Meeting Muhammad
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When You Noticed His Poverty | Meeting Muhammad ﷺ Episode 20
He was a man who could have lived as a king, but instead chose a life more humble than any that we live today. The Prophet ﷺ was often hungry and had very few material goods, but he was content with choosing the akhira over the dunya.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. One of the greatest proofs of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam's Prophethood is his character. It's his akhlaq. I mean, you saw him SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, you are witnessing the sincerity of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam to Allah and to the creation and you can't help but walk away from a certainty that he is the Prophet of God. And if you think back to Mecca, in Mecca, they were trying to compromise with the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. They were sort of feeling him out, testing him out, you know, is it that you're doing this because you want some money? Is it because you want this? Is it because you want that? وَادُّوا لَوْ تُدْهِنُوا فَيُدْهِنُونَ Allah says, they wish you would compromise and they would happily compromise. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam continues to endure persecution and not take up that offer. And it shocked them because these were a morally bankrupt people. But now you're in Medina and no one would bat an eyelid if the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam lived a decent life. But here you have the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam living in absolute poverty and you are witnessing it in front of your eyes. And it's even worse than what meets the eye. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam could have been probably one of the richest people in history. He may have been the richest man in history. If he just snapped his finger SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam to Abdur Rahman Ibn Auf RadhiAllahu Anhu or Uthman RadhiAllahu Anhu or Talha RadhiAllahu Anhu he could have had all the palaces that he wanted. And again people would have felt like he deserves this SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. He is our leader. We adore him. We want him to live in this way. But the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam instead chooses to live this extremely humble life. And because of how giving and caring he was SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam it was easy to miss just how hungry the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was and how much poverty he was actually in SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. For one Anas Ibn Malik RadhiAllahu Anhu says the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
never had food for the next day. Not once did the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam have food stored for the next day. So every day the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was just getting by. And the only person that recognized him one night was actually Abu Bakr As-Siddiq RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam goes out in the middle of the night and he runs into Abu Bakr RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu and as they bump into each other there's a realization that they're both out looking for food. You think to yourself how is it that the most beloved man in our society is hungry and nobody noticed the signs that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam is driven out of his home at night to get a few bites to eat so that he can survive SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. But you go on and you see that as time goes on and especially when things are very difficult it's very obvious that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam is suffering more than everyone else. We talked about the khandaq and the trench and Jabir RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu seeing the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam stomach bloated Alayhi Salaatu Wasallam out of hunger in those days and recognizing that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam had not had anything to eat for days. Abu Talha RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu saying to Umm Sulaym RadhiAllahu Anha I heard the voice of Allah's messenger SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and you could hear the hunger in his voice. Can you imagine that when someone is so hungry that you could actually hear the hunger in his voice SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and he asks Umm Sulaym RadhiAllahu Anha if she has anything to serve and she says of course for the messenger of Allah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and Anas RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu says that sometimes the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam would reflect on this hunger and how it was and when you saw him on what you thought was his worst day the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam would actually tell you that there were days that were far worse than this and he said the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam once said that I experienced 30 nights and days that were the hardest nights and days of my life
where Bila RadhiAllahu Anhu and I were together and we did not have a single thing that was suitable for a living creature to eat except for the little that was hidden under the armpit of Bila RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu SubhanAllah I mean can you imagine that 30 nights the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam with Bila RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu and they had nothing suitable for a living creature to eat and they would just take the crumbs of whatever they could find and they would eat whatever they could find SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu and that's why you have this famous incident of Umar RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu entering upon the messenger of Allah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and seeing his situation and it's shocking Umar RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu Now the most detailed narration is the one where Umar RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu actually describes the house of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam He said I entered into the house of the messenger SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and he was sitting on his haseer he had this mat and by the way the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam's bed was his couch okay so what he would sleep on SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam at night he would fold it up and he would sit on during the day and you would come and you would sit next to him on that and the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam would put a cushion between you and him and that was his furniture SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam So Umar RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu said I walked into his house and I sat down and I saw the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam laying down on his mat and he had nothing that was between him and the mat except for his waist wrap SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and there was nothing else to protect him from that haseer and because it was made of branches when the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam rises up I saw the marks on his body we're not even talking about a comfortable mattress here we're talking about the marks of the branches on his body and I looked around his house and all I saw in his room SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was a handful of barley and a few leaves in the corner and then he had this water skin that was hanging up in his room and it barely had enough water in it and Umar RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu said I couldn't hold myself
I started to weep and the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam says Mayu bikik Ibn Al Khattab Why are you weeping O Ibn Al Khattab? and he said Ya Rasulullah how can I not weep that mat has put marks on your body and this is all that you've accumulated and I can't see anything other than these few things while Kisra and Caesar live amongst gardens and rivers and you are the Prophet of Allah you're the chosen one you're the beloved one you are so much more deserving of these things and this is all that you have and what does the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam say Ala ta'ruda ya Umar, ana lahum ad-dunya wa la'na al-akhira Aren't you pleased O Umar that for them is the dunya and for us is the hereafter You see the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam did not want Umar RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu to just walk out of that room and come away with while the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam lives in poverty He wanted to impart a concept upon Umar RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhu that is binding upon the Ummah binding upon the nation of Muhammad SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam that for us is the hereafter we are a people of the hereafter we are a people that strive for the riches and the wealth of the hereafter we don't bother ourselves with the wealth of this dunya in a way that would distract us and preoccupy us so aren't you pleased O Umar that we have the akhira and they have the dunya let them take the dunya we have the akhira we have the hereafter and the next time you're feeling entitled and you're feeling like why don't I have more and why isn't Allah giving me this and why isn't Allah giving me that and you're feeling a sense of sadness and maybe even that you're being deprived I want you to remember this narration from Aisha RadhiAllahu Anha Aisha RadhiAllahu Anha would never eat a full meal after the death of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam except that she would start to cry and they would say why are you crying Ya Umar Al-Mu'mineen why are you crying O mother of the believers and she said
ma ashbaAAu AAala taAAamin illa wa ana abki bi anni athkuru haal alati faraka AAalayha SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam al-dunya I don't eat any food except that I start to cry because I remember the way that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam left this dunya she said wallahi ma shabiAAa min khubzin wa lahmin marratayni fee yawm I swear by Allah that he never got to eat to his fill SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam of bread or meat twice in a day he never had two meals in a day SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam so Aisha RadhiAllahu Anha was remembering the difficulty that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam lived with so whether you lived in his society or you live now and you start to think about the entitlement to this world remember that the most beloved person to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala experienced the most difficult poverty and that was only the beginning of his pain SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
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