Editor's Note: Insha`Allah, each week, we will provide a small glimpse of Prophet Muhammad's life (may Allah bless him and grant him peace).  He is our model of moral character, a light in the darkness of a misguided world.  When we know him and follow his example, uniting and strengthening our Ummah will be a natural phenomenon.

 

 

Ali (peace be upon him) narrated:  "When the Noble Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) shook hands with someone, he would never withdraw his hand until the other person withdrew his hand first and when he was occupied with someone in fulfilling his needs or conversing with him, he would never leave until the person himself left first.  When someone was talking with him he would not become silent until he became silent, and he was never seen stretching his leg forward in front of th eperson sitting with him.  He did not choose between two options except that which was the more difficult of the two.
 
"He would never avenge himself for any wrongdoing until it violated teh sacred ordinances of Allah, at which point he would become angry for the sake of Allah.  He never ate while leaning (on anything) until he left this world.  He was never asked for a thing to which he replied, "No"; and he never turned away a needy beggar without giving him what he needed or (if he did not have it) saying some kind words.  His prayer was the lightest.  His sermons were the shorest and least irrelevant.  He would be recognized by his fragrance when he approached.
 
"When he ate with a group of people, he would be the first to start and the last to stop eating.  When he ate, he would eat what was in front of him and if there were dry dates or fresh date he would extend his hand (to take from it).  When he would drink, he drank in three draughts, and he would drink water in sips and would not gulp it down.  He used his right hand for his food and his left hand he used for anything other than that.  He loved to begin with the right side in all his affairs, from wearing clothes to putting on shoes to combing his hair.

"When he called out, he would call out thrice.  When he spoke he spoke concisely and when he sought permission to enter he did it three times.  His speech was clear and simple such that whoever heard it understood it and when he spoke, it would be as though light was coming out from between his front teeth, so that if you saw him you would say:  He as a gap between his teeth, but actually he did not.

"He would look with short glances (without staring), and he would not talk to anyone about a thing that he disliked.  When he walked he would raise his feet as though he was descending a declivity.  He would say, 'The best from among you are those with the best akhlaq (moral character).'  He would neither criticize the taste of food nor praise it.  His companions would not dispute with each other in his presence.  Whoever spoke of him would say, 'I have never seen anyone like him, neither before him nor after him.'"

-- Makarim al-Akhlaq: 23