ADVICE: Seeking the Pleasure of Allah and His Messenger – Habib Umar
ADVICE: Seeking the Pleasure of Allah and His Messenger – Habib Umar
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Please benefit from and share the following Rabi’ al-Awwal advice recently delivered by Sayyidi Habib Umar and translated by Ustadh Amin Buxton (Allah preserve and increase him and his teachers).
May Allah Most High bless us with remembrance of Him and His Beloved (Allah bless him and grant him peace) in this noble month, make us amongst those who are mentioned in His Presence, and bless our hearts with noble intentions that raise us to the ranks of those beloved to Him.
Welcoming Rabi` al-Awwal
By Seeking the Pleasure of Allah and His Messenger
Sayyidi al-Habib Umar bin Hafiz (may Allah preserve him) said (Mawlid, Dar al-Mustafa, 3rd Rabi` al-Awwal/ 26th January 2012):
The new moon of Rabi` al-Awwal has appeared, the month in which Allah brought forth His best
and perfect slave, His Chosen One, His Beloved, The Most Noble of the First and the Last in the
sight of the Lord of the Worlds. His uncle `Abbas addressed him at the end of his life, on their
return from Tabuk, his last expedition, with the following verse:
When you were born the earth and the horizons were illuminated by your light
We remain bathed in that glow and it continues to light the path as we travel it
Every mawlid composed later is merely echoing what the Companions said to the Chosen One.
They were the first people to celebrate the mawlid.
Our Master `Isa will descend to the earth and you will see how he will be ennobled by following
Muhammad. Any of you that are with him at that time will see how he mentions the Master of
Creation. His heart and the hearts of those present will be filled with veneration when they
mention his name. He knows our Master Muhammad better than us, for a Prophet knows a
Prophet. No member of this nation knows him in the way that the Spirit of Allah.
They said this openly: “All that we knew of the Messenger of Allah was his shadow.”
This is how the Master of the Followers, Uways al-Qarani, addressed the greatest of the
Companions, our Masters `Umar and `Ali, who knew the Beloved better than anyone. He said:
“All that you knew of the Messenger of Allah was his shadow.”
They said: “True, all that we knew of the Messenger of Allah was his shadow.”
Direct your hearts to attain His pleasure and a portion of His gifts. In every day and night there
are gifts, and in every month, and in this month in particular. You attain these gifts according to
your connection to the one who taught us, the unique one. Take a portion of his vast, noble,
priceless teachings, with sincere desire, to attain the reality of:
It is more fitting that they please Allah and His Messenger if they are truly believers. (Al-Tawbah, 9:62)
Strive in this noble month to please the Chosen One, seeking to please Allah. Please him with
your intentions, your ambitions, your words and deeds. Allah is pleased with those that praise
his Prophet, those that venerate His Prophet, those that support His Prophet. He is pleased with
that which pleases the Prophet.
It is more fitting that they please Allah and His Messenger if they are truly believers
You have spent so much of your time and thoughts seeking to please yourself, your family, your
relatives and your friends. This may have caused you to travel from one country to another.
Have you sought the pleasure of the Beloved? How much do you think about this? How much do
you worry about this? How far have you travelled seeking his pleasure? How much hardship
have you borne? How much have you sacrificed? There is nothing on the earth or in this life
whose pleasure is more worthy of seeking than Muhammad.
It is more fitting that they please Allah and His Messenger if they are truly believers
According to your faith you strive to please Allah’s Beloved. Seek his pleasure! When the
Companions saw that he was pleased, when his face shone with happiness, they said: “It was
more beloved to us than red camels.” Nothing was harder for them to bear than seeing him
angry, seeing the vein between his blessed eyes swell up.
Look for the true meaning of seeking his pleasure in this month. You won’t find it on the satellite
channels. Seek it from its source, connect to the light of his message. This will show you how to
seek his pleasure, in which is the pleasure of the Most High. If you have in your heart an
attribute which does not please him, then strive to rid your heart of it. He is not pleased with
arrogance, so do not be content to show arrogance, even to inanimate objects, let alone animals
or humans, for the Lord of all things dislikes you doing this.
Seek it by giving life to the sunnah in your house in Rabi` al-Awwal! If your family are heedless of
Allah between Maghrib and `Isha, joking or watching TV then bring to life the sunnah of
venerating this time. Teach them at home at this time. If they are young teach them the Arabic
letters so that they are connected to the Qur’an. If they are older, go over with them the Qur’an
they have memorised.
If the sunnah of seeking forgiveness before Fajr is absent, bring it to life in Rabi` al-Awwal. Let
there be at least one person seeking forgiveness before Fajr in the house, one person saying to
the Oft-Forgiving “forgive me!” at the time which Allah loves for people to seek His forgiveness,
at the time when delegations came to the door of the Bestower.
If no-one in the house prays in congregation then teach your wife, your sister, your daughter to
only pray in congregation. Bring life to these sunnahs. Remove anything that displeases your
Lord from your house, anything that displeases your Prophet, audio or visual. Let the house be
filled in Rabi` with the remembrance of the Beloved, with the mention of his attributes, his life,
his birth. You will be enlightened and so will your family.
Allah bless the people of good who are striving in the East and West, the people who are
remembering and reciting the mawlid, for they are the keys to removing tribulation. People
raising their voices with the remembrance of Allah and His Messenger in their houses, in the
mosques and in the streets causes hardships to be relieved. So many Muslim groups have lost
the way. They do not know how to rectify themselves or those around them. They do not seek it
from the door that Allah has opened:
Allah will not change what is in a people until they change what is in themselves. (Al-Ra`d, 13:11)
Let us change what is in our selves. Let us make our children feel that Rabi` al-Awwal has
entered, and that it is connected to the Beloved. Make them feel that their lives are founded
upon loving him, venerating him and following him. This is the foundation of the whole religion.
May Allah grant you strong ambition and high intentions! May the end of the month not come
before some of the rays of the Beloved’s light bring some relief to the suffering of the Muslims.
O Lord, bless us in this month. Bless us in our remembrance of You and Your Messenger. Make
us amongst those who are mentioned in Your presence, and amongst those who are mentioned
in his presence. Bless our hearts with noble intentions that raise us to the ranks of those
beloved to You, so that we on the Day of Judgement we are with those that you mentioned:
The Day on which Allah will not humiliate the Prophet and those who believe with him.
Make us with him, and our families, our children, our friends, our neighbours, our students.
Their light will run before them and by their right hands, while they say: “O Lord, perfect our
light for us, and forgive us, for You have power over all things.” (Al-Tahrim, 66:8)
If anyone has anything in their heart that prevents them from seeking Your pleasure and Your
Messenger’s pleasure then remove it so that they prefer You and Your Messenger over
everyone else. So that when we sleep tonight nothing is more beloved to us than You and Your
Messenger. Increase us in love tomorrow and in the coming days until we meet You, O Most
Generous!
