By Imam Murtadha Gusau

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all creation. May the salutations of Allah, His peace and blessings be upon our beloved Prophet, his family, his companions and his true and sincere followers until the Last Day – then to proceed:

Dear brothers and sisters! As Muslims, we are commanded to love the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) and to follow in his path without religious deviations or innovations, in order to worship Allah Almighty in the way that He commanded. Sometimes, unfortunately, our claims of love fall short, and thus there are signs that we can reflect on in order to analyse how much love we truly have for the greatest human being to walk this earth, Peace and blessings be upon him.

Respected servants of Allah! The strength of love for the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) is connected to the Muslim’s faith. When his faith increases, his love for the Prophet (Peace be upon him) increases. Loving the Prophet (Peace be upon him) is an act of obedience to Allah and a means of drawing closer to Him. Loving the Prophet (Peace be upon him) is one of the obligatory duties in Islam.

It was narrated that Anas (RA) said: The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:

“None of you truly believes until I am more beloved to him than his father, his child and all the people.” [Bukhari and Muslim]

You can increase your love of the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) by realising the following:

1. He was sent by his Lord who chose him above all of creation to convey the religion of Allah to mankind. Allah chose him because He loved him and was pleased with him. If Allah were not pleased with him, He would not have chosen him. So we must love the one whom Allah loves and be pleased with the one with whom Allah is pleased. We must realise that he is the close friend of Allah (Khalil) and that close friendship is a higher status and it is the highest degree of love. Jundub (RA) is said to have narrated that:

“I heard the Prophet (Peace be upon him) say: ‘I declare before Allah that I have no close friend from among you. Allah has taken me as a close friend as he took Ibrahim as a close friend. If I were to have taken a close friend from among my Ummah, I would have taken Abu Bakr as a close friend.” [Muslim]

2. We should realise the high status to which Allah has raised him, for he (Peace be upon him) is the best of mankind. It was narrated that Abu Hurairah (RA) said:

“The Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) said: “I will be the leader of mankind on the Day of Resurrection, the first whose grave will be opened, the first to intercede and the first to be asked to intercede.” [Muslim]

3. We should realise that he suffered trials and difficulties in order to bring Islam to us. We should remember that the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) was persecuted, hit, slandered and insulted; the closest people to him disowned him and accused him of being a madman, a liar and a sorcerer. He fought the people in order to protect the religion so that it could reach us; they fought him, expelled him from his people and homeland, and gathered armies against him.

4. We should follow the example of his companions who loved him deeply and sincerely. They loved him more than wealth and sons, and more than their own selves. There follow some examples of that:

“It was narrated that Anas (RA) said: I saw the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) when the barber was cutting his hair and his companions were going around him wanting to ensure that his hair would fall only into someone’s hand.” [Muslim]

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It was narrated that Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said:

“On the Day of Uhud some of the people fled and left the Prophet (Peace be upon him), but Abu Talhah stood before him covering him with a shield. Abu Talhah was a powerful archer who broke two or three bows that day. When a man passed by carrying a quiver containing arrows, he would say: Give them to Abu Talhah. Whenever the Prophet (Peace be upon him) raised his head to look at the people, Abu Talhah would say: “O Prophet of Allah, may my father and my mother be sacrificed for you, do not raise your head lest you be struck by an arrow shot by the enemy. My neck is before your neck.” [Bukhari and Muslim]

5. You should follow his Sunnah in word and deed, so that his Sunnah is the path you follow in your whole life, and you put his words before any other words and put his command before everything else; and you should follow the Aqidah (belief) of his noble Companions, and the Aqidah of the Tabi’in who followed them, and the Aqidah of those who followed their path until the present day, namely Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jama’ah, and avoid bid’ah (innovation).

We ask Allah to help us to love His Messenger (Peace be upon him) and to make him dearer to us than our children, parents, families and our own selves.

Dear and respected servants of Allah! Also, following are some signs that you love Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) sincerely:

1. You follow the message that he conveyed (the Qur’an): This entails reciting, studying, and implementing the rulings of the Creator that were revealed through His Messenger. Belief in the divine scripture is just one part of faith; implementing its rulings in your life is another. Study the Qur’an on a daily basis. Recite, understand, implement, and memorise what you can.

2. You love to follow the Sunnah: Every individual will vary in their love of the Sunnah and thus their love of the Messenger (Peace be upon him). The more you love the Sunnah, the more you’ll try to implement it in your life. You’ll never hear the words “It’s just a Sunnah” coming out of your mouth, primarily because you’ll do anything to follow his path. Instead, every time you learn about a Sunnah, you’ll be eager to implement it in your life. When you learn that something contradicts the Sunnah, you tend to stay away from it lest you fall into religious innovation (Bid’ah). You also ensure that what you’re doing on a daily basis is legitimate and has some basis in the Qur’an or his Sunnah (Peace be upon him). Study the Sunnah from an authentic source and implement it into your life.

3. You study his Sirah and encourage others to do so: Every Muslim should study the biography of the Prophet (Peace be upon him); his compassion, his love, his dedication, his sincerity, his beauty, his exalted character, his concern for his Ummah, and what he went through to convey this message to the rest of the world. The companions used to teach their children the Sirah from a young age. This is one of the greatest signs you love the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) because you want to know more about him and his life, and oftentimes you’ll see those who love him study the sirah multiple times. Study the Sirah from a reputable, authentic source. You have so many resources in this day and age that there’s no excuse for not reading a summarised version of the Sirah or listening to a video series. Furthermore, encourage your family and friends to also study the sirah and share gems from your studies in order to encourage others.

Studying the Prophet’s Sirah is a sign for our love for the Prophet (Peace be upon him); one cannot truly love someone except that they must know about them. This love for the Prophet (Peace be upon him) should supersede our love for our fathers, mothers, relatives, children and even ourselves.

By studying the Sirah we learn about the sacrifices and struggles made by the Prophet (Peace be upon him) in his life to spread Islam. This love must be sincere love for him and it must be translated into obeying him in what he commanded and following his example as a way of life. Imam Shafi‘i would say:

“لَوْ كانَ حُبُّكَ صَادِقاً لأَطَعْتَهُ, إنَّ الْمُحِبَّ لِمَنْ يُحِبُّ مُطِيعُ”

“If your love is sincere, you would have obeyed Him. For verily the lover for the one he loves, obeys him.”

We must understand, to love the Prophet (Peace be upon him) is an obligation for every Muslim.

Shaykhul-Islam Ibn Taimiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

“The reason why it is obligatory to love the Prophet (Peace be upon him) and venerate him more than any other person is that we cannot attain the greatest good in this world or in the Hereafter except at the hands of the Prophet (Peace be upon him), by believing in him and following him. That is because no one can be saved from the punishment of Allah, and the mercy of Allah cannot reach him except by means of the Prophet (Peace be upon him), by believing in him, loving him, being loyal to him and following him. This is the means by which Allah will save him from punishment in this world and in the Hereafter. This is the means by which he will attain what is good in this world and in the Hereafter.” [See Majmu‘ al-Fatawa, volume 27, page 246]

Let us spend time every day to study the life of our beloved Prophet so we can increase in love for him. How is it we spend so much time knowing friends, spouses, people we admire, but we do not spend time learning about the best of mankind.

Read even a minimum of 15 mins a day on the Sirah of the Prophet (Peace be upon him). Start with the book ‘The Sealed Nectar’ by Shaykh Safiyur-Rahman Al-Mubarakpuri, then move to more advanced books.

4. You ask Allah to send prayers upon him often: Saying “Allahummah salli ala Muhammad” in any of its appropriate variations is asking Allah to send peace and blessings and mercy upon the beloved Messenger, and every time you do it, Allah Almighty will send upon you 10 times the blessings and mercy in your life. Furthermore, every time you send salutations upon him, an angel appointed next to the Messenger (Peace be upon him) to conveys your prayers to him. Finally, the more you send prayers upon him, the closer you’ll be to him on the Day of Resurrection and the more of his intercession you’ll have on that severe day.

Try to at least begin the basic habit of sending 10 prayers upon him in the morning and 10 in the evening and work your way up from there throughout the day and night, especially every time you remember him or when his name is mentioned (Peace be upon him).

5. You love the things he loved and the people he loved: This includes acts of worship (fasting Mondays and Thursdays or praying at night) and countless Sunnan (such as using the siwak) as well as the people he loved and those who loved him, such as Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, his entire family, and the companions in general. This is a litmus test for many who claim to love the Messenger but believe in fabrications against his noble companions.

6. You frequently remember his life and wish to be with him: When you love someone, you find yourself thinking