Manners of the Prophet
Proper Worship of Allah
Allah said in the Qur’an in Surat _Al ^Imran_, Ayah _159_, in mentioning about the Prophet:
فَبِمَا رَحْمَةٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ لِنْتَ لَهُمْ وَلَوْ كُنْتَ فَظّاً غَلِيظَ الْقَلْبِ لَانْفَضُّوا مِنْ حَوْلِكَ فَاعْفُ عَنْهُمْ وَاسْتَغْفِرْ لَهُمْ وَشَاوِرْهُمْ فِي الْأَمْرِ فَإِذَا عَزَمْتَ فَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُتَوَكِّلِينَ
which means: <<By the mercy of Allah on you, O Muhammad, you are soft on your Companions; and if you were rough with them and your heart was hard they would have dispersed from you so pardon them and ask forgiveness for them and seek their opinion regarding matters and once you make up your mind proceed relying upon Allah for Allah accepts the deeds of those who rely upon Him.
Allah bestowed on Prophet Muhammad the best of all manners. Imam Muslim narrated in a hadith from Ja^far as–Sadiq from the route of his father, from Jabir who answered the question of the one who asked about the description of the way the Prophet performed his Hajj; so Jabir described the Hajj of the Prophet to him. In describing that, he stated,
“The Prophet left ^Arafat after the sun had set, with Usamah Bin Zayd mounted behind him on the animal he was riding from that spot until they reached Muzdelifa. The Prophet stayed in Muzdelifa that night, and that is where he prayed the Subh Prayer. Then he went to the Masjid al-Haram, where he stood and made du^a’. Then the Prophet had al-Fadil, the son of al-^Abbas (the uncle of the Prophet), mounted behind him on the animal. He was mounted behind him until they reached Mina.”
Al-Fadl Ibn ^Abbas was the cousin of the Prophet, and thus was among the most known and honored of the tribes of Quraysh. Despite that fact, the Prophet had Usamah Bin Zayd riding with him before he had his cousin riding with him. Look into this wisdom, and see how great it is.
The father of Zayd was nicknamed, “the love of the Prophet” and Zayd used to be called, the loved, the son of the loved . The father of al-Fadl was named ^Abbas. Al-^Abbas and Hamzah were the only uncles of the Prophet to embrace Islam. The Prophet used to treat al-^Abbas like the son would treat his own father. Al-^Abbas had ten (10) male children and each of them was a good man. Even with this the Prophet mounted Usamah behind him before al-Fadl sat behind the Prophet. This was because Zayd, the father of Usamah, embraced Islam before al-^Abbas, the Prophet’s uncle and father of al-Fadl.
The Prophet had Usamah riding with him from ^Arafat to Muzdelifa, and then from Muzdelifa to Mina, his cousin, al-Fadl, rode behind him. The Prophet did not take into account the honor nor the relation of his cousin to him; rather, what he took into account was thefact that Zayd, the father of Usamah, embraced Islam before al-^Abbas. The Prophet did not look to who was famous among the people–rather he looked into the piety of the person instead. Usamah, was the son of Zayd . Zayd was a slave who was given to the Prophet as a gift from his wife, Khadijah. The Prophet had set this man, Zayd, free, and Zayd married Ummu Ayman, who was from the country of al-Habasha. This was the woman who had raised the Prophet when he was young. Yet, the Prophet did not look into the issue of relation, nor did the Prophet look into the fame of the person among the people; Rather, what the prophet took into account as the fact of who was the one who embraced Islam first, and he considered the status of he who is better in terms of his piety (taqwa). That is why the Prophet had Usamah riding with him first, and then in the next day he had his cousin, al-Fadl riding with him. This is the true wisdom; not going to either of the two extremes, and this is the justice which is acceptable–with which Allah orders His slaves. Allah bestowed on the Messenger of Allah, the bounty of doing things the right way and behaving in the right manner. The Prophet had a heart that was tahir, clear of impurities, and his heart was full of sincerity. This is why he did not look into the issue of wealth, nor into the issue of blood relation, nor to the physical beauty. Rather, he weighed this matter of he who has a better status in terms of the Religion.
This is how all the behavior of the Prophet was, and Allah was the One Who guided him to handle these matters properly. One should also take into account that the Prophet was raised an orphan, and he did not mix with those wise ones. Revelation came down on him when he was at the age of 40, while he was among his people in the city of Makkah. As for the inhabitants of Makkah, not even one among them had studied the old books in detail. Despite all that, Allah beautified the Prophet with the best of manners and with the best of politeness. Allah indicated in the Qur’an the Prophet had great manners and the Prophet was just as he was described in the Qur’an.
A description of the Prophet’s manners was also in the old books revealed on the prophets who came before him. In the city of al-Madinah, there was a scholar among the Jews known as Zayd Ibn Sa^iyah. This man, Zayd, looked into some of those old books Allah revealed to the prophets before Muhammad to see the characteristics of the last Prophet at the end of time. Zayd found among the characteristics of the Prophet an indication he was a man who would not go to the extreme of behaving in a bad manner even when faced with that which would cause anger. Zayd also found if a person increased his bad behavior towards the Prophet, this would only cause the Prophet to increase his patience and his good manners. Knowing this, the scholar of the Jews wanted to test the Prophet after his emigration to al-Madinah to see if these characteristics befit Muhammad. As part of his plan, Zayd lent the Prophet some money to be paid back at a certain time. Three days before the debt was due, he returned to the Prophet and mentioned this issue of the loan. Zayd spoke to the Prophet with such ugly statements and ill behavior that ^Umar became very angry and wanted to kill him. The Prophet refrained ^Umar from doing that, and instead, gave the man his money as due. By witnessing Muhammad’s behavior, he knew this characteristic was among the attributes of the Prophet, and thus he knew this was the last Prophet at the end of time. Zayd uttered with the Testification of Faith, and became Muslim. This was one of many examples indicating the prophethood of Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam.
It is known the attributes of wisdom and good manners were the attributes of all the prophets. That is so, because Allah does not send those who are ill-mannered to the slaves. Allah would not send one who would speak with lies, behaves with ill manners, or behaves without wisdom. Allah sends as Messengers those raised on good manners and truthfulness who are attributed with good manners and treating the people rigtheously, and Allah bestowed on our Prophet the best and the most of these attributes. There was no one before the Prophet who had better characteristics then he, nor will there be anyone after the Prophet who will have better than his attributes.
Both Muslim and al-Bukhariyy narrated from the route of Anas:
كان النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم أحسن الناس خلقًا
which means: The Prophet was the best among the people in manners and in physical appearance.” There are some virtues you may find in one person and other virtues you may find in a different person, and so on, but Allah gave all of these virtues to Prophet Muhammad, and Allah bestowed these good attributes on all the prophets. As such any person would say a Prophet was ill-mannered or bad in his appearance would be a liar. Some people make false accusations about the prophets, such as the Jews who claimed Prophet Dawud sent on of his leaders of the army into a battlefield to be killed, so Prophet Dawud would be able to take his wife. This statement tells a lie about a Prophet of Allah. Another example of falsehood is what some people say about Prophet Job (Ayyub) who was afflicted with a sickness. Some people say he was so sick that worms come out of his skin. The confirmed truth was that he had a severe sickness that lasted for eigtheen (18) years, but not to the extreme that worms were coming out of his skin. This is impossible to attribute to a Prophet because if worms were coming out of his skin, this would be an attribute which would repel people and not attract them. Allah sent the Messengers to call the people to Islam and not to repel them. That is why our Lord did not afflict any of the prophets with such calamity as that.
In describing the beauty of Prophet Muhammad, what Abu Hurayrah said is enough. He said, “It seemed the sun or the like of the sun was coming out from the face of the Prophet.” In describing the beauty of his voice, Jaber Ibn Mut^im related the Prophet had such a beautiful voice that once–before Jaber embraced Islam–he heard the Prophet recite the Qur’an. Jaber said, “Upon hearing the recitation of the Prophet I felt like my heart was going to fly from my chest from the beauty of the Prophet’s recitation.” Jaber embraced Islam after that. This was narrated by Imam Muslim in his Sahih.
Although the Prophet was attributed with all the good manners, he did not stress on the issue of the good manners as much as he stressed on the issue of performing the obligations. The issue of fulfilling the obligations was more essential and took a priority, because the individual would be asked whether he fulfilled his obligations on the Day of Judgment. Each will be asked about his obligations before he is asked about his good manners and his good treatment of the people. He will be asked, if he fulfilled that which Allah obligated him to fulfill; if he did those worships Allah ordered him to do; if he learned from the knowledge of Islam the amount which one cannot do without in his worship of Allah and in his treatment of the other people. Since proper worship of Allah takes priority over the good treatment of the people. The first and the most important of the priorities among the obligations of the slaves is that the slaves of Allah would believe in Allah and His Messenger properly. That is why to believe in Allah and His Messengers properly is the best things slave can do.
And this is why among the first of what was revealed to the messenger of Allah is that which means O you the one who is with the cover, get up and warn the people. The Prophet was told by Allah to warn the people from committing shirk to Allah . The people who accepted the Prophet’s call to Islam had a vast mentality by the benefit and the barakat of the Prophet. These people had the ability to understand quickly that which the Prophet taught them about Allah and His non-resemblance to the creation. These companions also had the ability to understand the proper meaning of this verse in a short period of time. Those who came after these companions are in need of much more time to understand this verse.
Among that which Allah revealed on the Prophet was Surat ash-Shura, Ayah 11:
لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ ۖ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ
which means, [Nothing resembles Allah in any way.] This verse totally clears Allah of any resemblance to any of the creation. We understand from this honorable verse that Allah does not resemble any of the creation, and none of the creation resembles Allah in any way. The reality of Allah does not resemble the reality of the creation. The doing’s of Allah do not resemble the doings of the creations. The attributes of Allah do not resemble any of the attributes of any of the creation. He is the only One attributed with eternity (without beginning). No one is eternal except Allah. Everything other than Allah is an event, i.e., was created; it existed after being non-existent. On this definition, both the places and time itself became existent after having been non-existent. The issue of place is a clear matter. Concerning the issue of time, to make it easy to understand, we say time only existed when the first creation became existent.
In a sahih hadith of the Prophet, it was mentioned that the first creation of Allah was the original water, it is existent now under the heavens and below the throne (^Arsh) and it was the first of all the creations of Allah. Then, from this water, Allah created the glorious throne (^Arsh), then the Pen, then the Preserved Tablet. Then Allah ordered the Pen, and the Pen wrote on the Tablet and registered all that which will be until the Day of Judgment. After that, by a period of 50,000 years, Allah created the heavens and the earth from this water which did not have an origin from which it derived. Rather, Allah , by His Power, created this water–without it being derived from another origin. The One Who is attributed with Power by which He creates something out of something else, also has the ability to create that which is original out of nothing. Then, all of the creations of Allah were created from that original water–either by intermediary means or without intermediary means . Each of the humans, Except Isa and Adam, was created from the maniyy[1] of his parents, and this maniyy was also formed form something else; that something else was made out of something else, and so on until this reaches the original water as was stated.
As Allah said in the Qur’an in Surat Al anbiya’, Ayah 30:
وَجَعَلْنَا مِنَ الْمَاءِ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ حَيٍّ
which means: [Allah created all the creations which are alive from the original water.] Allah said “al-Hayy” (alive) in this verse, because that which is alive is higher in formation than that which is not. Or else, all the creation is created form that original water. As for the humans, we all derived from Adam originally, and Adam was created from the soil of this earth on which we live. Allah ordered one of the angels to gather some of each type of the soil of this earth–the red soil, and the yellow, and from the black soil and the white, and also from the soil which is soft and that which is hard. This was taken to Paradise by the angel and there it was mixed with the water of Paradise until it became clay. Prophet Adam was formed from that clay, and then Allah created the soul in him. At that he became a human being, and Allah immediately bestowed on Adam the knowledge and the ability to speak. Imam al Bukhariyy narrated Adam sneezed after Allah created the soul in him, and the first word he said was, “al-Hamdulillah.” Then Allah ordered the angels to prostrate to Adam. This was a sujud of respect and honor and not out of worship. Then Adam spoke to these angels.
Since the soil from which Adam was formed was of different characteristics and colors, this accounts for the different attributes and colors of people. This is the reason we find among the humans those who are easy going and those who are tough, and we find a range of skin colors among the people. because of the differences in the colors of the soils from which Prophet Adam was created.
All of this pertains to the origin of man although some claim the origin of the humans derived from the ape or that which resembles the ape. One knows the origin of man came from Adam –who was a Prophet and a Messenger of Allah. Not only did Adam have the ability to speak, he knew all the languages. He was the one who taught people how to plant, and he was the one who taught people how to print the coins of dirham[2] and dinar[3]. Adam also taught other matters which were beneficial to humans. This is the origin of man, and there is an origin for each type of creation, and all of the origins of the different creations is the original water. Allah created the original water from nothing. Prior to that water, there was no place and there was no time, and none of the creation existed. That is why it is an obligation to believe all the world existed after being non-existent, and Allah created it.
The Creator does not resemble His creation. He is attributed with knowledge, power, and will because he who is not attributed with power and knowledge and will cannot create anything. So by reason of the mind, the Creator is attributed with these attributes; however, His Knowledge is not like the knowledge of His creation; His Power is not like the power of the creation; His Will is not like the will of His creation; and His Life is not like the life of His creation. Our life consists of blood and skin and spirit and bone; however, the life of Allah–which is an attribute of His Self is not that which consists of spirit and body and blood and bone. Allah, praise be to Him, does not resemble any of the creation.
Allah is the One Who created light, and He is the One Who created darkness Therefore it is impossible He would resemble light or darkness, because the Creator does not resemble His creation. we say about Allah, “an-Nur,” and it means the One Who guides; it does not mean the light. Allah created both light and darkness as indicated in the Qur’an; therefore we must believe Allah does not resemble any of his creation. All that which is an attribute of the creation, it is not permissible to attribute to Allah. Among the creations are those who sit, stand, move from place to place, go up, descend, lie down, and lean. Praise be to Allah. It is not permissible to attribute any of these things to Him, because all of the aforementioned are attributes of the creation. The one who sits is attributed with a buttocks on which he would sit; he would have an upper and lower part; and he would bend. All of these aforementioned are attributes of the creation and it is not permissible to attribute any of them to the Creator. The Throne is not a place which Allah sits on–as imagined by some people. Due to the influence of the Jews and Christians, some people who claim to be Muslims think Allah is sitting on the Throne above–and this is not true. The Throne is a creation Allah created as a sign of His power. Allah did not create it to sit on, because sitting is an attribute of the creation–not an attribute of the Creator. Likewise is the rule concerning any of those characteristics or attributes of the creation. Length, width, form, shape–none of these can be attributed to Allah. Our Lord is as He described Himself in the Qur’an: “Laysa kamithlihi shay’.” The one who is attributed with a limit or an edge is in need of one who specified him with that edge or limit.
If we were to refute the person who worships the sun, we would say the sun has a form and a limit, and that which is attributed with a form and a limit is in need of one to specify it with those characteristics; therefore it is impossible Allah would be attributed with these. The best of what was said about this, after the Qur’an and the hadith, is a very famous and beautiful statement made by Imam Thun-Nun al-Misri.[4] He said:
مهما تصورت ببالك فالله بخلاف ذلك
“Whatever you imagine in your minds, Allah is different from it.” This statement is extremely beneficial. It was deduced from the verse which means, “Nothing resembles Him in any way.” There is a great benefit for every believer to memorize this statement. Should any idea enter one’s mind which contradicts the proper belief in Allah, by remembering this statement one will be able to rid himself of such bad thoughts. Whatever you imagine in your mind, Allah is different from it. This is, in essence, among the essentials of the Islamic belief. This is a matter the Prophet stressed on his Companions to teach to the people, and that is why we need to pay due attention to this matter.
We also need to pay due attention to learning this honorable knowledge because it is by virtue of this knowledge the person would have the ability to distinguish between that which is true and that which is false. It is by this knowledge the person would have the ability to distinguish between true knowledge and falsehood, true creed and false belief. It is by this knowledge one would be able to know about the good behavior so as to perform it, and that which is bad behavior so as to refrain from it.
And Allah knows best.
[1] maniyy is fluid used for both males and females (the word sperm in English has a different connotation and refers specifically to males. It is strange for the American to consider ‘sperm’ in the context of males and females. Maniyy also sounds nicer.
[2] dirham refers to unit for the silver coins.
[3] Dinar refers to unit for the golden coins.
[4] Thu Nun al Misri is his known nickname, his given name was Ibrahim Ibn Thawban.. He lived 1200 years ago.