Longing for the Messenger of God ﷺ
We are now in the month of Rabi' al-Awal, the month of our beloved Prophet's birth, may God bless him and grant him peace. This is a month in which Muslims have traditionally celebrated his birth and life by holding gatherings of remembrance and increasing their salawat, or blessings, upon him. Sending blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ is an act that God and His angels perform constantly. When we do so as well, we are joining them in an act that will complete our faith and reunite us with them in the garden.
At our 9th Annual Newcomers' Retreat, which we just completed in Washington, D.C. earlier this month, we focused nearly all of the instruction upon the Prophet ﷺ--his life, teachings, and station as a mercy to all of creation. It was extremely interesting to witness the various reactions our attendees had to this. Some leapt through the door of loving the Prophet ﷺ, others walked through at their own pace, while others hung out around the threshold, inspecting what lay on the other side. However, of those who were more skeptical, I noticed that all of their hearts came absolutely alive when we visited a group of elders at Masjid Muhammad, an Imam W.D. Muhammad community in D.C.. They glowed in their presence the way many others had glowed upon learning about the Messenger of God ﷺ. When I had the opportunity to ask one of the sisters what was so meaningful for her about that meeting, she said, "I think I needed to see all of those things we learned about the Prophet ﷺ in a living, breathing person. It didn't seem real until that point."
This is a reality for many of us. We need to see to believe, and we live at a time when we are apparently removed from the Prophet ﷺ. We can hear stories about him and his Companions, but it remains difficult to feel a genuine connection to them. After all, our lives are very different. Our challenges to live as Muslims are different. Therefore it can seem that our ability to know and love the Messenger of God ﷺ is different. But there are antidotes to these problems. One is connecting with people who love him. Another, which is just as powerful, is understanding that our apparent distance from God's Messenger in this age is an illusion. God and His Messenger see a different reality.
We can see this lesson in the life of Uwais ibn Amir al-Qarani, the greatest of the Tabi'een, or generation of Muslims who lived directly after the life of the Prophet ﷺ. Uwais is counted among the Tabi'een because, even though he lived during the life of the Prophet ﷺ, he was never able to meet him in person. He lived in Yemen, a month's journey from Madinah, but never was able to emigrate because he was the only person who cared for his sick mother. However, he longed to be in the presence of God's Messenger ﷺ and never let go of his hope to meet him.
Despite the physical distance between them, the Prophet ﷺ knew Uwais. He told his Companions:
“There will come to you a person from Yemen who will be called Uwais and he will leave none in Yemen behind him except his mother. His skin was white (due to leprosy) and he supplicated Allah and it was cured except for the size of a dinar or dirham. Anyone amongst you who meets him should ask him to supplicate for forgiveness (from Allah) for you.”
He also said, in another version of this narration, “If he were to take an oath in the name of Allah, Allah would honor it.” The Prophet ﷺ knew that Uwais had a high station with God. This happened in an age before social media and telephones. Uwais was not a 'significant' person in Yemen who would be known in Madinah; he was a shepherd who was shunned by most people due to his leprosy. The Prophet’s ﷺ knowledge of Uwais should not surprise us. The Messenger of God ﷺ described in detail things that are happening in the world today. He knows his followers. He knows you and me.
Uwais would not leave Yemen to join the Prophet ﷺ until his mother gave him permission to do so nearly a decade after becoming Muslim. After ten years, he would finally meet his beloved Prophet. Yet, to his dismay, on the road from Yemen, news came to his caravan that the Messenger of God ﷺ had passed from this world.
Can you imagine how distant Uwais must have felt from the Prophet in that moment? After so many years of longing to make this journey, his beloved was snatched from him. He would never meet Muhammad ﷺ, and God would never send another prophet. He must have felt unworthy and unimportant, just as his people in Yemen told him he was.
Yet God revealed another reality to Uwais when he arrived in Madinah. Umar approached the delegation from Yemen, searching for Uwais, just as he had done for years since hearing about him from the Prophet ﷺ. Umar asked them, "Is there amongst you Uwais ibn 'Amir?" They responded that yes, Uwais was among them, but that they regarded him as an outcast. However, Umar demanded to be taken to him. When they met, Umar informed Uwais of what the Prophet ﷺ said about him and begged him to ask God for forgiveness on his behalf.
Outwardly, Umar, one of the greatest Companions, was humbling himself before a strange outcast with no connection to the Prophet ﷺ. Yet, inwardly, Uwais' station with God had been elevated through his obedient devotion to his mother and his unceasing longing for the Messenger of God ﷺ. What had seemed like an unbridgeable gap suddenly transformed into the the means of Uwais’ connection to the Beloved ﷺ.
What may seem real to us may not be what is real with God. He is al-Haqq, the Ultimate Reality. And God has given knowledge of each believer to His Messenger ﷺ. So do not be dismayed or deluded by your existence over 1400 years after the life of our beloved. Live a dutiful life of service where God has placed you, just as Uwais did, and do not stop longing for the Messenger of God ﷺ. That longing is the greatest strength that we have as Muslims today. Separation intensifies love, and the Prophet ﷺ has promised that "You will be with those whom you love." He has hinted that this apparent separation is a virtue that we possess which the Companions cannot. He said to them: “How I long to meet my brothers.” The Companions asked him, “Are we not your brothers?” He said, “You are my Companions, but my brothers are those who have faith in me yet they never saw me.”
May God increase us in our longing for His Messenger ﷺ in this month and every month to come. Ameen!