The Mission of Prophet Muhammad - Yusha Evans

The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, for 23 years, he held a torch in his hand, and that was the torch of Dawa, conveying the message of Allah to humanity. And that torch was never given to anyone, except prophets and messengers. It was first given to Nuh Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, and then Jibril retrieved it, and gave it to the next, and to the next, and to the next. If you want some evidence for that, Ya Aisha, where did you get that from? Allah says in Surah Al-Bayyinah, وَمَا عُمِرُوا إِلَى الْيَعْبُدُوا لَهَا مُخْلِسِينَ لَهُ دِينَ حُنِفَى وَيُقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَيُؤْتُوا الزَّكَاةَ وَذَلِكُ الْدِينُ الْقَيِّمَةَ That the other nations before you were only commanded to worship Allah, make the deen pure for Him, establish Salah, I command an imperative, ادعوا, call into the way of your Lord. The Prophet ﷺ held that torch for 23 years, and then at the end of his mission, he handed it to this Ummah. That's what made this Ummah, كُنتُمْ خَيْرٍ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَأْ لِلنَّاسِ You think you are the greatest nation just because you say, لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله. Allah says, كُنتُمْ خَيْرٍ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَأْ لِلنَّاسِ تَعْمَرُونَ الْمِنْ مَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْحَانَلْ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ You are the best nation because you command to good, you forbid evil, and you believe in Allah. If you're not doing that, if we're not doing that, how dare we say we're the greatest nation. بِسْمِ اللَّهِ وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ ثُمَّ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي أَرْصَلَ رَسُولُهُ بِالْحُدَ وَدِينِ الْحَقِّ لِيُذْهِذْرُهُ آلَ دِينِ كُلِّ وَكَفَ بِاللَّهِ شَهِيدٌ وَالسَّلِمَ وَبَرَكَ عَلَى نَبِينِ مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَسَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيْكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُ عَمَّ بَعْدٍ I got a question for all of you in here today. How many of you believe the statement محمد رسول الله Raise your hand. Good. How many of you try everyday to implement the Sunnah or the traditions, the sayings, the statements and the actions of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. Raise your hands. Good. Because we're gonna talk about Sunnah today. Because the Sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم is not just restricted to how he brushed his teeth. It's not just restricted to the way he dressed, the way he ate, the way he slept. These are all part and parcel to the Sunnah. But if you don't understand the spirit of the entire Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم you are just repeating this information. You're not getting the whole point. What we'll talk about today inshaAllah ta'ala is the point of the Sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. And I'm gonna take you through a small journey through the seerah. How many of you have ever read any seerah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم about his life? Raise your hands. Whether it's الرحيق المختوم, the life of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, I'm gonna tell you today five things. Four or five depending on my time frame. Probably gonna run over just a little bit. Four or five things about the Sunnah and the seerah that if you learn these five things today, you will walk out of here better than you came into this place. And that's what we want inshaAllah. Now, how many of you have children? Raise your hand. I need to get you to think. I gotta get you to think. Okay, good. Children do something, a puzzle in school, or they do it in coloring books called connect the dots. How many of you have ever seen a connect the dot puzzle? Raise your hand again. Connect the dots. What is connect the dots? It's a picture that is made out of numbered dots. And in order to find out what the picture is, you need to connect those dots, correct? You need to start at one, and then you need to go to the end, right? What happens if I take that picture and I go out of order? I go from 1 to 7 to 4 to 3 to 12 to 16 and I connect them like that. What will happen? Shout it out, go ahead. You have free reign to shout. Chaos. It would not be what is supposed to be represented. It would be a mess. You might draw another picture or you might draw something that's just a big mess, correct? Now, what happens if you say, you know what, I'm not gonna connect those dots whatsoever? Just leave it how it is. Would you know what that picture represents? No, you wouldn't really know what the picture represents if it's a good connect the dot puzzle. You see, with the seerah of the Prophet alayhi salatu wassalam, and the sunnah, this is what we do. We connect the dots improperly, which represents Islam distorted to the world. Through our lives, we misrepresent Islam with our distorted, misdirected connect the dot puzzle, or, we don't connect any of those dots and we just say, mashallah, leave it where it is. And nobody knows what Islam is, nor you, nor them. This is our problem, wallahi. When it comes to the seerah and the sunnah of the Prophet alayhi salatu wassalam. So I'm gonna give you five dots today that will paint a beautiful picture. And you might say, how the heck you gonna paint a picture with five dots? Just watch. Let's start, and I'm gonna have to speed through because this is very short time frame to get all of this. Let's start at the beginning. When the Prophet alayhi salatu wassalam was at the age of 40 years, he retired himself to a cave in a mountain known as Ghar al-Hira, or Jabal al-Nur, the mountain of light, the cave of Hira, in Mecca. And he would go there and fast, and think, and look at his people. From Ghar al-Hira, you can see the entire town of Mecca. Well, you used to be able to see the entire town of Mecca. Now with all the high rise buildings, you don't see much. But you used to be able to see the entire town of Mecca, and you could see the Kaaba from that place. And he would contemplate the problems of his people. The problems you've heard throughout these lectures of how the Arabs had no respect for women, for children, for right, for justice. He would worry about his people. One day, and this is according to his own statements, one day as he was sitting in that cave, he said, a man appeared in this cave. A figure appeared in this cave, and he made light shine throughout this cave. And this is not a big cave. It's only really big enough to sit in. So a man came in the cave, and only had one statement to him. What was this statement? اقرأ Read. Recite. The Prophet ﷺ said, I don't know how. He couldn't read. He didn't know what to recite. Or someone said to you, recite. And he said, recite what? He said, I don't know. So this angel, or this figure, squeezed him, and said again, اقرأ. He said, I just told you I don't know how. Squeezed him. And I'm paraphrasing. I'm not giving it to you verbatim. Know this is a story. He squeezed him again and said, اقرأ. بِسْمِ رَبِكَ لَذِي خَلَقَ Read in the name of your Lord who created, created man from a congealed drop of blood. Read in your Lord is most bounteous. He taught that to man by the pen, that which he did not know. Beautiful weighty statement. And then this figure introduced himself. He said, My name is Jibreel or Gabriel. And I am the messenger from your Lord to the messengers of your Lord. Then Jibreel, peace be upon him, introduced Muhammad, peace be upon him, to his Rabb, his Lord. He said, your Lord is Allah who created you to worship Him alone with tawheed, with oneness. Then Jibreel, peace be upon him, introduced Muhammad, peace be upon him, to himself. He said, and you, O Muhammad, have been chosen by Allah to be his last and final messenger to humanity. And then what happened? Jibreel just disappeared. Those three statements telling him who he was, who Allah was, and introducing Muhammad, peace be upon him, to himself, Jibreel just left. And Muhammad, peace be upon him, started to wonder what had just happened. I mean this is a scene where he's wondering, wait a minute, hold on a second, have I starved myself to death here? Am I going nuts? Did I see what I just saw? So his first thought, his first thought was about whom? To go home to his beloved wife Khadijah. The woman whom he loved so much that he made Aisha jealous of her, and she had never met her, and she was already dead. He went home to his wife Khadijah. But on the way home, Jibreel appeared again, but this time he was standing across the sky. And he reminded the Prophet, peace be upon him, I am Jibreel, and you are indeed the messenger of Allah. Have no doubt about what you just saw. It's real. So he went home to Khadijah, may Allah be pleased with her, and grant her the highest ranks in Jannah. He went home to her and told her this story of what just happened to him, and asked his wife, Am I losing it? She, may Allah be pleased with her and please her, said, You are a man whom Allah would never disgrace with madness. You speak the truth. You help the needy. You stand up for justice. You are the truthful and the honest one. Allah would not disgrace you with madness. So not only did she console, consort, and support her husband, but she became the first to affirm, لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله She became the first person to embrace this beautiful deen out of women, if you want to be specific, Ibn Ali, out of children of Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, and from the men. Now, after this initial revelation, Khadijah, may Allah be pleased with her, wanted to go and talk to someone. She had a relative named Waraqa bin Nawfal, may Allah be pleased with him, who had read the Torah, revealed to Musa as it was in that time, what was left. He had read the Injil, or what was left of it at that time. So he knew the former revelations of Allah, and was in tune with some of the scriptures of Allah. So she went to him and told him what happened to her husband. And what did Waraqa say? He was blind at that time and was very old. He stood up and he said, والله, by Allah who holds my soul in his hands, your husband has been visited by the same angel that came to Musa, the same angel that came to Isa. He has been chosen by Allah to be the messenger to his people, and I have read about him in the former revelations. Then Waraqa met the Prophet ﷺ a short time later. And he told him some auspicious news. Waraqa said, I wish that I was a young man. I wish I was a young man, so that I could stand beside you and support you when your people throw you out. Now you have to understand the culture and the Asabiyyah of the pre-Islamic Arabs. Unfortunately it still prevails today in many of our Muslim worlds. They would support one another, even in blatant wrong, if it was family involved. You supported family till their death, even if you know what they're doing is wrong, you never sell out the family. So the Prophet ﷺ said, Are my people going to throw me out for this one statement? Waraqa said, Have no doubt about this. No one came with what you are going to come with, except their people were the first to throw them out. Should be some consort and some comfort to us, especially us reverts. Your people will be the first to throw you out, have guarantee about this. So the Prophet ﷺ got some ominous news. Then the Prophet ﷺ said, After that, the revelation stopped. Because what he was just given, اِقْرَىٰ بِاسْمِ رَبِكَ لَذِي خَلَقَ was the first few verses of what would become known as the Qur'an. The huge weight upon his shoulders was just sitting there. A weight that Allah said, Had he revealed this Qur'an into a mountain, you would have seen the mountain humble itself out of khashiyah and fear of Allah. And he said, No more revelations came. Jibreel didn't come. Nothing happened. So much time passed that he became worried again. And so he decided to go walk in the desert and clear his mind. As he was walking in the desert ﷺ, Jibreel all of a sudden appeared in the sky again. And said, I am Jibreel and you are indeed the Messenger of Allah. So much so the Prophet ﷺ said, Jibreel frightened him that time. Because the way he came and how forceful he was. So the Prophet ﷺ ran home to his wife Khadijah again. And he told her what? Cover me up. Wrap me up. Cover me up. And he was sitting under a blanket. And then another verse was revealed to him at the beginning of an entire surah. Does anyone know the next verse to be revealed after اِقْرَىٰ بِسْمِ رَبِكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ in those few verses? يَا أَيُّهَا الْمُدَثِّرُ O you who is wrapped up in the mantle. قُمْ Get up. فَأَنذِرْ And go warn your people. وَالرَّبَّكَ فَكَبِّرْ And magnify your Lord. And purify your garments. And stay away from the idols. You see brothers and sisters, the Prophet ﷺ did not have a lot at this time. The Qur'an was just initiated to be revealed. He had a handful of verses. He knew who Allah was. He knew who Jibreel was. He knew who he was. But Allah is telling him, there is no more time for sitting around. Get up. The first imperative command to move. Get up and go warn people about Me. Tell them that a day is going to come where they're gonna stand before Me. And I'm going to account for them for what they have done in this life. And those who obey Me, I can forgive them and give them Jannah. And those who disobey Me, I will punish them with hell. This is the reality of our deen. Don't play with it. So the Prophet ﷺ did what? He got up, threw off the blanket, and began his mission for the next 23 years of calling people to say what? La ilaha illallah. The Prophet ﷺ had one simple message for his people. قُلْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَى اللَّهِ تُفْلِحُونَ Say, there is only one God but Allah and you will be successful. You will have success. This is it. And his family turned against him. His uncles ridiculed him. They threw him out. They beat him. They choked him. They threw camel guts on him. Many, many things he suffered for this cause. But let me tell you one thing right now. If I want to say, the entire sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ revolves around the principle, قُمْ فَأَنذِرْ I don't think there is one person who would disagree with me, with evidence, and I can walk off the stage and have done my job. Because that's who Muhammad ﷺ is. That's who he is to me. When I learned that, I learned who I was. I found out what I'm supposed to do with my life. Because if I say, مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللهِ Then I must live that life. And let me tell you, Wallahi his sunnah was all about calling people to tawhid. Even down to the way he brushed his teeth. If you don't believe me, you have Shaykh Haytham who is our resident, definite scholar. Go and ask him. Check my information. But let's go forward a little more because I gave you one story and I want to be thorough. I don't want anyone to leave this room with any doubts about this matter. Let's go forward to the worst day of the life of the greatest human being who ever walked the face of this globe, The greatest creation Allah had ever created for mankind. The worst day of his life. What was the worst day of his life? Somebody tell me. The day of At-Ta'if. If you think you've had a bad day, go read the day of At-Ta'if and remind yourself you've never had a bad day. The Prophet ﷺ had been not only beaten and cursed and thrown guts on and all of these things, but they kicked him and his entire family and followers, anyone who supported him, they kicked him out into the desert of Mecca to just die off. And during this time, his beloved wife, Khadija رضي الله عنها, she left him and went to meet Allah. She died. And after that, his uncle Abu Talib, who even though he was not a Muslim, he was not a Muslim, probably the best non-Muslim that ever existed on the planet, ever in history. He supported the Prophet ﷺ with his wealth and with his status. No one would touch him while Abu Talib was alive, meaning they would not kill him. They would not do away with him. There was only certain things they could do because Abu Talib had his support. Then Abu Talib died as well. So the wolves of Quraysh began to circle. The wolves began to circle, and the Prophet ﷺ knew that Mecca was not a safe place anymore. So he went with his adopted son Zayd, and they went to a city called Al-Ta'if, which is a couple hour bus ride from Mecca. So you can imagine the walk in the hot desert. They walked to Ta'if, and for three days according to most narrations, and according to the most authentic source, for three days they spent knocking on every single door of Ta'if, asking people, say, لا إله إلا الله, so that you can be saved in this life and in the next. And you know what happened? Every single door was slammed in their face. Every door was slammed in his face. An entire town just turned away from him. So he sat down with the nobles of this town, and he asked them for two things only. Only two things. Either accept Islam, and save yourself in this life and in the next, or at least adopt me, and protect me from my own people. He was at his lowest point. He's begging another town now to protect him from his own people. And what did these chiefs say to him? They laughed in his face. Laughed in his face. Mocked him. Said, why did Allah have to choose you? Who were you? Why could not Allah, and Allah records it for us in the Quran, when they said, why could not Allah have chosen one of the chiefs of the two towns? Why couldn't He have chosen one of our chiefs? Or one of the chiefs of Mecca? Why does He have to choose you? And if you are indeed a prophet, then you're too good to be sitting with us. And if you're a liar, which is what we think, then we're too good to be sitting with you. Either way, it's time for you to go. So they kicked him out. But before he left, he asked them one favor. He said, my only request to you is that you don't tell anyone that you've rejected me like this. He's been through enough. This man, صلى الله عليه وسلم, suffered so much for human beings, for us. He said, just please don't tell anyone what you've done to me today. They announced it from the rooftops that we have rejected Muhammad and they brought the children, they brought the women, they brought the men, made them line up one after another and throw rocks and stones and bricks and whatever they could get, pelting him out of town. Literally running him out of town. So his adopted son was trying to protect him. He was being beaten and battered and bloodied till the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم's blood was running down his beautiful body and filling up his shoes. Then he got to outside of the town. He got outside of the town and he stopped in an orchard and he pulled out his greatest weapon. It wasn't tied around his waist. The greatest weapon that has ever been given to the believers, he pulled it out at that time. Does anybody know what it is? He put his two hands together in front of him. He raised them to the heavens and he made supplication to his Creator. One of the most beautiful supplications that have ever been spoken by any human being came out on that day. Such a beautiful, if you haven't read the dua of that Taif, go do it today, please. Wallahi, please go do it. Where he submitted to Allah that, when you leave me like this to my enemies, for them to just ravage me. But at the end of the dua he said, but if you are pleased with me, the light of your face is good enough to outcome all of this darkness. As long as you're pleased with me, I'm okay with whatever you do to me. At this time, and this is a little bit of a weaker of the narration, but it's relatable according to the ulema. At this time, there was the people who owned this orchard, they had a servant. And it was customary, even for the Arabs, even for people who did have such a great jahiliyyah, to try to help this type of person. They had something inside them, said, this man needs some help, take him some food and some drink. So this servant brought some food and some drink to the Prophet ﷺ, and before taking and eating it, what did he say? He said, Bismillah. This was not something known amongst them. He said, Bismillah. But this servant had known that there was something like this. So he asked the Prophet ﷺ, why did you say this? The Prophet ﷺ asked him a question, said, من اين انت؟ Where are you from? The man said, I'm from Nineveh. From Nineveh, from the home of Yunus ﷺ, where Jonah was sent as a messenger. So the Prophet ﷺ said, if you're from Nineveh, then you know who I am. I am the brother of Yunus ﷺ. I was sent with the same message that he was sent with. Say there's only one God but Allah, and you'll be saved from this life and in the next. The man got down in front of the Prophet ﷺ and said to him, وَشَدُّوا أَن لَا إِلَى هَيْلَ اللَّهِ وَشَدُّوا أَنَّكَ الرَّسُولُ اللَّهِ I bear witness that nothing has the right to be worshipped but Allah, and you are indeed His messenger. You see what happened, brothers and sisters, right then, was the Prophet ﷺ did not guide anyone to Islam. He was only a vehicle. دَعَيًا إِلَى اللَّهِ بِإِذْنِهِ وَسِرَاجًا مُنِيرًا He didn't guide anyone. Allah opened this man's heart to accept Islam in front of the Prophet ﷺ, reminding our Rasul ﷺ on the worst day of his life that this is why you're here. I sent you for these people. But Allah was so angry at the way his messenger had been treated. Allah was infuriated and that dua reached above the seven heavens. And Allah sent Jibreel ﷺ with the angel that is in charge of all the mountains of earth, and said, go to Muhammad and do whatever he wants. So Jibreel ﷺ appeared with the angel of the mountains and said, سلام عليك يا رسول الله With me is the angel of the mountains. And the angel of the mountains, according to Zaid, was infuriated. He was fuming. And the only thing the angel said was, يا رسول الله Just give me the word. Just give me the permission. And I will take Al-Akhshabain, the mountains that surround these two cities, and I will push them together and crush all of them for you. Now, for those who say Muhammad ﷺ was a bloodthirsty warmonger, this statement proves everything you say to be a blatant lie. So listen up. Listen closely. If Allah had not already made it permissible for him to take revenge on these people, then these angels would not be here. Allah had already made it permissible. These people have treated you so horribly. You can deal with them. But you see, Muhammad ﷺ was really sent as a رحمة للعالمين. A comforter to the world. Yes, comforter. Mercy to the world. He was really the epitome of the prophecy of the comforter to come for mankind. And he said to that angel, Calm down. Just calm down for a second. I'm not gonna give you permission to do that. Now, had it been any of us, those people would be done. We're ready to kill someone if they cut us off in traffic. We'll chase them down for miles to get into a fight with them. You take my shopping cart in the store. Wallahi it's gonna be some drama. We would have killed them and they would have said, there's another town over here got some problems with this one and that one. We would have killed humanity in a day if it had been us. But not for a man whose vision was قُمْ فَأَنذِرْ Get up and warn the people. He said, I'm not going to do this. Why? Because I hope, I sincerely wish that maybe someone from their progeny, from their lineage will come forward and say, لا إله إلا الله Even if one person from their lineage, even if it's a millennia from now, comes forward and says, لا إله إلا الله Then what I have suffered today is worth it. You see this is a man who cared about people more than himself. So for those who say he was a warmonging, bloodthirsty, whatever, let your lies tear you apart. Because they're lies and lies will never go anywhere. Now, I got a question for you, a side note. How many of you are in here from the subcontinent? Raise your hand. Come on, be proud. You're proud all the other times. You're proud everywhere. Stick it up now. Bangladesh, Kashmir, Pakistan, Malaysia, all the subcontinent. Raise your hand. Be proud. You know who you are. Does anyone of you know the name of the man that took Islam to the subcontinent? One of the most populated parts of the world today for Muslims. His name was Muhammad ibn Qasim. But that's not the end of his name. What was his attribution of where he was from? His name was Muhammad ibn Qasim Athaqafi. Athaqafi, meaning that he hailed from one of the tribes of Ta'if. Meaning those same people the Prophet ﷺ could destroy, out of their lineage came a 17 year old boy named Muhammad ibn Qasim that left and went and took Islam to the subcontinent. So all of you can thank your Islam on the sincere mercy of the Prophet ﷺ. We don't grasp this. This is the connecting dots that we don't do. We don't paint this picture and realize who Muhammad ﷺ really is to us. He's everything. Without him, we don't have anything. We would be lost, wandering like animals grazing waiting to die. When you say Muhammad Rasulullah, you better think next time. Now let's go forward a little bit more because we got three more stories. Let's fast forward. Actually I'll cut one out for time because it's not as important. We got two more. Let's fast forward a little bit more to the end of the life of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. His last year. During the last year of the life of the Prophet ﷺ, after the treaty of Hudaybiyyah had been signed, allowing them to make hajj, pilgrimage to the house of Allah freely. The Prophet ﷺ stood on his minbar before the month of Dhul Hijjah. He said, and I ask all of you prepare for the hajj. We're gonna go and make pilgrimage to the house of Allah in Mecca. And he left with how many of his fowlers? This was 22 years had passed since, اقرأ باسم ربك الذي خلق. 22 years had passed since كن فأنذير. And how many people did he march with him to Mecca? Around 140,000 of them marched on the city of Mecca and performed the beautiful rites of hajj. The beautiful rites of hajj. And then this narration I'm going to tell you right now brothers and sisters, is the most authentic hadith that exists. If you wanted to put a hadith that was at the top, one of the most authentic, if not the most authentic that has ever existed with the most clean chains of narrations in the most mutawatir of fashions from the most companions, it's this story. But the one I'm gonna tell you today is the one that Omar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه told us and it is narrated in the Musnad of Imam Ahmed رحمه الله تعالى عليه. Omar said, after the day of Arafah. MashaAllah, the day of Arafah. How many of you been to hajj? Raise your hands. How many of you stood on that plane of Arafah? Let me tell you something about Arafah because I want to set the scene for you real quick. MashaAllah. What is Arafah called? It's known as Yawm al-Arafah but it also has another name. Anybody know? It's known as Yawm al-Hajj because Arafah is hajj. Everything you do in hajj, the Umrah beforehand, the marching, the walking, you're all heading towards Arafah. Why? Because you're heading for a dress rehearsal of Qiyamah. You're heading for a dress rehearsal of the day you will stand in front of Allah. And you feel it. Wallahi, you feel it standing there. Especially when hajj is in the summertime. You feel it. And during Yawm al-Arafah, you stand if you do it appropriately. You stand from Fajr until Maghrib or almost Maghrib. You start walking when the sun starts going down. And you stand there all day long doing one thing under the burning, blistering sun. You're burning. You are literally burning on that day. What are you doing? You're doing one thing all day. What are you doing? What did you do, brother? You made du'a all day. You make du'a all day long. You remember to make du'a for people you've forgotten about since childhood. But there's one thing I guarantee you, every single soul that stands on the plane of Arafah makes du'a for more than anything else. What did you make du'a for more than anything, brother? What was the thing you made du'a for most? For Allah to forgive you. You make du'a, you become selfish on Arafah too. Ya Allah! Forgive me. Why? Why do you do it on that day? Because the Prophet ﷺ says on the day of Arafah, Allah عز و جل leaves His throne and descends to the lowest heaven in a manner that befits His majesty and honor. Not like humans ascending and descending. And He interrogates the inhabitants of the lower heaven, the angels. And He says to them even though He has full knowledge, who are these people? Why have they gathered here? Why have they come to this place dirty, naked, tired? They look miserable. What have they come to this place for? And the angels say, Ya Allah! They came here to require things of you, to ask you. They came here to make du'a for you. And Allah will say, what did they want? What would make a person go through all of this fitna and this tribulation to stand right here under the burning sun and ask me, what do they want? What is it that they want so badly? The angels will say, Ya Allah! They want you to forgive them. They want you to forgive them their sins. And Allah will say, bear witness today all of you that this day I have forgiven all of them their minor sins. They're gone. You have to understand the greatness of this day. And then an angel will step forward and say, Ya Allah! There is one amongst them, and he is a fasiqa. He is a rebellious sinner. And he did not plan to come here today. He just happened to get here somehow. Maybe he saw everybody walking and he decided, well if everybody is going here, then maybe there is something here to go to. So he went. And Allah will say, bear witness that I have forgiven him too. It's the greatness of this place and this day. The Prophet ﷺ said, there is no greater day than this day. Now after this day, the Prophet ﷺ stood on Jabr al-Rahma, which is not really a mountain, it's just a bunch of big rocks. He stood on this mountain of mercy. And he told all of his companions, come together. And I'm going to go a little bit over time, which is fine because we're going to break and we're going to take Asr. He said, all of my companions, come, come. Ta'ala. I need to tell you something. And he made sure that everyone was there. And he made sure he put people in the ranks to repeat what he was saying. Repeat what I'm saying. This is why it's the most authentic narration because 140,000 people narrated this hadith. Over 140,000 heard this and we have so many chains for this same hadith. What did he say to them on that day? It became known very famously as what? The farewell sermon. The farewell sermon, the last thing he would tell this ummah as a whole. So you better listen. Wallahi, you better listen. You may have read it before, but I guarantee you didn't see this part. If so, we wouldn't be in the position we're in today. He stood there and first, after praising Allah, he said, pay close attention to my words for I do not know whether I will be with you again on this day after this year. He knew that his life was coming to an end because Jibril was visiting him very regularly to check the Qur'an with him. He said, I think I'm not going to make it again back to this place this year, next year. So listen to me, please. This is important. Listen. He's begging and pleading for us. Listen to me. And I can't give you the whole farewell sermon, but one of the things, one of the most beautiful things was he erased Asabiyyah. He said, none of you are better than anyone else. And Wallahi, this is a lesson we have forgotten. We have forgotten that none of us is better than another except through Amal As-Saleh. And no one knows whether your Amal As-Saleh is accepted except Allah. So if you think you're better than someone else, then you've only repeated shaitan's arrogance in front of Allah. And you should be ashamed of yourself. He said, pay attention to me. None of you are better than anyone else. And the words that he spoke on that day became known as the heart of the deen. This farewell sermon is known as the heart of Islam, what Islam is all about. He said, shaitan has given up on you on the big things. Beware of him in the small things. He destroyed the riba, no more usury. So many beautiful examples he gave. But in the end, he stated the most weighty statement that I believe ever came out of his mouth, other than telling people about Allah. Wallahi. To this ummah he gave us one of the most weighty commands beyond believing in Allah. At the end of the farewell sermon, he said something very beautiful. What is the last statement of the farewell sermon according to this hadith of Omar? Anybody know? Does anyone know? This is the problem. You see, this is the problem. It's a big problem. Wallahi, it's a big problem. He looked at everyone in front of him and he said, those who are here today, convey this message to those that aren't here. Those who are here today, convey this message to those that are not here. For truly it may be that the person whom you tell the message to may understand it better than you. Wallahi, he said, tell it to those that are not here. Because the person who it's told to may understand it better than you. Do you understand what just happened, brothers and sisters? The Prophet ﷺ, for 23 years, he held a torch in his hand. And that was the torch of da'wah. Conveying the message of Allah to humanity. And that torch was never given to anyone except prophets and messengers. It was first given to Nuh ﷺ, and then Jibreel retrieved it and gave it to the next, and to the next, and to the next. If you want some evidence for that, Ya Ayusha, where did you get that from? Allah says in Surah Bayyinah, وَمَا عُمِرُوا إِلَى الْيَعْبُدُوا لَهَا مُخْلِسِينَ لَهُ دِينَ حُنِفَى وَيُقِيمُوا الصَّلَى وَيُؤْتُوا الزَّكَى وَذَلِكُ الْدِينُ الْقَيِّمَةُ That the other nations before you were only commanded to worship Allah. Make the deen pure for Him. Establish salah. Pay zakah. That was the right way for them. This is the nation, the first nation, ever given the command, I command an imperative, call unto the way of your Lord. The Prophet ﷺ held that torch for 23 years. And then at the end of his mission, he handed it to this ummah. That's what made this ummah, كُنتُمْ خَيْرٍ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَ لِلنَّاسِ You think you are the greatest nation just because you say لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله Allah says كُنتُمْ خَيْرٍ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَ لِلنَّاسِ تَعْمَرُونَ لِلْمِنْ مَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْحَانَلْ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ You are the best nation because you command to good, you forbid evil, and you believe in Allah. If you're not doing that, if we're not doing that, how dare we say we're the greatest nation. We're not doing what the Prophet ﷺ left us to do. Now after this so I can finish. He said ﷺ, he pointed his fingers to the heavens and he said, Oh Allah, bear witness. I did my job. I conveyed my message. I'm done. What you told me to do, I did it. And what did Allah respond and affirm? What verse was revealed on this moment, on this day, at this place? Anybody tell me? Al-yawm. This day. Al-yawm. This day I have perfected your religion for you. Subhanallah. And I have completed my favor upon you and chosen for you Islam as your deen. Do you understand that when the Prophet handed the torch of da'wah to this ummah, Allah said, My way of life for humanity is done. It is perfected. It is completed. It was entrusted to the best of messengers. And now I have entrusted it to the best nation that I have ever created for humanity. Do we grasp that? Do we realize that da'wah is what makes us who we are? Without it we are nothing. You cannot say Muhammad Rasulullah and you're not out doing what he did. Every day he lived his life trying to share Islam with the world. So if you get up and brush your teeth with a miswak and pull your thobe up and wear a beard and put on a hijab and pray sunan and you think you're following the messenger of Allah, you're fooling yourself. You're fooling only one person. That's you. I would rather you leave all of that off and go out and do the job of the messenger of Allah ﷺ. Wallahi I would. Because if we don't do it, we're going to be disgraced forever. When we lost da'wah, we lost everything. We lost our izzah, our authority, our honor, everything, our shame. It's all gone. And we can only get it back by coming back to Allah and doing the job that was left to us. Now, let me finish the last two minutes. The last story, and this is wallahi. If this is not the saddest story to every single Muslim in this room, your iman needs to be checked. Approximately nine months later, the Prophet ﷺ was sick. He was sick. And he was laying his head on the woman whom he loved the most in this life. He was laying his head on the woman whom he loved the most in this life. And their love story is the most beautiful love story. That's why people try to destroy it. When a man asked the Prophet ﷺ, who do you love most? He said, Aisha. He said, no, no, amongst men. He wanted some love from the Prophet ﷺ. What did the Prophet ﷺ say? He didn't say Abu Bakr. He said Abu Ha. Her father. He still talked about her. That's love. He said, I don't love Abu Bakr. I love her father after I love her. Because why? Because he's her father. Get it straight brothers. Now, he was laying his head on her chest and he was dying. And she asked for the miswak. And, I mean he asked for the miswak and she softened it and he tasted her saliva last, as brother Riyad said. And Jibreel ﷺ came into the room, asked for his permission to take his soul. As you have heard, one of the things that was so beautiful to me was that before taking his soul, the Prophet ﷺ said, every messenger before Allah takes his soul, Allah shows them their place in Jannah. So, Aisha said she saw the Prophet ﷺ looking up at the ceiling. He was looking at his home in Jannah and he was being offered, do you want to go there or do you want to stay here? Wallahi, it was an easy choice for him. The last words that ever came out of our Prophet ﷺ's mouth after saying, As-Salah, after Salah, As-Salah. He said, Oh Allah, the companion on most high. And Aisha ﷺ said, I knew that at that moment the angel of death was in the room and he wasn't choosing us. So he died ﷺ. But one thing I will tell you, that was the most horrible day for all the companions and still the most horrible day for us. But there was something about them that we don't use as an example. They understood that yes, maybe the messenger of Allah ﷺ is dead. Maybe he's gone. But if we continue to do our job, the deen of Allah will live. The kalam of Allah will live. If we do the job that was left to us nine months ago. And we have to say one thing and I finish with this. We have to say, وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ for those companions. Anyone who insults the companions, he has no deen. Wallahi, you insult one single companion, you have no Islam. Because if they did what we do, if they sat on their behinds everyday and did what we do, I guarantee you, it's almost surety that not many of you would be Muslim today. If they did what we do. Islam may have never been known and eradicated from the world. So we have to say, الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ for their success and their striving and their efforts. Maybe they had faults, but guess what? They were better than all of us. Because they did their job. We gotta do our job. So let's get to work and let's remember, مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ means something. It's not just words. وَجَزَاكَرُوا خَيْرًا وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ بِرَحْمْتُ اللَّهِ