Gentleness First

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 13 June 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

O Allah, set right for us our religion, our worldly life, and our Hereafter; grant us right guidance in our affairs; bless us in what You have provided us; and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.

When you look at the conditions of the Prophet ﷺ as he dealt with people, you see that his first slogan with creation was gentleness. The gentleness that led him to play with a boy on the road, and a young girl would take him by the hand and walk him around the whole of Madinah while he yielded in her hands ﷺ, wanting to settle her need with the Messenger of Allah beside her, and no one dared to speak.^[5]

The Functional Logic

The Prophet ﷺ dealt with people by the functional logic that the Lord of the worlds, glorified is He, had defined for him. I say it again: the functional logic that our Lord defined for him. And what is it? ﴿وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِلْعَالَمِينَ﴾ (“And We have not sent you except as a mercy to the worlds”).^[1]

Take this concept and imagine an employee working at a sales company, whose task is to sell. The customer comes in and speaks with him, right and wrong, and the salesman says: Certainly, sir, the customer is always right, at your service, I am under your command. Then the customer leaves and the salesman turns his back and vents his anger, but when he turns again toward the same customer he repaints his face. As for the Prophet ﷺ, he did not differ between what was in his heart and what was on his face, but he was committed to his first functional mission in life: that he is a caller to Allah who deals with people gently.

Gentleness in the Prayer Times

In the timings of the prayers, for example, the Prophet ﷺ would pray Fajr in the brightening light, delay it, and advance it, according to what? According to the benefit of the people: as much as they slept and as much as they woke.

And when we came to study the case of Friday, is it permissible for us to pray Jumuʿah at twelve o'clock in some places, particularly in the north, for example? We found narrations from the Prophet ﷺ, and the only inference I understood from gathering all these narrations was that the Prophet ﷺ would choose for people what is gentlest on them. For the heat of Makkah, we ask Allah for well-being and safety, and likewise Madinah, when it intensifies, people cannot bear to move, so much so that men cover their faces from the severity of the heat. So the Prophet ﷺ goes out to the people to deliver his sermon to them or to call them to prayer, or Bilāl gives the adhān, at the time in which he knows there is gentleness toward creation.^[4]

"Allah Intends Ease for You"

Our Lord, glorified is He, says: ﴿يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ بِكُمُ الْيُسْرَ وَلَا يُرِيدُ بِكُمُ الْعُسْرَ﴾ (“Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship”). The sentence is completely upright and lodged in the minds of the entire Ummah. Even if one of the people said: Yes, Allah intends ease for us, but this ease does not suit my situation in this case, then the following sentence covers this feeling and lifts it from the soul of its holder: ﴿وَلَا يُرِيدُ بِكُمُ الْعُسْرَ﴾ (“and does not intend for you hardship”), and then ﴿وَلِتُكْمِلُوا الْعِدَّةَ وَلِتُكَبِّرُوا اللَّهَ عَلَى مَا هَدَاكُمْ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ﴾ (“so that you complete the period and glorify Allah for that to which He has guided you, and perhaps you will be grateful”).^[2] Glory be to the Most High, the Almighty.

Gentleness in the Rites of Ḥajj

And it is as though I see the Lord of Might, glorified is He, in the examples we gave in the matter of ḥajj: the Prophet ﷺ permits the people to go out to Minā on the eighth of Dhū al-Ḥijjah, why? So that they may rest there. So there is a compulsory rest for the Muslim community, so that when it goes out to ʿArafah it goes out strong, and the distance is long, not trivial. Then when it stays at ʿArafah it is not required, as an obligation, to arrive before Ẓuhr, nor to be there at eleven fifty-three! It is not a train schedule. Set out and arrive whenever you arrive. When the people arrive shortly before Maghrib, and have settled their affairs, then the departure: they do not depart before Maghrib, a condition, why? So that the sun calms, and when they set out they are able to walk, move, and shift about on the earth.

Then it is obligatory on them to be at Muzdalifah, a compulsory rest stop. Some people unload their mounts and sit half an hour, some stay until after midnight, and some stay until Fajr, but I am speaking about the legislative purpose. When they arrive there they renew their ablution and regain their sense of themselves, so they sleep in purity and ablution, and that helps them toward more rest, when they set out after Fajr with a long day of rites before them. So it is as though the Prophet ﷺ presents himself as a model who rests and does not rush off in a swift movement that might ruin its doer, but takes a share of rest; he ﷺ sleeps while the Ummah around him worships Allah, blessed and exalted, with a kind of gentleness and kindness.

"Do It, There Is No Harm"

Then when it dawns on the day of ʿEid, and these are very simple examples, behold the Prophet ﷺ on this day that is hard and severe on people, with people crowding in doing things, no one asks him a question but that he says the famous sentence: «افعل ولا حرج» ("Do it, and there is no harm").^[3] How "do it and there is no harm"? This does not cohere in my mind as I speak about legislation, system, work strategies, and the movement of an Ummah. But the Prophet ﷺ establishes the principle of gentleness with creation: do what is easy at hand, for the day is severe and the rites are hard.

And when the Prophet ﷺ makes the people sit in Minā two full days to rest and calm down, the people would set out to the ṭawāf al-ifāḍah and return with the matter easy on them. You see the wisdom of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in this sentence that opens the doors of legislation for the mujtahids until the Day of Resurrection, that they may find solutions that fit and keep pace with successive events.

Our evidence is before us: the Prophet ﷺ deals with people with gentleness, even in the instruments of obedience and worship where the root is obligation. So let none of us be harsh, neither on his family nor on himself nor on his neighbors nor on the people around him.

I ask Allah, the Most High, the Almighty, to let us reach stations of contentment, to spread before us the provision of soundness of souls and tranquility of hearts, and to grant us right guidance in our affairs.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: al-Anbiyāʾ: 107. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: al-Baqarah: 185. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The sentence occurs in the two Ṣaḥīḥs in the people's questions on the Day of Sacrifice about advancing and delaying the rites. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: In Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, from the ḥadīth of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him): «كان النبي ﷺ إذا اشتد البرد بكّر بالصلاة، وإذا اشتد الحر أبرد بالصلاة» ("When the cold was severe the Prophet ﷺ would pray early, and when the heat was severe he would delay the prayer until it cooled") (meaning Friday). As for the speaker's statement that Bilāl would give the adhān with "aṣ-ṣalātu jāmiʿah," it is not established, so the phrase has been omitted here. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: The meaning is in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī from the ḥadīth of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him): «إن كانت الأمَةُ من إماء أهل المدينة لتأخذ بيد رسول الله ﷺ فتنطلق به حيث شاءت» ("Any slave girl of the slave girls of Madinah would take the Messenger of Allah ﷺ by the hand and go off with him wherever she wished"). And the phrase "walk him around the whole of Madinah" is the speaker's expression.