Part I, Chapter IV
The Prophet was a man like other men. Joyous things would please him while sad things would sadden him. Realization of the fact that he was first and foremost God’s servant, however, prevented him from exceeding the limits set by God.
Towards the end of the Prophet’s life Maria Qibtiya bore him a beautiful and vivacious son, The Prophet named him Abraham, after his most illustrious ancestor. It was Abu Rafi who broke the good news to the Prophet. He was so overjoyed that he presented Abu Rafi with a slave. He used to take the child in his lap and play with him fondly. According to Arab custom, Abraham was given to a wet nurse, Umm Burda bint Mundhir Ibn Zaid Ansari, to be breast fed. This lady was the wife of a blacksmith, and her small house was usually full of smoke. Still, the Prophet used to go to the blacksmith’s house to visit his son, putting up—in spite of his delicate disposition—with the smoke that used to fill his eyes and nostrils. Abraham was just one and half years old when, in the tenth year of the Hijra (January 632AD), he died. The Prophet wept on the death of his only son, as any father would. In this respect the Prophet appears like any other human being. His happiness and his grief were that of a normal father. But with all that, he fixed his heart firmly on the will of God. Even in his grief, these were the words he uttered:
“God knows, Abraham, how we sorrow at your parting. The eye weeps and the heart grieves, but we will say nothing that may displease the Lord.”
It so happened that the death of Abraham coincided with a solar eclipse. From ancient times people had believed that solar and lunar eclipses were caused by the death of some important person. The people of Madinah began attributing the eclipse to the death of the Prophet’s son. This caused the Prophet immense displeasure, for it contradicted man’s humble position in the world. He collected the people and addressed them as follows:
“Eclipses of the sun and moon are not due to the death of any human being; they are just two of God’s signs. When you see an eclipse, then you should pray to God.”
On one of his journeys, the Prophet asked his companions to roast a goat. One volunteered to slaughter the animal, another to skin it, and another to cook it. The Prophet said that he would collect wood. “Messenger of God,” his companions protested, “we will do all the work.” “I know that you will do it,” the Prophet replied, “but that would amount to discrimination, which I don’t approve of. God does not like His servants to assert any superiority over their companions.”
So humble was the Prophet that he once said:
“By God, I really do not know, even though I am God’s messenger, what will become of me and what will become of you.”
One day Abu Dharr Ghefari was sitting next to a Muslim who was black. Abu Dharr addressed him as “Black man.” The Prophet was very displeased on hearing this, and told Abu Dharr to give full measure. “Whites are not superior to blacks,” he added. As soon as the Prophet admonished him, Abu Dharr became conscious of his error. He cast himself to the ground in remorse, and said to the person he had offended: “Stand up, and rub your feet on my face.”
The prophet once saw a wealthy Muslim gathering up his loose garment to maintain a distance from a poor Muslim sitting next to him. “Are you scared of his poverty clinging to you,” the Prophet remarked.
A Muslim state, with the Prophet at its head, had been established in Madinah. It was at this time that Prophet had to borrow some money from a Jew by the name of Zaid Ibn Sana’a. A couple of days before the fixed date for the payment of the debt, the Jew came to demand his money back. He went up to the Prophet, caught hold of his clothes, and said to him harshly: “Mohammad, why don’t you pay me my due. From what I know of the descendants of Muttalib, they all put off paying their debts.” Umar was with the Prophet at the time. He became very angry, scolded the Jew and was on the point of beating him up. But the Prophet just kept smiling. All he said to the Jew was: “There are still three days left for me to fulfill my promise.” Then he addressed Umar. “Zaid and I deserved better treatment from you,” he said. “You should have told me to be better at paying my debts, and him to be better at demanding them. Take him with you, Umar, and pay him his due; in fact, give him 20 sa’as (about forty kilo’s) of dates extra, because you have alarmed him with your threats.”
So successful was the Prophet’s life that, during his lifetime, he became the ruler of the whole of Arabia right up to Palestine. Whatever he said, as the messenger of God, was accepted as law. He was revered by his people as no other man has ever been revered. Urwa Ibn Masud was sent as an envoy of the Quraish in the negotiations that preceded the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah (6 AH). He was amazed to see that the Muslims would not let any water used by the Prophet for ablution, fall on the ground, but would catch it in their hands, and rub it on their bodies. Such was their veneration for him. Anas, the Prophet’s close companion, says that in spite of the great love they had for the Prophet, they could not look him full in the face. According to Mughira, if any of the Prophet’s companions had to call on him, they would tap on the door with their fingernails. One night, when the moon was full, the Prophet lay asleep, covered in a red sheet. Jabir Ibn Samra says that sometimes he would look at the moon and sometimes at the Prophet. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that Prophet was the more beautiful of the two. The Muslims had the worst of the fighting in the initial stages of the Battle of Hunayn. Arrows rained down on the Prophet from the enemy ranks, but his followers formed a ring around him, letting the arrows strike their own bodies. It was as though they were made of wood, not flesh and blood; indeed the arrows hung from the bodies of some of them like thorns of a cactus tree.
Devotion and veneration of this nature can produce vanity in a man and engender a feeling of superiority, but this was not the case with the Prophet. He lived among others as an equal. No bitter criticism or provocation would make him lose his composure. Once a desert-dweller came up to him and pulled so hard at the sheet he was wearing that it left a mark on his neck. “Mohammad!” he said. “Give me two camel-loads of goods, for the money in your possession is not yours, nor was it your father’s.” “Everything belongs to God,” the Prophet said, “and I am His servant.” He then asked the desert-dweller, “Hasn’t it made you afraid, the way you treated me?” He said not. The Prophet asked him why. “Because I know that you do not requite evil with evil,” the man answered. The Prophet smiled on hearing this, and had one camel-load of barley and one of dates given to him.
The Prophet lived in such awe of God that he was always a picture of humility and meekness. He spoke little and even the way he walked suggested reverence for God. Criticism never angered him. When he used to put on his clothes, he would say: “I am God’s servant, and I dress as befits a servant of God.” He would sit in reverential posture to partake of food, and would say that this is how a servant of God should eat.
He was very sensitive on this issue. Once a companion addressed him, saying, “If it be the will of God, and the will of the Prophet.” The Prophet’s face changed colour in anger when he heard this. “Are you trying to equate me with God?” he asked the man severely. “Rather say: ‘If God, alone, wills.’” On another occasion a companion of the Prophet said: “He that obeys God and His Prophet is rightly guided, and he who disobeys them has gone astray. You are the worst of speakers,” the Prophet observed, disliking a reference which placed him on the same plane as the Almighty.
Three sons were born to the Prophet, all of whom died in infancy. His four daughters, all by his first wife, Khadija, grew to adulthood. Fatima was the Prophet’s youngest daughter, and he was extremely attached to her. When he returned from any journey the first thing he would do, after praying two raka’ats in the mosque, was to visit Fatima and kiss her hand and forehead. Jumai Ibn Umair once asked Aisha whom the Prophet loved most. “Fatima,” she replied.
But the Prophet’s whole life was moulded by thoughts of the hereafter. He loved his children, but not in any worldly way. Ali, Fatima’s husband, once told Ibn Abdul Wahid a story about the Prophet’s most beloved daughter. Fatima’s hands, he said, were blistered from constant grinding; her neck had become sore from carrying water; her clothes would become dirty from sweeping the floor. When the Prophet had received an influx of servants from some place, Ali suggested to his wife that she approach her father and ask for a servant. She went, but could not speak to the Prophet because of the crowd. Next day, he came to their house, and asked Fatima what she had wanted to see him about. Ali told the Prophet the whole story, and said that he had sent her. “Fear God, Fatima,” the Prophet said, “Fulfill your obligations to the Lord, and continue with your housework. And when you go to bed at night, praise God thirty-three times, and glorify him with the same number of times; exalt his name thirty-four times, and that will make a full hundred. This would be much better than having a servant.” “If that is the will of God and His Prophet,” Fatima replied, “then so it be.” This was the Prophet’s only reply. He did not give her a servant.
The truth revealed to the Prophet was that this world did not spring up by itself, but was created by one God, who continues to watch over it. All men are His servants, and responsible to Him for their actions. Death is not the end of man’s life; rather it is the beginning of another, permanent world, where the good will enjoy the bliss of paradise and the wicked will be cast into a raging hell. With the revelation of this truth also came the commandment to propagate it far and near. Accordingly, ascending the height of the rock of Safa, the Prophet called the people together. First he made mention of the greatness of God. Then he went on to say:
By God, as you sleep so will you die, and as you awaken so will you be raised after death: you will be taken to account for your deeds. The good will be rewarded with good and the evil with evil. And, for all eternity, the good will remain in heaven and the evil will remain in hell.
Even one who goes against the times in his personal life is faced with difficulties at almost every step, but these difficulties are not of an injurious nature. They may wound one’s feelings, but not one’s body. At the most, they are a test requiring quite forbearance. But things are quiet different when one makes it one’s mission to publicly oppose convention—when one starts telling people what they are required to do and what not to do. The Prophet was not just a believer; he was also entrusted with conveying the word of God to others. It was this latter role that brought him into headlong collision with his countrymen. All forms of adversity—from the pain of hunger to trepidation of battle were inflicted on him. Yet throughout the twenty-three years of his mission, he always remained just and circumspect in his actions. It was not that there were no human feelings in him to embitter him; it was simply that his conduct was governed by the fear of God.
Three years after the Prophet’s migration to Madinah, Makkan opponents mounted an assault on Madinah and the Battle of Uhud took place. At the beginning, the Muslims held sway; but later on a mistake by some of the Prophet’s companions gave the enemy the chance to attack from the rear and sway the tide of battle in their favour. It was a desperate situation and many of the companions started fleeing from the field. The Prophet was left alone, encircled by the armed forces of the enemy. Like hungry wolves, they advanced upon him. The Prophet started calling to his companions. “Come back to me, O, servants of God,” he cried. “Isn’t there anyone who will sacrifice his life for my sake, who will fend these oppressors off from me and be my companion in paradise?”
Imagine how dreadful the situation must have been, with the Prophet crying for help in this manner. Some of his companions responded to his call, but such confusion reigned at the time that even these gallant soldiers were not able to protect him fully. Utba Ibn Abi Waqqas hurled a stone at the Prophet’s face, knocking out some of his lower teeth. A famed warrior of the Quraish, Abdullah Ibn Qumayya, attacked him with a battle-axe, causing two links of his helmet to stick into his face. So deep did they penetrate into the Prophet’s skin that Abu Ubaida broke two teeth in his attempt to extract them. Then it was the turn of Abdullah Ibn Shahab Zuhri, who threw a stone at the Prophet and injured his face. Bleeding profusely, he fell into a pit. When for a long period the Prophet was not seen on the field of battle, the word went around that he had been martyred. Then one companion spotted the Prophet lying in the pit. Seeing him to be alive, he cried jubilantly, “The Prophet is here.” The Prophet motioned to him to be silent, so that the enemy should not know where he was lying.
In this dire situation, the Prophet uttered some curses against certain leaders of the Quraish, especially Safwan, Suhail and Haris. “How can a people who wound their prophet ever prosper!” he exclaimed. Even this was not to God’s liking, and Gabriel came with this revelation:
“It is no concern of yours whether He will forgive or punish them. They are wrongdoers.” (Quran, 3:128)
This admonition was enough for the Prophet. His anger subsided. Crippled with wounds, he started praying for the very people who had wounded him. Abdullah Ibn Masood later recalled how the Prophet was wiping the blood from his forehead, and at the same time praying:
“Lord, forgive my people, for they know not what they do.”
Biographies of the Prophet are full of incidents of this nature, which show his life to be a perfect model for mankind. They show that man is God’s servant, and a servant he should remain in every condition. Being God’s humble servant, man should always remain in a state of trepidation before this Lord and the life hereafter. Everything in the universe should serve to remind him of God. In every event he should see the hand of the Almighty, and, for him, every object should portray God’s signs. In every worldly matter he should remember that all matters will finally be referred to God. Fear of hell should make him live humbly among his fellows, and longing for paradise should impress on him the significance of this world. So conscious should he be of God’s greatness that any idea of demonstrating his own greatness should appear ridiculous. No criticism should provoke him, and no praise should make him vain. This is the ideal human character which God displayed to us in the conduct of His Prophet. □
