Maulidur Rasul is almost here.
Something in our chest already knows it.
Maybe it's longing or gratitude.
Maybe it's the ache of loving someone you've never met.
Yet someone you somehow can't imagine your life without.
The day Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was born, the world changed.
His presence was light that entered the world and never left it.
He ﷺ came into an age that had forgotten its own humanity.
Still, he did not arrive with power, but with mercy so vast and made for all of us.
وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَـٰكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةًۭ لِّلْعَـٰلَمِينَ
"It was only as a mercy that We sent you to all people." [Qur'an 21:107]
So how do we mark this day in a way that reaches the heart?
We begin where he taught us to begin.
With Salawat.
Sayyidina Anas bin Malik (ra) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said:
"Whoever sends salah upon me once, Allah will send salah upon him tenfold, and will erase ten sins from him, and will raise him ten degrees in status."
— Sunan al-Nasa'i
Ten. For every one.
Let his name be on your lips all day.
Then, we follow him in every way that we can.
Because love wants to know the beloved.
To walk the way they walked.
To wake and sleep, their way.
To see the world a little more the way they saw it.
"If you love Allah, follow me, and Allah will love you."
— Qur'an 3:31
And if you want to love him more deeply: learn his story.
The Sirah is a living portrait of the most beloved of Allah ﷺ.
Every story in it has the power to change something in us.
May our hearts be made tender.
May our love for him ﷺ be woven into how we speak, give and forgive.
Allahumma salli 'ala Sayyidina Muhammad.
Salaam Maulidur Rasul.
