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Spirit of Islam Issue 35 November 2015
Being God’s humble
servants, we should
always remain in a
state of trepidation
before our Lord and
the life hereafter.
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’ahs
(about forty kilos) of dates extra because you have alarmed
him with your threats.” The most remarkable thing about this episode is
that the Prophet could still behave with such forbearance and humility
even after being established as head of the Muslim state of Madinah.
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. When Urwah ibn Mas’ud was sent to
him as an envoy of the Quraysh (627 AD), 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 ibn
Malik, the Prophet’s close Companion says
that in spite of the great love they had for the
Prophet, out of respect they could not look
him full in the face. According to Mughirah, if
any of the Prophet’s Companions had to call on him, they would first
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 Samrah,
another Companion says that sometimes he would look at the moon
and sometimes at the Prophet. Eventually he came to the conclusion
that the Prophet was the more beautiful of the two.
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
the 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. “Muhammad!” 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,