Gardens of the Righteous — Page 142
142. GARDENS OF THE RIGHTEOUS 91. . On Economy in Preaching. Allah, the Exalted, has said: 250. Call unto the way of thy Lord with wisdom and goodly exhortation (16. 126). 702. Shaqiq ibn Salamah relates: Ibn Mas'ud used to preach to us every. Thursday. A man said to him: Abu Abdur Rahman, I wish you would preach to us every day. He said: What stops me from doing it is the fear lest I should bore you. I adopt the same method in preaching to you that the Holy Prophet adopted in preaching to us out of fear of boring us (Bokhari and Muslim). 703. Amr ibn Yassir relates that he heard the Holy Prophet say: The length of a person's Prayer and the brevity of his sermon testify to his intelligence. Make your Prayer long and your sermons short (Muslim). 704. . Mu'awiah ibn Hakam Sulamiqq relates: While I was in Prayer with the Holy Prophet one of the congregation happened to sneeze and I responded with: Allah have mercy on you. On this the congregation reproved me with their looks. To this I reacted with: May you lose your mothers, why are you staring at me? Thereupon they started beating their hands against their legs. . Then I understood that they wanted me to be silent, so I restrained myself. . May my father and mother be the ransom of the Holy Prophet, I have not known a better instructor before him or after him. When he finished the. Prayer, he did not remonstrate with me, or beat me, or reprove me. He said:. During Prayer no talk is permissible. It is all praise and glorification and recitation of the Quran. He added something in the same vein. I said:. Messenger of Allah, I have newly emerged from Ignorance and Allah has favoured us with Islam. There are still some men among us who go to consult soothsayers. He said: You should not go to them. Then I said: There are some of us who are guided by omens. He said, these are things that come up in their minds. They should not be influenced by them (Muslim). 705. . This hadith comprises the first part of No. 158 92. . On Dignity and Calmness. Allah, the Exalted, has said: 251. The true servants of the Gracious One are those who walk upon the earth with humility and when they are accosted by the ignorant ones their response is: Peace (25. 64). 706. Ayesha relates: I never saw the Holy Prophet laugh outright so that the interior of his mouth could be seen. He only smiled (Bokhari and Muslim).