Seerah Series | Part 2: Specialties of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) | Shaykh Yasir Qadhi

And we all know the story of the Prophet and Abu Bakr and Umar, the famous story reported in Tirmidhi, that Umar ibn Al Khattab did not have anything to eat, I’d just like to point out here that the sahabah lived very tough times in the early part of Madinah. Before the conquest began, before the money began pouring in, Madinah was a very difficult place to live in. And when you didn’t have dates, there’s only one season dates are there, once they run out, for the rest of the six months, you are living a very difficult life in the middle of the desert. And there are many stories of this nature. And so once, Umar ibn Al Khattab is walking in the streets and he sees the Prophet , and this is at noon, and at noon nobody walks in the streets in the summer time, it’s too hot. So he says to the Prophet , Ya Rasul Allāh, what are you doing outside? And the Prophet knows that Umar is outside for one reason and that is he doesn’t have food at home. So he says, “The same reason as you.” Same reason as you, I mean I’m just sitting outside…there’s nothing to eat at home. As they’re sitting there Abu Bakr as well, he’s walking. Because you cannot sit at home and you’re hungry, you just want to walk around, just go outside. And the three of them, the three of them are sitting there just talking when one of the sahabah, Abul Haytham is rushing back to home from work. So he says, “Ya Rasul Allāh, what are you three doing at this time of the day?” and so Umar says, “Well we didn’t have anything to eat so we’re just sitting here basically talking.” So Abul Haytham says, “This is not possible,” that the three best people now, you’re sitting here. So he tells, he knows that he has an old goat at home. So he tells them, come to my house and I’ll give you food. I will prepare food for you. Come to my house. So he rushes home, he only has one goat that is past the age of giving milk, it’s an old goat, so he tells his wife, “By Allāh, we need to sacrifice this goat…we need to get rid of the goat. And you cook the food, I will knead the dough, we’re going to make some bread, so we will give him meat and bread.”

And so the Prophet , Abu Bakr, and Umar, they came and they ate meat and bread which is of course the luxurious food item of that time and to this day, and then what was the response of the Prophet when he finished all of this? After not having anything at home. He reminded Abu Bakr and Umar. He reminded them that they left their houses hungry and Allāh gave them this meal…Ya Abu Bakr and Umar…”thumma la tus alunna yawma idhin ‘anin na’eem”. Allāh’s going to ask you on that day about this food. What did you do with it, and did you thank Me enough for it?

SubḥānAllāh, I mean one of us ya’nee, three meals a day, we don’t even think about Allāh’s blessings…right? And the Prophet is so conscious, that Allāh’s going to ask you about this na’eem. You’re going to be asked about this blessing that Allāh has given you.

And as for his humility, the Prophet frequently rode donkeys and even though he had the money to purchase a horse and a camel, and he had a camel, Al Qaswa…he had a camel, but the Prophet had no problem riding a donkey, frequently and during the battle of Badr, the Prophet had to distribute the camels amongst the entire group of people. How many people came to Badr? You all know, how many people were in Badr? Three hundred and fourteen/fifteen. And there were roughly seventy-five camels. Do the math. How many people per camel? Three or four people per camel. Now some people had horses…so roughly it came out to three people per camel, has to be divided.

And so the Prophet assigned Ali and Abu Lubaba to himself with the camel. So the one camel with these three people. And everybody else has their own three per camel. Now put yourself in the shoes of Ali and Abu Lubaba. You’re supposed to share a camel with the Prophet , what are you going to say? “Take it, it’s yours.” So Ali says, “Ya Rasul Allāh, both of us are young men…” He’s trying to make him feel as if we’re not doing you a favor. “Ya Rasul Allāh I am young I’m in my thirties, Abu Lubaba is also young, Ya Rasul Allāh we’re young, you go ahead and ride the camel.” Now, there are many things the Prophet could have said, ok fine…and SubḥānAllāh, he is the leader by the way and wAllāhi forget everything aside, the leader deserves extra protection. Forget religiosity…the leader deserves extra respect, right? The commander, he’s not the person that should be treated like the private. The four-star, five-star general, he’s reached a level now you don’t treat him like the private, right? So he could have said, “Okay fine,” and nobody would have said anything. Or he even could have said, “No, no! Let’s all share it.” But he didn’t want to make them feel that I’m doing you a favor by doing this. What did he say? He smiled back at them and he said that, “Neither are the two of you any stronger than me and nor am I in any lesser need of the reward than you two.” I also need the ajr of walking. We’re going to share. SubḥānAllāh. “Neither are the two of you any stronger,” he couldn’t fight with “younger” I mean, Ali is younger. So he says “Neither are the two of you any stronger than me,” okay you might be younger but in terms of physical health, yes I am just as strong as you, “and nor am I in any lesser need of Allāh’s rewards,” for walking and struggling. So we’re going to share the camel. And so he was a man of his word and he shared the camel even though, truth be told, it was not necessary at all, right? He is the leader, he is Rasul Allāh and yet he shared the camel with them.

And as for his good manners, subḥānAllāh how much can we say about his good manners. Anas ibn Malik said, and Anas ibn Malik lived one of the longest of the sahabah, he lived until he was over 110 years old, Anas ibn Malik. He lived one of the longest lives. Why? Because the Prophet made duaa for him, right. After all that he had done, one day his mother came, Anas,’s mother…and she said Ya Rasul Allāh your little servant Anas, he’s done so much for you…make duaa for him. That’s all the mother wanted, wasn’t it, right…she just wants the barakah from the Prophet . Ya Rasul Allāh make duaa for him. So the Prophet said, “Oh Allāh, give him barakah in his life and in his wealth and in his progeny.” One duaa, and Anas lived to see the results of this duaa. Give him barakah in his life – he was one of the last of the sahabah to die. And he lived to be over 110 at a time when the average death rate was what, 30..28, something like this. He lived to be 110. And he said give him barakah in his money...they used to say that if Anas turned a rock over, he would find gold underneath it. He was so rich that anything he did, just it’s as if it’s a gold touch, right? It was like that. And people would love to become business partners with Anas, right? And they would just say look, just sign the paper, we’ll do the money, everything, they just wanted to get the barakah [I mean, not sign the paper, you get the point.] Anything, just be a part of this. People would love to be business partners with Anas because they knew it would be successful. And he amassed a large fortune at the end of his life. And he had so many grandchildren and great grandchildren and great great-grandchildren, he couldn’t even count them. Could not even count them, in his own lifetime. Because the Prophet said, “Baarik lahu fee ahlihi wa fee waladi… wa fee umurihi wa fee ahlihi wa fee maalihi…” and these three things, the Prophet made duaa for and all three of them, he was given that barakah. This Anas ibn Malik, he says, “I served Prophet for ten years. I served him…I didn’t just visit him. I lived with him for ten years, and not once did he rebuke me. Not once did the word ‘uff’ come from his mouth.”  Now “uff,” as you know, is the least word to express irritation. It’s not even a word of anger. It’s the word to express irritation. And the Prophet never ever said the word “uff” and Anas said, “He never said to me, ‘why did you do this?’ and he never said to me ‘why did you not do that?’” and subḥānAllāh, as they say, by how a person treats his family, you know him. By a person’s treatment of his inner circle, that’s how you know him. What side we show to our family, to our spouses, to our children, that is the real us. It’s easy to be somebody else in the masjid. It’s easy to be somebody else in the work place. But who you are in front of your wife, in front of your kids, that is the real you.