The praise is for Allah. May Allah send salutations, peace, and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, upon his family, his Companions and whoever was a supporter of his, held to his sunnah, and was guided by his guidance, until the Day of Reward.
The scholars of hadīth define the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him) to be all that which is attributed to the Prophet (peace be upon him) in the form of statements, actions, approvals, physical attributes, manners or conduct. This makes the authentic statements of the companions regarding his beautiful physical attributes and noble character included in this definition.
These superb character traits and beautiful features are either found scattered in hadīth collections or compiled into dedicated works, the most important of which is “al-Shama’il” by al-Imam al-Tirmidhī, the author of the famous book “al-Jami’”, which is known as Sunan al-Tirmidhī. It is indeed a reference of a great importance.
The benefit of learning the physical features of the Prophet (peace be upon him) is that it helps us to distinguish the truthful dream from the false dream in which he appears and the benefit of knowing his character is to follow his example, which Allah has praised: {There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and [who] remembers Allah often.}[3]