Sunnah: Love notes from Medina

Love knows no fixed templates. It recognizes no rigid protocols. It is like an eager bird, desperate to break free from its cage and fly into the boundless sky—entirely independent of mere ceremony.

Search the cosmos, and you will find no soul as celebrated, as praised, or as deeply longed for as the Beloved Prophet. He is pure, unceasing love; he is three hundred and sixty degrees of radiant joy.

Throughout time, poets and thinkers have strained to capture this divine love within the frail limits of human language. By the strict Creed of Islam, it is forbidden to prostrate before anyone except the Creator. Yet love possesses a might and a right entirely its own! Overwhelmed by this helpless devotion, a poet once cried out: 

“If I am forbidden to prostrate with my forehead, then I shall bow to him with a prostration of love in my very glance!”

Look across history: the Holy Prophet is the most emulated soul to ever walk the earth, not merely in high spiritual matters, but in his gentlest physical habits and daily gestures.

We are spared punishment for omitting certain Sunnah, Prophetic practices, precisely because it is bound to the Beloved. No creation will ever be taken to task in the name of the Prophet! That is why so many of his sacred habits like standing alone in midnight prayer were never made mandatory for his followers. For love is never built on rigid rules or fear of punishment. Instead, Love is a fire that surges from within.

Thurs, Aug 27, 2026 | Rabi al-Awwal 14, 1448