. Khadija never prayed the five daily prayers.
She died before the Salawat were obligated upon this Ummah. And so on the one hand, like, I'd want to be with the Prophet (saw) on that day. But more than that, I think to... Like, I think of the Fath al-Makkah, the conquest of Mecca. They say, you know, you really see the character of a man when he's on top, when he has power. I would have loved to be riding a horse next to the Prophet (saw), doing tawaf with Him, standing next to Him when He stood on Safa again, this time not rejected, but this time with hundreds of thousands, or over 100,000 people following Him (saw). Seeing that Allah's promise came true, being able to celebrate that with Him (saw).
I think that's what recently I've just been thinking about that day of victory. So a day of great pain or a day of great victory. Those two things are the things that are there. And I know I'm giving you more days, but I also think about Ramadan. Like, imagine 27th night with the Prophet (saw) or the last ten nights with the Prophet (saw). Like, the state of His heart. It's always pure and beautiful. But like, can you imagine if people's iman rubs off and like being in the companionship of the righteous rubs off on you? Can you imagine being with the Prophet (saw) in the last ten nights of Ramadan? I can't even imagine what it would be like.
I can't imagine being with Him (saw) outside of the last ten nights of Ramadan. I really can't imagine how beautiful it would be to be in His companionship in the last ten nights of Ramadan (saw), and maybe catch a Rak'a of Qiyam with Him, or two Rak'as of Qiyam with Him, or pray Witr with Him, or listen to Him read the Quran or read the Quran with Him (saw). So those last ten nights of Ramadan are from a seasonal perspective. There is a moment every Ramadan where I'm like, "Ya Allah, it would have been beautiful." All right, so may Allah give us that, that moment with Him (saw). So there was this incident that I really am affected, to the most heavy, in terms of the dignity of a believer.
Was there an incident that the Prophet (saw) emphasized in His lifetime? You know, when he was saluting the Kaaba, and, you know... So it's actually, Subhanallah, very interesting because the Prophet (saw) in the Hajjatul Wada, in the Farewell Hajj, you know, most of the Sahaba became Sahaba because of Hajjatul Wada. Because you have to see the Prophet (saw) and believe in Him to be a Companion. Most people met the Prophet (saw) that would be considered Sahaba, on Hajjatul Wada, on that one Hajj, and achieve that status. And His messages (saw) are very clear.
Now, the Prophet (saw) used to warn, "Do not go back to being kuffar, to being disbelievers, striking at each other's necks again." Right? So He's warning (saw) about division in the Ummah. And that day, as the Prophet (saw) is making tawaf on the Eid of Hajjatul Wada, the Prophet (saw) addresses the Kaaba and He says, "How beautiful are you? How pure are you, how sacred are you? But with all of that, by the one in whose hand is my soul, the sanctity of the believer, his wealth, his blood, his honor is more than yours." Can you imagine being a new Muslim? You're coming out of tribalism and you're seeing the Prophet (saw) elevate the sanctity of the believer to that level.
So don't you dare go back to striking each other's necks, and killing one another and fighting one another. Because the message of tawhid, the Oneness of God, unifies, and it allows us to melt our differences through that transcendent cause of tawhid, that tawhid overtakes it all. "All of you, grab on to the rope of Allah." The rope of Allah is the Qur'an. Transcends all of our differences. So, Ummah of Muhammad (saw), do not go back to fighting each other the way that you used to before this religion came. If the only thing the religion has become to you is another tool for division, and ego and agenda and cult and tribe, then you're failing to internalize it properly.
This deen is not a tool for you. This deen is a way by which Allah (swt) unites an Ummah and makes us one. And so that's the message of the Prophet (saw), the dignity of the believer. Can you imagine if we saw someone attacking the Kaaba? What it would provoke, in the Ummah of Muhammad (saw)? You're seeing the Kaaba being destroyed every day in Gaza, every single day on your screen. You're seeing it be destroyed in Gaza. That should provoke something in each and every single one of us. That's the honor of a believer, the blood of a believer, the property of a believer just being taken away right in front of us all the time.
May Allah (swt) forgive us for our incapacity and allow us to do more for our brothers and sisters. How did the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) die, and what was His last words? The Prophet (saw) died of a sickness when He was 63 years old. And His last words were spoken in the lap of His wife, Aisha (ra). When the fever had become severe and the angel Gabriel had entered upon Him, and the Prophet (saw) said, "Rather I choose the highest companion," because He was given the choice between living amongst His people here or going to the highest companion, and He chose the highest companion. And He recited verses and words to that extent.
And so His last words were words of glory and words of longing to be with the Lord who sent Him here in the first place. Last question. If Allah grants you Jannah, Inshallah, and you see the Prophet (saw) for the first time, what would you want to say to Him? I remember interviewing people. I got to ask the question. I would just thank Him for everything He bore for us, (saw). Everything He endured for us, (saw). You know, like, when you think about it, if you start to think about, you know, every rock that hit Him, every insult, He did that for me. Someone took a beating for you.
Why did he have to lose Khadija (ra) and Abu Talib and lose His reputation and Mecca for those days and suffer all of that? What kept the Prophet (saw) going, except the sincerity to His Lord and His sincerity to the people that He was calling back to His Lord? So I would just thank Him (saw), for all that He bore for us. And you know, if you start thinking about things differently, like, look, that, every stone that hit Him in Ta'if, hit Him for me but the Prophet (saw) still had faith in humanity, in His Ummah to to grow out of that. Then it becomes very, very, very different, so... Jazakallah khairan Ya Rasulallah. May Allah reward you and I hope it was worth it.
When you hear all the salawats coming towards you and you see the size of your Ummah coming to you lovingly on the Day of Judgment. Jazakallah khair for your sincere answers, Sheikh Omar Suleiman. As Towards Eternity, Inshallah, we really thank you and we hope to meet our beloved Prophet (saw). Jazakallah khair. Allah bless you.