Hayatus Sahabah - The Lives of the Sahabah - Part 1 of 3

THE LIVES OF THE SAHBAH @!?@w> (~ol-I) 61
instructed people to do the same. He gave equal attention to each person in the
gathering so that all of them thought that they were the most honoured.
Whenever a person sat with him or stood with him to address a need,
~asulullaah B@ remained with him patiently until the person himself took
leave. When anyone asked him for anything, he would give the person his need
or kindly tell the person that he did not have the means to fulfil the need."
"~asulullaah k%k$ generously distributed his cheerfulness and good character to
every person so that he became a father to them all and fulfilled the rights of
each one of them equally. His gatherings included forbearance, modesty,
tolerance and confidentiality. Voices were never raised in his gatherings,
reputations were never smeared and faults were never publicised. Those
attending his gatherings were treated equally (no racial and social discrimination
existed) and people were held in high esteem only in relation to the level of their
Taqwa. Each person respected the other and just as the elderly were shown great
reverence, the youngsters were shown great compassion. The needy were
attended to and enquiries were made about strangers (to see to their needs)."
When Hadhrat Husayn %K%&3 asked his father about Rasulullaah W's
interaction with the people in his gatherings, Hadhrat Ali %X@!i$ replied,
"Rasulullaah always smiled and displayed a tolerant attitude and a soft
nature. He wasnever ill-tempered, never hard-hearted, never shouted, was never
vulgar, never searched for the faults of people and never joked excessively.
Rasulullaah pretended not to be aware of things he disliked but would not
make a person lose hope in receiving something he wanted, which Rasulullaah
@@ himself disliked (he would give the person something to appease him or
advise him kindly)."
"Rasulullaah m divorced himself from three things and also prevented people
from these three things. These were (1) arguing, (2) speaking too much and (3)
indulging in futile talk. He never spoke ill of anyone, never insulted anyone and
never searched for the faults of any person. He only spoke when he anticipated
rewards for his speech."
''Whenever Rasulullaah spoke, the Sahabah '$EIW&% sitting in the gathering
sat with their heads bowed as if there were birds perched on their heads (they sat
absolutely still like people afraid that any movement of theirs would disturb birds
perched on their heads). The Sahabah remained silent as he spoke and
spoke only whenhewassilent. They also took care never to argue in his presence.
Rasulullaah @% expressed amusement when the Sahabah WGWj laughed and
expressed surprise when they did. He tolerated the blunt speech and harsh
manner of questioning that strangers used (when they came to ask various
questions). (Seeing that Rasulullaah did not mind the questions and
because they were too respectful to ask such questions,) The Sahabah +B,W
used to bring such strangers to the gatherings."
"Rasulullaah used to say, 'Help a needy person whenever you see one.' He
did* not tolerate anyone praising him, unless a person was expressing gratitude