Bismillah.
Alhamdulillah wa shukrulillah, the city is blessed to have had another mawlid celebration last weekend. It was right in the heart of Kuala Lumpur at Masjid Al-Bukhary.
Habib Mahdi Al Hamid was one of two guest speakers at the event. Habib Mahdi leads the Malaysian branch of the renowned Darul Mustafa institution of Tarim, Yemen. He is a mureed of the highly acclaimed scholar Habib Umar bin Hafiz. The three year-old Malaysian branch has been named Madrasah At-Tazkiyah and is based in Subang Jaya, KL.
Habib Mahdi gave a tausiyah in Arabic and was translated into Malay by Ustaz Ashraf. My sketchy notes are as below:
Praise be to Allah that we can gather here to remember Prophet Muhammad salallah alaihi wasalam. Verily we would not have been able to do this amal had it not been for the tawfiq from Allah. No one can make a move unless Allah invites him/her. We are guests of Allah in this House of Allah. In each minute lies a blessing and bounty of Allah. Although we'll be praying Isha' a little later, do not worry for we are moving from one bounty of Allah to another. Praise be to Allah for these bounties. We have gathered solely for the sake of Prophet Muhammad salallah alaihi wasalam.
A place becomes honorable due to its residents. A majlis gets bestowed with bounties for its contents. Who is it that we are remembering? He is the imam of all men. Prophet Muhammad who brings mercy to all mankind. Allah does not love anyone else as much as He loves the Prophet. Allah does not love an angel even, as much as He loves the Prophet. Allah orders us to honor the Prophet, to remember him salallah alaihi wasalam, so make plenty of salawat to him. Who is it we are following? We are following Allah who makes salutations for the Prophet! And we follow the angels who do the same. The Prophet does not actually require our salawat. It is we who are in need of making salawat. As related in a hadith, unfortunate is he who hears his name and yet does not offer salutation to the Prophet. He is stingy who hears the Prophet's name yet fail to offer salawat.
Rasulallah salallah alaihi wasalam is our imam (leader) right until the Heavens. There is no way we can make our way to the Heavens if we did not follow the path of Prophet Muhammad. He salallah alaihi wasalam knocks on the Heaven's door and the angels would ask, 'who is it?' And he says: 'Muhammad'. The angels knew his name and they would only open the Heaven's door for him. We could make it to the Heavens because of him. We become an honorable ummah because of him. Though we will never ever know his true realities no matter how extensive we study his shamail, his seerah or everything about him. We can never comprehend his lofty stature.
Saidina Umar and Saidina Ali went to see Uways al-Qarni on the Prophet's instruction. The two men are sahabah and yet Uways told them they knew nothing about the Prophet except his shadow. They are sahabah mind you. Indeed the Prophet is great (azeem). Everything on earth, rocks, plants, everything recognize and acknowledge him.
Habib Mahdi then related the famous incident about the moon splitting and when the Prophet ascended to the Heavens during mikraj, he received a grand welcome by the angels. We cannot compare our majlis with that of the angels who celebrated his arrival even more grandly. The angels greeted him saying 'marhaban' as we did just now. The angels were already saying marhaban much earlier.
What are our duties towards the Prophet? Even if we were to conduct mawlid from the time we're born until we die, we can never fulfill our obligations for the Prophet. But of course by attending this mawlid it becomes a cause for Allah to mention our names, for us to heighten our love for the Prophet and be a cause for us to earn Allah's mercy.
Our first duty towards the Prophet is to really get to know him. We must know his life, his wives, children, companions, aunties and uncles. It's a shame if our children only knew the names of celebrities/sportsmen but do not know the names of his family members. We must follow his path in this dunya so that we can do the same in akhirah. The most unlucky people in akhirah are those who are distant from the Prophet in this dunya. Those who have wronged themselves would regret for failing to follow the Prophet that they would bite their hands in dismay. Therefore, we should be closer to him now by making abundant salawat so that we can have a good chance of being close to him in akhirah.
Our second duty towards the Prophet is to respect him. When we mention his name in front of our children, we must do it in a respectful manner with takzim. Otherwise, our children might think he's just an ordinary man. There are people who devote themselves to challenging the Prophet. They are saying we should not even say Sayyidina before the Prophet's name. But don't they know that the Prophet is sayyid (leader) for all children of Adam? Maybe they are not children of Adam! Some people think he is just a man like us. But tell me, is he an ordinary man who can fill a well with water just by spitting into it? Is he an ordinary man who is able to see what is behind him without having to look back? Surely we cannot equate pebbles with precious gems. Prophet Muhammad is a great person and beyond ordinary.
Our third duty is to cultivate the realities of our love for the Prophet in our heart. Have we ever cried out of missing him? Enliven his sunnah in our homes by reading his seerah. We interact with non-Muslims but our akhlak is not good enough to make the non-Muslims interested in Islam. We need not call people to Islam. All we need to do is carry the lights of Muhammad in our hearts. Having iman for the Prophet is light. And that light (nur) is enough for us to counter any kufur or wrongdoings which is of fire element. Nur will defeat fire.
Habib Mahdi ended his tausiyah with a lengthy and meaningful prayers, so that our hearts will be filled with nur and so that Allah purifies our body, spirit and soul.
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Allahu a'lam. May I be forgiven for any errors and omissions.
Thank you. I m not able to be there, but my husband did :-).
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