Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume II — Page 128
128 People asked Abu Hurairah ra what he was talking about. He ra replied , “I became a Muslim in the la t ter period of Islam. With this thought that other people have already listened to a great many of the Holy Prophet Muhammad’s sa sayings, and I have only a relatively short time left, I made a pledge that I would not move from the Messenger ’s sa door. I will stay at the m osque all day long so that whenever the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa comes out, I c an listen to what he said. My brother sent me food for a few days but eventually he stopped. I began to experience hunger pangs; sometimes I missed seven meals in a row. I would fall faint on account of extreme hunger. People thought I was having an attack of epilepsy. The custom amongst Arabs was that when someone had epileptic seizures , they would hit them with shoes. They thought this was a cure for it, so when I would faint, they would start hitting me on the head with their shoes even though I had only passed out because of severe hunger. So now compare that state to this situation whe n the treasures of Iran have c o me in to the possession of Muslims. When the bounty [of war] was distributed, that same handkerchief which the k ing of Iran would hold in his hand while seated on the throne came in to my share. However, t h e k ing would hold this handkerchief in his hand to sho w off. In my view , this handkerchief is fit only for me to spit phlegm into. ” I s there any thing other than history , which can acquaint you with the se incidents about your forefathers? What else can inform you of what you were and what you are? In certain countries, a Muslim woman could go out and no t one person would have the audacity to even lift their eyes in her direction. Nowadays, when women move about in the streets of Rabwah , we worry in case an unsavory character might have come from elsewhere and create mischief. There was once a time when Muslim women would go to every corner of the world. T hey would go completely alone, and no man had the courage to even look askance in their direction a nd were he ever foolish enough to make such a mistake, he would receive such retribution that he would cause his children humiliation for generations to come. Muslims had spread all over the world in the initial period of Islam. They had already spread to various corners of China, Malaysia, Ceylon [ Sri Lanka ] , and India only eighty or ninety years after the death of the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa. They had reached to the western shores