Life-of-Muhammad

Life of Muhammad sa 225SAFEGUARDING THE INTERESTS OF THE POORWhen Islam began to be generally accepted over thegreater part of Arabia, the Holy Prophet sa often receivedlarge quantities of goods and money which heimmediately distributed amongst those who were inneed. On one occasion his daughter Fatima ra came tohim and, showing him her hands which had becomecalloused by the labour involved in crushing grain withstones, requested that a slave might be allotted to her tolighten her labour. The Prophet sa replied: "I shall tell yousomething which will prove to be of far greater worththan a slave. When you go to bed at night you shouldutter the praise of God thirty-three times, and affirm Hisperfection an equal number of times and affirm Hisgreatness thirty-four times. This will help you a greatdeal more than could the possession of a slave"(Bukhari).While distributing money on one occasion a coin fellfrom his hands and rolled out of sight. Having finishedwith the distribution he went to the mosque and led theprayers. It was his practice to remain sitting for a shortwhile after the conclusion of the prayers, occupied in theremembrance of God and thereafter to let peopleapproach him and put questions to him or profferrequests. On this occasion, as soon as the prayers wereconcluded, he got up and proceeded quickly to hishouse. He looked for the missing coin and, havingrecovered it, came back and bestowed it upon a needyperson, explaining that the coin had fallen from hishands during the distribution of money and the matterhad gone out of his mind but he suddenly recollected itwhile-leading the prayers and he was made uneasy bythe thought that if he were to die before he could recoverthe coin and give it away to some person in need, hewould be held responsible for it before God; that was thereason why he had left the mosque in such a hurry torecover the coin (Bukhari, Kitabul Kusuf ).