A version of this article originally appeared in Healing Hearts
يا خير من دفنت في الترب أعظمه *** فطاب من طيبهن القاع والأكم
نفسي الفداء لقبر أنت ساكنه *** فيه العفاف وفيه الجود والكرم
أنت الحبيب الذي ترجى شفاعته *** عند الصراط إذا ما زلت القدم
لولاك ما خلقت شمس ولا قمر *** ولا سماء ولا لوح ولا قلم
صلى عليك إله العرش ما طلعت *** شمس وحن إليك الضال والسلم
O best of whose bones were buried in the earth
Giving from their blessings to landscapes and hills
I give my soul in sacrifice to the grave you occupy
Within it is chastity, generosity, and liberality
You’re the Beloved whose intercession is sought
On the narrow path towards heaven if my foot slips
Had it not been for you, nor the sun nor the moon would’ve been created
Nor the sky, Tablet or Pen
May the Lord of the Throne pray upon you as many times
As the sun rises and as those astray and safe yearn for you
These beautiful lines of poetry come from a poem that Imam Ibn Katheer narrates in his commentary on verse 64 from chapter 4 where God says:
ولو أنهم إذ ظلموا أنفسهم جاءوك فاستغفروا الله واستغفر لهم الرسول لوجدوا الله توابا رحيما
And had they when they were unjust to themselves, come to you and asked for forgiveness of God and the Messenger had also asked forgiveness for them, they would have found God Oft-returning (to mercy), Merciful
A bedouin came to the grave where the Beloved ﷺ is buried and said: “O Messenger of God, I’ve committed a grave sin. But I’ve heard God say in the Quran (and he recited the above-mentioned verse), and I’m here to ask God for forgiveness and ask you to ask Him as well for me to be forgiven”. He followed this by reciting the poem where the above lines of poetry come from, wept, and walked away. Al Utbi was watching this happen and after the bedouin left he fell asleep and saw the Beloved ﷺ in his dream and was told to go catch up with the bedouin and give him glad tidings that God has forgiven him.
The more I reflect on this story the more overwhelming I find it. It is all about love and connection with the Beloved ﷺ. The lines of poetry can only come out of love for the Beloved ﷺ. The concern our Beloved ﷺ has for us can only be from his love and mercy. The love of God for His Messenger ﷺ was so much that He guarantees forgiveness and mercy for those whom His Messenger ﷺ is interceding for.
One of the things I really yearn for is to have love for our Messenger ﷺ as the love his companions may God be pleased with them had for him. There is a narration by Anas Ibn Malik RA* in Sahih Al Bukhari where he says that the Beloved ﷺ is reported to have said:
By the One who my soul is in His hand, none of you truly believes until I am more beloved to him than his self, his wealth, his children, and all people. Umar Ibn Al Khattab RA replied to this by saying:
“O Messenger of God! By God you are more beloved to me than everything else, except my own self.”
To this the Messenger of God ﷺ said:
“No O Umar. Not until I’m more beloved to you than your own self”
So Umar may Allah be pleased with him quickly recanted his initial response by saying:
“O Messenger of God! By God you are more beloved to me than everything else, even my own self”
The Messenger of God ﷺ replied:
“Umar, now you have it!”
To have that kind of love is truly magnificent. This type of love that brought people to sacrifice their own lives quite literally in defence of the Beloved ﷺ during battle. It is the type of love that brought a companion to pray to become blind after the passing of the Beloved ﷺ from this world so that the last thing his eyes saw would have been the Beloved ﷺ’s face. It is a love that brought the toughest of the companions to their knees weeping after the news of his passing ﷺ from this world.
I want you to picture this scene with me for a few minutes. Close your eyes and take a trip to Medina and watch Umar Ibn Al Khattab RA at first getting furious and waving his sword threatening to kill anyone who says “Muhammad is dead”. Then Abu Bakr As’Sideeq RA getting up and declaring the passing of the Beloved ﷺ and reciting the verses from the Qur’an that relate to his human nature ﷺ. This is when Umar, a man whose size from afar gives the impression as if he is riding a horse when in fact he would be walking, collapses on the ground and weeps intensely.
Bilal Ibn Rabah RA, the muezzin of the Beloved ﷺ, left Medina to Syria because he could not stay in a city where everything reminds him of something about his most Beloved ﷺ. After a couple of years of not visiting, the Beloved ﷺ appeared to Bilal in a dream and said:
ما هذا الجفاء يا بلال؟ أما آن لك أن تزورنا؟
What’s this coldness towards us O Bilal? Isn’t it time for you to visit us?
Bilal RA hastened to return back to Madina when he woke up, and as soon as saw the city of the Beloved ﷺ, he started to weep before he entered it. He continued to cry until he reached the mosque of the Beloved ﷺ and collapsed in tears by his grave. The Beloved ﷺ’s grandsons Al-Hasan and Al-Husayin RA came to Bilal RA and they all hugged for a long time. They asked him to get up and call the Athan for prayer, which he has not called ever since the passing of the Beloved ﷺ. He initially refused the same request from Abu Bakr and Umar RA because it was too difficult for him and he could not bring himself to do it. But he could not refuse the request from the grandchildren of the Beloved ﷺ and finally agreed.
Bilal RA made it to the roof of the mosque and started calling: Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!
At an instant everyone in Medina, young and old, men and women, all began to cry. It has been a few years since they heard the same voice call for the prayer that the Beloved ﷺ would lead. Everyone’s minds were flooded with all kinds of memories of the times when the Beloved ﷺ was among them. They even thought that he ﷺ was brought back to life and came out looking for him. As for Bilal RA… well, he got to the part where he bore witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God, “Ash’hadu anna Muham…“ and choked up at the name; he could not finish calling the Athan.
I have been reflecting lately on something that I have come to realize. Most of us when we raise our hands in prayer, we usually ask for God’s blessings, help in our needs, facilitate our affairs, make our difficult circumstances easy, etc. But it seems that very few of us ask God to throw love of our Messenger ﷺ similar to his companions’ love in our hearts. I have asked a few people if they have ever prayed that God grants them the vision of the Beloved ﷺ in their sleep. Sadly, the majority said they never even thought of it.
In the collection of Imam Ahmed is a narration by Anas Ibn Malik RA where he relates that the Beloved ﷺ said to Abu Bakr RA:
O Abu Bakr, I wish I could meet my brothers. I wish I could meet my brothers, for I love them!
Abu Bakr RA said:
O Messenger of God! We’re your brothers!
He ﷺ said:
You’re my companions. My brothers are a people who haven’t seen me, believed in me, and loved me so much so that I’m more beloved to them than their parents and their children.
It is all about love. So close your eyes for a minute. Imagine that you have been granted a chance to meet the most Beloved ﷺ who called you his brother and sister and said he wished he could meet you. Think about that. The Belovedﷺ was yearning to meet you. You are so important to him that he was concerned about you even though he came over 1439 years ago. Imagine the most caring, loving, merciful gift from the Most Merciful is in front of you and giving you his undivided attention for as long as you would like and he will not stop you for anything or anyone else. What you say to him?
May God cast love of Him and His Messenger ﷺ into our hearts.
May God grant us a visit from the Beloved ﷺ in our dreams.
May God include us in the intercession and the company of the Beloved ﷺ in the highest stations in the Final Abode.
With love.
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*RA = rad’iya Allah ‘anhu/’anhuma, i.e., may God be please with him/them
