What is to follow with a love to the prophet?
The result of the true love for the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) is to make the dust of his path as the crown on our heads and to submit ourselves to him; because he (pbuh) is such a personality that he is the pure mercy for humanity. In this regard, the following verse beautifully expresses his mercy to his followers:
“Now has come unto you a Messenger from amongst yourselves: it grieves him that you should perish: ardently anxious is he over you: to the Believers is he most kind and merciful.” (Tawbah 9; 128)
In this respect, the Messenger of Allah was so sensitive and merciful that when he saw people heedlessly heading into destruction, he would become very sad. This is stated in the following verse:
“We have not revealed unto you (Muhammad) this Qur’an that you should be distressed…” (Ṭa-ha 20; 2)
In return for the Prophet’s endless mercy, compassion, and love for his followers, as his followers we should contemplate how we act and behave in our lives. In fact the measure of our love for the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) is to accept him and the Qur’an as our guides; and to try to be like him in every aspect of our lives. How did the companions, who loved him and who sacrificed everything they had for him, feel about him? Compared to them, where do we stand? We should measure our actions and behaviors with theirs, and we need to adorn ourselves with these measures. Our sins, mistakes, deficiencies, and disobediences should be cleansed with his pure moral principles; and we should live a spiritual revival by the example and wisdom of his blessed life.
The secret of meeting with Allah the Almighty lies in getting sincerely closer to the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger and his high morals and behaviors. This can be achieved by loving what Allah and His Messenger love and hating what they hate.
Divine love keeps the heart alive and directs it to goodness. Love and its opposite, hate, cannot be united in the same heart at the same time; however, because the heart does not accept emptiness, the absence of one means the existence of the other. The difference between these two opposites is as endless as the distance between the highest level of Paradise and the deepest pit of Hell.
With the prophethood of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh), humanity got the most perfect guide, whom they were waiting for. For this reason, to this today those who still live selfish lives are more responsible than the people who once lived ignorant lives before the emergence of the Prophet (pbuh). In this respect, more than any other time, we need the help of the Prophet’s (pbuh) exemplary character in order to train strong characters, because in the contemporary age people yield to power and live under the control of their inner self. The greatest reason for having magnificent periods in our history is because in those periods righteous friends of Allah, who displayed exemplary personalities as the heirs of the Prophet, (pbuh) existed. Whereas now, if we examine our situation, we can see that one of the saddest realities of our time is that we live in a spiritual corruption from the lack of such exemplary characters.
In order to reach the Prophet’s (pbuh) spirituality and the spirituality of those heroes who sincerely followed him in our history, we need to have such monumental and exemplary people. And in order to achieve this goal, we have to understand them and their spiritual world. In other words, we need to know how they saw the mortal world, and how they employed their intellect, lives, and possessions in order to open humanity to the path of happiness.
With the help of the book titled “An Excellent Exemplar (uswatun hasanah)” written by Prof. Dr. Ömer Çelik, Assistant Prof. Mustafa Öztürk, Dr. Murat Kaya and other academicians who helped them we should contemplate over our lives and measure how much they fit to the principles of the life of our Prophet (pbuh). In order to be blessed with the intercession of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh), we need to live our lives according to his principles. We need to reflect the beauty and depth of these principles in our worship, thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and in our present and future lives; in this world and afterlife; this is true due to the fact that people imitate and follow those whom they love in the extent of their love. In order to imitate and properly follow the Messenger of Allah, we need to learn and examine his exemplary character.
No matter how fertile a field is, it cannot produce crops without the help of rain, sun, and wind. Similarly, richness of a heart depends on submission to the Messenger of Allah (pbuh); for he was the most superior of people who were in this world and who will come to this world. He was the source of the merits, blessings, and entire mercy and compassion in this universe.
I believe this book, which presents standards about worship, transaction, ethics, and humanly behavior from the life of the Messenger of Allah, will be “a practical measure” for us to question ourselves and see the distance between the actions of the Prophet (pbuh) and ours.
May Allah the Almighty help us benefit from the exemplary character of our guide for eternal happiness, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh). May He bless us with the beauties of this world and the Hereafter. May He be content with all those who learn and teach the exemplary personality of the Prophet (pbuh) and live in accordance with what they learn. May He make the effort of those who have written this book as continuous charity.
Amin …
Source: An Excellent Exemplar, Osman Nuri Topbaş, Erkam Publications
