You’ve heard his description from the Sahaba, how they were in awe of him ﷺ, how his presence brought them comfort, how his beauty was greater than the moon itself!
You’ve heard the hadith:
“Whoever sees me in a dream has truly seen me, for Satan cannot imitate me.” [Sahih al Bukhari]
And you have probably heard countless stories of those who were gifted this incredible blessing of seeing the Prophet ﷺ.
So how does someone receive this blessing?
There’s a famous story that’s frequently shared about this exact question.
A man once came to a scholar asking about what he could do in order to see the Prophet ﷺ in his dreams.
The scholar recommended that the man eat fish for dinner that night and that he abstain from drinking water with his dinner.
The man excitedly followed suit, stopping by the market on his way home and preparing his evening meal.
It was an extremely salty dish, and while his body urged him to take just a sip to quench his thirst, he refused.
The next day, the man returned, frustrated.
“I did as you told, and did not see the Prophet ﷺ in my sleep!”
The teacher asked what he saw in his dream, and the man responded:
“I saw the ocean!”
The scholar then responded with sincere advice:
“You saw that which you busied your heart and mind with. If your heart and mind are busy with him ﷺ and his sunnah, then you will dream of him too.”
There is a lesson in this story for all of us.
If you ask any Muslim whether they would like to see the Prophet ﷺ in their dreams, the answer would, of course, be yes.
But what are we doing in our waking lives that demonstrates our longing to see him?
Are we as diligent in acting upon his teachings like this man was in following the advice of his teacher?
Are we occupying ourselves with learning about his life and character, longing for him as this man longed for just a sip of water?
Are we sending abundant salawat upon him ﷺ ?
In a hadith narrated by Ibn Mas’ud, Rasulullah ﷺ said:
“The people most deserving of proximity to me on the Day of Judgment are those who send the most salah upon me.” [At-Tirmidhi]
Those who send the most salah upon the Prophet ﷺ are not only closest to him on the Day of Judgment but also closest to him in this world.
Shaykh Muhammad Hassan, a famous Egyptian scholar, mentioned meeting a sixteen-year-old girl who had seen the Prophet ﷺ in her dreams numerous times. When asked how often she sent salah upon the Prophet, she replied, “Every day, no less than 10,000 times.”
He also mentioned meeting a sick elderly woman in a poor Egyptian village who did not stop sending salah upon the Prophet ﷺ, her every breath invoking blessings upon Rasulullah. When he offered to bring doctors for her ailment, she declined, saying:
“I know my ailment and I know the cure. My ailment is that for the past three nights, I did not see the Prophet ﷺ in a dream.”
She was so accustomed to seeing Rasulullah ﷺ in her dreams through her abundant salawat that when she didn’t see him for three days, she became distressed.
The key to seeing him ﷺ is through love: the more we express our love for him ﷺ in our actions and our abundant salutations upon him, the nearer we become to him, and even if you are not gifted the blessing of seeing his face ﷺ in your sleep, there is something greater to look forward to.
When a man once asked the Prophet ﷺ regarding the day of judgment, he ﷺ said:
“What have you prepared for it?”
The man said, “Nothing, except that I love Allah and His Messenger.”
To which he ﷺ responded:
“You will be with those whom you love.” [Sahih al Bukhari]
Our love for him ﷺ is expressed in the effort we make to learn about him, his life, his character, and how to emulate him in our lives.
May Allah make the Sunnah the heart of our lives, and may He unite us with those we love in the hereafter.
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