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THE
PROPHETS ASKED FOR NO REWARD
God’s Messenger,
Proppet Muhammad, like all the other Prophets, may God’s peace be upon them
all, never thought of any wages in return for his mission. He suffered hunger,
thirst and every other kind of hardship. He was forced to leave his native town,
and was made the target of many assaults and traps. He bore all these simply for
the good pleasure of God and the good of mankind. He never expected anything
from people.
Abu Hurayra once saw him
performing his prayer in a sitting position and asked him whether he was ill.
The reply was of the kind that made Abu Hurayra weep:
I am hungry, O Abu
Hurayra. Hunger has left me no strength to stand up for prayer.30
Hunger was common to
them. One night, God’s Messenger, Abu Bakr and ‘Umar met each other
unexpectedly outside their homes. ‘What brought you to come out at this time
of night?’, they asked one another. The reply of each was the same: ‘hunger’.31
Even though most of his
Companions became wealthier in later years, the Messenger, upon him be peace
and blessings, never changed his lifestyle, nor did his family. They continued
to live a very simple life. His daughter, Fatima, for example, though his most
beloved child and the only one surviving, did all of her housework by herself.
When the prisoners captured in a battle were shared out in Madina, Fatima
asked his father to assign her a maid, but God’s Messenger said in response:
O my daughter!
Before I have satisfied all the needs of the people of the Suffa, I
cannot allocate you anything. However, shall I teach you something
better for you than having a servant? When you go to bed, say, ‘Glory
be to God, All praise be to God’, and ‘God is the Greatest’, each
thirty-three times. (God is the Greatest thirty-four times, according to
a different version.) This will be better for you concerning your next
life.32
One day, he saw Fatima
wearing a bracelet (or a necklace, according to another version) and warned
her, saying:
O my daughter! Do
you desire that people should say of the daughter of God’s Messenger
that she is wearing a ring of Hellfire? Take it off immediately!33
In addition to
receiving no worldly benefit from his people, God’s Messenger also had to
bear many tortures. He was covered in dust many times and no one except Fatima
ran to his aid. Once he was beaten at the Ka’ba and Abu Bakr hastened to
help him, shouting to those beating him:
Will you kill a
man because he says, ‘My Lord is God?’34
By examining his words
and deeds, one can see that every one of them declares Muhammad is the
Messenger of God, upon him be peace and blessings.
30. Abu Nu’aym, Hilya,
7.107; Hindi, Kanz al-’Ummal, 1.199.
31. Muslim,
Ashriba, 140.
32. Bukhari,
Fada’il al-Sahaba, 9.
33. Nasa’i,
Zinat, 39.
34. Bukhari,
Fada’il al-Sahaba, 5; I. Hanbal, 2.205.
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