Chief of the Prophets

Chief of the Prophets — Page 123

Chapter Seven 123 Muḥammad sa said, “If you are deprived of love and mercy for your children, what can I do?” The words of Muḥammad sa tell us that love is a natural sentiment, and the lack of love cannot be attributed to someone’s high status, rather it is due to the callousness of the heart. Muḥammad’s disposition was such that if a child would climb on Muḥammad’s back while he was offering Ṣalāt , he would not lift his head from prostration until the child himself came down from his back. Once, Muḥammad sa offered Ṣalāt while holding his granddaughter Umāmah in his lap. When he would go down in prostration, he would put her down on the floor, and lift her again when standing up. If he was on a journey, he would have the young children of his family ride with him in turns. But in spite of so much love and affection for children, he never neglected their proper upbringing and training. It is recorded that when his grandson, Ḥasan ra , was 3 or 4 years old, while playing, he put a date in his mouth from a pile of dates reserved for charity ( Zakāt ). 1 Muḥammad sa immediately removed the date from his mouth and threw it away saying, “Yuck! Do not do it again! Don’t you know that it is forbidden for our family to take charity?” Similarly, once his stepson, Ibni Abī Salamah was eating while sitting in his lap, and his hands were going all over the plate. Muḥammad sa said, “Child! Begin eating food with the name of Allah; eat with your right hand; eat from the side of the plate that is in front of you, and do not eat from all over the plate. ” It was a habit of Muḥammad sa that instead of teaching the children pointless things, he would teach them things that carried a moral lesson. It is related by Ḥasan ra : Muḥammad sa made me memorize a phrase in my childhood that I still remember, which is: 1 Obligatory alms instituted in Islam. [Publisher]