In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Treasures of the Prophetic Biography.
"Magnanimous when buying..."
During this military expedition,
Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) narrated another story to us.
He said:
"I went out with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him)
to the Expedition of Dhat al-Riqa' in Nakhl,
riding a weak camel of mine.
When the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) turned back
from this expedition,
the riding parties began passing ahead,
while I kept lagging behind,
until the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) caught up with me
and asked,
'What is the matter with you, O Jabir?'
I said, 'O Messenger of Allah,
this camel of mine has slowed me down.'
He said, 'Make it kneel.'
So I made it kneel,
and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) also made his mount kneel.
Then he said,
'Hand me this stick in your hand,'
or 'Cut a stick from a tree.'
He said: So I did.
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) took it
and poked the camel with it a few times.
Then he said,
'Mount it.'
He said: So I mounted it,
and—by the One Who sent him with the truth!—it set off
keeping pace alongside his own she-camel.
He said:
I began conversing with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him),
and he said,
'Will you sell me this camel of yours, O Jabir?'
He said:
'Rather, I give it to you as a gift.'
He said, 'No,
but sell it to me.'
He said:
I said, 'Then name a price for me.'
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said,
'I take it for one dirham.'
Jabir said:
'No,
for you would be underpaying me, O Messenger of Allah!'
He said, 'Then for two dirhams.'
He said:
I said, 'No.'
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) kept raising the offer for me
until it reached an *uqiyyah* (forty dirhams).
I said, 'I am satisfied;
it is yours, O Messenger of Allah.'
He (peace be upon him) said,
'I have bought it.'
Jabir said:
Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) asked,
'O Jabir,
have you gotten married?'
He said:
I said, 'Yes, O Messenger of Allah.'
He asked,
'A previously married woman or a virgin?'
He said:
I said, 'Rather, a previously married woman.'
He said,
'Why not a young virgin, whom you could play with and who could play with you?'"
This shows us that it is preferable to marry a virgin
if that is feasible for a person.
He said:
"I said, 'O Messenger of Allah,
my father was martyred on the day of Uhud,
leaving behind seven daughters for me.
So I married a mature woman
who could gather them, look after them, and manage their affairs.'
This demonstrates altruism,
as he preferred his sisters' well-being over his own desires (may Allah be pleased with him).
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said to him,
'You have made the right choice, Allah willing.
When we reach Sirar,
we shall order a slaughter-camel to be sacrificed,
spend the rest of our day there,
and your wife will hear of our arrival and prepare the cushions.'
He said:
I said, 'By Allah, O Messenger of Allah,
we have no cushions!'
He said,
'You will soon have them;
so when you arrive, act wisely.'
When evening came, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him)
entered Medina, and we entered as well.
I told my wife the news
and what the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had said to me.
She said,
'Comply then!
We hear and obey.'
When morning came,
I took the camel by its halter
and led it until I made it kneel at the door of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).
Then I sat in the mosque nearby.
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) came out
and saw the camel.
He asked, 'What is this?'
They said, 'O Messenger of Allah,
this is the camel brought by Jabir.'
He said,
'Where is Jabir?'
So I was called for him,
and he said to me,
'O nephew,
take the halter of your camel, for it belongs to you.'
Then he called Bilal and said,
'Go with Jabir
and give him an *uqiyyah*.'
He said:
So I went with him, and he gave me an *uqiyyah*
and added a little extra.
He said:
By Allah, it continuously brought blessing and increase to my wealth,
and its distinct place remained visible among our possessions,
until it was lost yesterday among what we lost—
meaning on the Day of al-Harrah,
in the year 63 AH."
In another narration,
Jabir stipulated a condition with the Prophet (peace be upon him)
that he be allowed to ride it back to Medina.
This hadith contains many points of benefit,
including:
First:
That the Prophet (peace be upon him)
purchased the camel from Jabir,
bargaining with him until he satisfied him with the price.
This proves the permissibility of bargaining over price.
Second:
That the Prophet (peace be upon him)
was the most compassionate and gentle of people with his Companions;
this is evident in his staying behind until he caught up with Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah.
Third:
It highlights the Companions' profound love for the Prophet (peace be upon him),
as demonstrated when the Prophet (peace be upon him) said to Jabir,
"Sell it to me,"
and Jabir replied,
"Rather, I give it to you as a gift."
Fourth:
The recommendation to marry a virgin,
as the Prophet (peace be upon him) advised Jabir to do.
Fifth:
It also proves the permissibility of marrying a previously married woman.
Sixth:
A demonstration of the generosity of the Prophet (peace be upon him),
in that after purchasing the camel,
he returned it to Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) as a gift.
Seventh:
That Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah
stipulated a condition to the Prophet (peace be upon him)
when he sold him the camel:
that he be permitted to ride it until he reached Medina.
Scholars have cited this as evidence for the validity of adding a condition to a sale—
namely, a sale coupled with a stipulation.
And Allah knows best.
Treasures of the Prophetic Biography:
Lessons and Insights.
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) posted
two men as night scouts to guard the Muslims:
'Abbad ibn Bishr
and 'Ammar ibn Yasir.
'Ammar went to sleep while 'Abbad stood up to pray.
A man from the idolaters approached
and shot an arrow at 'Abbad while he was praying.
He pulled it out and continued his prayer.
The attacker struck him with a second arrow;
he pulled it out and continued his prayer.
Then he shot him with a third;
yet he did not break his prayer until he completed the salutation (may Allah be pleased with him).
He then woke his companion.
When 'Ammar saw his blood, he said,
"SubhanAllah!
Why did you not alert me at the first arrow?"
He replied,
"I was reciting a surah
and hated to interrupt it."
In that same year,
the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) appointed
a man from the Ansar
over a military detachment he dispatched,
commanding the men to listen to him and obey.
During the journey, they angered their commander,
so he said to them,
"Gather firewood for me."
They gathered it for him.
He then said,
"Kindle a fire!"
So they lit it.
Then he said,
"Did not the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) command you
to listen to me and obey?"
They replied, "Yes, indeed."
He said:
"Enter it."
This is a truly astonishing matter,
because he understood that as long as
the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
commanded them to hear and obey him,
then they must obey him in everything,
even if it involved disobedience to Allah,
Blessed and Exalted is He.
They looked at one another
and said,
"We only fled to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
to escape the Fire,
not to fall into it."
He said:
His anger then subsided.
When they came to the Prophet, peace be upon him,
they mentioned this to him,
and he said,
"Had they entered it, they would never have emerged from it;
obedience is only in what is righteous."
Treasures of the Prophetic biography (Seerah)
The 'Umrat al-Qada' (The Compensatory Umrah) in the seventh year of the Hijrah.
We have previously discussed how the Prophet, peace be upon him,
and his Companions were barred from the Sacred Mosque,
until the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah was concluded.
Abu 'Abdullah al-Hakim said:
Reports have reached the level of tawatur that he, peace be upon him,
when the month of Dhu al-Qa'dah arrived,
commanded his Companions to perform the Umrah to compensate for their previous one,
and that no one who had witnessed Hudaybiyyah should remain behind.
They all set out, except for those who had been martyred.
Others also went out with him to perform the Umrah,
so their number reached two thousand,
excluding the women and children.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, drove sixty sacrificial camels with him.
He entered the state of ihram from Dhu al-Hulayfah,
and set out prepared with weapons and combat gear,
fearing that the Quraysh might commit treachery.
When he reached Ya'jaj,
he deposited all the equipment, shields, and armor,
along with the arrows and spears,
and left them under the guard of Aws Ibn Khawlah al-Ansari with two hundred men.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, entered carrying only the weapons of a traveler,
with swords in their scabbards.
The Quraysh had sent Mikraz Ibn Hafs with a group of their people,
and he said to him, "O Muhammad,
we have never known you, young or old, to be treacherous;
yet you enter the Sacred Precinct with weapons against your own people,
even though you had agreed not to enter except with the weapons of a traveler."
The Prophet, peace be upon him, replied,
"I am not bringing weapons against them."
Mikraz said,
"This is what you are known for:
righteousness and loyalty."
This is a testimony from one of the Prophet's enemies regarding him,
and such testimonies are successive and numerous.
They bore witness to his truthfulness, trustworthiness, righteousness, and loyalty.
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, entered riding his she-camel, al-Qaswa'.
He used to name all his horses, camels, donkeys, and mules.
Among the horses of the Prophet, peace be upon him, are those collected in a line of poetry:
"Sakb, Lahif, Subhah, Darb,
Lazaz, Murtajiz, and Ward—they have secrets."
As for the mules,
the Prophet, peace be upon him, had a mule he named Duldul.
He had a donkey named 'Ufayr.
And among his camels were al-Qaswa' and al-'Adba'.
This she-camel has a famous story,
which is that she was so fast she was never outrun.
Then a Bedouin came and raced her with his camel, and he outran her.
This distressed the Muslims,
so the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said,
"It is a right upon Allah that He does not raise anything in this world without eventually lowering it."
The Prophet, peace be upon him, entered riding his she-camel, al-Qaswa',
while the Muslims were girded with their swords,
surrounding the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, reciting the talbiyah.
The polytheists went out from Makkah to a mountain north of the city
called Qu'ayqi'an.
They said to one another,
"A delegation is coming to you whom the fever of Yathrib has weakened."
The Prophet, peace be upon him, seemed to have heard this or sensed it,
so he commanded his Companions to perform the ramal (brisk walking) during the first three circuits,
and to walk normally between the two corners.
This was because the people of Makkah could see them when they circled from the Hijr to the Yemeni Corner,
but between the Yemeni Corner and the Hijr, they could not see them.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, liked to show strength to the Quraysh.
The ramal then became a Sunnah thereafter,
not only for the Compensatory Umrah,
but a permanent Sunnah.
For it is established from the Prophet, peace be upon him, that when he performed Hajj, he performed the ramal,
though it was throughout the entire House.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, entered Makkah,
with 'Abdullah Ibn Rawahah in front of him.
He was a poet,
and the poets of the Prophet, peace be upon him, were three:
Hassan Ibn Thabit,
Ka'b Ibn Malik,
and 'Abdullah Ibn Rawahah.
'Abdullah Ibn Rawahah was girded with his sword, saying:
"Clear the way, O sons of the disbelievers, from his path;
clear the way, for all goodness is in His Messenger.
The Most Merciful has sent down in His revelation,
in scrolls recited upon His Messenger:
O Lord, I believe in what he says,
I have seen the truth in accepting it,
that the best of killing is in His path.
Today we strike you over its revelation,
a strike that removes heads from their resting places,
and makes the intimate friend forget his friend."
'Umar came and said,
"O Ibn Rawahah,
in front of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
and in the Sacred Sanctuary of Allah, you recite poetry?"
The Prophet, peace be upon him, said to him,
"Leave him be, O 'Umar,
for it is more piercing to them than the flight of arrows."
Meaning, this poetry is more intense for them than arrows.
When the Prophet, peace be upon him, performed the ramal
for the first three circuits with those who were with him,
and the polytheists saw them,
they said, "Are these the ones you claimed
that the fever had weakened?
These are more robust than so-and-so and so-and-so."
When he finished the sa'i,
he had placed the sacrificial animals he had brought
at al-Marwah.
He said, "This is the place of slaughter,
and all the mountain passes of Makkah are places of slaughter."
So he, peace be upon him, slaughtered
at al-Marwah and shaved his head there.
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, stayed
in Makkah for three days.
When the morning of the fourth day came,
they came to 'Ali and said,
"Tell your companion to depart from us,
for the time limit has expired."
This was because they had agreed with the Prophet, peace be upon him,
that he would perform the Umrah for three days.
So the Prophet, peace be upon him, departed
and camped at Sarif,
where he stayed.
Treasures of the Prophetic biography (Seerah)