As I sit here today, reflecting on the things that have happened in my life and the lessons I have learned through my own experiences, I find myself thinking deeply about the life of our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Sometimes, when we go through difficulties, we feel as though life has been unfair to us. We wonder why certain things happened, why certain people hurt us, why we had to lose certain things, and why our journey had to be so difficult. But when I look at the life of our Prophet ﷺ, I realise that perhaps one of the greatest lessons is not about having a life without hardship, but about how beautifully a person carries himself through hardship.
Our beloved Prophet ﷺ was born an orphan. He lost his father before he was born and then lost his beloved mother at such a young age. He was raised by his grandfather and later by his uncle. Yet the boy who experienced loss so early in life grew into a man whom people called Al-Ameen, the trustworthy one. Even before prophethood, people trusted him with their belongings, their business and their words. There is something so powerful about that. His circumstances did not define his character. What happened to him did not make him bitter. His pain did not become an excuse to hurt others.
He married Khadijah رضي الله عنها, a successful and respected businesswoman, and their relationship itself teaches us so much about partnership, love, respect and emotional safety. She believed in him when the world doubted him. She stood beside him when the responsibility of prophethood became overwhelming. And when revelation came and he returned home shaken, it was Khadijah رضي الله عنها who comforted him and reminded him of the goodness within him. There is something deeply beautiful about how Allah placed the right person beside him at such a significant moment of his life.
Then came the responsibility of delivering a message that challenged an entire society. The people who once called him trustworthy began to oppose him. The same people who knew his character turned against him because he called them towards something greater. He was mocked, rejected, insulted, boycotted and persecuted. Yet he continued. He did not abandon his purpose simply because people misunderstood him. He did not become the person they accused him of being. He remained himself.
When I look at the society he came into, I realise just how transformative his message was. Women who had been treated without the dignity and rights they deserved were given honour, protection, inheritance and a recognised place in society. Practices such as consulting soothsayers and seeking the help of black magic were prohibited. Alcohol, which was deeply rooted in society, was gradually addressed and eventually prohibited. People who did not even know how to pray were taught how to stand before their Creator. They were taught how to fast, how to give charity, how to treat their parents, how to treat their neighbours, how to conduct business, how to control their anger, how to forgive and how to live with responsibility.
He did not simply teach people rituals. He transformed human beings.
And perhaps this is one of the things that touches me the most. The Prophet ﷺ had access to wealth, influence and respect, yet he chose a life of simplicity. He could have lived in luxury, but he did not make worldly possessions the measure of his success. He had the opportunity to have more, yet he lived with so little. His greatness was never in what he owned. His greatness was in who he was, how he treated people and how completely he submitted himself to Allah.
Sometimes we think success means finally reaching a point where nothing hurts anymore. But the life of our beloved Prophet ﷺ teaches me something completely different. Success is not that life stops testing you. Success is that the tests do not take you away from Allah. It is being able to lose and still remain grateful. To be rejected and still remain kind. To be hurt and still refuse to become cruel. To have power and still remain humble. To have wealth and still choose simplicity. To be wronged and still choose forgiveness when forgiveness is possible.
When I think about all of this, I also think about my own life. There are moments when I look back at things that happened and realise that perhaps I was too focused on what I lost and not enough on what those experiences were teaching me. Perhaps some of the things I considered endings were actually opportunities for rebuilding. Perhaps some pain was teaching me patience. Perhaps some disappointments were teaching me detachment from people and attachment to Allah. And perhaps some of the moments when I felt that I was losing myself were actually moments when Allah was bringing me closer to the person I was meant to become.
Today, on the birthday of our beloved Prophet ﷺ, I find myself wishing I could sit with him just for a little while. Sometimes I genuinely pray for a day when I can meet my beloved Prophet ﷺ and learn from him. I imagine what it would feel like to hear him speak, to ask him questions, to understand how he looked at life, how he carried pain, how he forgave, how he loved, how he dealt with people and how he remained so deeply connected to Allah despite everything that happened around him.
There are so many things I would want to ask him. How did you remain so patient when people hurt you? How did you keep your heart soft after experiencing so much rejection? How did you continue to love people who did not understand you? How did you carry the responsibility of changing a society while carrying your own personal losses? How did you remain so humble when Allah elevated you to such a position?
Maybe the answer is already present in the life he left for us.
Maybe he was teaching us that life is not about controlling what happens to us. It is about controlling who we become because of what happens to us. We cannot choose every loss, every betrayal, every disappointment or every test. But we can choose whether those experiences make our hearts harder or make us turn towards Allah with greater sincerity.
Today, I don't just want to remember the Prophet ﷺ. I want to ask myself what it means to truly follow him. To become more trustworthy. More compassionate. More patient. More forgiving. More humble. To treat people with dignity. To stop allowing temporary pain to change the goodness within me. To live simply when the world tells me I need more. To remember Allah when life feels heavy. To become someone whose presence makes another person's life a little easier.
That, perhaps, is one of the greatest ways to honour the man who came into this world and changed it forever.
May Allah increase our love for our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, allow us to understand his life beyond simply knowing his story, and give us the strength to bring his character into our own lives. And one day, Insha'Allah, may I have the honour of meeting my beloved Prophet ﷺ, sitting in his presence and learning from him all the things my heart still wants to know.
اللهم صل وسلم وبارك على نبينا محمد ﷺ
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