08/26/2026
“WE HAVE SENT YOU ONLY AS A MERCY…” ﷺ ❤️
When Mercy Was Stronger Than Anger… and Closer to the Heart Than Punishment
Muhammad ﷺ was not merciful because people were always kind to him…
He was merciful even when they made mistakes.
Merciful when they were ignorant…
Merciful when they were disrespectful…
Merciful when they hurt him…
Merciful when his enemies became prisoners in his hands…
And merciful even toward someone who came asking his permission to commit a sin!
His mercy was not weakness.
His forgiveness was not helplessness.
His gentleness was not fear of confrontation.
He could punish…
Yet sometimes he chose to teach.
He could take revenge…
Yet he chose to forgive.
He could cast the sinner away…
Yet he chose to take him by the hand.
That was Muhammad ﷺ…
The one about whom Allah said:
“We have sent you only as a mercy to the worlds.”
(Qur’an 21:107)
Allah did not say: a mercy only to the believers…
He said:
“A mercy to the worlds.”
⸻
A YOUNG MAN CAME ASKING PERMISSION TO COMMIT ZINA!
Imagine the scene…
A young man comes to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ…
In front of his Companions…
And says openly:
“O Messenger of Allah, give me permission to commit zina.”
A shocking request.
Some of the Companions immediately began rebuking him.
But the Messenger of Mercy ﷺ said:
“Come closer.”
The young man came near.
Then the Prophet ﷺ asked:
“Would you like that for your mother?”
He replied:
No, by Allah! May Allah make me your ransom.
The Prophet ﷺ said:
“Neither would people like it for their mothers.”
Then he asked him about his daughter…
His sister…
His paternal aunt…
His maternal aunt…
And every time, the young man answered:
No, by Allah.
And every time, the Prophet ﷺ reminded him:
“Neither would people like it for theirs.”
He did not say:
Get out, you sinner!
He did not humiliate him.
He did not turn the young man’s weakness into his identity.
He did not announce to everyone:
Look at this man!
Instead…
He entered his heart…
Through the door that the heart could understand.
Then the Prophet ﷺ placed his blessed hand upon him and prayed:
“O Allah, forgive his sin, purify his heart, and protect his chastity.”
The young man walked in carrying a desire for which he wanted permission…
And walked out carrying a heart that desired purity.
Because the Prophet ﷺ did not break the person who made the mistake… he treated the mistake within him.
That is mercy when it becomes education.
⸻
AND A BEDOUIN ENTERED… AND URINATED IN THE MOSQUE!
Not in the street…
Not in an abandoned place…
But inside the Mosque of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
The Companions rushed toward him in anger.
How could someone do such a thing in the mosque?!
But the Prophet ﷺ said:
“Leave him.”
Let him finish.
Then the Prophet ﷺ ordered that a bucket of water be poured over the place.
And afterward…
He taught him.
The Prophet ﷺ also taught his Companions:
“You have been sent to make things easy, not to make things difficult.”
Think about it…
The man had done something wrong.
But the Prophet ﷺ understood something essential:
This man did not need humiliation… he needed education.
There is an enormous difference between someone who knows a ruling and deliberately violates it…
And someone who simply has not learned yet.
How many people have we pushed away from religion…
Because we punished them for something they merely needed us to teach them?
Muhammad ﷺ did not only want a clean mosque…
He also wanted a heart that had not been driven away from Allah.
⸻
AND A BEDOUIN PULLED HIS CLOAK SO HARD THAT IT LEFT A MARK ON HIS NECK!
A Bedouin approached the Prophet ﷺ…
And violently pulled his garment until its edge left a mark upon his blessed neck.
Then, with roughness, he demanded:
“O Muhammad! Order that I be given from the wealth of Allah that you have.”
Other reports contain similarly harsh expressions in demanding wealth, carrying the meaning that it was not the Prophet’s personal wealth nor his father’s.
What did the Prophet ﷺ do?
Did he become angry for his own dignity?
Did he order the man to be removed?
Did he say:
Is this how you speak to the Messenger of Allah?!
No.
He turned toward him…
And smiled ﷺ.
Then he ordered that the man be given something.
SubhanAllah…
The man approached him with roughness…
And the Prophet ﷺ answered him with character.
Because a truly great person…
Does not need to win every battle for his own ego.
⸻
AND ON THE DAY OF BADR… HE WAS STRAIGHTENING THE ROWS.
Before the battle, the Prophet ﷺ walked among his Companions…
Straightening their ranks.
He had a small stick or arrow shaft in his hand.
Sawad ibn Ghaziyyah رضي الله عنه was standing slightly ahead of the line…
So the Prophet ﷺ gently touched his abdomen with it and told him to straighten himself with the row.
Sawad said:
O Messenger of Allah…
You hurt me. Allah has sent you with truth and justice, so allow me equal retaliation.
In other words:
Let me take my right from you.
Imagine!
The Battle of Badr is about to begin…
A battle that could determine the future of the entire Muslim community…
The commander of the army…
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ…
And one soldier says to him:
I want my right from you.
What did Muhammad ﷺ do?
He uncovered his abdomen and said:
“Take your retaliation.”
Take your right.
He did not say:
After the battle.
He did not say:
Is this really the time for this?
He did not say:
I am your commander.
And he did not say:
I am the Messenger of Allah.
He simply uncovered his abdomen…
Because justice, for Muhammad ﷺ, did not stop being justice when the claim was against him.
Sawad suddenly embraced him and kissed his blessed abdomen.
The Prophet ﷺ asked why he had done that.
Sawad explained that the battle was about to begin and he did not know what would happen, so he wanted his last physical contact to be with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
Ya Allah…
It appeared that he was asking for retaliation…
But in truth…
He was searching for one final embrace.
What kind of love had this man ﷺ planted in the hearts of his Companions?
⸻
AND HE WENT TO TA’IF… ONLY TO RETURN WITH BLOOD FLOWING FROM HIS FEET.
He went there calling people to Allah.
He asked them for no money.
No kingdom.
No position.
He wanted guidance for them.
And what did they do?
They rejected him…
Mocked him…
Set their foolish people and children upon him…
And pelted him with stones…
Until his blessed feet bled.
He left Ta’if…
His body wounded…
His heart burdened.
Then the Angel of the Mountains came to him…
And offered to crush the people between the two mountains.
It was an opportunity for revenge.
No army needed.
No battle.
No years of waiting.
One word…
And Ta’if could have been destroyed.
But Muhammad ﷺ said:
“Rather, I hope that Allah will bring forth from their descendants people who will worship Allah alone and associate nothing with Him.”
O Messenger of Allah…
They made your feet bleed!
Yet he was not looking only at the people who had stoned him…
He was looking at children who had not even been born yet.
Perhaps from their descendants would come someone who would one day say:
La ilaha illa Allah.
What kind of heart is this?
They wounded his body…
And he dreamed of guidance for their children.
These are not the manners of someone seeking personal revenge…
This is the mercy of a Prophet.
⸻
AND AT BADR… THOSE WHO HAD WANTED TO KILL HIM BECAME PRISONERS IN HIS HANDS.
Yesterday…
They were fighting him.
Persecuting his Companions.
Driving Muslims from their homes.
Today…
They were prisoners.
And this is where character is truly tested.
It is easy to speak about mercy when you are powerless…
The real test is:
What will you do when you have power?
The Prophet ﷺ instructed that the prisoners be treated well.
Some of the Companions would even give the prisoners the better food while keeping the lesser food for themselves, striving to honor the Prophet’s instruction concerning them.
He ﷺ consulted his Companions regarding what should be done.
Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه leaned toward mercy and ransom…
ʿUmar رضي الله عنه leaned toward greater firmness…
And the Prophet ﷺ initially accepted ransom for many of them.
It is also famously reported in the books of Seerah that some prisoners who could not afford ransom gained their freedom by teaching Muslim children how to read and write.
Even a prisoner…
Could be transformed from an enemy into a teacher.
That itself is a lesson:
Do not always define a person by who they are today…
Perhaps Allah has already written an entirely different story for them tomorrow.
⸻
AND HIS MERCY FOR HIS UMMAH… HERE, WORDS BECOME DIFFICULT. ❤️
Because after reading all these stories…
You might say:
He was merciful to his Companions.
Merciful to children.
Merciful to the ignorant.
Merciful even to his enemies.
But there was another mercy…
A mercy that reached you and me.
People he had never seen.
People who would be born centuries after him.
Us.
Allah said about him:
“There has certainly come to you a Messenger from among yourselves. Your suffering distresses him. He is deeply concerned for you, and to the believers he is gracious and merciful.”
(Qur’an 9:128)
“Your suffering distresses him…”
Your hardship hurt him.
“He is deeply concerned for you…”
He desperately wanted your salvation.
“Gracious and merciful…”
This was not the description of one isolated moment…
It was the description of his heart ﷺ.
⸻
AND HE WEPT FOR US…
The Prophet ﷺ recited the words of Ibrahim عليه السلام:
“My Lord, indeed they have led many people astray. So whoever follows me is truly of me…”
And the words of ʿIsa عليه السلام:
“If You punish them, they are Your servants; but if You forgive them, You are indeed the Almighty, All-Wise.”
Then Muhammad ﷺ raised his hands…
And said:
“O Allah… my Ummah, my Ummah.”
And he wept.
He cried for us.
For an Ummah whose members had mostly not even been born.
For people he would never meet in this world.
For a man who would live a thousand years later…
A woman fourteen centuries later…
A young person who might sin and then return…
A sinner who might one day cry and repent…
“O Allah… my Ummah, my Ummah.”
Then Allah said to Jibril:
“O Jibril, go to Muhammad… and tell him: We shall please you regarding your Ummah, and We shall not cause you grief.”
Ya Allah…
How deeply this man ﷺ cared for us…
Before we even had names.
⸻
AND HE SAVED HIS SPECIAL SUPPLICATION FOR US…
The Prophet ﷺ told us that every Prophet was granted a special supplication that would be answered…
And he saved his…
As intercession for his Ummah on the Day of Resurrection.
He could have used it for himself in this world…
But he saved it…
For a Day when we will be in desperate need of mercy.
A Day when a person will flee from his brother…
His mother and father…
His spouse and children…
And there…
His Ummah will still matter to him.
My Ummah… my Ummah.
⸻
THIS IS MUHAMMAD ﷺ…
A young man asks permission to commit zina…
He sits him down, reasons with him, and prays for him.
A Bedouin urinates in his mosque…
He prevents people from humiliating him, then teaches him.
A man violently pulls his garment and rudely demands wealth…
He smiles and gives him.
A Companion asks for retaliation from him before Badr…
He uncovers his own abdomen and offers him his right.
The people of Ta’if make his feet bleed…
And he dreams of guidance for their descendants.
His enemies become prisoners…
And he commands that they be treated well.
An Ummah whose members he would mostly never see…
And he weeps for them.
⸻
This is Muhammad ﷺ.
His mercy was not a slogan…
It was a life.
It was not a sermon…
It was behavior.
It was not merely words about tolerance…
It was having the power to retaliate…
And choosing forgiveness.
Having the power to humiliate…
And choosing to educate.
Having the power to push someone away…
And choosing to bring them closer.
⸻
AND PERHAPS THIS IS THE QUESTION WE MUST NOW ASK OURSELVES…
If we say that we love Muhammad ﷺ…
How much of his mercy lives within us?
How do we treat people when they make mistakes?
How do we treat our children when they stumble?
How do we treat our spouses when they are weak?
How do we treat the Muslim who simply does not know?
The young person struggling with desire?
The person walking into a mosque for the first time?
The person who disagrees with us?
The one who has hurt us?
Is our goal always to prove that we are right?
Or is our goal sometimes…
To save a heart?
⸻
We may win an argument…
And lose a human being.
We may prove that someone is wrong…
And close the door through which they might have returned.
But Muhammad ﷺ…
Saw a human being behind the mistake.
Behind ignorance…
A person who could learn.
Behind sin…
A person who could repent.
Behind hostility…
A person who could one day be guided.
Even behind those who pelted him with stones…
He saw a generation not yet born that might one day prostrate before Allah.
And therein lies part of his greatness.
⸻
MUHAMMAD ﷺ WAS NOT MERCIFUL ONLY WHEN HE WAS WEAK…
He was merciful when he was powerful.
And that is true mercy.
To have the ability to punish…
And still be just.
To have the ability to take revenge…
And choose forgiveness.
To have the ability to expose…
And choose to conceal.
To have the ability to break someone…
And choose instead to mend them.
To see someone in the worst moment of their life…
And refuse to judge the rest of their life by that single moment.
⸻
And now, after all these centuries…
Here we are…
Reading about him…
Longing for a man we have never seen.
Loving a face upon which our eyes have never rested.
Missing a voice our ears have never heard.
Wishing that just once…
We could have walked behind him through the streets of Madinah…
Or sat in his mosque…
Or simply said:
O Messenger of Allah…
Make duʿa for us.
⸻
But O Messenger of Allah…
You prayed for us before we came.
You wept for us before we were born.
And you saved your intercession for the Day when we will meet you.
So how could we not love you? ❤️
How could our hearts not long for you?
How could we read your Seerah and not whisper:
May my father and mother be sacrificed for you, O Messenger of Allah ﷺ…
You were exactly as your Lord described you:
“WE HAVE SENT YOU ONLY AS A MERCY TO THE WORLDS.” ❤️
(Qur’an 21:107)
O Allah, grant us sincere love for him…
Grant us the beauty of following him…
Place something of his mercy within our hearts and character…
Grant us a drink from his Hawd after which we shall never thirst again…
And gather us with him in al-Firdaws al-Aʿla.
So that one day, we may finally say to him:
O Messenger of Allah… we never saw you in this world, but we loved you. ﷺ ❤️
Ahmed Abouzid ..
