Suleiman Omar - Meeting Muhammad

Meeting Muhammad

First published in England by

Kube Publishing Ltd

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Omar Suleiman 2022

All Rights Reserved. 1st impression, 2022.

The right of Omar Suleiman to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patent Act 1988.

The author has directed that 100% of the royalties from the sale of this book be donated to Yaqeen Institute, which is n non-profit research institute, supporting their research and activities for the global Muslim community.

Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available from the

British Library.

ISBN 978-1-84774-177-6 Casebound

eISBN 978-1-84774-178-3 Ebook

Proofreading and editing: Wordsmiths

Cover design, Arabic calligraphy and typesetting: Jannah Haque

Transliteration
Guide

A brief guide to some of the letters and symbols used in the Arabic transliteration in this book.

May the peace and blessings of Allah
be upon him.

b

Glorified
and Majestic
(is He).

May Allah
be pleased
with him.

May Allah be
pleased with her.

May Allah be pleased
with them both.

May peace be
upon him.

May peace be
upon her.

May peace be
upon them both

Contents

assn ibn Thbit once paid homage to the Prophet by reciting the following words:

My eyes have never seen anything better than you...

No woman has ever given birth to anyone as beautiful as you...

You were created free from all flaws...

As if you were created exactly as you wished.

D espite having such beautiful appearance, the Prophets character was in fact even more striking and beautiful. Had you been given the opportunity to observe his conduct in person, you would have most definitely stated the words of Al h :

I have never seen anyone like him,whether before or after him.

Had you lived in his time, you would have longed to see him each and every day. You would have immensely enjoyed his smiles, speeches, and recreational activities with children, regardless of whether these children were his or yours. Furthermore, you would have loved to pray behind him, observe days of fasting with him, and celebrate the days of Eid in his presence. Likewise, you would have considered him to be a wise teacher and noble friend at the same time. You would have taken the initiative to host him in your residence, so that you could serve him food and hold private conversations with him. As later members of this ummah, we can only rely on the narrations transmitted to us in order to appreciate and perceive what it meant to be one of his Companions in this world. By examining these narrations, not only does our love for him increase, but we also long to be from among his Companions in the next world.

In this book, we embark upon a noble journey in which we move on from simply knowing the Prophet to actually loving him and developing a spiritual connection with him. May our hearts long for the love and company of the Beloved. mn.

May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

It is reported that Qatdah r said:

Allah never sent a Prophet except that they were characterised with a beautiful face and voice.

In the case of the Prophet , the Companions never witnessed any person or thing which was as beautiful as him, whether before or after Islam. While it is true that many people can have a beautiful external appearance but be blemished with bad character traits, the case of the Prophet was completely different. This was because while his physical composition was of utmost beauty, his internal character traitswhich Allah praised him forwere in fact even more beautiful.

Abdullh ibn Rawah h once described the presence of the Prophet in a vivid manner by saying:

If the Prophetdid not say anything and had nothing except his presence, you would still be able to discern a divine beauty within him.

Thus we come across many stories where people would embrace Islam just by looking at the Prophet . For instance, Abdullh ibn Salm h presided as the head rabbi of Madinah before the Prophet migrated to the city. Upon the Prophets arrival, he went out to see him in person. He did not have to even listen to the Prophets speech to know his truthfulness and sincerity. For as he stated, I looked at his face, and I knew that this is not the face of a liar (laysa bi-wajh kadhdhb).

The Prophets physical attributes are outlined in elaborate detail in the shamil genre, which refers to the corpus of works that study the description of the Prophet . Within the reports related to this field, it is common to find hadiths which describe the Prophet as being more beautiful than the moon. One hadith in this regard states:

The Prophethad an awe-inspiring appearance. His face was more radiant and beautiful than the full moon on the darkest of nights.

One can appreciate the full force of this report once they realise how awesome and awe-inspiring the full moon appears in the desert climate. Furthermore, one is also amazed when reading the following report of Anas ibn Mlik h , who stated: One night I tried to compare the moon with the face of the Prophet , and asked myself: which one of the two is more radiant? Upon reflection, I came to the realisation that the face of the Prophet is more radiant and beautiful than the full moon in the desert. This is despite the fact that the full moon is not just immensely beautiful, but it is also fully captivating; if someone is outside, they cannot look at anything besides it.

As for his other physical characteristics, they were perfectly harmonious and balanced. Recall how Allah describes Jibrl n coming to Maryam o in the form of a perfectly symmetrical man (