This is the way

THIS IS THE WAY:

A Poem in praise of the Prophet of Mankind (May Allah bestow upon him peace and blessings)

by arfan shah

Part one

This is the way
This is the straight way
A light is lit and I can see the thorns
I can see the difficulties
How can someone go down this path
They would have to be strong

I can see pitfalls
How can I go down this path
Someone as weak as me
How could I follow him?
The one who went before us all
He went through things that wouldn’t be able to bear

No burden is placed upon a person
More than he can carry
How much loss he bore
People he loved where killed, tortured and mutilated
Yet he saved nations
And his work has to be carried on

How could I
All I have is insincerity
The enveloped one, covered us in the mercy of Allah Ta’ala
If I could see him
If I could only see him
How happy would I be
What was I missing

I will fix
I will follow you
I will follow you
This is the path
This is the only path
I will fall but I have to focus on my goal
He knew more than anyone before him or after him
Yet he was the most humble, dignified of them all
How I long to be where he is
How many nights I have waited to see if he would visit me in my dreams
The entire universe is honoured to have him here
I’ll keep him in my heart where no one can see

Some won’t understand and how lost would those be
Without the love of the chosen one
O Lord of the worlds how you have honoured me by making me
One of those who will be part of his community
How could anyone not see what you are
You allowed this path to be open for us all no matter what colour
Or what race we are

Part two

This is the path
The path of success
And this love increased until this heart beat
With your knowledge
How did I live for so long without this love
How did I survive when my heart was ruined without you
Please tell how this translates
I'll never know
I never knew what I was missing out on
I wonder how many others are like this
Say with lips what there hearts don’t know
If only the hearts knew
What others know

What I have come to know

He came to join people not separate
He was sent to save
He never came to condemn
He came to every living thing
How can it be that rocks and trees knew him
And some of us have forgotten
We have become rocks but without knowledge
We walk loud and tall but he never walked like that did he?
He walked unlike anything we could imagine
We need to dress like him
We need to wear that cloak and understand
The words coming out of our months
How can I explain in words what I can only feel
How can you understand unless you come close
We say that some people break the mould
When you where made there was no mould to break

Part three

You are the one and only
No one looked like you
No one talked like you
No one sat like you
No one ate like you
No one prayed like you
No one fasted like you
There is no one that this world has seen like you
I send one prayer to you and I get ten prayers send to me
It is only because Allah Ta’ala has honoured my tongue
By mentioning your name

He is the best of the best of the best
He went through test after test
That is the way
The way to Allah Ta’ala
You may have to struggle but that’s part of the way
You have to struggle before you can have ease
How else can you know ease without struggle
Then how would you know love
Unless there was no love before

When love is complete
Then you can see the completion of this faith
Then you would begin to understand.
He never answered a bad word with a bad word
You replied in every tongue that you heard
You never interrupted anyone’s speech
You let them finish then you would respond
Never pointed, you used your whole hand
You went when to heaven and conversed with our Lord
Another amazing thing after this
You came back
You came back to Earth to set us free
From the chains we wrap ourselves in
The chains of humanity

You gave and never withheld

Part four

O person with no love
Plant the seed of this love
Then watch the tree grow
A great oak, it takes time to understand this
I hope those who don’t, will

one day
I hope to be one of those whose thirst will be quenched on that day

When we are raised up
I hope to drink from the pool
I will never be thirsty after that day

There was a man who was happy to be tortured
Happy to be tortured to death rather than to have you feel a thorn
Everything connected to you is the great
But the title you were most content with was the slave of Allah Subhanu wa Ta’ala
Your worship was perfect and sincere

How did I live without this love?
Some say it’s a condition of faith
Others say without it you have no faith

He was the most beautiful of mankind
He was veiled from some
He would enter a room at night and his face would radiate light
How could we not love you
How?

Someone said if only he was the eyes of Abu Jahl
Eyes that saw you
I would be happy to burn in hell
To pay for this blessing

Know that lovers always use hyperbole

Have I alienated more of you?
A lover only cares for his beloved
He doesn’t care what names that you call him

They wanted an angel to bring them revelation
They wanted a king who had power
They didn’t want a man
What they didn’t know is that you are the best of creation
Better than the angels
Even the angel of death asked permission to take your soul

He was better than all the mankind put together
No king would every be able to have people love him
Like people did you

You laid to rest all of your children
Except one
Yet we cannot find a single complaint
Even then you knew when Fatima would follow you
She cried because she did not want you to pass away
But when happy when she learned that she would join you soon
Who cries now?
We must cry because we miss you
We must cry

Part five

How many riches do we try to obtain?
We are led astray by own hands

You wished to live amongst the poor
You wished to be born amongst the poor
There is something wrong here isn’t there
The only rich man in this world
Is someone who loves you
The only poor man is he who doesn’t love you
That’s true poverty

He remembered death
Unlike anyone

He loved people to be guided
So when they stoned him
And the angels came down ready to destroy the people of this town
He said no, he wished that out of their children, believers would come
What would you have done?

This is the path you must follow
This is the only path to success
It is set out for you

Walk the path of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)

The beginning and the end of this has a core
That core is tawqa
O’ you who desire to follow you, must have taqwa
Piety and fear

Part six

He never cast a shadow
Yet he could the light the world

The only reason we don’t see the light of the other stars
Is because the sun is so close
Thats why when he walked, light surrounded him
His light (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was stronger than the light of the sun

How dare we fill our bellies until they burst
When he used to sleep hungry
How can we fight people?
When he was the first to make peace
How we have neglected his practice
We was sent to be obeyed by the permission of Allah Ta'ala
Why have we forgotten this

We draw closer to the world
With every step we take
The further we run from him
He gave away what we eat from
He feed the hungry
He protected the weak
We neglect the hungry and the weak

Where do we begin
To repair this
Where do we start
There are so much that we have to repair
Some of us desire to destroy this world

Deliver the message
Have you actually tried to deliver it?

You are wondrous
You amaze me every day
I miss you more and more each day
All praise is due to Allah (mighty and majestic) who made it easy to love you
It's so easy how could anyone not

I have learnt that to live honourable in this world
There is only one way
Your way

So many of us are too busy to lend an ear and listen
Listen to his legacy
His legacy is the legacy of prophet hood
How dare you believe anything else!

We must open the books and learn from those who leant from you
This chain is unbreakable
We must link ourselves to it
I am awake but eyes have not seen beauty like you
If we lived, in this world, like you
We would conquer the earth
If we don’t

Then we have failed to live at all
Why do we make it so difficult for ourselves?
Why can’t we change our condition?

Part seven

We must see progress

We must grow
We must see our potential
We must understand
What we are

The one who migrated for the world will lose out
Yet the one who migrated for the deen
His reward will be, in line with what he gave up

We curse those who help us
We have everything we could ever want
Yet we complain, how wretched we are
So many in the world don’t live like us
Poverty was his pride
Without any negativity

Why don’t we live like him?
We live like animals
If we live any other way than his
Are we content with being animals?
Are we happy to disgraced?
It is time to revive ourselves

We still have time to put things right
Ask Allah (mighty and majestic) for forgiveness
Then follow the guided path
Where the night is like its day
So don’t worry what they say
Stand firm

Walk, tread this path
Move forward
If we turn away we will be lost
And layers of darkness will enclose us
In a living prison
Where the only escape is death
Death is just a journey from one realm to the next

A stopping place

Some say that you pray for yourself

If that is true then what a low thing you pray for
You should pray for Allah and that the highest calling
The rest of the positions are much lower
If you don’t pray then you are your own worst enemy
Do you want your judgement to be as bad as possible
Isn’t that what you are trying to say?


Part eight

He never said that his message was just for some
It was for everyone
Not just the chosen ones
We live in our bubbles and we are scared of the sound
When it will finally burst

There are parts of our culture that we should leave
We are at a dawn of a new age
That age will come shortly
We either fall or we rise up
Some will become disillusioned along the way
We may fall a long way
Clean yourself up and carry on along his way

Know tribulation will befall us all
In many different ways
But this when his way should become clear
We will know what do
We are not without guidance
Some who fall astray have neglected his way
He was never hopeless
He knew that Allah had already won
It just depends on you
What are you going to do
Are you going to go him?
And find your way back
Is it not time we were honest
To admit we are not happy and that we should try another way
This way is waiting for you
Waiting for your footsteps
It won't be easy but if you cry out
You will get help

Believe and stand firm
Don’t listen to what they say
Listen to what he did
He didn't go to extremes
Follow the middle path

Don’t debase yourself
With anything else
Every single hadith applies to you
Apply it if you can
Even if it is just once
Even if its only one thing
Perfect it and move forward



Part nine

I learn more about him everyday
And every day there is something new
There is so much that I cannot do
Because of my weakness
Why do we pretend to be who we are not
We scream yet there is no realisation
We make it hard for old friends and new

We do not do what we claim
The only thing good about our claims is his name in it

We love but love is not enough and love is not the end of all things
Love means nothing without obedience
Love means nothing when it is just words

Do we want our words to be thrown back into our faces
Just because we claim does not mean we follow his path

The path was made so clear to us
Flundering and blundering in darkness
When the light showed us the way out
We chose to fall away
We chose to leave his love
We chose to walk another way



They said he had all the best characteristics of the Prophets (upon them peace)
They had an agreement to follow him
He was the one they all followed
He was the one they all loved
He was the one whose character they took from


O' Allah how you have blessed us with the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)
O' Allah; there is nothing like you, nothing overcomes you

Please allow us to see the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) with our sinful eyes
Even though we don’t deserve it
O' Allah please forgive our sins and enter us into heaven
So we can see the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and see you
O' Allah the creator of everything you created his beauty
Without it the world wouldn’t be the same.
All you have to do is follow his way

We are happy with Allah as our Lord, with Islam as our religion
And with Muhammad (may Allah bestow upon him peace and blessings) as our Prophet.