Surat al-Ahzap, 21, “You have an excellent model in the Messenger of Allah, for all who put their hope in Allah and the Last Day and remember Allah much.” Who should be our role model? The Messenger of Allah (saas), obviously. A Muslim would, of course, try to be like the Prophet (saas) in his praying, fasting and love. Even if he does not resemble him completely, he would still try his best. He would at least, resemble him in general terms. He will resemble him in jihad, which means his intellectual efforts, and in preaching. Look, in verse 21 of Surat al-Ahzab, Allah says, “You have an excellent model in the Messenger of Allah, for all who put their hope in Allah and the Last Day and remember Allah much.”
This means that we must also adopt the features of the Messenger of Allah (saas); if he is affectionate and loves women, we must also love women. If he loves children, we must also love them. If he loves flowers, we must love flowers. We must adopt attributes from the Qur’an and from our Prophet (saas).
In verse 100 of Surat at-Tawba, Almighty Allah says, “The forerunners – the first of the Muhajirun (the Emigrants) and the Ansar (the Helpers)” so we must be like the Muhajhirun and the Ansar. We must adopt their love of women, their love of children, their love of others, their honesty, their manners, their good intentions and all their fine feelings by coming to resemble them. We must strive to live in the same way as them.
Look, Allah says, “for all who put their hope in Allah and the Last Day and remember Allah much.”, for sincere Muslims, in other words, for those who seek Allah’s approval, who pray, who speak of Him and who love Him, ‘You have an excellent model in the Messenger of Allah,’ he is a model for you, says Allah. We must adopt him as a model. The Prophet’s (saas) love of children, for example. I resemble the Messenger of Allah (saas) in his love of children. ‘I love children like the Messenger of Allah (saas), I want to be like him and am striving to resemble him. I have his love of children.’
Who would we resemble if not our Prophet (saas)? Of course we will try our best to be like our Prophet (saas). What is surprising about that? The Prophet (saas) loves women, and I say, ‘I also love women.’ The love and mercy of our Prophet (saas). When I say I love women, I mean that our Prophet (saas) loves them with a merciful love as manifestations of Allah. He loves them with passion, passion for Allah. In loving women, I also love them with those feelings, with a passion for Allah and a merciful love.
In verse 31 of Surat al-‘Imran, Almighty Allah says, “Say, ‘If you love Allah, then follow me and Allah will love you and forgive you for your wrong actions. Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful’.” If you follow our Prophet (saas), if you resemble him, then Allah will love you, He says. We must resemble our prophet (saas) in every way, in everything we do. (Adnan Oktar, January 26th, 2013, A9 TV)
