Huzoor, in Punjabi there is a saying, Allah-e-jaan-da-Muhammad-di-shaan, keeping the greatness of Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in mind, is it all right to say, my ideal is Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, or any other Khulafa-e-Rashideen Why do you use this word, ideal? The Holy Qur’an has already coined a phrase for us, uswatun, walakum fi-r-rusulillahi uswatun hasana, so use that phrase.
Say, Allah-e-Jaan-da-Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is my uswa-e-hasana, or uswa-e-hasana for me. Why to replace this perfect word with a defective word? Ideal can be any Tom, Dick and Harry, and ideal has become a romanticized saying, which doesn’t really mean anything nowadays. You are my ideal, that is my ideal, that film actress is somebody’s ideal, and that boxer is somebody’s ideal. The word ideal has become so cheap, none of them can be referred to as uswa-e-hasana, which comprises a much larger field of human application and human interest.
So, don’t replace this term with any other. Uswa-e-hasana is uswa-e-hasana. A paragon of virtue, the nearest you can come to the meaning of this word is a model of excellence, a paragon of virtue. Perfect exemplar as well, yes. But hasana is not perfect, you know. Perfect of course, but hasana has a quality of excellence and beauty about it, which is not again referred to in the word perfect. Perfect is a dry-ish formal word in relation to hasana. Hasana is something which attracts you directly, you know.
As the Promised Messiah s.a.w. said, agar khahi daleeli, aashiqash baash, muhammad hast burhan-e-muhammad. That is hasana, uswa-e-hasana. It attracts you, it enamours you, you know, it’s so charming for you, you can’t resist it. You automatically are, if you do not follow it, that is against your nature. As far as the nature goes, if the nature is correct, then he should automatically be attracted towards the example of the Prophet s.a.w. That connotation is carried by the word hasana.
