The Book of Miscellany

كتاب المقدمات

Chapter 55: Excellence of Simple Living and being Content with Little

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported

Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to supplicate: "O Allah, make the provisions of family of Muhammad (ﷺ) bare subsistence."[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported

By Allah other than Whom there is none worthy of worship, I used to press my stomach against the earth owing to my hunger; I would tie a stone over it. One day, I was sitting on the way they usually take when the Prophet (ﷺ) passed by me. When he saw me he smiled at me and knew my condition and my feelings. He called me and I replied, "At your service, O Messenger of Allah." He said, "Follow me." So I followed him. Having arrived at home, he sought permission and entered. He allowed me in and I, too, entered. He found milk in a bowl and asked, "Where is this from?" He was told that it was a gift for him from so- and-so. He called me and I responded: "At your service, O Messenger of Allah." He said, "Go to the people of As-Suffah and usher them in." He Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) explained: The people of As-Suffah were guests of Islam; they had no family, no property and no relations. When Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to receive something in charity, he would send it to them without taking anything from it. When he received a present, he would send for them and share it with them. On this occasion, I disliked to give them anything. I said to myself: "This meagre quantity of milk will not be enough for all the people of As-Suffah! I am more deserving of it than anyone else. By drinking it I may attain some strength. When they come, he will order me to give it to them. I do not expect that anything will be left for me from this milk." As there was no alternative but to obey Allah and His Messenger (ﷺ). I went and called them. They came and sought permission which was granted. They took their seats. The Prophet (ﷺ) called me and I responded, "At your service, O Messenger of Allah." He then said, "Take the milk and give it to them." I took the bowl and gave it to one man who drank his fill and returned it to me, and I gave it to the next and he did the same. I went on doing this till the bowl reached Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). By that time all had taken their fill. He (ﷺ) took the bowl, put it on his hand, looked at me, smiled and said, "Abu Hirr." I said, "At your service, O Messenger of Allah." He said, "Now you and I are left." I said, "That is true, O Messenger of Allah." He said, "Sit down and drink." I drank, but he went on saying, "Drink some more." I said, "By Him Who has sent you with the Truth, I have no room for it." He said, "Then give it to me." So I gave him the bowl. He praised Allah, uttered the Name of Allah and drank the remainder.[Al- Bukhari].

Muhammad bin Sirin (May Allah be pleased with him) reported

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) said: "I would fall in swoon between the pulpit of (the mosque of) Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and the chamber of 'Aishah (May Allah be pleased with her) and every passer-by would put his foot on my neck thinking I was insane. I was not insane but I was awfully hungry."[Al- Bukhari].

'Aishah (May Allah be pleased with her) reported

When Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) died, his armour was mortgaged with a Jew for thirty Sa' (measures) of barley.[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

Anas (May Allah be pleased with him) reported

The Prophet (ﷺ) mortgaged his armour for a quantity of barley, and I took to him some barley bread and rancid fat. I heard him saying: "The family of Muhammad never possessed a measure of wheat from dawn to dusk although they were nine houses (to feed)."[Al- Bukhari].

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported

I saw seventy of the people of As-Suffah and none of them had a cloak. They had either a lower cloth or a blanket which they suspended from their necks. Some reached half way down to the legs and some to the ankles, and one of them would manage to keep it in his hand to avoid exposing his private parts.[Al-Bukhari].

'Aishah (May Allah be pleased with her) reported

The mattress of Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was a piece of tanned skin stuffed with palm fibres.[Al-Bukhari].

Ibn 'Umar (May Allah be pleased with them) reported

We were once sitting in the company of Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) when a man from the Ansar came and greeted. As he was leaving, Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to him, "O brother of the Ansar, how is my brother Sa'd bin 'Ubadah?" He replied, "He is well." Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) asked, "Which of you is desirous of visiting him?" Having said this he got up and we followed him. We were ten and odd in number and we had neither shoes nor light boots nor caps nor shirts. We walked on foot through the barren plain till we came to the residence of Sa'd (May Allah be pleased with him). His people made way and Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) along with those who accompanied him went up to him.[Muslim].

'Imran bin Husain (May Allah be pleased with them) reported

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "The best of you, are my contemporaries, then those who follow them, then those who will come after them. ('Imran said, I do not know if he said this twice or thrice). Then, they will be followed by those who will testify but will not be called upon to testify; they will betray the trust, and will not be trusted. They will make vows but will not fulfill them, and obesity will prevail among them."[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

Abu Umamah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported

Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "O son of Adam, if you spend the surplus, it will be better for you; and if you retain it, it will be evil for you. You will not be reprimanded for storing what is enough for your need. First of all spend upon those who are your dependents."[At- Tirmidhi, who classified it as Hadith Hasan Sahih].

'Ubaidullah bin Mihsan Al-Ansari (May Allah be pleased with him) reported

Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "Whosoever begins the day feeling family security and good health; and possessing provision for his day is as though he possesed the whole world."[At- Tirmidhi, who classified it as Hadith Hasan].

'Abdullah bin 'Amr bin Al-'as (May Allah be pleased with them) reported

Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "Successful is the one who enters the fold of Islam and is provided with sustenance which is sufficient for his day's needs, and Allah makes him content with what He has bestowed upon him."[Muslim].

Fadalah bin 'Ubaid Al-Ansari (May Allah be pleased with him) reported

I heard Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: "Happiness is due to him who is guided to Islam and possesses provision that suffices him for his day and remains content."[At- Tirmidhi, who classified it as Hadith Hasan Sahih].

Ibn 'Abbas (May Allah be pleased with them) reported

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) went to bed hungry for several successive nights, nor did his family have a thing for supper for many consecutive nights; and their bread was mostly of barley.[At- Tirmidhi, who classified it as Hadith Hasan Sahih].

Fadalah bin 'Ubaid (May Allah be pleased with him) reported

When Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) led Salat, some people would fall down from their standing posture out of extreme hunger. They were of the people of As-Suffah. The nomad Arabs would say that they were insane. After concluding Salat, Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) would turn to them and say, "If you were to know what is in store for you with Allah, the Exalted, you would wish to augment your starvation and lack of provisions."[At-Tirmidhi, who classified it as Hadith Sahih].

Miqdam bin Ma'dikarib (May Allah be pleased with him) reported

I heard Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: "No man fills a container worse than his stomach. A few morsels that keep his back upright are sufficient for him. If he has to, then he should keep one-third for food, one-third for drink and one-third for his breathing."[At-Tirmidhi, who classified it as Hadith Hasan].

Abu Umamah bin Tha'labah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported

The Companions of Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) mentioned the life of the world before him. He (ﷺ) said, "Do you not hear? Do you not hear? Simplicity (in life) is part of Faith, simplicity is part of Faith."[Abu Dawud].

Jabir bin 'Abdullah (May Allah be pleased with them) reported

Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) sent us in an expedition under the command of Abu 'Ubaidah (May Allah be pleased with him) to intercept a caravan of the Quraish. He provided us with a bag of dates, apart from which he found nothing for us. Abu 'Ubaidah (May Allah be pleased with him) gave each of us one date (every day). He (the narrator) was asked: "What did you do with that?" He said: We sucked that just like a baby and then drank water over that, and it was sufficient for us for the day until night. We beat off leaves with the help of our sticks, then drenched them with water and ate them. We then went to the seaside, when there appeared before us something like a big mound. We came near it and we found that it was a beast called Al-Anbar. Abu 'Ubaidah (May Allah be pleased with him) said: "It is dead (so it useless for us)." He then said: "No (but it does not matter), we have been sent by Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) in the way of Allah and you are hard-pressed (on account of the scarcity of food), so you can eat that." We, three hundred in number, stayed there for a month until we fattened up (having plenty to eat of that fish). He (Jabir) said: I saw how we extracted pitcher after pitcher full of fat from the cavity of its eye, and sliced from it compact piece of meat equal to a bull or almost like a bull. Abu 'Ubaidah (May Allah be pleased with him) called thirteen men from us and he made them sit in the cavity of its eye, and he held one of its ribs and raised it erect and then saddled the biggest of the camels we had with us and it passed through it (the arched rib), and we carried large pieces of meat for use in our journey. When we came back to Al-Madinah we went to Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and told him about that, whereupon he said, "That was a sustenance Allah had brought forth for you. Do you have any piece of meat left with you, for us to eat." Jabir (May Allah be pleased with him) said: We sent to Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) some of that (meat) and he ate it.[Muslim].

Asma' bint Yazid (May Allah be pleased with them) reported

The sleeves of the shirt of Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) reached his wrists.[At-Tirmidhi, who classified it as Hadith Hasan].

Jabir (May Allah be pleased with him) reported

On the day of the battle of Al-Khandaq (the Trench), we were digging the trench when a very hard boulder came in our way. The Companions went to Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and told him about it. He said, "I will go down the trench to see it." He stood up and it was noticed that he had tied a stone over his stomach due to intense hunger. We had not tasted anything for three days. He took up a spade and struck the hard rock with it and it turned into sand. I sought his permission to go home, (after reaching home I) said to my wife, "I have seen the Prophet (ﷺ) in a state that I am unable to endure. Have you got anything in the house?" She said, "I have a small quantity of barley and a lamb." I slaughtered the lamb, ground the barley and put the meat in the cooking pot. Then I went to the Prophet (ﷺ). In the meantime the flour had been kneaded and the meat in the pot was nearly cooked. I said to him, "O Messenger of Allah, I have some food, will you come along with one or two Companions?" He asked, "How many men should go there?" I told him the number. He said, "It will be better if they are more in number. Tell your wife not to remove the pot from the hearth nor the bread from the oven till I arrive." Then he said to the Muhajirun and the Ansar: "Let us go (to eat)." They all rose (and went with him). I went to my wife and said, "Bless you, the Prophet (ﷺ), the Muhajirun, the Ansar and the whole company are coming." She said, "Did he (ﷺ) ask you?" I replied in the affirmative. (When they arrived) Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to his Companions, "Enter, but do not crowd in." Then he started breaking up the bread and putting meat on it. He would take from the pot and the oven then would cover them up, approach his Companions and hand it over to them. He would then go back and uncover the pot and the oven. He continued to break up the bread and put meat on it till all had eaten to their fill and still some of the food remained. Then he said to my wife, "Eat from it, and send it as a present, for the people have been afflicted with severe hunger."[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].Another narration is: Jabir said: When the trench was being dug, I noticed the signs of hunger on the face of the Prophet (ﷺ). I returned to my wife and said to her, "Have you got anything in the house? I have seen the signs of severe hunger on the face of Messenger of Allah (ﷺ)." She brought out a bag which contained a Sa' (a measure that equals approximately 3kg.) of barley. We had a lamb which was reared in the home. I slaughtered the lamb and she ground the flour for baking bread. I then cut the meat and put it in the cooking pot. When I was returning to Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), my wife said to me, "Do not embarass me before Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and his Companions." (She said this because she thought that the food would not be enough for everyone, for how can very little food cater for a thousand people?) When I came to him, I said to him in a low tone, "O Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), we have slaughtered a small lamb and have ground a Sa' of barley. Please accompany me with a few of your Companions." Thereupon he (ﷺ) announced in a loud voice, "O people of the Trench, Jabir has arranged a feast for you, so all of you are welcome." And addressing me he said, "Do not take the pot off the fire, nor bake the kneaded flour till I arrive." So I came home and he came ahead of the people. My wife said, "It will be a matter of disgrace for you (because there is not enough food)." I said, "I did only what you told me." She brought out the kneaded flour and Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) spat into it, and invoked the blessing of Allah on it, and then he spat into the cooking pot and invoked the blessing of Allah on it. Then he said, "Call another woman to help bake bread and let her take out from the cooking pot, but do not take it off the fire." There were about a thousand guests. All of them ate till they left the food and went off. Our pot still bubbled as before and the dough was being baked as before.