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Umm Khalid was a little girl who lived in Madinah. Her real name was Amah but she was known by everyone as Umm Khalid, which means “the mother of Khalid” even though she was not yet a mother and didn’t have a son called Khalid. Her parents, Khalid bin Sa’id and Umayma bint Khalaf, were among those who accepted Islam in the early days in Mecca. Things had got so difficult for them that they had migrated to Abyssinia. In Abyssinia they could practise their religion in safety under the just rule of the noble Najashi. It was there that Umm Khalid was born. When she was still small, the time came when they could all go to Madinah and join the Prophet ﷺ and his blessed community. What a joyful reunion it was, after so many years of being apart. Before they left, the Najashi gathered the Muslims together and requested that they pass on his greetings of salam to the Messenger of Allah, which Umm Khalid later did.

Today Umm Khalid was very excited. She was going to meet the Prophet of God! Her mother and father were always talking about him and saying what a wonderful person he was. She had heard many amazing things about him. He was the one that the great angel Jibril came to with verses of the Quran. He was the one who travelled by night to Masjid al-Aqsa and returned in the same night! He was the one who cared for orphans and widows. He was God’s chosen one, al Mustafa, the final prophet. He had a mark on his back called the Seal of Prophethood, which showed he was a prophet. Umm Khalid really wanted to see the Seal of Prophethood. Today Umm Khalid was going to visit the Prophet. Today was going to be a very special day!

Her mother gave her a wonderful yellow dress to wear. She wanted to look her best for the Messenger of God. Then she went with her father to the Prophet’s house. The Prophet stood up to meet her father and they embraced. Then the Prophet turned to Umm Khalid. He noticed her yellow dress. “Sanah, sanah!” he said smiling. “Sanah” was a word she would hear in Abyssinia and it meant “beautiful.” She didn’t think the Prophet knew how to speak Abyssinian. She was happy that the Prophet liked her dress.

The two men sat down and began to talk. Umm Khalid couldn’t take her eyes off the Prophet. He had so much light on his face and the way he spoke was so charming! Then she remembered the Seal of Prophethood. She really wanted to see it. She got up and walked behind the Prophet. The two men were still in conversation. She looked at the Prophet’s back. He was wearing a loose shirt without a collar and she could see a raised piece of flesh on his back between his shoulder blades. She couldn’t resist touching it. It was soft and smooth and smelt fragrant. She was rubbing it with her fingers when her father noticed what she was doing.

“Stop that at once, Umm Khalid,” he said.

The Prophet had felt her fingers on his back and hadn’t done anything to stop her. “Leave her,” he said to Khalid. The Prophet allowed her to satisfy her curiosity.

Then he prayed for her that she would wear the dress until it was worn out and that she keep on wearing dresses until they were worn out. This might sound like a strange prayer to make, but it was really a prayer that she live a long happy life.

Some time later the Prophet was gifted a variety of different garments. One of them was a fine black cloak with lovely green patterns on it. It was just the right size for a small girl. He held it up and asked the people present who they thought he should give it to. No one answered.

“Bring me Umm Khalid,” he said.

When she had come, he put the cloak on her shoulders with his own blessed hands. It fitted perfectly. Umm Khalid wasn’t sure what made her happier – the new cloak itself or the fact that it was a gift from Allah’s Messenger and he was putting it on her himself. She was so happy. The Prophet smiled and said again: “Sanah, sanah!” 

Then he prayed once again that she wear the cloak until it was worn out and then she keep on wearing fine clothes until they were worn out.

The Prophet’s prayers were answered and Umm Khalid lived a long fruitful life. She ended up marrying Zubayr bin al-Awwam, one of the great Companions of the Prophet and one of the ten promised Paradise. Umm Khalid never forgot these two special meetings she had with the Best of Creation. Even in her old age, she would never tire of telling people about them. Tears would fill her eyes when she thought of the Prophet of God smiling at the little girl in the yellow dress.

References: Sahih Bukhari, hadith nos 3071, 3874, 5823, 5845, 5993) and Tabaqat Ibn Sa’d

Abu Hurayrah narrates that while he was sitting with a group of Companions in the company of the Noble Prophet ﷺ a man came up and exclaimed: “O Messenger of Allah, I’m done for!”

“Why is that?” asked the Prophet.

“I had sexual relations with my wife while I was fasting,” the man said.

“Do you have a slave you could free?” the Prophet asked.

“No.”

“Are you able to fast two months consecutively?”

“No.”

“Are you able to feed sixty needy people?”

“No.”

The Prophet ﷺ was quiet for some time. Then someone brought him a basket full of dates.

The Prophet told the man: “Take this and give it away in charity.”

“Should I give it to people who are poorer than me, O Messenger of Allah? I swear by Allah, there is no household from one side of the city to the other poorer than my household!”

The Prophet broke into a smile so wide that his teeth could be seen.

“Feed your family with it,” he said.

(Sahih al-Bukhari no. 1936)

This hadith begins by describing a man in distress who believed he was ruined. His desires had got the better of him and He had transgressed, ruining his fast on one of the days of Ramadan. He could have kept this secret, but he realised the gravity of what he had done and his faith drove him to try to rectify the situation. We may sometimes think we have done something so terrible that we cannot be forgiven. This may drive us to despair and give up. Luckily, in his distress, this man made the best decision, which was to go to the Prophet ﷺ. This is what the Companions did when problems confronted them and we should also take our problems to him as we will find solutions to them in his teachings and his perfect example. Narrations such as this show us that the Companions weren’t perfect: they had desires like us and made mistakes like us. Had they all been absolutely faultless, there are many valuable lessons that we would not be able to learn.

The Prophet ﷺ did not become angry at this man’s transgression. He did not rebuke him or shout at him. Instead, he immediately addressed the legal consequences of the action. This was a serious misdemeanour and the penalty was severe. The man was asked if he was able to free a slave, a large financial sacrifice, but he was unable to do so. Scholars mention that a person in such a situation has potentially destroyed himself spiritually so the freeing of a slave acts as a ransom and a means of saving one’s soul. Secondly, the man was asked if he was able to fast two months consecutively. In one narration of the hadith, the man replied that if he had the self-control that fasting requires, he would not have done what he had done. In other words, if I can’t even do this fast, how can I fast for two whole months? Thirdly, he was asked if he could feed sixty needy people to make up for the sixty days he was unable to fast. He of course lacked the means to do this.

After waiting for some time, a donation arrived in the form of a basket of dates. The Prophet ﷺ told the man to give it away in charity. At this point, the man spoke up, saying that there was no one poorer than him and his family in Madinah and therefore there was no one more deserving of this charity than him. Only a few moments ago, this man had come in a state of great distress and now he was hoping to come away with something for his family. This was when the Prophet smiled, a beautiful broad smile which showed his brilliant white teeth.

The scholars mention that it remained the man’s responsibility to feed sixty people whenever he was financially able to do so. He also needed to seek Allah’s forgiveness and make up that day’s fasting. In any case, he came to the Prophet ﷺ in a state of fear and a state of need, and he returned in a far better state with food for his family and a smile our beloved Prophet.  

Photo by Tiago Ferreira on Unsplash

A Bedouin man once entered the Prophet’s Mosque. Feeling the need to answer the call of nature, and not appreciating the place he was in, he went off to the side of the Mosque and began to urinate. The Prophet’s Companions were naturally outraged. They began to rebuke him and some stood up ready to physically prevent him from what he was doing. But the Prophet ﷺ , who had been observing everything, forbade them from doing anything. Instead, he told them to let the man finish and then wash away the urine with a bucket of water. He reminded them that their role was to make things easy and not difficult.

When the man had finished, the Prophet himself approached him. The Prophet did not rebuke him and did not insult him. He very simply told him that the Mosque is a place of prayer and not a place to urinate. He was so impacted by the kindness of the Prophet that he prayed: “O Allah, show mercy to me and Muhammad and no one else!”

The Prophet smiled and said: “You have restricted something which is vast.”

(narrated by Bukhari, Ibn Hibban and others)

Every event in the life of our Prophet and the people around him was an opportunity to learn. The people present at the time of this event learnt something and we continue to learn many centuries later. There will always be people who do not know the correct behaviour or etiquette that a particular place or situation demands. If we know the correct etiquette and wish to teach it to someone else, how do we go about doing so? Sometimes our attempts to give advice or correct someone may do more harm than good. Sometimes we are too harsh and lack wisdom when we do this. But not the Messenger. He immediately read the situation. This man was most likely entering the Mosque for the first time. It may have been his first experience of Islam and how it is practised. At the very least, he did not know what the right thing to do was. The Prophet took all this into account. It was not that he didn’t care about the sanctity of the Mosque, but he was teaching us that people are more important than buildings. The Prophet was concerned for this man’s wellbeing – his physical, psychological and spiritual wellbeing. Forcing him to stop urinating may have caused him physical harm. Publicly humiliating him may have caused him psychological harm. Driving him away may have distanced him from Islam, causing him spiritual harm. The Prophet cared about every individual. No one was too insignificant to receive his full attention. He did not instruct someone else to teach the Bedouin, but he himself spoke to him. He did not give him a lengthy lecture about the sanctity of the Mosque and the rules of ritual purity. Instead he very gently and simply said what the Mosque was and what it was not.

The beauty of the Prophet’s approach won over the Bedouin, whose response was to pray to God. Having been on the receiving end of the rebukes of the Companions, he excluded them from his prayer. As a general principle, it is good to make dua for individuals and mention them by name, but we should also include everyone in our prayers. The Prophet smiled when he heard the Bedouin praying only for himself and the Prophet. He smiled in a way a father might smile at his son when he can ask for anything from Allah and all he asks for is something small. Of course, Allah’s forgiveness is not something small, but His love, mercy and compassion are so vast and all-encompassing that she would never restrict them to certain individuals based on our limited understanding.

Anas narrates that a Bedouin man came to the Prophet ﷺ while he was delivering the Friday sermon in Madinah and complained to him that there was a drought: their livestock were dying and their women and children were hungry. He then beseeched the Prophet to ask for rain. The Prophet raised his hands in supplication. At that point, there was not a cloud in the sky, but as soon as he began to supplicate, clouds began to form and pile up like mountains. Then it began to rain. Even before he had stepped down from the pulpit, the Prophet’s beard was dripping with rainwater. It continued to rain that day and the following day and the rain continued until the following Friday.

On that day, the Prophet was once again delivering his sermon on the pulpit when the same man returned (or another man – Anas could not be sure). “O Messenger of Allah,” he said, “our homes are falling apart and our livestock are drowning, so ask your Lord to make it stop!”

The Prophet smiled and raised his hands in supplication saying: “O Allah, around us and not on top of us, around us and not on top of us!” He pointed to the sky and signalled for the clouds to move and they began to clear until there was a circle of clear sky around Madinah, while rain continued to fall upon the areas around the city for another month. (Narrated by Bukhari and Muslim)

Life was not easy for the early community in Madinah which mostly relied on agriculture and livestock for its sustenance. Drought was a very serious threat to the survival of the people of the city. This Bedouin man came in a state of desperation. He was obviously feeling the effects of the drought hard as he tried to graze his animals in the area around Madinah. He was so desperate that he did not even wait for the Prophet to finish speaking, but interrupted his sermon and complained about the severity of the situation. The Prophet could have told him to sit down and wait but he responded immediately, knowing that the man was speaking not just for himself but for the whole community. Allah says of the Prophet: Your suffering distresses him: he is deeply concerned for you (9:128).

The Prophet is Allah’s Beloved and when the Beloved asks, the One who loves him so much instantly responds. Within seconds rain started pouring down. Rain is symbolic of Allah’s mercy and when the one who was sent as a mercy to everything asks the All-Merciful for mercy, it duly pours down. In fact, it comes in such abundance day after day that people cannot handle it. And this was perhaps what brought a smile to the Prophet’s lips when the request came to stop the rain. It tells us something about human nature – as Allah says: man was created hasty (21:37). We want something very badly and then we get it, we realise we want something else. Blessings can quickly turn into trials. The Prophet’s smile may also have been an expression of his wonder at his Lord’s bounty and generosity.

Here we witness not just one but two miracles, two acts of divine mercy – the immediate sending down of rain and then the immediate removal of that rain. It is noticeable that the Prophet did not ask for the rain to stop completely, but instead he asked for it to be removed from the city of Madinah itself where the damage was being felt. He asked for the harm to be removed but the benefit to continue and this is what happened: the valleys around Madinah continued to receive plentiful rainfall for a month. There is a lesson in this that if we receive a blessing but it then becomes difficult, we should not ask for it to stop coming but we should ask for whatever detracts from that blessing to be removed. Scholars also teach us when we ask for something, to ask for it accompanied with gentleness and wellbeing (lutf and afiyah).

We see time and time again that when the Companions were in difficulty or had needs great or small they would go to the Messenger. The Bedouin man could have asked Allah directly for rain but he knew that the Prophet was infinitely closer to Allah and his prayers would be answered. They understood the concept of an intermediary. They knew the status of the Prophet in Allah’s sight and they knew the Prophet was happy to play the role of an intermediary. And he did so with a smile.

May Allah give our beloved Prophet ﷺ the greatest of rewards on our behalf.

Abdullah ibn Mas’ud narrates that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ once described the last person to leave the Fire and enter Paradise. This man moves away from the Fire, at times staggering, at times walking, at times crawling, with the Fire still burning his face. When he reaches safety, he breathes a sigh of relief, looks back at it and praises Allah for saving him from it, which he sees as the greatest blessing imaginable. Then he catches sight of a tree next to a pool of water and asks Allah to be brought to it in order to rest in its shade and to drink from the water.

Allah says to him: “Perhaps if I answer your request, you will ask for something else.”

The man promises not to ask for anything else, but once he has drunk the water and sat in the shade, he catches sight of another tree that is more beautiful than the tree which he is under. So he asks to be able to go to it. Allah reminds him of his promise not to ask for anything else and says that if He answers the man’s request, perhaps he will ask for something else. The man promises once again not to ask for anything else and his request is granted. But then he catches sight of a third tree at the gates of Paradise which is more splendid than the first two. Once again, he promises this will be the last thing he asks for. Allah grants his request, knowing that it will not be the last.

When he is in the shade of the third tree, he begins to hear the voices of people enjoying the pleasures of Paradise and cannot resist asking permission to enter.

Allah asks him: “What will stop you from asking Me repeatedly? Would you be content if I gave you everything the world contains twice over?”

The man says, somewhere between incredulity and intense joy: “Are you making fun of me, and You are the Lord of All Creation?”

At this point, the Prophet laughed in amusement at the man’s statement. Ibn Mas’ud would also laugh when he narrated the hadith.

Allah replies: “I am not making fun of you. I have the power to do whatever I wish.”

In another narration of the hadith, Allah allows the man to keep asking and asking until He gives him everything the world contains ten times over. (Narrated by Muslim)

An element of the Messenger of Allah’s prophecy was his being shown specific events that will unfold in the next life. He describes these events as though he is watching them unfold in front of him.

We believe that anyone who has even an atom’s weight of faith will enter Paradise. Unfortunately some believers who have committed grave acts of disobedience will experience punishment in Hell before entering Paradise. This person will be the last believer to leave the Fire. He must have committed some pretty terrible crimes to warrant such a lengthy punishment and to be the lowest in rank of all the believers. But he “does his time” and eventually comes out and experiences the unimaginable relief of salvation.

He is happy just to be safe from the Fire, but when he sees the beauty of Allah’s gifts in the form of a tree and a pool of water, he cannot help himself asking. Don’t forget that he has spent a long time seeing nothing but fire and brimstone. The more he sees, the more he asks for, until he finally enters Paradise. There is a lesson in this that as believers we would set our sights high and ask for the greatest of things, not because we deserve them, but because our Lord’s generosity knows no bounds. Allah is as we perceive him to be and if we have high hopes in Him, He will not dash those hopes. If this is what is awaiting the person who has the lowest rank of all the believers, what will those who lived a life of obedience receive? What will those who attained higher stations be given? We cannot begin to imagine: no soul knows what joy is kept hidden in store for them as a reward for what they have done (32:17).

A further thing we notice is that Allah does not abandon anyone who does not abandon Him. However bad this person was, he still had some faith and Allah recognises that and does not deny him his eventual reward. Furthermore, He tells this man’s story to the Prophet ﷺ who then tells it to his nation so that we can learn about how Allah treats His servants.

The Prophet ﷺ does not forget a single member of his Ummah, regardless of how far they stray from the path. On the Day of Judgement, he does not rest until he has interceded for as many people as he is able. He is a gift of mercy to all creation but he has a special concern for those who believe in him and he is aware of their plight. There is always room for one more person at the Prophet’s banquet, regardless of how late they arrive.

Finally, we see how the Prophet ﷺ laughed at the ridiculousness of the man’s statement. He found humour in the exchange between Allah and His servant. Allah’s generosity and bounty defies belief. 

Anas narrates that he was once walking with Allah’s Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) who was wearing a Najrani shawl with a rough edge. All of a sudden, a Bedouin came up behind him, took hold of the shawl, and pulled it with great force. The Prophet turned to face the man and Anas noticed that the force of the pull had left a mark on the Prophet’s neck.

“Muhammad,” he said, “Give me some of Allah’s money which is in your possession!”

The Prophet looked at him, smiled and instructed that he be given something. (Narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim)

This short incident brings to the fore a number of the Prophet’s astounding character traits.

The fact that he was walking with his servant, Sayyiduna Anas, who was a child at the time, shows his humility. Although he was the greatest human ever to walk the earth, he was happy to walk with anyone regardless of their age, gender, race and social standing. His choice of clothing is further evidence of his humility and lack of concern for worldly things. He could have worn the finest and smoothest of fabrics but he was happy with a shawl made in the Najran region of Yemen with an edge so rough as to be uncomfortable.

Then we witness the immensity of the Prophet’s forbearance, a beautiful quality known in Arabic as hilm. We are told that the description of the Prophet in the Torah is that the more rudely he is treated, the more he increases in forbearance. The Bedouin came from behind and, without any warning, grabbed the Prophet’s shawl, pulling it so hard that it physically hurt him. Then to add insult to injury, he addressed him in the most rude and blunt fashion. We are told in the Quran not to address the Prophet by his first name, as we might address our peers and equals, but this man was obviously ignorant of this. With no regard for common courtesy and without explaining his situation, he demanded that he be given some charity or zakat.

We have to ask ourselves: how would we react in a similar situation? Our surprise and shock at being accosted from behind would quickly turn to anger and indignation. Then perhaps some pride and arrogance would creep in: how dare this person treat me like this! Who does he think he is? Does he really think he’ll be given anything after this?

This might well be our reaction. But it was not the reaction of Allah’s Beloved (Allah bless him and give him peace). He had every justification for becoming angry, but he did not. He could have turned away and ignored the man, and this would have taken great self-control, but rather he turned towards him. Instead of turning away from him, he turned towards him. The Companions tell us that whenever someone called the Prophet from behind, he would turn his whole body to face them, give them his full attention, and respond.

The Prophet’s response to the rudeness of the man’s demand was a smile or even a chuckle, depending on how the hadith is translated. Ugliness was met with beauty. He then instructed that the man be given something.

The Prophet recognised the truth of the Bedouin’s statement – that indeed it was not his money, but rather Allah was the true giver and he was merely distributing what Allah had given. This is true humility – to accept words of truth from whoever utters them, even if they come in such a blunt form.

The Bedouin had most likely recently embraced Islam and the Prophet knew that he had to be treated with special care. In this there is a lesson for us in how we should treat those who are new to the faith or born into the faith but new to practising it. They may not be familiar with some of the manners and etiquettes that we have learnt over time. They may have grown up and lived in difficult environments.

This was perhaps the only time that the Prophet and the Bedouin were to meet and had the Prophet rebuked him, it could have shaken the man’s faith.

Instead his faith would have been made firm by the Prophet’s beautiful character and the receipt of financial support. This would have been his abiding memory of the Prophet. This is what he would have told his family, his children and his tribe about. The Prophet’s smile would have lived with him for the rest of his days.

Abu Talha narrates that one day the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was in good spirits. Joy could be seen on his face. The Companions said: “O Messenger of Allah, today you are in good spirits and joy can be seen on your face.”

“Yes,” said the Prophet, “A visitor came from my Lord and said: ‘When a member of your nation bestows one prayer upon you, Allah records for that person ten good deeds, erases ten of his bad deeds, raises him ten degrees and bestows upon him a prayer like the prayer he bestowed.’” (Narrated by Ahmad and al-Nasa’i)

Nothing pleased the Companions more than to see the Prophet with joy on his face. They could not help remarking on this, hoping to know why this was the case. The Prophet ﷺ explained that an angel had come to him bearing good tidings. In some narrations this angel is named as Jibril, peace be upon him.

The angel’s message from his Lord relates to the reward given to someone who bestows one prayer upon the Prophet. The Prophet ﷺ was overjoyed at what had been gifted to his nation through this simple act. His joy was in what benefited his followers the most – an increase in their good deeds, an erasure of their bad deeds and the raising of their ranks  – all of this multiplied tenfold! But what is even greater, is that Allah Himself bestows prayers upon such a person.

Allah’s Prayers Upon Us

Other hadiths tell us that if we bestow one prayer upon the Prophet, Allah responds by bestowing ten prayers upon us. But even if it is only one, this is more than enough since a prayer from Allah is something that cannot be measured or quantified. Imam Ibn Ata’illah al-Iskandari said that if all the good actions of the whole of creation from the time of Adam to the Day of Judgement were placed on one side of the scales and one prayer from Allah was placed on the other, the prayer from Allah would outweigh all those actions.

This is one of many hadiths that inform us of the benefits of bestowing prayers (salawat) upon the Prophet. When we take a few moments to do this, we recognise the huge debt that we owe our guide and acknowledge our inability to recompense him. We thus ask Allah to do this on our behalf and hope that it brings joy to our beloved Prophet ﷺ.

Jarir bin Abdullah narrates that he was sitting in the middle of the day with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ along with some of the Companions when a group of people appeared. They were barefoot and hardly had any clothing. Jarir recognised them to be from the tribe of Mudar. The Prophet’s face went pale when he saw the state they were in. After everyone had assembled and prayed the congregational prayer, the Prophet stood up and addressed the people. He reminded them to have taqwa and to prepare for their meeting with Allah. Then he exhorted them to give whatever they could in charity: gold, silver, clothing or food, even if it was only half a date.

A man from the Ansar then came with a bag of coins so large that he could hardly carry it. From then on, people came one after the other bringing donations. Soon there were two piles, one of food and one of clothing.

When the Prophet saw this, his face shone with joy. He then said: “When someone establishes a good practice in Islam, they will have the reward for it and the reward of those who later act upon it without this detracting in the least from their reward.  When someone establishes a bad practice in Islam, they will bear the responsibility for it and for those who later act upon it without it detracting in the least from their responsibility.”  (Narrated by Muslim)

It pains the Prophet ﷺ to see members of his nation in a state of destitution and hardship and nothing pleases him more than to see people making sacrifices to help those in need.

When he saw these people in a state of hardship he was greatly moved. The fact that he shared a common ancestor with them – since he himself was a descendant of Mudar – made him treat them with extra compassion. By helping them the Prophet was also honouring the ties of kinship, which was something at the heart of his teachings.

The Prophet ﷺ could have asked Allah to feed and clothe these people in whatever way He wished, but he wanted his Companions to take action. Once the community had come together for prayer, he called upon them to give whatever they could to help these unfortunate people. But he only did this after reminding them of their relationship with Allah – to show them that their belief in Him and awareness of Him dictated that they act in situations such as this. He wanted each person to give according to their means and their intention. So half a date from one man may have been more significant than another man’s gold or silver.

What made his face shine with joy was to see a man from the Ansar coming forward with a generous donation. He loved the Ansar dearly and Allah Himself testifies to their readiness to sacrifice out of love for Him: “they give others preference over themselves, even if they too are poor” (al-Hashr, 59:9). He was happy that this man had taken the initiative and that others would follow his example. He then clarified an Islamic principle: that when someone establishes a good practice, they will be rewarded for doing so and they will be rewarded for the actions of those that follow that practice. The opposite is also true, as the Prophet stated.

We ask Allah to grant us the ability to do things that please Him and His Beloved ﷺ and that in doing so we set an example for others to follow.

Abd al-Rahman bin Abi Aqil al-Thaqafi narrates that he came to visit the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with the delegation of the tribe of Thaqif. He said: “When we entered into his presence there was no one that we hated more than him. We entered, greeted him and pledged allegiance to him. When we left there was no one that we loved more than him.

I said to him: ‘O Messenger of Allah, did you not think of asking your Lord for a kingdom like the kingdom of Sulayman?’

The Prophet smiled and said: ‘Perhaps Allah has given your companion (meaning himself) something better than the kingdom of Sulayman. Whenever Allah sent a Prophet he gave him a (special) supplication. Some of them used it for something worldly and they were given what they asked for, and some used it to pray for the destruction of their peoples, and their peoples were duly destroyed.  Allah gave me this special supplication and I have kept it in reserve with Him to use as a means of intercession for my nation on the Day of Judgement.’” (Narrated by al-Hakim)

The tribe of Thaqif were the noblemen of the city of Ta’if. When the Prophet ﷺ came to call them to Allah, they rejected him in the most offensive manner. In spite of that rejection, the Prophet refused to command their destruction but rather hoped that they would be guided. If they were not guided, he hoped that their children and descendants would.

The Muslims later defeated Thaqif at the Battle of Hunayn and unsuccessfully laid siege to Ta’if. The tribe eventually sent a delegation to the Prophet to reluctantly announce their acceptance of Islam. The narrator admits that he hated the Prophet when he first met him but during the course of one sitting, that hatred was transformed into love. Instead of bearing a grudge against them, the Prophet welcomed them with open arms. We can only imagine the wise words and the beautiful character that the Prophet showed in order to win over their hearts.

The narrator began to get a glimpse of the Prophet’s status. He began to realise that in front of him was Allah’s Beloved and he could ask whatever he wanted from his Lord. He thought that the greatest thing someone could ask for was a vast kingdom, but the Prophet corrected that notion with a gentle smile. He showed that the greatest thing you can ask for is what benefits people the most in their hour of greatest need. This is one of many narrations which tell us about the intercession of the Prophet on the Day of Judgement.

His mercy surpassed the mercy of other Prophets and he will not be content until as many members of his nation as possible are in Paradise. May none of us be deprived of his intercession on that day.

Umayah bin Makhshi narrates that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was sitting with a man who was eating. The man did not mention Allah’s name and he kept eating until there was only one mouthful left. When he raised the food to his mouth he said: “In the name of Allah at the beginning and the end.”

The Prophet laughed and said: “The devil was eating with him until he mentioned Allah’s name, at which point the devil vomited up everything that was in his stomach!” (Narrated by Abu Daud)

This hadith reminds us of the importance of mentioning Allah’s name before even the smallest and most mundane actions such as dressing, entering and leaving our homes, going to sleep and waking up, and, of course, eating and drinking.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ taught us the precise etiquette in all of these situations and revealed to us the consequences of neglecting it. When we mention Allah’s name, it acts as a barrier that prevents darkness and evil from entering our lives. Beyond this, it reminds us that only Allah sustains the existence of all things. When we eat, sleep and walk in Allah’s name, those actions take on a new meaning. This is because they are connected to the Divine and are blessed with Allah’s support and care.

If, however, we are not conscious of this reality (as is often the case) it is never too late. The key is to return to Allah as soon as we remember. If we forget to mention Allah’s name before we eat, we can say the following supplication when we remember:

بِسْمِ اللهِ أَوَّلَهُ وآخِرَه

Bismillāhi awwalahu wa ākhirahu

In the name of Allah at the beginning and the end

This incident also shows us that the Prophet ﷺ was actually witnessing the unseen. The angelic and demonic realms were unveiled to him. Although they are veiled to us (with very rare exceptions), it is part of our faith to believe that they exist just as the Prophet informed us of them.

Just as the devil is happy to see our actions come to nothing, the Messenger ﷺ laughed and was happy to see the devil’s actions come to nothing. His happiness was always for the victory of light over darkness. In this case, a member of his nation was neglectful even though he was in the presence of the Prophet. But what pleased the Prophet was that he made amends. We can take comfort from the fact that however heedless or forgetful we are, we can always make amends. In doing so, we make our guide and teacher happy. May Allah shower him with blessings and peace.