Characteristics of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

وَبَرَكَاتُهُ اللهِ وَرَحْمَةُ عَلَيْكُمْ السَّلاَمُ

As a preface to the study of the Seerah of the prophet Muhammad ﷺ we must first gain an understanding of the properties and specific mercies given to him by Allah so that we may truly appreciate why he was so absolutely amazing as a person.

The first thing to truly put into perspective how great he was, is the fact that Allah says: ‘We have raised up your remembrance and mention,’ and this is true to such a point that almost anytime Allah is mentioned in our duas or salah, the Prophet ﷺ is mentioned almost immediately after. Take for example our shahada. The second thing is the title Allah bestowed upon him of ‘Rahmatul-lil-Alameen,’ meaning Mercy for the Worlds. His entire message was mercy, and he himself was the pinnacle of mercy and so Allah blessed him with such a beautiful title.

Next: his names. The prophet Muhammad ﷺ had (according to some scholars) up to 250 names, but the ones given to him by Allah are the ones we will focus on here.

Muhammad, Ahmed and Al-Maqaam-Al-Mahmoud – These three names are all linked in that they all come from the root word ‘hamd’, meaning to praise. Think: ‘al-hamdu lillah,’ the very first words of the Quran. ‘Al-hamd’ is a very specific type of praise, meaning ultimate praise, total praise. This is not the sort of praise that you give because someone did something for you and so you are grateful and so you praise them for it – no – this is total praise due to the worthiness and perfection of the person being praised. To be specific: Muhammad means constant praise, as every time anyone sends salawat or does salah they must praise him, meaning he is being praised every moment of every day, and is the name Prophet Musa (AS) used for him. Ahmed denotes the quality of praise, and is the name Prophet Isa (AS) used for him. This makes some poetic sense, as Musa’s ummah, the Bani-Israel, is the next largest ummah of true believers after Muhammad’s ﷺ, while Isa’s ummah of (true) Christians was very small but extremely devoted and loyal.

Al-Maqaam-Al-Mahmoud literally means the station/position of the one who is praised. This is the name that will be given to the prophet on the day of judgement, where he will take up the responsibility of being the one to go to Allah and ask for the start of the judgement. On that day, the entirety of mankind will realise the truth of Islam and so will go to all of the prophets, starting from Adam (AS), begging them for some help. However, each prophet will reject them out of fear of something that they have done and will say ‘naf-see,’ meaning go see someone else. By the end, mankind will come to Muhammad ﷺ and beg him to ask Allah to simply start the judgement, which he will do as the job was meant for him all along. For this he will be praised by the entirety of mankind, every single person – even those who hated and cursed him. And so he will earn the title: ‘Al-Maqaam-Al-Mahmoud.’

Al-Mahi – This means to wipe away. Allah calls him this because he is the one who wiped away kufr in the land, which he did both in his lifetime and after it.

Al-Hashir – This literally means that mankind will be resurrected at his feet, which he is called because they will be resurrected after him. This makes him the first to be resurrected, and the sign for the start of the day of judgement.

Al-Aaqib – The successor, or the one that comes at the end. This means he is the last in the line of the prophets.

Nabhi-Ar-Rahmah – The Prophet of Mercy.

Nahbi-At-Tawbah – The Prophet of Forgiveness.

Al-Mukkafah – The one who perfects the message of the previous prophets.

Nabhi-Al-Malahim – This title means that in his ummah many trials will take place, such as Dajal and the coming of Imam Mahdi.

The next thing that shows how special the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was are his ‘Khasaais’. These are the blessings from Allah that were and will be bestowed specifically upon him and no-one else. There are (according to some scholars) up to 50 of these, but we will only focus on a few:

He is the final prophet

His prophet-hood was decreed before even Adam (AS) was created – On answering a sahabi, the Prophet said he was given the prophet-hood while Adam (AS) was still between the ruuh and the mud, meaning Allah had not even blown Adam (AS) into life.

He was the only prophet to be sent for all of humanity including the Jinn

Allah inflicted terror into his enemies before he even reached them

He has been given the largest ummah – He told the sahaba that he hoped that his ummah would be two-thirds of the people of Jannah. This was a miracle at the time that he said this, as there were only about 1500 Muslims on the entire planet at the time, hugely outnumbered by the Christians and Jews. And now Islam is the second biggest religion on the entire planet, with over a billion members.

He was given the unequivocal, peerless miracle of the Quran – The Quran is the only miracle that we can see and know for a fact, today. And thus it is the most powerful and influential miracle of them all.

He was the only prophet to be taken on Al-Miraj, the Night Journey – The miraculous Night Journey, which we will go into further detail later.

He is to be the Sayid – leader – of all mankind

He will be the first to be resurrected

He will be given the largest Haud – The Haud is a square pool in Jannah, and the prophet’s will be so large that one side of it will be the size of Mecca to Yemen.

He will be given the main river of Jannah, Al-Kawthur

He will be the first to enter Jannah after Adam (AS) left it – His importance is such that only on his name alone will the doors of Jannah be opened, and he will lead his ummah into Jannah first, despite them being chronologically last.

He alone will be given the highest and best level of Jannah, Al-Fadheela, on which there will only be one person

There are so many more blessings given to the prophet Muhammad ﷺ that can be mentioned, but these are the main ones. Hopefully this has inspired you further on your journey in the Seerah of the Prophet, now that you can begin to understand what an amazing person he was.

 

Dr.Yasir Qadhi’s Seerah of The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) 001

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOUp3ZZ9t3A