I was wondering what I was going to speak about. This is the Prophet’s (saws) birthday and the subject is so huge. But before I say anything I will begin with: Bismillah i'r-Rahman i'r-Raheem was-salaat salam ala Sayyidina Muhammad (saws).

If you call him from here, will he hear us? If we call him from here will he hear us or not? [Yes] What is that? Yes? He hears us or not? [YESSS!]

So I was thinking about what I was going to speak of. They have exhausted me in England; every day and every night we used to have 1000 to 2000 people in different areas coming to honor the birth of the Prophet (saws).

His birth… I don’t think any speaker can express it. Anything heavenly or divine we might only speak of with our tongues but it will not give the real meaning. That is the important issue: that whatever a speaker speaks, he is limited. He can never give Sayyidina Muhammad (saws) his right or Ahl al-Bayt their rights.

 I was thinking of the ayat, which many people know, “qul bi-fadlillah wa bi rahmatihi fa bi-dhalika falyafrahu.”- with Allah’s fadl; and everyone knows what it means – fadlullah: His favors. His grace: whatever He says about it, we say His grace. He says my mercy, my rahmat. When Allah says something, that favor becomes rahmat, or mercy.

If someone is in need of money and someone gives him $100.00, it is mercy for him, because you can do with it what you want. So Allah , with His fadl, wants to give mercy to the ummah. Allah doesn’t give like we give. When Allah gives He gives according to His greatness, His adhama, His grandeur. When He gives, He gives without ending. You cannot say that Allah gives in small quantities. That is not generous - that is within limits. Allah , when He gives, gives generously. Allahu Akbar. Akbar has no definition. Allah’s fadl is always greater and greater and greater. So fadlullah- His mercy on us is always increasing - it can never stop.

So that ayah is indicating that when Allah gave His fadl, He gave His mercy as Sayyidina Muhammad (saws). He has to give the best; He is not going to give something small. That is why no one can bring down the status of Sayyidina Muhammad (saws). He is always increasing. And the example of that is very simple: I am not going to go through any difficult explanation today. Allah and His angels are praising the Prophet (saws). If I say that I and this group are making salawat on the Prophet (saws), how many are in this group? - 100, 200, maybe 300 but no more. This means that if we are praising, our praising is within limits. However, when Allah says, “inna Allah wa malaikatahu”, the question comes, “How many angels?” He didn’t say Allah and part of His angels. He didn’t say, “innAllah wa malaikat yusalloona` ala an-nabi”. He didn’t say, “malaikat al-jin”. He didn’t specify that a part of the angels are making salawat. Who can count the angels? Angels have no number… they are infinite. Therefore, in this verse, Allah is saying, “I am giving greatness from my greatness, asking those angels that praise me night and day, every moment, to praise you in every moment.”

Are there one million angels? No? Then Allah is poor? Are there one billion angels? ... a trillion angels? No, you cannot count them, the adhama of Allah ; the grandeur. Allah made all His angels to make salawat on the Prophet (saws) in order to show the greatness of the one He loves. Allah loving Sayyidina Muhammad (saws) gave him something He didn’t give anyone. The evidence of this is when Sayyidina Adam repented; he said, “O Allah , forgive me for the sake of Muhammad (saws). Allah asked him, “How do you know Muhammad (saws)? He answered, “Ya Rabbee, just like this room, wherever you turn there is Allah’s names written and on this side there are Ahl al-Bayt written.” He said, “Wherever I looked in Paradise I saw the name of Muhammad (saws) so I knew that that one must be the one you love the most.”

I was coming here in the car and I saw someone punching keys on a small box, and I was thinking, “What should I speak about?” Suddenly, I heard a scream and a lady’s voice saying, “Go left, go right, go left, right.” When we went left she said, “Go right!” and when we went right she screamed “go left!” Who is that lady? Someone is navigating for you and doesn’t miss one junction - doesn’t miss one freeway, doesn’t miss one gas station, doesn’t miss one house and tomorrow is not going to miss even one human being. This is for this small earth that, according to astrophysics, where the sun is like a point to big stars in the universe.

If that is the sun, what about the earth? Who navigated Sayyidina Muhammad (saws) through the heavens in the night of ascension? If we need a navigator to navigate us through this earth, do we ask how much genius it took to bring the Prophet (saws) to the distance of qaaba qawsayni aw adna in one hour? What kind of technology did Allah give to His prophet (saws)?

Today they have technology that the Prophet (saws) mentioned 1500 years ago. He went and came back. He didn’t miss even one district; he went through all of them, passing through the universe and reaching the Divine Presence. Think about the adhama of the Prophet (saws). Who was able to do that? Sayyidina `Isa did that; he went. They navigated him, and he is there waiting. He is coming back, and we are waiting for him.

O Muslims, when Sayyidina Muhammad (saws) went to Paradise, why did he go there? He went to do interfaith with his brother Sayyidina Musa .

Sayyidina Muhammad (saws) was the first to do interfaith. Now everywhere you go they say ‘interfaith’. That is good; it brings people together. But the first to do interfaith was the Prophet (saws). He used to sit with the monks, the Jews, and the Zoroastrians in his area. He used to talk to them and understand what they wanted. That is how he learned that the one that comes after must believe in the ones who came before. Abraham believed in whom? – In Sayyidina Nuh . Sayyidina Nuh believed in whom? -In Adam . Abraham believed in Sayyidina Nuh and Sayyidina Musa believed in Abraham . Jesus believed in Moses and who is Muhammad (saws) believing in? He said, “I believe in all of them. I am not before anyone; no one is wrong. You, who want to be Muslim, believe in them.”

That is why Sayyidina `Isa must believe in Sayyidina Musa and Sayyidina Muhammad (saws) must believe in Sayyidina `Isa . So the greatness of Sayyidina Muhammad (saws) is that he opened his arms and accepted everyone.

Therefore, if Sayyidina Musa doesn’t believe in `Isa it is his right, because `Isa came after him. If Jesus doesn’t believe in Muhammad (saws), it is his right, because the Prophet Muhammad (saws) came after him. But still he said, “I am giving good tidings of a nabi coming after me.”

You see, Sayyidina Muhammad (saws) came to unify people; he didn’t come to separate them. He came to integrate them. Look at the color red. Look at it, it is nice. Now, how many colors can the color red make? Red with other colors can make many more colors. Pink, purple… these colors and many others. Put them together and what happens? You get a rainbow of colors that everyone likes to look at, woven together. These colors come from womb…from Sayyidina Muhammad (saws), because Allah said, “w `alamoo anna feekum rasulullah”. “He is within you, not among you”, is how they translate the words. If he is in us, as in Arabic feekum means within you. In us how? - In that light.

In hadith the Prophet (saws) said, “The first thing that Allah created was my light which He put it in the bahr al-qudrah and from that He created everything else.” So from the light of the Prophet (saws) He created everything else. That is why, if you look at people like that, you will be happy because everyone is a piece of a rose. Or if you look at a very beautiful Persian rug, (not Afghani or Pakistani, it must be made of silk) it is so perfect and you can see the color and no one can do that except the Persians.

Even the holy Qur'an: there is a holy Qur’an in the Museum of England and it might be x number of pages and every page has a different decoration in 28 colors - I have one copy.

So that beauty that the Prophet (saws) is carrying is what we must learn.

Finally, before I finish, the Prophet (saws) said, “hubiba ilayya min dunyana thalath”. Allah made me love three things from this dunya. What was the first? - Women.

What was the first? He said, “an-nisa.” He said, “Women.” Allah made Sayyidina Muhammad (saws) to love women. Why? Women: because they are the light by which this world can continue. They carry generation after generation. I don’t want to tell you how much the Prophet (saws) gave good tidings when they got pregnant and delivered. When they delivered, it was as if they had done hajj and had no more sins on them. When the lady becomes pregnant and delivers it is as if she went for hajj and was forgiven and all her sins were finished.

So he said that the first thing Allah made to love was women. He knows how much women are broken-hearted by men. Women are soft by nature and men are tough. The Prophet (saws) is on the side of women. That is why in hadith, the Prophet (saws) never, never allowed the husband to beat his wife.

There is too much controversy today on the verse of the holy Qur’an: “fahjuruhunna fil madaji wadriboohunn.” The Prophet (saws) never raised his hand to his wives - never. And he ordered the sahaba not to touch their wives with any kind of beating. So, when Sayyidina Muhammad (saws) loves someone, what will happen? According to the hadith, “yahshur al-maru ma` man ahabb.”

If the Prophet (saws) loves women, then all women are going to enter Paradise by the love of the Prophet (saws).

Then he said, “at-teeb.” - The nice fragrance. Not the one you put on your clothes and on your face. People say, “O, the Prophet (saws) loves perfumes.” Yes, he loves perfumes. But here the meaning is that he loves those who aren’t stinking. And who are those who are stinking? - Those people who are angry. He doesn’t like the smell of anger; the smell of bad character; the smell of conspiracy; the smell of bad behavior. Those are smells the Prophet (saws) doesn’t like to smell.

“Wa innaka la`ala khuluqin adheem.” Allah gave that to the Prophet (saws).

 The third one is “qurrata `aaynee fee as-salaat.” That is an obligation for everyone. When we pray, we have to imitate our Prophet (saws). When we imitate our Prophet (saws) we will find ourselves in the Divine Presence.

Before I end I would like to say that I visited London and came here yesterday evening for Mawlid an-Nabi. I would like to say that in every masjid there are 2-3 thousand people. Everyone is rushing to put on a program. This month called the Month of the Prophet (saws). We must encourage ourselves to experience our Prophet’s (saws) birthday. It is not just one day… every day can be the birthday of the Prophet (saws) but the real day was the 31^st of March (or whatever people say; it depends on their time zone). We don’t want to call it seerah or anything else except the Prophet’s (saws) birthday.

Let Allah make us succeed in Europe and in the west. I met with many politicians there and they are very interested in Islamic outreach. They want to reach out with the Muslim community and they want the community to integrate with them. We hope they will integrate here as well and become like that.