What was the Physical Company of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) Like?
Mohammad Usman Qureshi from Karachi, Sindh asks,
‘What was the physical company of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) like?’
For the physical company of Prophet Mohammad, God said,
‘O devout believers, you are not as affected by your troubles and calamities as much as the Prophet is affected by them’.
And then God said, ‘O devout believers, Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is closer to you than you are to yourself’.
So how would you feel in the physical company of the one who is closer to you then you are to yourself?
You would just want to lose yourself in him.
In the era of Prophet Mohammad, in the beginning, they would make sandals out of wood.
The part where the big toe sits would be lifted slightly.
One of the reasons behind making sandals out of wood was that wood did not get very hot as it would be very hot there.
So wood did not get hot very quickly.
So wood came in handy in different ways.
They would make sandals out of it.
So when the Prophet would walk with his wood sandals,
there were some Companions like Abu Zar Ghaffari (ra) who would hear the sound of the wood sandals
because the wood sandals would make some noise.
The wood sandals would speak and say, ‘Look how fortunate I am for the Prophet has placed me on his feet!’
And the wood sandals would say to Abu Zar Ghaffari, ‘You are a human being yet you are deprived of this’.
Now, even the trees engage in the commemoration of God’s name.
Not all of the trees do it, just a few.
So when he would hear this, Abu Zar Ghaffari would say to Prophet Mohammad,
‘My Lord, these trees and these wood sandals are more fortunate than us, at least they obtain the nearness of your feet.'
'If only we could have been like these wood sandals’.
That is when Prophet Mohammad said, ‘My feet are on top of these shoes but I can grant you the power to go inside my feet’.
This is where the concept of Fana Fil Rasool (Annihilation through the Messenger) began.
Now, what was the physical company of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) like?
His company was such that the Companions would not remember anything else except the Prophet.
Understand?
When they began to worship five times a day regularly, it was not because of the Salat,
but because they would have the opportunity to look at the Prophet.
Now you tell me if Prophet Mohammad came back today, would you miss even one Salat?
You would use any excuse to look at the Prophet.
You would be afraid of the Salat ending in 10 minutes.
You would want it to go on for at least an hour.
One day Prophet Mohammad was running a temperature.
He was resting in his chambers.
When it was time to offer Salat, he asked Abu Bakr Siddiq to lead the prayers
and all the people who came to pray were restless and during the Salat,
all the Companions would keep turning their face
towards the chambers of the Prophet which was on the left-hand side, instead of facing the Kaaba.
Their eyes were searching and longing to see their Master.
Of course, the Prophet knew how they were feeling.
The Prophet drew open the curtain from his chambers and allowed his people to look at him.
The faces of all the Companions beamed with smiles and happiness.
The Prophet said, ‘I know they were just about to stop praying and run towards me
but I waved my hand at them to tell them to continue praying’.
A poet wrote, ‘Looking at you was my Salat’.
Right?
One who would obtain the physical company of the Prophet would want to stay with him forever.
He would wish for something to happen, for his legs to stop working or just something which would let him stay there forever.
He would just want to stay with the Prophet forever.
And this is exactly how we would feel in the physical company of His Divine Eminence.
Exactly the same.
Whenever we would sit with His Divine Eminence,
our hearts would beat rapidly with the fear of His Divine Eminence getting up and leaving.
Isn’t that right?
I would be so fearful that He would get up and leave any second.
Any moment He would leave.
I would become very hyper.
My face would look sad and I would become hyper and I would suddenly stand up.
One day, His Divine Eminence scolded me and said, ‘I am not going anywhere. Don’t worry. I am not going anywhere’.
I mean even when His Divine Eminence would get up from the sofa just to fix His shirt,
I would think oh no His Divine Eminence is leaving!
His Divine Eminence would say, ‘Sit down, I am not going anywhere’.
When His Divine Eminence would get up and leave it would feel like somebody is taking our life our soul away from us.
We felt like we were dying.
And when His Divine Eminence would come [to London], it would be the happiest day of my life
but when He would have to return to Pakistan, it would be like Muharram for us.
Often what I would do is when His Divine Eminence was about to leave for the airport,
I would play a Ghazal in my car, I would open the windows and have the volume on full blast.
I did this a few times and then one day, His Divine Eminence told someone, ‘Stop this music. Don’t play this music’.
Then His Divine Eminence said, ‘Who was playing this?’
I said, ‘Master, I was playing it’.
‘Why? I can only come back if I go’.
We would bow down to His Divine Eminence’s feet and cry our eyes out
and His Divine Eminence would console us and say, ‘Come on now, don’t cry like a girl’.
Imagine how you would feel.
'My life seems to leave my body when you get up and go.'
'For my sake, O’ Gohar, just agree to this one request of mine. Don’t insist on leaving tonight.'
'I will die, I will be lost so please don’t talk about leaving. Don’t insist on leaving tonight.
It would be a very strange and unique feeling.
I would see off His Divine Eminence at the airport and return with a lot of sadness as if I had lost everything.
I would feel like I should die now.
Many days would go by and I would keep myself locked in my room, I wouldn’t meet anyone.
One day I cried a lot and I prayed to His Divine Eminence to just come back and never leave me.
Right?
Once He comes back, there should be no talk of leaving me again.
Because once He leaves, the chair that He would sit on, the doorway which He would walk through,
when I don’t see Him there my life hangs in the balance.
Please, Master, free me from this agony.
I can’t bear to see this.
For instance, the red sofa that His Divine Eminence always sat on,
after His Divine Eminence would leave,
I would go and sit by that sofa.
I would close my eyes and imagine that His Divine Eminence is sitting right there.
And if I had to go, I would get up and leave with my eyes closed so that I would think His Divine Eminence is right there.
Sometimes I would feel as though His Divine Eminence called my name.
So how does one feel in the physical company of the Prophet?