Life-of-Muhammad

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Life of Muhammad sa
THE PROPHET'S sa SIMPLE LIFE
The Prophet sa was extremely simple in the matter of
food and drink. He never expressed displeasure with illprepared
or ill-cooked food. If he could eat such food he
would do so to save the person who had prepared it
from disappointment. If, however, a dish was uneatable,
he merely refrained from partaking of it and never
expressed his disapproval of it. When he sat down to a
meal he paid attention to the food placed before him and
used to say that he did not like an attitude of
indifference towards food as if the person eating was
above paying attention to mere matters of food and
drink. When any eatable was presented to him he
always shared it with those present. On one occasion
somebody presented him with some dates. He looked
round and after making an estimate of the number of
people present divided the dates equally among them,
each of them receiving seven. Abu Huraira ra relates that
the Holy Prophet sa never ate his fill even of barley bread
(Bukhari).
On one occasion while he was passing along a road
he noticed some people gathered round a roast kid ready
to enjoy the feast. When they saw the Holy Prophet sa
they invited him to join them, but he declined. This was
not due to his not having a liking for roast meat but to
the fact that he did not approve of people indulging in a
feast in the open where they could be observed by poor
people who had themselves not enough to eat. It is
related of him that on other occasions he did partake of
roast meat. ‘A’isha ra has related that the Holy Prophet sa
did not, till the day of his death, on any occasion, eat his
fill on three consecutive days. He was very particular
that a person should not go to a meal in another
person's house uninvited. On one occasion somebody
invited him to a meal and requested that he might bring
four other persons with him. When he arrived at the
house of his host he found that a sixth person had also
joined his party. The host came to the door to receive