Examples of Prophet Muhammad’s Love of His Ummah

one of the loftiest graces allah ^[3] has bestowed upon our ummah^[2]  was sending prophet muhammad (saws) ^[1]as a messenger and a guide. in the noble qur’an allah says what can be translated as “indeed there has already come to you a messenger from (among) yourselves. mighty (i.e., burdensome) to him is whatever distresses you. most eager is he for your (welfare), to the believers (he is) constantly compassionate, constantly merciful.” (tmq ^[4] 9: 128) scholar sa’di indicated that “this bounty is the most valuable of allah’s bounties bestowed to his worshippers: he sent them this noble prophet to take them out of misguidance and protect them from perdition.”

allah sent muhammad (saws) to mankind after a long period of sheer ignorance: the weak were bullied and exploited, wars were the norm, and blindness of heart and insight was dominant. he was the light that guided and the heart that gathered people around him. for all this allah (swt) ^[5] asked the believers to love the prophet (saws), respect him and follow his orders.

the following are some examples of the prophet’s (saws) love of us. the prophet (saws) was reported to have said,

example one

“for each messenger there is an accepted prayer. i keep mine for the day of resurrection as an intercession for my ummah.”

example two

“on the day of resurrection the people will surge with each other like waves, and then they will come to adam and say, ‘please intercede for us with your lord.’ he will say, ‘i am not fit for that but you’d better go to abraham as he is the khalil of the beneficent.’ they will go to abraham and he will say, ‘i am not fit for that, but you’d better go to moses as he is the one to whom allah spoke directly.’ so they will go to moses and he will say, ‘i am not fit for that, but you’d better go to jesus as he is a soul created by allah and his word.’ (be: and it was) they will go to jesus and he will say, ‘i am not fit for that, but you’d better go to muhammad.’ they would come to me and i would say, ‘i am for that.’ then i will ask for my lord’s permission, and it will be given, and then he will inspire me to praise him with such praises, as i do not know now. so i will praise him with those praises and will fall down, prostrate before him. then it will be said, ‘o muhammad, raise your head and speak, for you will be listened to; and ask, for you will be granted (your request); and intercede, for your intercession will be accepted.’ i will say, ‘o lord, my ummah! my ummah!’ and then it will be said, ‘go and take out of hell (fire) all those who have faith in their hearts, equal to the weight of a barley grain.’ i will go and do so and return to praise him with the same praises, and fall down (prostrate) before him. then it will be said, ‘o muhammad, raise your head and speak, for you will be listened to, and ask, for you will be granted (your request); and intercede, for your intercession will be accepted.’ i will say, ‘o lord, my ummah! my ummah!’ it will be said, ‘go and take out of it all those who have faith in their hearts equal to the weight of a small ant or a mustard seed.’ i will go and do so and return to praise him with the same praises, and fall down in prostration before him. it will be said, ‘o, muhammad, raise your head and speak, for you will be listened to, and ask, for you will be granted (your request); and intercede, for your intercession will be accepted.’ i will say, ‘o lord, my ummah!' then he will say, ‘'go and take out (all those) in whose hearts there is faith even to the lightest, lightest mustard seed. (take them) out of the fire.’ i will go and do so."'

example three

“if i had not found it hard for my followers or the people, i would have ordered them to clean their teeth with siwak for every prayer.”

example four

while the prophet (saws) was reciting the noble qur’an he read two ayahs in which allah (swt) said what can be translated as “lord! surely they have led many of mankind into error. so whoever follows me, then surely he is of me; and whoever disobeys me, then surely you are ever-forgiving, ever-merciful.” (tmq ^[6] 14:36) and “in case you torment them, then surely they are your bondmen; and in case you forgive them, then surely you, ever you, are the ever-mighty, the ever-wise.” (tmq 6:118) the first is said by prophet ibrahim (as) ^[7] (abraham) and the second by prophet isa (as) (jesus). having read both ayahs, the prophet (saws) cried. allah (saws) sent archangel jibril (as) (gabriel) to ask him about the reason for his crying despite allah knows that. the prophet’s answer was “my ummah, my ummah.” allah asked sent archangel jibril (as) (gabriel) to tell the prophet (saws) that he will satisfy him regarding his ummah. 

example five

a man kissed a woman (unlawfully) and then went to the prophet and informed him. allah revealed what can be translated as “and keep up the prayer at the two extremities of the daytime and in the early reaches of the night. surely the fair deeds will put away the odious deeds. that is a reminding to the mindful.” (tmq 11:114) the man asked the prophet (saws), “is it for me?” he said, “it is for all my ummah.”

example six

in the intercession hadith: “then i will go beneath allah’s throne and fall in prostration before my lord. and then allah will guide me to such praises and glorification to him as he has never guided anybody else before me. then it will be said, ‘o muhammad! raise your head. ask, and it will be granted. intercede it (your intercession) will be accepted.’ so i will raise my head and say, ‘my ummah, o my lord! my ummah, o my lord’. it will be said, ‘o muhammad! let those of your followers who have no accounts, enter through such a gate of the gates of paradise as lies on the right; and they will share the other gates with the people.” the prophet (saws) further said, “by him in whose hand my soul is, the distance between every two gate-posts of paradise is like the distance between mecca and busra (in sham).”

example seven

“nations were displayed before me; one or two prophets would pass by along with a few followers. a prophet would pass by accompanied by nobody. then a big crowd of people passed in front of me and i asked, ‘who are they? are they my followers?’ it was said, ‘no. it is moses and his followers. it was said to me, ‘look at the horizon.’ behold! there was a multitude of people filling the horizon. then it was said to me, ‘look there and there about the stretching sky! behold! there was a multitude filling the horizon,’ it was said to me, ‘this is your nation out of whom seventy thousand shall enter paradise without reckoning.’' then the prophet entered his house without telling his companions who they (the 70,000) were. so the people started talking about the issue and said, ‘it is we who have believed in allah and followed his prophet; therefore those people are either ourselves or our children who are born in the islamic era, for we were born in the pre-islamic period of ignorance.’ when the prophet (saws) heard of that, he came out and said. ‘those people are those who do not treat themselves with ruqya, nor do they believe in bad or good omen (from birds etc.) nor do they get themselves branded (cauterized) but they put their trust (only) in their lord’. on that ‘ukasha bin muhsin said. ‘am i one of them, o allah’s prophet?’ the prophet said, ‘yes.’ then another person got up and said, ‘am i one of them?’ the prophet said, ‘ukasha has anticipated you.’

example eight

in the long hadith of night journey and the ascent (israa and mi’raaj), the prophet (saws) tells us “then allah enjoined fifty prayers on my ummah. when i returned with this order of allah, i passed by moses who asked me, ‘what has allah enjoined on your ummah?’ i replied, ‘he has enjoined fifty prayers on them.’ musa said, ‘go back to your lord (and appeal for reduction) for your ummah will not be able to bear it.’ (so i went back to allah and requested for reduction) and he reduced it to half. when i passed by musa again and informed him about it, he said, ‘go back to your lord as your ummah will not be able to bear it.’ so i returned to allah and requested for further reduction and half of it was reduced. i again passed by musa and he said to me: ‘return to your lord, for your ummah will not be able to bear it. so i returned to allah and he said, ‘these are five prayers and they are all (equal to) fifty (in reward) for my word does not change.’ i returned to musa and he told me to go back once again. i replied, ‘now i feel shy of asking my lord again.’ then jibril took me till we reached sidrat-il-muntaha (lote tree of; the utmost boundary), which was shrouded in colors, indescribable. then i was admitted into paradise where i found small (tents or) walls (made) of pearls and its earth was of musk.”

example nine

the prophet (saws) used to say ‘glory and praise are due to allah, i ask for his forgiveness and to him i repent’ a lot. he was asked about that. he said “ my lord has told me that once i see a specific sign in my ummah i should say this a lot. the sign was the spread of islam and the conquest of makkah. allah says what can be translated as “when comes the victory of allah, and the conquest, /and you see mankind entering the religion of allah in troops, / so extol with the praise of your lord, and ask him forgiveness; surely he has (always) been superbly relenting.” (tmq 110:1-3)

example ten

“while a man was going on a way, he saw a thorny branch and removed it from the way and allah became pleased by his action and forgave him for that.” then the prophet (saws) said, “five are martyrs: one who dies of plague, one who dies of an abdominal disease, one who dies of drowning, one who is buried alive (and) dies and one who is killed in allah’s cause." (the prophet (saws) further said, “if the people knew the reward for pronouncing the adhan and for standing in the first row (in the congregational prayer) and found no other way to get it except by drawing lots they would do so, and if they knew the reward of offering the zuhr prayer early (in its stated time), they would race for it and they knew the reward for ‘isha’ and fajr prayers in congregation, they would attend them even if they were to crawl’)

example eleven

on cloudy and windy days the prophet (saws) used to be worried and go to and fro. when he was asked about that he said that he was afraid that such wind or clouds are signs of torment from allah.

example twelve

one day te prophet’s (saws) companions kept waiting for him for ‘isha’ prayer. when he came to them late in the evening he told them that they are waiting for a prayer no other nation waits for. he also said that if he had not found it hard for my ummah he would have prayed it late in the evening. he then ordered the muezzin to call for prayer and prayed. 

example thirteen

once the prophet (saws) prayed two raka’as at banu mu’awiya mosque. he prayed for a long time. when he finished he told his companions that he asked his lord for three things and allah granted him two of them: my ummah won’t perish by famine or by drowning. the one he was not granted was the inter killing in his ummah.

example fourteen

jibril (as) came to the prophet (saws) and told him that allah wanted him to read the qur’an for his ummah in one dialect only. the prophet (saws) told jibril (as) that his ummah would not bear this. he kept asking for more dialects until allah allowed him and his ummah to recite the qur’an in seven dialects, each of them is right.      

 ^[1]  salla allah alayhe wa salam [all prayers and peace of allah be upon him]

 ^[2]  muslim nation

 ^[3]  the word allah is the arabic term for god. although the use of the word "allah" is most often associated with islam, it is not used exclusively by muslims; arab christians and arabic-speaking jews also use it to refer to the one god. the arabic word expresses the unique characteristics of the one god more precisely than the english term. whereas the word "allah" has no plural form in arabic, the english form does. allah is the god worshipped by all prophets, from adam to noah, abraham, moses, jesus and muhammad.

 ^[4]  translation of the meaning of the qur'an.  this translation is for the realized meaning, so far, of the stated (surah:ayah) of the qur'an.  reading the translated meaning of the qur'an can never replace reading it in arabic, the language in which it was revealed.

 ^[5]  swt = suhanahu wa ta'ala  [glorified and exalted be he].

 ^[6]  translation of the meaning of the qur'an.  this translation is for the realized meaning, so far, of the stated (surah:ayah) of the qur'an.  reading the translated meaning of the qur'an can never replace reading it in arabic, the language in which it was revealed.

 ^[7]  alayhe as-salam [all peace of allah be upon him]