Akhlaaq and the Ibaadath of the Prophat SAW through the eyes of a child

Assalathu wassalamu ala rasoolillah.Amma baad.

Honourable judges, respected elders and my dear brothers and sisters, Assalamu Alaikum warahmathullahi wabrakathuhu

Today I am standing in front of you to deliver a speech on the topic of Akhlaaq and the Ibaadath of the Prophat SAW through the eyes of a child. Insha Allah.

I have divided my speech in to three parts. In the first part I will talk about the Akhlaaq of the prophet SAW. In the second   about  the Ibaadath of the Prophet SAW and in the third part about the lessons we can learn from  the Prophet SAW, Insha Allah.

I would like to begin the first part of my speech by discussing what is meant by akhlaaq.

The word Ahlaaq literally means morals, charactor, maners.

In terms of Islam there are so many definitions for akhlaaq but I would like to start by quoting Imam Ibnul Qayyim Rahimahullah’s definition. He said.

Doing good by word and action and not doing harm by word and action which is based on Islam.

Let’s see what  our creator, the One who created the prophet SAW,  told us about  the Prophet SAW’s Akhlaaq.  In Surah Qalam verse 4 it says,

وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلَىٰ خُلُقٍ عَظِيمٍ

Indeed You are of the highest noble character.

Subahanallah,

Here Allah SWT gives the certificate of his character. Who knows well about his creations except the creator himself.

Lets put this into context. Imagine in our school,  if our head teacher   praised one us for having good manners in front of the whole school in assembly. In order to be praised like that,  we would truly  have to be the best. Here Allah SWT is not just saying the Prophet SAW has the best manners out of 200 sudents but out of  all of His creations.

Subahanallah,

I think this one Ayath is sufficient for us to understand the quality of our beloved Prophet SAW’s Akhlaq .

Now lets turn our attention to the hadees  to see what what our prophet SAW said about himself. It is reported in the Bukhari, The Prophet SAW said ‘I was sent to complete the best of morals.’

When I look at this hadees even as a child it truly makes sense to me. When a person is chosen for a job, obviously the best candidate is picked.

So here Allah chose our beloved Prophet SAW why? Because he is the best in his morals.

When we look at our reality, most of the world leaders say something and do the opposite of it.for eg; we can say  the global warming campaign, these are for the  ordinary people just like us but not for the leaders.

But when we look at our Prophet SAW sayings they are not merely slogans, but they were best demonstrated throughout the life of the prophet SAW.

 I could talk endlessly about the  Akhlaaq of our beloved prophet SAW I could talk about his modesty or gentleness or kindness or honesty or cheerful face or patience or .... the list goes on and on. Whatever you name it our prophet SAW is the best out of all the creations.

Now  lets  move to the 2^nd part of my speech which is the ibadath of our prophet SAW. The term ibadath literally  means  worship. Interms of islam  Ibadhah is the obedience,submission and devotion to Allah SWT  along eith the ultimate love for him.

 I really want to mention that some of us have the misunderstanding that ibadath means only 5 pillars. Thats  not the only thing. The whole life should be ibadath.

Allah SWT says the purpose why he created in  sura  ad-dhariath verse 56

وَمَا خَلَقۡتُ ٱلۡجِنَّ وَٱلۡإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعۡبُدُونِ

Which means,

“I did not create Jinn and Mankind except for My worship.

Now lets look at our beloved prophet SAW ibadhath,

There is a hadee

·         It was reported that the Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) stayed up all night, standing (in prayer) until his feet became swollen. When he was asked, “Why are you doing this, when Allah has forgiven all your past and future wrong actions?” he replied, “Should I not be a grateful slave?” [Sahih Bukhari]

Subhanallah!

Think about ourselves. Let’s leave the nafl prayer one side for a moment , lets talk about the fard prayer.

How many of us pray by ourselves without any reminder from their parents?

How many times do our parents need to remind us for one single  prayer?

Look at our prophet SAW , his previous sins were forgiven, yet He SAW willingly did all of these. So how much  we have to do my dear brothers and sisters?

If you allow me to talk about the ibadath of our beloved prophet SAW I can go on and on, but time doesn’t permit me. So in a nut shell He SAW whole life was ibadat, his hajj his umrah his salah the way he treated his family the way he judged in societal affairs the way he ran the government  etc... etc...

Now lets move to my last part of my speech which is about the  lessons we can take for ourselves. Insha allah.

When  I learned about our beloved prophet SAW as a child there are so many questions that came to my mind. How  could our prophet SAW manage to do all of this? I mean having good akhlaq and doing the ibadath in the best manner    in his whole life no matter what the situation was whether he was happy, sad rich poor or.

When we look at the society he was in, it was full of bad practice such cheating, killing, oppression , violence ect. Our  prophet SAW had to go against the society. it is very easy to get lost in the crowd. Yet our beloved prophet SAW was always best in his morals and ibadhath. Some people might say thats because He is the prophet . we are just ordinary human beings, we can’t change our nature. If  this statement is true, then how could prophet  SAW change the sahabas RA  into excellent people. Some of them were the most horrible people before they became muslim.

When we look at our society’s  values  is not very different to theirs. It is also full of with bad , non Islamic  values and practices  such as individualism, freedom, seeking benefit out of everything, living the life to the max, bullying, cheating, oppression, worshipping money and pop stars and ect..

How can we overcome these values and become true muslims.    Because the values of the world we live today and our Islamic akhlaq and ibadat are totally opposite

If  I want to change myself which which concept should I leave first? If I want to follow our prophet SAW which one should I adopt first?

I thought and thought but I couldn’t find an answer. Finally I approached  my parents and they gave me an answer which  convinced me. Alhamdulillah.

My dear brothers and sisters  I think as a child you might have the same questions as me. So please listen attentively of this.

First of all our belief in Allah SWT should be firm. There shouldn’t be any  doubt. This should be based on rational thinking. we shouldn’t be a muslim because we are born to a muslim  parent. Rather we should be a muslim after the clear conviction of the following 3 things.

1.clear proof that Allah SWT exist.

2.quran is the word of Allah.

3.Prophet Muhammad SAW is the prophet of Allah.

After the true conviction of these 3 things we should accept all of Allah SWT command. Whether it  be Ibadat or muamalat or akhlaq. We sholdn’t differentiate between Allah SWT’s command. We can’t take part of islam and leave the rest. We should practice comprehensively. For example there are some people they are very good in their ibadath to the extend that they don’t even miss their tahajjud, but when it comes to ahlaaqthey don’t even smile at their neighbours. Or vice versa..Auoothubillah.

Finally we shouldn’t charactorise by good ahlaaq for sake of good ahlaaq in itself or to gain a wordly benefit out of it. In the same way  we shouldn’t do our ibaadhath for the sake of becoming  a good aabid in itself or to gain a worldly  benefit out of it. Some times we pray to please our parents so that they will allow us to have Friday favourites.  But now I understand that we should do our ibadath,ahlaaq or muamalat b’cos Allah SWT commanded us to do so. That’s how the sahaba RA became excellent  people.

As a conclusion I ask Allah SWT to   forgive our sins and make each one of us who gathered here into excellent people who have good morals and a good aabid.Aameen.

Jazakallahu khair for listening to my speech.

Wahiru da’wana anilhamdulillahi rabbil aalameen.

Wassalamu alaikum, warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu.