Episode 1 - My story with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him)
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family, his companions, and those who support him. May Allah greet you all and keep you well, and I ask Allah, the Most High, to bless our times and your times, and to benefit us and you, if Allah wills, in this new series titled "How I Loved the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him." We will permanently host Professor Dr. Iyad Qunaybi, the permanent guest of the program. May Allah greet you, Doctor.
May Allah greet you and keep you well, Doctor Muhammad. Welcome. I ask Allah, the Most High, to bless you.
Introduction to the Series and Its Importance
Why is this series at this time?
Alright, the events are very hot, especially at this time: events in Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan, very severe events. So, why is this series at this very tight and very sensitive time for the Ummah? Do we want to distract people from thinking about the most important issues, or do we want to shed light on a certain aspect? What is the idea behind choosing this title at this time?
Alright, in the name of Allah, praise be to Allah, and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah. O Lord, open our hearts and make our affairs easy, O Lord, open for us and accept from us, and make Your Prophet beloved to Your creation through us, O Lord of the worlds. May Allah reward you for this introduction and this question, Dr. Mu'and. And in fact, in answering it, there are several points.
The first point: this topic, as I will mention shortly, has been postponed for many years, but a situation arose a few weeks ago, or let's say the second day of Eid al-Adha, which prompted me to say: enough, I will no longer postpone it, I will start a series on the Prophet's biography.
Returning to why we talk about topics related to delicacies and love of the Prophet peace be upon him in these dire political circumstances? I would like to answer perhaps with two or three points.
The first point: we are worshippers of Allah the Almighty, and Allah created us to worship Him. Therefore, one of the pitfalls that some preachers fall into is that if they want to convince people to adhere to the command of Allah the Almighty, they focus on the worldly benefit, economic well-being, social security that it achieves for them, technological progress. No, we must learn and teach people that we obey Allah the Almighty because we are commanded to obey Him, because this is our real test on this earth by which we will be rewarded with an eternal Paradise or an eternal Fire. Therefore, it is not required of any preacher to explain to people what the direct benefits will be that will reflect on their worldly reality if a certain topic is presented to them. It is sufficient that the topic brings them closer to Allah the Almighty. This is the first point.
The second point: despite what I have mentioned, we will not escape from the predicament we are in, and Allah the Almighty will not support us unless we obey Him. Allah the Almighty says: "O you who have believed, if you support Allah, He will support you and plant firmly your feet." How will we support Allah the Almighty if we do not learn to love Him and love His Prophet peace be upon him? Love that leads to obedience and following his command and abstaining from what he has forbidden. If we do that, by Allah, Allah the Almighty will support us, and if we do not, by Allah, we will remain in a whirlpool of failure, frustration, and bitter experiences. Therefore, yes, when we talk about loving the Prophet peace be upon him, a love that leads to obedience, this is the way to save ourselves from the weakness and the enemies' encroachment on us.
And a third point: by the grace of Allah the Almighty, we do not say these words to distract people from experiencing reality. That is, the poor servant spreads, and your unit spreads on your platforms, we talk and follow the events and try to strive in supporting our oppressed brothers and spreading intellectual awareness among Muslims. Therefore, this does not distract us from that, nor that from this.
Beautiful, so these are not abstract spiritual matters, meaning there is no separation between the spiritual aspect and the practical aspect. The spiritual aspect is what leads to the practical aspect in one way or another. Beautiful. And this series is part of the preparation, of course, and the last one, meaning the war is purely religious and doctrinal without a doubt. Therefore, if there is no doctrinal preparation that strengthens our faith and education, there will be no fruit for these efforts. And in this, I mention a beautiful lecture about the Meccan period and its features that we should emulate or let's say apply in our reality. If you remind me of the title of the lecture.
"From the House to the Cave."
"From the House of Arqam to the Cave, the Migration." The doctor, Dr. Iyad Hariss, always wants to come down in the video, sometimes some of the details in the video and so on. This is a series unlike the usual, this is a live broadcast series. I have tried more than once on the channel to experiment with live broadcasting. Why live broadcasting? When it is recorded and finished.
Let me tell you a secret, but do not tell anyone. Alright, no one is listening. I have something they call the illusion of perfection, meaning that I strive to perfect things very much. Therefore, when the brothers see me come out with a video, for example, 9 minutes, 8 minutes, this will be an attempt for 6, 7, 5 more or less, because I am keen that I do not waste the listeners' time, that I do not make a mistake that changes the meaning or gives a wrong impression. Therefore, I repeat, repeat, repeat. This is honestly exhausting, and this illusion of perfection has buried many projects in my life, and it has stopped some series at critical stages. That is, I start a series, by the grace of Allah, I feel a blessing and benefit in it, and I receive from people that it has affected their lives, this puts a greater burden on me that oh, I do not want to waste the past effort with the poor quality of what comes in the future. So, I have to be precise, perfect, repeat, prepare, and calculate the speech by the millimeter or by the letter and the movement. This speech sometimes turns the pleasure into a burden and tension that the human does not want to mess up this heritage that he leaves. Therefore, honestly, this has harmed a lot and delayed many projects.
This time I said: a Prophetic biography that has a delicate aspect does not suit this state of strict control and tension. No, we need to work comfortably. Therefore, I want to discipline myself first and break the barrier of "perfectionism" or the illusion of perfection, and I will launch according to my nature. And if we make mistakes in some places, may the brothers forgive us. And for that, I will also keep the text in front of me so that I do not have the obsession that the speech does not go from here or there or there. Alright, we want to bring the speech correctly even if it is a reading, the important thing is the meanings inspired by it that we live in the atmosphere of this speech. Therefore, I loved this time to break the barrier of the illusion of perfection and launch a live broadcast, and the brothers bear it normally if there is an extension beyond necessity. I usually love the speech to be very short and beneficial, here in the podcast I think we have some leeway to be a little more extensive.
Of course, this leads us to the topic that man is a being who makes mistakes, it is very normal, a human makes mistakes. Some always say: the scholar is not allowed to make a mistake, not allowed to slip, or perhaps not allowed to commit sins. Of course, there is no doubt that sins are forbidden in the Sharia of Allah, but man may fall into part of the sins, we ask Allah to forgive us all, O Lord of the worlds. Therefore, this lets us also remove it from people's minds that there is no need to always look at the person as if he does not make mistakes and cannot make mistakes, and if he makes a mistake, we drop him immediately. This is a very serious problem. Glory be to Allah.
The Methodology Adopted in the Series
Alright, regarding the series, I mentioned that this series has been with you for a while. Yes, it has. You will be surprised. Generally, the material in this series was written about twenty-five years ago, in 1999, to the early 2000s. This way, they can know your age. Usually, our sisters, the women, they fear... I am forty-eight years old. So when you say twenty-five years ago, how old were you then? Twenty-three years old. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. I wrote these papers; these were on the computer. Beautiful. Yes.
You may ask: So what is the meaning now of presenting them? Yes, meaning you are presenting the topic after 25 years now. Yes, because you mentioned a situation that happened during Eid al-Adha or something like that. Yes, correct. It is true that I aspired for these hadiths to be published in a book. Then when I started the series "Journey of Certainty," I thought: Why not present the biography? No, let the biography come after I respond to the Dawkins and deny the existence of Allah, and I speak about the issue of evil, and I speak about the attributes of Allah, and that the Quran is from Allah. And when I fulfill that, then the earth becomes thirsty to drink the Prophetic hadiths, they come in their appropriate place. But as I told you, I am accustomed to postponing until the project is buried.
How do you invite to your son's wedding while he does not pray? He told me: By Allah, O Sheikh, I tried with him. And I said: Okay, send him to me. He came to me the second day of Eid al-Adha, and I spoke to him to soften his heart, and we ask Allah, the Most High, that He has softened his heart and that he showed that he was affected. And among what I mentioned to soften his heart and make him inclined towards prayer was a part of the biography of the Prophet, peace be upon him. This stirred in me old sorrows and memories. Then after days: Until when will these buried treasures that many people do not know about remain? Until when will they continue to procrastinate and postpone their publication? I felt that Allah, the Most High, put in my heart a sense of relief to spread this series. And my Lord, we will not return to the Journey of Certainty, God willing, and we will resume with this material being complete, coming in its place, meaning it will be in gaps that we will fill, then the topic of the biography will come. This is the reason that I felt as if the breezes of love for the Prophet, peace be upon him, and the desire to speak about him, blew over me at that moment. So I said, we will launch the program. Of course, technical matters hindered us; I tried to film in my friend's office, but the "set up" process was arduous, until one of the noble brothers, may Allah reward him with good, provided us and said: The studio is ready and available, and thus you can come without having to set up the equipment every time. We remove the illusion of perfection little by little, meaning we also want to film something professionally. Yes, meaning, God willing, the filming will be professional. Meaning, it may be that because it is live broadcast, the quality is less than the recording, but the witness of this situation made me say: No, we will launch. We tried maybe for weeks, then it was God's will that we start today.
Before we delve into the title of the first episode and the first meeting, a stop with all the episodes: Will Dr. Iyad mention for us weak, good, and sound hadiths in this series? As he always expands in the chapters of biographies and battles in the chapter of isnad and acceptance of narratives. What will Dr. Iyad adopt in the series as a whole?
What I will adopt in the series as a whole is to rely only on the sound and good hadiths. Even I will not bring hadiths that some scholars have deemed good, which others may disagree with. The Sheikh Albani, may Allah have mercy on him and bless him, is known for his immense effort in authenticating and weakening hadiths. Sometimes he deems a hadith good, while others may weaken it or authenticate it. I always try in selecting hadiths to see if, besides Sheikh Albani, other reputable scholars known for their precision in the matter have authenticated or deemed it good. Therefore, what I will adopt are only the sound and good hadiths. Generally, I am very troubled by the idea of striking the emotional chord through weak hadiths, especially if they are very weak. Because if a person later discovers that this hadith is not established, the effect may be the opposite: his emotions were stirred, and he became closer to Allah based on a hadith that he later finds out is weak. In addition, the line I have taken in responding to doubts and intellectual awareness, I always rely on decisive matters and try to stay away from ambiguous matters or gray areas. In line with this call, I do not respect and appreciate the opinion of some scholars who say: It is possible to be lenient with hadiths in the biography that are not fabricated, nor without origin, nor extremely weak, but have some weakness. But I did not choose in this series to rely on what is established from the Prophet, peace be upon him, of sound or good.
Very good, very good. And may Allah, the Most High, suffice us with the sound over others. Yes. The brothers may be surprised that these hadiths, many, many of the hadiths we have not heard before, and they are sound and good. So why go to weak hadiths? We do not need, we do not need.