The life of the Holy Prophet of Islam — Page 12
The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) throughout his life encouraged the people to a have independent and noble living. He always pushed his followers to be hard working, make an honest living and discouraged them from seeking charity. He did not condemn wealth and the wealthy; however, he was concerned for his followers that they may not get obsessed by wealth and wealth may not corrupt them. The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) himself could have been the wealthiest man in the history of Arabia, however, he preferred to live simply and use his wealth to please God. As the leader of the Islamic nation, he received great wealth; however, he hated for that wealth to remain in his home for more than a day without having distributed it in charity. At times he would distribute tens or hundreds of thousands of dinars at a time as soon as he received them. He lived according to his supplication: O my Lord, indeed, true life is only the afterlife, and what have I to do with this life? The similitude of this life and me is as a traveler who stopped to take shelter in the shade of a tree and then arose and left it. Urwah narrated that ‘Aisha, the wife of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), said to me: O my nephew! We used to see the crescent, and then the crescent, and then the crescent, in this way we saw three crescents in two months and no fire (for cooking) used to be lit in the houses of Allah’s Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). I said, “O my aunt! Then what used to sustain you?” Aisha said, “Two dates and water. ” (Sahih Bukhari) Abu Dharr narrated that Allah’s Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: If I had gold equal to the mountain of Uhud, it would not please me that any of it should remain with me after three nights, except what I would keep for repaying debts. (Sahih Bukhari) MARRIED LIFE OF THE PROPHET OF ISLAM At the age of twenty-five he was employed by Khadijah, a noble lady of Mecca, as her agent in a caravan that was about to set out for Syria on a mercantile mission. And Muhammad acquitted himself so well in the discharge of his duties that she was deeply impressed by his honesty, integrity, business acumen and his pleasing and attractive personality. Khadijah was a widow, after married twice, and had children from both marriages. Now she sent the proposal of marriage to Muhammad through one of her maids. Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was surprised and took counsel with his uncle, who favored the proposal and the match was arranged. At that time Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was twenty-five years of age and Khadijah was forty. That was the first marriage of Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). The marriage, despite the disparity in age and prosperity, proved to be a very happy one. This marriage lasted for 25 years. The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was 50 years old when Hadrat Khadijah died at the age of 65 years. After the death of Hadrat Khadijah, the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) married to an old lady named Sowda Binte Zamah. She was the widow of Sakran Bin Amar, who was one of the servants of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Up to the age of 50 years the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) had only one wife. After the death of Hadrat Khadijh, he married more wives. Polygamy was a common practice of the society. There was not any limit to the number of wives one could have. Abraham had three wives, David one hundred, and Solomon over seven hundred. But the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), according to God’s command limited polygamy to marry up to four wives. All his wives when he married were widows or divorced, except Hadrat ‘Aisha, the daughter of his beloved companion, Abu Bakr Siddique , who became