SAHIH MUSLIM CAPTURES an incident that should make every believer who loves the Prophet ﷺ pause.
After the death of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, Abu Bakr (ra) said to Umar (ra), “Let us go and visit Umm Ayman, as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to visit her.”
So they went to see her. When they arrived, they found Umm Ayman (ra) crying. They reminded her that what Allah had prepared for His Messenger ﷺ was better than this world. Surely, they said, he was now in a better place.
Her response was striking.
She said, “I weep not because I am ignorant of the fact that what is in store for Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) (in the next world) is better than (this world), but I weep because the revelation which came from the Heaven has ceased to come.“
Her words moved Abu Bakr (ra) and Umar (ra) to tears, and they wept with her.
Umm Ayman (ra) was no ordinary woman in the life of the Prophet ﷺ. Her name was Barakah, and she was the loyal household helper of his mother Amina. It was she who brought him back to Makkah after his mother’s death. She knew him before revelation, before prophethood, before the world knew him as Muhammad ﷺ, the Messenger of Allah. She remained a lifelong presence in his life.
And yet, when he died, what brought her to tears was not simply the loss of the man she loved. She cried because revelation had ceased.
She understood what Muhammad ﷺ had brought to humanity. The Messenger had returned to his Lord, but the message he had carried remained.
And perhaps that is something we need to think about, especially now. Every Rabi al-Awwal, in many areas of the Muslim world, attention turns back to the life of Muhammad ﷺ. In different ways, this becomes a season of remembrance. But remembrance of what, exactly?
The Messenger and the Message
Even the title by which we know him tells us something important.
He is Rasūlullāh, ﷺ, the Messenger of Allah. A messenger carries a message. What was his?
It was the message of Lā ilāha illā Allah. There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah.
This is not simply a phrase to be recited. It changes everything. It tells us who we are, where we came from and why we are here. It tells us who has the right to be worshipped and obeyed. It tells us that we belong to Allah and that we will return to Him.
It frees us from becoming slaves to our desires, to wealth, to status, to other people and to the pressures of this world.
And it is a message the world desperately needs today. We live in a world that has more knowledge than ever before, but is struggling to find meaning. We have more technology, but not necessarily more wisdom. We speak about freedom, while people are trapped by desires, addiction, consumerism and the need for approval. We speak about human rights, while injustice continues to destroy lives. We talk about equality, yet the gap between the richest and the poorest has never been so wide.
Humanity needs to know why it exists. It needs to know that life has a purpose. It needs to know that there is a Creator, that there is truth, that there is right and wrong, and that every human being will ultimately stand before Allah.
The world needs the message of Muhammad ﷺ. And so does the Ummah.
The Man Who Carried the Message
If Muhammad ﷺ carried the greatest message ever given to humanity, then we need to understand the man who carried it. His qualities were not separate from his message. They served it. His patience carried him through opposition. His mercy meant his mission was to guide people, not destroy them. His honesty meant the message could be trusted. His humility meant he was never calling people to himself, only to Allah.
This gives us a deeper understanding of the verse,
لَّقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِى رَسُولِ ٱللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌۭ
“Indeed, in the Messenger of Allah you have an excellent example” (al-Ahzab 21).
The Prophet ﷺ is our example not simply because he smiled beautifully or dressed in a particular way, but because he showed us how a believer lives when he truly carries the message of Allah. If we want to carry the message, we need something of that same character.
And Then There Is the Mission
The Prophet ﷺ did not develop these qualities simply to become an excellent individual. He had a mission. He was sent to convey the message. He called people to Allah. He worked to establish a society in which a way of life built on tawhid was not just words but a lived reality.
He spent thirteen years in Makkah calling people to the truth, enduring rejection, persecution and loss. Then came the Hijrah, and in Madinah the message became a living reality in the life of a community and the ummah became the best nation, an example for mankind as long as it held onto that message.
كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ ٱلْمُنكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ
“You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah” (Aale Imran 3:110).
The Companions understood this mission. They sacrificed for it. They gave their wealth for it. They gave their lives for it. They understood that they had been given something too important to keep to themselves.
And that message travelled from generation to generation until it reached us.
What About Us?
It becomes a question. We love the Prophet ﷺ. But what does our love ask of us?
The Prophet ﷺ was not sent merely to be admired. He was sent to be followed. And the message he brought was not given to one generation. It was given to every generation that came after, ours included.
Umm Ayman (ra) understood this deeply then. When Muhammad ﷺ died, revelation had ceased. There would be no more verses descending from above. There would be no more Messenger walking among the people. But the Qur’an remained. His Sunnah remained. His example remained. And the responsibility remained.
The world today is in darkness looking for light. It is confused about who it is, why it exists and where it is going. It needs the message that Muhammad ﷺ brought. And the Ummah needs to rediscover it too.
So, will we make our love for the Messenger ﷺ become only something we speak about? Will we learn about our deen, the Quran and the sunnah and seerah of the Messenger of Allah, so that we know the man, his message and his mission? Will we carry that message in whatever situation we find ourselves in and support that mission in any way we can?
May Allah allow us to know him ﷺ, love him ﷺ, follow him ﷺ and carry what he brought with sincerity and courage.
This is how we truly remember the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
