Life-of-Muhammad

Life of Muhammad sa 203
occasions. The Prophet sa did not approve of the
suggestion and said: "It would not be pleasing to God for
me to adopt ways like this. I shall meet everybody in the
clothes that I normally wear." On one occasion silk
garments were presented to him and of these he sent
one to ‘Umar ra . Upon this ‘Umar ra said, "How can I wear
it when you have yourself disapproved of wearing silk
garments." The Holy Prophet sa observed: "Every present
is not meant for personal use." His meaning was that
since the garment was of silk ‘Umar ra should have
presented it to his wife or to his daughter or should have
put it to some other use (Bukhari, Kitabul Libas).
The Prophet's sa bed was also very simple. He never
used a bedstead or a couch but always slept on the
ground, the bedding consisting of a piece of leather or of
a piece of camelhair cloth. ‘A’isha ra relates: "Our bedding
was so small that when the Holy Prophet sa used to get
up at night for prayers I used to lie on one side of the
bedding and stretched out my legs while he was in the
standing posture and folded them back when he had to
prostrate himself (Muslim, Tirmidhi and Bukhari).
He adopted the same simplicity with regard to his
residential arrangements. His house consisted normally
of one room and a small courtyard. A rope used to be
strung half way across the room so that when he had
visitors a piece of cloth could be hung from the rope to
convert a part of the room into an audience chamber
separated from the portion occupied by his wife. His life
was so simple that ‘A’isha ra related that during the
lifetime of the Prophet sa they often had to sustain
themselves on dates and water and that on the day of
his death there was no food in the house except a few
dates (Bukhari).