Sayyidi Habib Umar bin Hafiz (may Allah protect him and benefit us by him) reflects upon the yearning of the Companions for the Beloved ﷺ.
Our Lord has not permitted us to love anyone in creation as much as Muhammad, because He Himself does not love anyone in creation as much as He loves Muhammad ﷺ. If the King of Kings, the One True God, does not love anyone as much as He loves him, how can I, as a slave, love anyone as much as I love the Chosen One or prefer anyone over him?
Where are those who know these truths and give them their due? The Noble Companions drank from these cups. Look at their words and actions, and look at how they spent their days and nights. Look at how Allah’s light spread to mankind at their hands. They loved him, were attached to him and their hearts were filled with his love. Had a single hair from the head of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq or any one of the Foremost, the first of the Emigrants and the Helpers been divided up among those in this gathering none of us would be able to sleep for a month. This is because every single hair on their heads contained such true, complete, perfect, sincere, deep love. For this reason, they could not sleep. They would leave their beds, their families, their food and drink in order to see his face. They could not contain themselves until they had seen his face, even though they had seen it a few hours earlier. One of them said: “O Messenger of Allah, I remember you at home when I am with my wife and children I become like someone insane.”
Do you see how they loved him? How they were attached to him? What they experienced? They loved the earth upon which he walked. No eye has seen anyone who venerates anyone as much as the Companions venerated Muhammad. No heart has known anyone who loves anyone as much as the Companions loved Muhammad.
O Allah, bestow prayers upon him and give us a portion of this love and this veneration. So much time has elapsed between us and them, and so many tribulations have befallen the Ummah and so many voices call us to attach our hearts to people other than the Beloved ﷺ, but in spite of all this, Allah continues to allow people to drink from these cups.
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Extracts from a talk in the mawlid in Dar al-Mustafa 13th Rabi al-Awwal 1434 / 24th January 2013.