Life of Muhammad — Page 203
sa 203 occasions. The Prophet sa did not approve of the suggestion and said: "It would not be pleasing to God for me to adopt ways like this. I shall meet everybody in the clothes that I normally wear. " On one occasion silk garments were presented to him and of these he sent one to ‘ Umar ra. Upon this ‘ Umar ra said, "How can I wear it when you have yourself disapproved of wearing silk garments. " The Holy Prophet sa observed: "Every present is not meant for personal use. " His meaning was that since the garment was of silk ‘ Umar ra should have presented it to his wife or to his daughter or should have put it to some other use ( Bukh a r i , Kit a bul Lib a s ). The Prophet's sa bed was also very simple. He never used a bedstead or a couch but always slept on the ground, the bedding consisting of a piece of leather or of a piece of camelhair cloth. ‘ A ’ isha ra relates: "Our bedding was so small that when the Holy Prophet sa used to get up at night for prayers I used to lie on one side of the bedding and stretched out my legs while he was in the standing posture and folded them back when he had to prostrate himself ( Muslim, Tirmidh i and Bukh a r i ). He adopted the same simplicity with regard to his residential arrangements. His house consisted normally of one room and a small courtyard. A rope used to be strung half way across the room so that when he had visitors a piece of cloth could be hung from the rope to convert a part of the room into an audience chamber separated from the portion occupied by his wife. His life was so simple that ‘ A ’is ha ra related that during the lifetime of the Prophet sa they often had to sustain themselves on dates and water and that on the day of his death there was no food in the house except a few dates ( Bukh a r i ).