A speech on Prophet Muhammad (SAW) by Sir Zaid Hamid

“Verily ALLAH and his angels recite salaat on the nabi.  O you who believe call for (ALLAH’s) blessings on him and greet him saying peace be upon him.”( AL-AHZAAB -56)

Allahuma salli ala Muhammadin wa ala Alayhi wa as haabihi wasalam

With the permission of respected Syed Sahab, dear scholars and brothers Assalmo alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuhu.

When my Aaqa [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] especially rewards someone in his ummah, when he wants closeness with an ummati [follower], when he decides that an ummati should be with prophets, siddiqeens [truthful people] and martyrs, and when he wants to gift someone, then he gives that ummati the Ishq for Prophet Mohammad [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم].

My friends, remember one thing, you cannot earn Ishq-e-Rasool [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ]. It is an honour bestowed by the court of the Holy Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ]. It is rewarded to him who is endlessly obedient and humble in front of the Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم].

Adab pehla qareena hai mohabaat kay qareeno main.

The disrespectful receive nothing. And remember one thing, there is no criticism or following or Fatwa [ruling given by an Islamic scholar] regarding the actions of an Aashiq-e-Rasool [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ], nor there is any end to the acts of a man who is immersed in Ishq-e-Rasool [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم].”

[In order to make the audience understand the importance of this point, Sir Zaid repeated it.]
“It is not mentioned in any book of Fiqh that how an Aashiq [lover] of Rasoolullah should express his love for the Rasool [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ]. At the battle of Uhad, the Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم] lost two teeth. Owais Qarni [ RA] broke all his teeth upon hearing this. This is not a matter for Fiqh; this is Ishq-e-Rasool [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم]. There is no fatwa on it, nor there is any following. Abu Bakr [RA], Umar [RA], Ali [AS] did not break their teeth though they were also great lovers of Rasool [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم]. Their style of loving the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ], their duties and positions were different.  Owais Qarni’s [RA] style was different. That is why there is no following of any particular style. Every Aashiq has his own place. He expresses his love according to whatever Aqaa [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] bestows on him. One sahabi [companion] of Rasoolullah [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] saw him only once in his life. At that time, the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] was wearing a black shawl as it was winter. Afterward, that sahabi never saw the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] again but all his life he wore a black shawl as he had seen him like that. Another sahabi, who met Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم] during summer, saw that his shirt was unbuttoned from the front. During his whole life, whichever season it was, he used to wear an unbuttoned shirt because he said that was the way he had seen his Aaqa [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم], so that was the way he would remain.

Acts of Ishq-e-Rasool [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] have no criticism, no following and no fatwa. Only an ignorant person can ask about the veracity of these rules . These are the matters of heart.

Once at a time of war, our Aaqa [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم] announced that every Muslim should bring what ever he can. A sahabia cried that she did not have any thing to offer but she did not want to stay behind. She went to our Aaqa [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] and presented her infant to the Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم]. Syedi Rasoolullah [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم] asked her what would he do with the baby. She replied that when he was attacked from all sides, he could use her baby as a shield to protect himself from the arrows. This is true Ishq-e-Rasool![صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] These are the acts of loving the Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم] which are infinite in their nature, and which permit no criticism.

Imam Malik, the founder of Maliki Fiqh, never wore shoes and never rode any animal in Madina because he said that his master [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] used to walk in those streets. At the time of Pledge of Hudaybiya, the representatives of the non-believers of Quraysh, went back and advised their people not to fight a war with the Muslims. They said they had been to the courts of Caesar and Kisra but they had never seen such reverence and respect which they had seen in the sahaba of the Rasool [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ]. They told Mushrikeen of Quraish,

“When their Prophet performs ablution, they don’t let the water fall down on the ground and spread it on their bodies. They make perfume from the drops of his perspiration. They would not even let his spit touch the ground and would smear it on themselves”.

These things are intrinsically not forbidden, yet there was a sahabi who even did a forbidden thing but Jannah [paradise] was made wajib [compulsory] for him because of his intention. Once the Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم] bled a little. He gave the container of the blood to the sahabi to throw it. But the sahabi drank it. When the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] came to know about it, he said,

“A body that has my blood running in it, will not burn in hell”.

Even though it is forbidden to drink blood in Islam, the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] gave him the tidings of Jannah because of his Ishq-e- Rasool [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ].

My dear friends, whatever a Momin [true believer] receives is due to the respect and courtesy he shows to the Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم]. All the prayers, hajj, zakah and good deeds will be wasted if one so much as raises the voice in the presence of the Holy Master [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ]. There is no room for disrespect and irreverence in this regard. There are two sins which i will never forgive. One is shirk and the the other is disrespect to the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ]. If one angers Allah because of his misdeeds, our master [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم] can come to our aid. But if one has been disrespectful to the Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم], there is no one in the whole universe who can come to his aid. Even to this day, the ture ushaaq [lovers] of the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] strongly follow the Quranic orders concerning the Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم]. They carry themselves exactly the way the sahaba did in the company of Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] fourteen hundred years ago. There are still some men of Allah, who ask for permission before going to the court of the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] (i.e. Masjid-e-Nabvi) as it was ordered in the Quran. Even today these men give sadqa [charity] before consulting about a matter from the court of our master [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] as it was ordered by Allah. They also take permission from the Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم] before leaving Masjid-e-Nabvi. Similarly, they take care of the poor people in the vicinity of Masjid-e-Nabvi as the master [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] had said that the people of Madina were his neighbours and one should take care of them. Even today the Ushaaq of Rasool [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم] don’t turn their backs to the Masjid-e- nabvi and they don’t speak in a loud voice. A thing which is worth remembering is that the Ishq-e-Rasool is the result of respecting and following the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ].

Everyone knows the story of Imam Busiri who wrote Qaseeda Burda. He presented this qaseeda to the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] and saw him in his dream. The Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] not only gave him his burda [shawl] but also cured him of his paralysis. When he woke up and went out in the street, a qalander stopped him and asked him to give him the qaseeda that he wrote the previous night and also told him that it had been accepted at the court of the Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم]. In today’s world we see that this qaseeda has become the most popular qaseeda ever.

Maula Ya sali wasalam dayi man abadan

Each Ashiq of Rasool has been assigned a different duty by the Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم]. For this, it is not necessary to be a great abid [one who worships a lot] or a zahid [ a very pious man]. The blessings and mercy of the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] are also for the sinners and worldly people. The only condition is that of Adab-e-Rasool [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ].

Sultan Noor-ud-din Zangi was a Muslim general who was leading the Muslim army during the crusades. At that time two crusaders, dug a tunnel towards the Roza-e-Pak  of Rasoolullah [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] with evil intentions (nauzbillah). Amongst the whole ummah, the Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم] chose Sultan Noor-ud-din Zangi to send the two crusaders to hell. He came in the dream of the Sultan and showed him the faces of those two hell-bound men and ordered the Sultan to rid him of them. The Sultan traveled from Damascus to Madina Shareef, found the two infidels, sent them to hell and then burst into tears because he was overwhelmed with joy that the Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم] had called him for this great service.

Everyone knows that when Tariq bin Ziyad was sent to capture Spain, he burnt all the ships behind him. We know about this historical fact, but are unaware of the spiritual aspect to it. There were only 12,000 Muslim Mujahids with him who faced an army of 150,000. That was an unknown territory for the Muslims as they had never been there before. Behind them, there was a vast sea. The Muslim forces considered going back and coming again with a bigger army. When Tariq bin Ziyad saw this situation, he ordered his soldiers to burn all the ships. A fierce battle was fought which resulted in the victory for Muslims. Afterward, the Muslims asked their commander that why did he decide to burn the boats and what was so special about this order which the soldiers had not realized. Tariq bin Ziyad told them that when they were coming to Spain, he was blessed with the ziyarat of the Holy Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم] who was wearing his armour. The Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم] told him to reach Spain as he himself was also going there.

Sultan Mohammad Fateh was one of the the sultans of Ottoman Caliphate. The Holy Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم] had said, “Constantinople would be conquered by the Muslims, and that Muslim troop would go to Paradise who would conquer it and so would the leader who would be leading them”. Starting from the time of Caliphate of Uthman [RA], the Muslims tried for 900 years to conquer Constantinople. But this honour was in the fate of Sultan Mohammad Fateh in 1453 A.D. In order to stop this Sultan , heavy chains were put across the sea so that the Muslims’ warships could not reach Constantinople.  The Sultan ordered his people to drag the ships on dry land, a feat which has not been accomplished any where in human history. Finally the Sultan’s army conquered Constantinople and he told others how he was foretold of a victory in dream by the Prophet’s sahabi, Abu Ayub Ansari [RA]. The sahabi said to the Sultan, “Constantinople belongs to you, go and take it”. The shrine of this great sahabi, who was host to Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] in Madina Munawara, can still be seen in Constantinople. The sahabi himself showed the place where he was buried to the Sultan, so the Sultan was able to mark that place and made a shrine for him there.

So we see that in every era, the lovers of the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] had been blessed with special faiz [benediction] and karam [blessing] of the Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم] himself. An example from recent history is the book titled “Zinda Rood” [ever-flowing spring of water] written by Allama Iqbal’s son, Justice Javed Iqbal. In this book, he tells of an incident that was told to him by his father. Once a Syed man came from Kashmir to visit Allama Iqbal and burst into tears as soon as he saw Allama Iqbal. When Iqbal inquired what was the matter with him, he said,

“I am not needy or poor, but I am crying at the truthfulness of my dream. In my dream, I saw a huge congregation of Muslim Auliya that was led by the Prophet Mohammad [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] himself. Yet, the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] was not starting the prayer as it seemed that he was waiting for someone. He was turning his head again and again asking, “Has Iqbal come?” After some time, a man came and the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] gave him space on his right side. When I woke up I asked other people about it and they said that they had heard of a man called Iqbal who lived in Lahore so I came here and when I saw you, I could not control myself and cried at the accuracy of my dream.”

The ‘Congressi Mullahs’ called Quaid-e-Azam, ‘Kafir-e-Azam’. These Mullahs have been with the Congress from the start, are with it today and will hopefully will be resurrected with Congress as well in the End. When Quaid-e-Azam was asked that he had left the Sub-continent in 1931, what was the thing that made him come back, he replied,

“Allama Iqbal worked a lot on me, aroused spirituality in me and other good and sincere friends also suggested to me that it was better if I go back and work for the Muslims. But this not the real reason. When I was in England in a state of confusion, I had the good fortune of having the ziyarat of our Holy Prophet [ صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم] at night. And I can swear that I was awake at that time. I did not see the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] in dream but while I was awake. The Holy Prophet [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] addressed me and said, “Go to Hindustan, I have work for you there.” And that is why I returned to Hindustan as it was the order of my Aaqa [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ]“.

At the time of his death in Ziyarat, Quaid-e-Azam called his doctor and said , “I am leaving this world in a very peaceful state of mind. I am absolutely sure that this Pakistan could not have been made if it was not for the Faizan [blessing] of the Rasoolullah [صلی اللہ علیھ والہ وسلم ] and now it is the duty of the coming generations to apply the system of Caliphate in Pakistan so that Allah fulfills those promises which Allah has made with the Muslims.”

(to be continued...)