Khutba: Love for the Prophet, saw, and prayer for him.

Allah, may He be exalted, says in His Noble Book:

“And We have not sent you except as a mercy to all the worlds.”

The Messenger of Allah is a mercy to the entire creation, for He was sent with a message from our Creator valid for all nations and until the end of time; with a light and knowledge that enables us to live according to what Allah has created us to do.
Allah further says:

“Allah has favored the believers by sending them a Messenger from among them.”

Allah has favored us by making us part of His Ummah, may Allah bless Him and grant Him peace, and by allowing us to receive His transmission.
Therefore, the love we profess for him as a guide, light, and bearer of new news is natural and inevitable.
Love for the Prophet is also one of the essential conditions for the believer, one of the most vital parts of our Deen and one of the keys to savoring the sweetness of the Imam, since love for him is part of love for Allah, as he said:

“Whoever loves me, he will love Allah.”

And Allah says in His Book:

“Say: If your fathers, sons, brothers, wives, family clans, the goods that you have acquired, the businesses whose lack of profit you fear, the dwellings that satisfy you, are more dear to you than Allah and His Messenger and the struggle in His way, then wait for Allah to come with His command.”

Love for the Messenger is not something that is expressed only with the tongue, but affects and conditions our being, our conduct, our character, just as he did with his noble Companions, may Allah be pleased with all of them, who loved him more than themselves and were ready to give their lives for him, as has been demonstrated by many other episodes of his life.
It was at the Battle of Uhud when, for example, Talha ibn Ubaydullah protected the Prophet with his body and suffering up to 70 wounds, and when Sumayra Bint Qays, despite having lost five members of his family in the Battle, his main concern was the Messenger.
During the Hijra period, one of the Sahaba was captured in Makkah and tortured.
They asked him, “Wouldn’t you like to change your place now for Muhammad’s?
(who was in Medina safe).
And he replied that he preferred to be in that situation before the Messenger suffered the damage of a single thorn.
Such was Bilal’s love for the Messenger that he could not bear to live in Medina after his death and settled in the Levant and when he lay on his deathbed he was flooded with great happiness and said: What joy!
Tomorrow I will meet with my loved ones, Muhammad and his people.
This illustrates very briefly how his Companions loved him.
And the nature of love is as Qadi Iyad says in his Shifa:

“Whoever loves someone will love everything that he loves.”

So much so that Anas ibn Malik noticed that the Prophet was picking pumpkin from the plate and said: Since then I have loved pumpkin.
The highest expression of love for him is to prefer him and what he brought above ourselves, and to imitate him and follow his sunnah, which is itself obedience to Allah.
Allah says in His Book

: “Whoever obeys the Messenger has obeyed Allah.”

We must incorporate into our character His noble qualities as we are able, such as compassion and mercy to others. Allah says:

“He is afflicted by your tribulations, he cares for you and is tender and merciful to the believers.”

Allah says:

“By His mercy You have been tender to them”

His generosity and good treatment of people and especially his family, He said:

“The best of you is the best to his family and I am the best to my family”

His courage, and countless other qualities.
Love for the Prophet, in addition to perfecting our character, completing our Imam and drawing closer to Allah, is one of the reasons why Allah brings us into the Garden, as we know from the hadith narrated by Anas.

A man came to the Messenger and asked, “When will the Hour be?”
And he asked her in turn: “And what have you prepared for her?”
He replied, “Nothing, except that I love Allah and His Messenger.”
And he said, salla allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam: “You shall be with whom you have loved.”
Anas said: “And nothing made us happier after Islam as the words of the Prophet, to whom Allah may give His grace and peace: ‘You shall be with whom you love.’
Anas also said: “And I love the Prophet, to whom Allah may Allah give His grace and peace, and I love Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, and I hope to be with them because of my love for them, even though I have not done anything like what they did.”

O Allah increase our love for the Messenger and our longing for him and make it easy for us to follow in His footsteps faithfully.
Allah says in His Book:

“Allah and His angels ask for blessings through the Messenger. O ye who believe, ask blessings and for him and greet him with a greeting of peace.”

Doing salawat for the Prophet is also a demonstration of our love for him and is something that Allah commands us in the Qur’an.
And the benefits transmitted in multiple hadiths are many.
He said, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“Whoever asks blessings for me, Allah will do it for him ten times and will erase his evil deeds ten times and raise him ten degrees.”

He also assures us of his intercession:

“Whoever says: O Allah bless Muhammad and grant him the nearby place on the Day of Resurrection, my intercession will be obligatory for him.”“The people closest and most worthy of me on the Day of Rising will be those who asked for more blessings for me.”

The reward is enormous:

“Whoever asks blessings for me ten times is as if I had freed a slave.”“Salat for me erases evil deeds faster than cold water extinguishes fire.”

This obligation to ask for blessings does not have a specific time or an assigned amount, as Qadi Abu Bakr ibn Bukayr says:

“Allah has made the prayer over His Prophet an obligation for His creation, and He has not assigned Him a specific time. Therefore, it is obligatory to do it abundantly and not to be negligent.”

O Allah bless our beloved Prophet to the extent of Your mercy and Your generosity and to the extent of his rank.
O Allah grant us His intercession.