We love you, O Messenger of Allah—
A chant that our throats cried out until they cracked from shouting. Yet these words barely escape our mouths before falling to the ground, trampled underfoot as we march toward our desires, led by our own selfish inclinations.

We love you, O Messenger of Allah—a lie adorning the streets and lampposts with bright colors, which the winter winds and rains soon turn into mere memories of the past.

We love you, O Messenger of Allah—a tree planted long ago, watered by rivers of love, but we forgot to tend it, so our souls withered and our hearts dried up.

We love you, O Messenger of Allah—a beautiful song sung by a lovely-voiced singer, whose melodies we lived in, yet we cast its words behind our ears and forgot them, and God made us forget ourselves.

We love you, O Messenger of Allah—a beautiful painting, adorned with bright gold and silver, full of light, decorating the walls of houses. But we stripped it of its soul when we removed our hearts and replaced them with hard stones.

We love you, O Messenger of Allah—we carried this love in our hands and walked with it across the earth by the millions, yet we could not live its meaning, and we drowned in paths of misguidance.

We love you, O Messenger of Allah—an apology that requires another apology, and seeking forgiveness from Allah as if it were a sin in need of pardon. Forgive us, O Lord.

We love you, O Messenger of Allah—a poem written by a poet while smoking a cigarette to the tunes of Umm Kulthum.

We love you, O Messenger of Allah—letters whose meanings we lost, wandering their paths until we forgot the way back.

We love you, O Messenger of Allah—hypocrisy sung by many, bought at a high price, with countless sins attached.

We love you, O Messenger of Allah—a word accompanied by abandoning prayer, severing family ties, consuming forbidden wealth, staying up at night for sins, and sleeping through acts of obedience. All this is because we cut off the ink of guidance and the Sunnah from our hearts and souls, which live only by the light of religion and guidance.

We love you, O Messenger of Allah—words whose letters we have rearranged and reassembled, with a pledge to you, my master, to honor them and follow their guidance until Allah loves us. (“If you love Allah, then follow me, and Allah will love you”)

We love you, O Messenger of Allah—may Allah make us among the truthful in this love, so it may pour from our hearts to our limbs, sincerely saying: “We love you, O Messenger of Allah.”

Abdul Rahman Dalati
24 February 2010