The poverty of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) was intentional

  

The poverty of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) was intentional

 

It is mentioned in Seeratun Nabawiyya on the authority of ‘Irbaaz (May Allah be well pleased with him) that we were with the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) in the Battle of Tabuk.  One night, the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) asked Hadhrat Bilal (May Allah be well pleased with him):  Do you have anything to eat?  He said:  We have emptied all our lunchboxes.  The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said:  Check.  Maybe you will find something somewhere.  With this, He started checking each vessel.  In one he found one date and in some two.  At last, he collected 7 dates.  The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) asked for a vessel and put those dates in it.  He then placed His hand on them and said:  Bismillah.  Eat.

 

Three people ate those dates.  I counted the seeds of the dates which I ate, which were 54.  I gathered them with my left hand.  Other people also ate to their heart’s content similarly.  When we stopped, there were still 7 dates there.  The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) asked us to keep those dates safe.

 

The next day the same dates were brought.  The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) again placed His hand on them and said:  Bismillah.  Eat.  On this occasion, we were 10 persons.  All of us ate until we were satiated and the dates didn’t diminish.  Then the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said:  If I didn’t feel shy before Almighty Allah, we would eat those dates until we returned to Madina.  Then those dates were given to a boy and he went away eating them.

 

This Hadith shows that the poverty of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) was intentional because what was in His power was that He could bless 7 dates to the extent that he wanted, but shyness before Almighty Allah made Him spend them away and made Him prefer the same provision-less state.

 

        It is plain that those 7 dates didn’t have any special powers.  The dates when He would place His hand on them would become blessed.  However, it wasn’t acceptable to Him to get His sustenance through His own powers, which, to some superficialists, would have seemed to go against the Lordship of Almighty Allah.  With the elites, the station of servitude to Allah is greater and more complete than all others and this is the station of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam).  Then why would the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) give an opening to the superficialists to object?

 

Thus, the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) would always remain happy in poverty and unless and until Almighty Allah willed it, He wouldn’t use His own powers and authority for His own sake.  There is another similar Tradition.

 

Zyad bin Harith (May Allah be well pleased with him) says:  I was with the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) in a journey and I was a strong person, I never left the side of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam).  Once at dawn, the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) ordered me to give the call for prayer, the Adhaan.  I remained seated on my mount and did so and we kept walking.  At last, we stopped at a place.

 

The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) went to relieve Himself and on returning asked me:  Do you have any water?  I replied:  I have it in a pail, but it will not be enough for ablution.  The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) ordered that it be brought.  When I did so, the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) asked me to pour it in a big cup.  I did so.  The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) placed His hand in it.  I was seeing that from each webbed space between His fingers, a stream of water was gushing forth.  Then the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) told me:  If I didn’t feel shy before Almighty Allah, we would keep drinking and giving water like this.

 

        Then the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) performed His ablutions and ordered that a call be given:  Whoever wants to perform ablution may do so from this water.  Thus, everybody performed their ablutions.  Then Hadhrat Bilal (May Allah be well pleased with him) came and wanted to give the Iqaamah.  The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said:  Sadaai has given the Adhaan and the one who gives the Adhaan should say the Iqaamah as well.  Then the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) stepped forward and led the Salaat.

 

This Hadith also shows that it was within the powers of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) to provide water to the army whenever He wanted to.  But there was also a reticence that this is the work of Almighty Allah and it might go against the Lord’s pleasure.  This also shows that if the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) exercised His powers and fed and watered people when the need arose, there would be no disapproval from Almighty Allah.  Otherwise, the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) would have said plainly that if I do so, Almighty Allah will be displeased with me.  Instead, the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said that He felt shy.  The intent seems to be that Almighty Allah Himself would do everything as per the wish of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam).  In spite of this, accomplishing such things through His own powers, which are the domain of Almighty Allah, was in a way against the grandeur of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam).  Only Allah knows what other considerations were there for it.

 

It is impossible that somebody’s intellect can find a way into the secrets between Almighty Allah and His Beloved Prophet.

 

Thus, all these were the imperatives of the perfection of servitude, which demand that no kind of egotism or arrogance should develop.

 

[Excerpted from Maqasid Ul Islam, Vol. 9]