They Are Those Whom Allah Has Guided

Number three: another reason why it's extremely important to study the stories of the anbiyāʾ of Allah (swt). Allah (swt) says: ulāʾika alladhīna hadā Allāhu fa-bi-hudāhumu iqtadih — they are those whom Allah has guided, so follow their guidance. They are the ones who are guided. And Allah (swt) is instructing the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) to follow them, to follow their guidance, because they are the best.

We need to have role models. It is very important for the human being to have role models, especially in the early stages of our life. You find that every human being has role models: if they are not good, they're going to be bad. That is our makeup as human beings. We must have some role models; we must have some people whom we look up to. If we're not going to provide our children and our youth with the role models of the anbiyāʾ, and the role models of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and the role models of the ṣaḥābah, they're going to find role models somewhere else — because human beings cannot live without role models.

And Allah (swt) is telling Muhammad (peace be upon him) that he must follow the way of the anbiyāʾ of Allah (swt). If this instruction was given to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), then what should we do? Fa-bi-hudāhumu iqtadih: Allah (swt) is commanding the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) to follow their way. So we need to study the lives of the anbiyāʾ of Allah (swt), so that they can become our role models.

Number four: to love them, al-maḥabbah. If you do not know someone, you cannot love him. We all claim that we love the anbiyāʾ of Allah. But if we don't know the details of their life — we don't know what they went through — how could we have respect for them?