Let’s rush to be loved by Allah…

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said:

“Some people will come on the Day of Judgement & their Iman will be outstanding, its light will shine from their chests & from their right hands. So it will be said to them, ‘Glad tidings for you today, Assalamu ‘alaikum & Goodness for you, Enter into it (Jannah) forever!’ So the Angels & the Prophets will be jealous of the Love of Allah for them.”

So the Sahabah (ra) asked, “Who are they, Ya Rasoolullah?”

He (saw) replied,

“They are not from us & they are not from you. You are my companions but they are my beloved. They will come after you & will find the Book (the Qur’an) made redundant by the people, & a Sunnah which has been killed by them. So they will grab hold of the Book & the Sunnah & revive them.

They read them & teach them (the Qur’an & the Sunnah) to the people & they will experience in that path a punishment more severe & more ugly than what you (O Sahabah) have experienced.

Indeed the Iman of one of them is equivalent to the Iman of 40 of you. The Shaheed of one of them is equivalent to 40 of your Shuhadaa’. Because you found a helper towards the truth (the Prophet) & they will find no helper towards the truth.

They will be surrounded by tyrant rulers in every place, & they will be in the surroundings of Bait-ul-Maqdis (Al-Quds, Masjid al-Aqsa). The Nussrah (Help & Victory) of Allah will come to them, & they will have the honour of it on their hands.”

Then he (saw) said, “O Allah, give them the Nussrah & make them my close friends in Jannah.”

(Musnad al-Imam Ahmad, chain no. 77, Hadith no. 17561)

About seven or eight years ago, a very dear sister shared this hadith with me. She told me this will help me want to work for the deen. I remember it so clearly, her enthusiasm as she shared the whole hadith with me, sitting out in her garden, she not only read the hadith out almost word for word from memory, but she put life into the words. I loved that, i loved her love for the words. But I was weak within, and to be honest, I listened to her, but deep down thought that it was impossible to even try to live up to the above. I did, however, never really forget the hadith myself.

So since then, and up until very recently, I have read this hadith many times, and the more I read it, the more I want to be the Prophet’s (saw) beloved. Who wouldn’t want to be? I believe every member of this Ummah loves the Prophet more than their own family; we all crave to have even a fraction of his characteristics within us.

Prophet Muhammad (saw), the best of creation, personally made dua for the one that holds firmly to the haqq. How can we, after knowing this, turn away from it? What beautiful words he (saw) uses to describe the one that stays steadfast.

What is more amazing is how he (saw) compares his companions to this group of people. We know how devoted the blessed companions of the Prophet (saw) were. Imagine being compared to them? I think it’s hard for us to think that any of us can (even try to) emulate one of them, let alone be compared to 40 of them.

“So the Angels & the Prophets will be jealous of the Love of Allah for them.”

I can’t explain in words, how reading the above part of the hadith makes me feel -angels and prophets will be jealous of these people because of the love Allah (swt), the Creator, will have for them. Subhan-Allah! Allahu akbar!

Therefore I wanted to share this with you now, in a time and age where society accuses Muslims of backward-thinking if we try to speak about Islam. We live in a time that does not allow us to practise the religion the way it was brought to us. We have not lived under the beauty of Islam, and have come to believe we never can. Islam and Muslims have been under the spotlight for years now, and this has made our Ummah turn away from the essential work we can do to ensure the revival of Islam in our lands and our lives. Islam has been attacked in various ways, including the horrible insults on our dear Prophet (saw) – the man that spent nights praying for this Ummah. I feel maybe the words of the Prophet (saw) in this ever beautiful hadith, can make us speak up for the deen, try everything in our ability to ensure Islam and its teachings are protected, and work to make Allah (swt)’s law supreme as is asked of us by the Creator.

Ya Rabb, allow us all to reach the status of the people the Prophet (saw) told his companions about, help us to bring back Islam to what it once was and let us truly be loved by You (swt).