The Life of Muhammad
Preachments and Advices
On every occasion, the Prophet (a.s.) preached and advised Muslims to guide them towards perfection. The following are some of the preachments transmitted from him on different occasions:
1. Warning against the love of this life
The Prophet (a.s.) said,
“Why do I see that the love of this life has overcome many of people to a degree that as if death in this life has been predetermined on other than them, and as if the truth in this life has been obligated on other than them? As if the news they hear about the deads before them is to them as if they (the deads) are travelers who soon shall come back to them…and you eat their inheritance and shall be immortal after them! How far! How far! Does the last of them not take a lesson from the first of them? They have ignored and forgotten every preachment in the Qur'an, felt safe from the evil of the end of every bad deed, and not feared the coming down of a great affliction, or the disasters of every happening.
Blessed is he whose gain is well, whose inward is virtuous, whose outward is right, and whose morality is straight.
Blessed is he who spends the extra of his money, and holds back the nonsense of his speech.
Blessed is he who is humble to Allah (honored is His mention), who is abstinent in what has been permitted to him without denying my Sunna, who has refused the pleasure of this life without turning away from my Sunna, who has followed the benevolent ones from my progeny after me, who has associated with the people of jurisprudence and wisdom, and who has been kind to the people of wretchedness.
Blessed is he from among the believers who gains money with no disobedience and spends it in no disobedience and benefits by it the people of wretchedness, and who keeps away from the people of haughtiness, pride, and the wish for this life, who originate heresies unlike my Sunna, and follow other than my conduct.
Blessed is he who betters his manners with people, offers to them his assistance, and keeps them safe from his evil.”[1]
2. Good deed
The Prophet (a.s.) said,
“Blessed is he whose age is long and his deeds are good, and so his end shall be good where his Lord will be pleased with him. And woe unto him whose age is long and his deeds are bad, and so his end shall be bad where his Lord will be displeased with him.”[2]
3. Noble attributes
The Prophet (a.s.) said,
“Accept from me six things and I will assure to you the Paradise; when you speak, do not tell lies, when you promise, do not break (your promise), when you are trusted (with a trust), do not betray, and lower your sight, keep your honors (private parts), and hold back your hands and tongues (from harming others).”[3]
4. Fancy and wishes
The Prophet (a.s.) said,
[1] Tuhaf al-Uqool, p. 29-30.
[2] Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 77 p. 112.
[3] Ibid.
“The thing that I most fear for my nation of is fancy and long hope. As for fancy, it takes one away from the truth, and as for long hope, it makes one forget the afterlife…and this is the life that is about to leave, and this is the afterlife that is about to come, and for each of them there are children, so if you can be from the children of the afterlife and not from the children of this life, then be, because today you are in the abode of doing with no judgment, and tomorrow you shall be in the abode of judgment with no doing…”[1]
5. The most afflicted people
The Prophet (a.s.) said when asked about the people who are most afflicted in this life’
“the prophets, then the likes, and then the likes. A believer is tried inasmuch as his faith and his good deeds. He, whose faith is true and his deeds are good, is afflicted too much, and he, whose faith is trivial and his deeds are insignificant, shall be afflicted little.”[2]
6. The deeds that take to the Paradise and to the Fire
The Prophet (a.s.) said,
“By Allah, there is no doing that approaches (man) to the Fire except that I have told you about and prohibited you from, and there is no doing that approaches to the Paradise except that I have told you about and ordered you to do. The Loyal Spirit (Gabriel) has inspired in me that: no soul (man) shall die until it gets all its sustenance, so be nice in requesting, let the delay in giving something of sustenance not make you ask for what Allah
[1] Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 77 p. 117.
[2] Tuhaf al-Uqool, p. 39.
has through disobeying Him, for surely nothing from what Allah has, shall be got except by His obedience.”[1]
7. After this life is either the Paradise or the Fire
The Prophet (a.s.) said,
“O people, you have terms so regard your terms, and you have ends, so regard your ends. A believer is between two fears; an end that has been predetermined and he (the believer) does not know what Allah will do to him, and a term remaining that he does not know what Allah will judge on it. So, let a servant take from himself to himself, and from his life to his afterlife, and from youth before old age, and from life before death. By Him in Whose hand the soul of Muhammad is, there shall be no conciliation, and there shall be no abode after this life except the Paradise or the Fire.”[2]
8. Devotedness to Allah
The Prophet (a.s.) said,
“Whoever devotes himself to Allah, Allah will suffice him, and whoever devotes himself to this life, Allah will entrust him to it. Whoever tries (to get) something through the disobeying of Allah, it shall be farther to him than what he has hoped and nearer to what he has avoided. Whoever seeks the praises of people (to him) through the disobediences of Allah, his praiser from among them (people) shall turn a dispraiser. Whoever pleases people by displeasing Allah, Allah will entrust him to them (people), and whoever pleases Allah by displeasing people, Allah will save him from their evil. Whoever betters what is between him and Allah, Allah will suffice him as to what there is between him and people. Whoever betters his inward Allah will
[1] Tuhaf al-Uqool., p. 40.
[2] At-Tathkirah al-Hamduniyyah, vol. 1 p. 37.
better his outward. Whoever works for his afterlife Allah will suffice him the affairs of his life.”[1]
9. Remembering death
The Prophet (a.s.) said,
“Often remember the terminator of pleasures, because if you remember it in hardship and ease and become pleased with it, you shall be rewarded, and if you remember it in wealth that it makes it hated to you and then you give it generously, You shall be rewarded. Deaths are stoppers of deeds, and nights are approachers of terms, and man is between two days; a day that has passed and its deeds have been counted and sealed, and a day that has remained and he (man) may not reach it. A servant, at the going out of his soul and entering into his grave, shall see the reward of what has already done before, and the insignificance of the wealth he has left that it might be from falsehood he has collected and from a right (of others) he has prevented.”[2]
10. With death
The Prophet (a.s.) said, “O people, as if death in it (this life) has been predetermined on other than them, and as if the truth has been obligated on other than us, and as if the dead whom we escort are travelers that soon shall come back to us; we put them into their graves and eat their inheritance as if we are immortal after them that we have forgotten every preachment and felt safe from every hardship.
Blessed is he whose defects have busied him away from the defects of people, and who spends from wealth that he has obtained from no disobedience, who have been kind to people of
[1] At-Tathkirah al-Hamduniyyah, vol. 1., p. 38.
[2] Ibid..
neediness and wretchedness, and who associates with the people of jurisprudence and wisdom.
Blessed is he who humiliates himself, betters his morality, repairs his inward, and keeps his evil away from people.
Blessed is he who works due to his knowledge, spends the extra of his property, holds back the nonsense of his speech, whom the Sunna has included him and he does not exceed it to heresy.”[1]
11. Hastening to goodness
The Prophet (a.s.) said,
“He, who longs for the Paradise, hastens to good deeds, and he, who is afraid of the Fire, diverts from lusts, and he, who expects death diverts from pleasures, and he, who is abstinent in this life, calamities become easy to him, and he, to whom a door of goodness is opened, let him avail himself of it, for he does not know when it shall be closed before him.”[2]
12. This life is of crookedness
The Prophet (a.s.) said,
“O people, this life is an abode of crookedness and not an abode of straightness, and a house of sorrow and not a house of joy. Whoever knows it, shall not rejoice at ease, and shall not be grieved for a distress. Allah the Almighty has created this life as an abode of trials and the afterlife as an abode of reward; therefore, He has made the trial of this life as a cause for the reward of the afterlife, and the reward of the afterlife as a recompense for the trial of the life. He takes to give and He tries to reward. It (this life) shall soon go away and is about to turn
[1] At-Tathkirah al-Hamduniyyah, vol. 1.
[2] Kashf al-Khafa’, vol. 2 p. 305, at-Tathkirah al-Hamduniyyah,
vol. 1 p. 46.
over, so beware of its sweet suckling because of its bitter weaning, and desert its delicious transient pleasures for its offensive remaining end. Do not strive in building a house that its destruction has been predetermined, and do not keep in contact with it while He has wanted you to avoid it so that you may be liable to His wrath, and deserving of His punishment.”[1]
13. The love of this life
The Prophet (a.s.) said,
“The love of this life does not dwell in the heart of a servant except that he is afflicted with three things; business that its troubles shall not come to an end, poverty that its wealth shall not be obtained, and hope that its end shall not be reached. The life and the afterlife are seekers and sought; the seeker of the afterlife is sought by the life until he enjoys his sustenance to the full, and the seeker of the life is sought by the afterlife until death shall take his neck. Surely, the really happy one is he who prefers a lasting abode whose bliss shall last forever to a transient one whose torment shall not end, and prepares (spends) from what is now in his hands for what he shall go to rather than to leave it for another one who shall be happy by spending it whereas he himself has been tired in collecting and keeping it.”[2]
14. Consolement and preachment
When one of Mu’ath’s children died, the Prophet (a.s.) wrote to him consoling and preaching,
“From Muhammad the messenger of Allah to Mu’ath bin Jabal,
[1] At-Tathkirah al-Hamduniyyah, vol. 1 p. 52.
[2] Muhadharat al-Abrar (lectures of the pious), vol. 2 p. 273,
at-Tathkirah al-Hamduniyyah, vol. 1 p.54.
peace be on you. I praise Allah Whom there is no god but Him. I have been informed of your sorrow for your son whom Allah has determined that on. Surely your son was from the pleasant gifts of Allah and from His loans that has been entrusted to you. Allah has made you enjoy him until a certain term and He took him for a certain term, so we are to Allah and to Him we shall return. Let your impatience not frustrate your reward, and if you come to the reward of your calamity, you shall know that this calamity is too little before the great reward that Allah has prepared for the people of submission and patience. Know well that impatience shall not get back a dead one or repel a fate. Therefore, be fair in comfort and accept the promised thing. Let you not be sorry for what is inevitable to you and to the whole creation that comes down due to its fate. And peace, Allah’s mercy, and blessings be on you.”[1]
15. Desertion of the life
The Prophet (a.s.) said,
“This life is leaving and the afterlife is about to come, and you are in a day of work with no judgment, and you are about to be in a day of judgment where there shall be no work. Surely Allah gives this life to whom He loves and to whom He hates, but He does not give the afterlife except to whom He loves. There are children to this life and children to the afterlife, so be from the children of the afterlife and do not be from the children of this life. That which I most fear for you from is the following of desires and the long hope; the following of desires takes your hearts away from the truth, and the long hope takes your determinations to this life, and after them there shall be for no one a goodness that he expects in this life or the afterlife.”[2]
[1] Tuhaf al-Uqool, p. 59.
[2] Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 77 p. 188.
16. With the angel of death
The Prophet (a.s.) said: “There is no house except that the Angel of Death stops at its door five times every day. If he finds that the end of that man has come and his eating has stopped, he throws on him death whose agonies shall attack him and whose distresses shall overcome him; and then from his family is that woman who spreads her hair, and that who slaps her face, and that who yells with her grief, and that who weeps with her sorrow. Then, the Angel of Death says: Woe unto you! What for is this impatience? And what for is this fear? By Allah, I do not take away a property from anyone of you, nor do I approach to him an end, nor do I come to him until I am ordered, nor do I take out his soul until I am given authority. Surely, I shall have a return to you, and then a return until I shall not leave anyone (alive) from you.”
Then the Prophet (a.s.) said,
“By Him in Whose hand my soul is, if they see his (the Angel of Death) place or hear his speech, they shall be distracted from their dead one, and shall weep for themselves; until when the dead is carried on his coffin and his soul waving over the coffin calling: O my family and children, let this life not play with you as it has played with me. I have collected it (wealth) lawfully and unlawfully and left it to other than me who shall enjoy it whereas its sin and burden shall be on me. So beware of like what has come down!”[1]
[1] Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 77, p. 188-189.