Description of the Prophet(SAW)

g out of it like a moon on laylatul badr.

 

• He was taller than a moderate build but not exceedingly tall. If you see somebody very tall then it is strange even amongst tall people. If you see somebody short then it is also noticeable. He was of a middle stature inclining towards height because everything about him was middle.

 

• Even his physical description of colour was middle. He was not pasty white and he was not black. He was inclining towards light skin because of the racism of human beings. That is one of the hikmah of that. He was inclining towards light skin because of the racism of human beings. It has to do with the stupidity of human beings in distinguishing between people because of colour. He was a colour like what we call the harvest moon. He was not white nor dark, he was light skinned what we would call in English, a reddy complexion.

 

• His hair was neither straight or curly. It was wavy, it was middle. Everything about him was middle. He had a full head and his hair was wavy. If he parted it, it parted. It never went past the lobe of his ears if he allowed it to grow long because sometimes he would cut it for ibadah like the umrah or hajj. It went to the lobe or in some riwayah it went to the shoulder.

 

• He did not speak slow or fast. He spoke in a moderate tone. His words were neither too short nor excessive but they were always just right. When he spoke, people felt as it exactly the right amount of words were used. Everything about him was moderation.

 

• He had a large forehead which is an indication of high quality. He had a vein on his forehead. If he got upset they could see the vein.

 

• His eyebrows were full and there was a slight space between them.

 

• The upper part of his nose was aqualine. He had a beautiful nose that had a bridge on the upper part. He had a light that came from that area of his face that was clearly discernible.

 

• He had a full beard and his eyes were very dark.

 

• He had high beautiful cheek.

 

• He had a mouth that was full so when he spoke his pronunciation was perfect.

 

• His teeth were beautiful, there was a slight space in the teeth.

 

• He had a light hair on his chest which was manliness without having a lot of hair.

 

• His neck was like a gazelle’s neck. He had a beautiful neck and a high neck. It had like a beautiful silvery clarity to it.

 

• He was balanced in all of his outward aspects. He had a strong build and it was all perfectly formed.

 

• His stomach and chest were equal. He never had a large stomach. He had no paunch. Even when he was in his sixties, his stomach was always flat. He had light hair on his stomach. He had no hair over his breasts.

 

• He was full chested and his shoulders were broad. He had large bones.

 

• He had hair on his arms and he was sinewy and strong.

 

• There was a space in his trachea.

 

• His limbs were strong and he had full calves.

 

• His feet were very smooth.  Because they were desert people and they walked a lot, their feet would have a lot of roughness to them. His feet were smooth that water would pour off them.

 

• When he walked, he walked softly but he was quick paced as if he was walking on an incline.

 

• When he looked at somebody, he did not just move his head, he turned his entire body to give full attention to that person.

 

• He looked more at the ground than he did up. His glance was generally down because of the power of his glance. When he looked at people, he did not maintain his stare. He would look then move away. As he looked at people, he never fixed his focus on people because of the effect that would have on people.

 

He said to him “describe to me how he spoke”. He said “he was always grief stricken” but the ulema who commented on that hadith have said that does not mean he was depressed. It means if you looked at him in the masjid you would think he was grief stricken because his presence with his Lord was so intense that his face would have a sense of being completely absorbed in thought. So people who would look at him would think he had grief. There is another hadith that says the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) was always happy. The ulema say when he was with his Creator he was in a deep state of contemplation, when he was with his people he was happy. He smiled, he always looked at people, smiled and made them feel joyful. He never made them feel depressed. He laughed at what they laughed at.

 

He told jokes. Aisha said “he was always joking with us in the house”. The Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said “I joke but I never tell a lie in my jokes, always I speak the truth”. A man came to the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and said “let me borrow a camel”. The Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said “I will give you the baby of a she camel”. He said “what would that benefit me, a baby of a she camel”. The Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said “Isn’t that the baby of a she camel?”. Another time a Jewess came up to him and said “O Rasulullah! Am I going to jannah?”. He said “Old women do not go to paradise”. She became so upset then he laughed and said “you will go in young and youthful” and then she was happy. A man came the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and said “I slept with my wife in Ramadhan and I made an oath I would not do that”. The Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) asked “why did you do that?”. He said “I saw my wife in the moonlight and I could not help myself”. The Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) laughed at the man and said “go and do the expiation”. That was his nature, even when people came in a state of sin. He was showing this man his humanity by letting him feel that he just made a mistake. He made them realise that the doors of rahmah are open. That is why to make people despair of the mercy of the Lord, these are evil people who do that. The hadith that says those who say “Allah will not forgive you, He will send that person to hell”. Do not judge people and do not say you know where Allah’s mercy is, barakah is, none of that. Who do we think we are? We do not know anything, nothing, we have no knowledge. Do not elevate yourself over Allah. You do not know who is going where. You do not know where you are going. So do not assume other people are going where you do not even know where you are going. We have big hopes in Allah.

 

• He was always reflecting. He did not take rest like other people. He was concerned about his ummah.

 

• He never spoke about anything that was unnecessary. He had long periods of silence.  He used to open his words and close them with a full expression when he spoke. He spoke with comprehensive words. He never had excess. He was never at a loss for words. If he spoke, he would put his right thumb into his left palm.

 

• He had soft and gentle character. He was not harsh. The Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) was not harsh. “If you were harsh hearted they would have fled from around you”. He was not gruff or harsh ever.

 

• He always elevated the blessing even if it was a minute blessing.

 

• He never found fault in anything even in a small amount of food. Any type of food that was given to eat he did not find fault in it nor did he excessively praise it.

 

• If he got upset, it never put him in a state of agitation. He never got upset for himself nor did he ever seek any redress wrong done to him.

 

• There was never a time when a right was presented to him that he would go to fulfil that right.

 

• He did not point with his finger, he pointed with his whole hand.

 

• He would say SubhanAllah.

 

Most of his laughing was smiling. He rarely laughed the way most people laughed. He smiled but when he smiled his teeth were like hailstones. Then Hassan said “I did not tell Hussein ibn Ali about this (because he was young) finally I told him about it and I found he had actually got it before me”. He had asked his father Ali about how the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) went in and out of his house and what his majlis was like, what he looked like. He did not leave anything I had out and then Hussein said “I asked my father about the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), how he came in his house”. When he went in. he went with permission into a place. He gave three parts. He gave a part to Allah, a portion to his family and a portion for his nafs. He used to give a portion of that between the people and him. He would leave that upto the general people for the elect of the people. He never kept anything from them.

 

In his seerah, he would preferred the people of fadl but with their permission. So when he would give things, if they were older he would always give them things. If there was somebody of virtue he would take permission from the person of haq to give it to that person so even when Ibn Abbas was young, he took permission from him to give to the older people. Ibn Abbas refused because he wanted the barakah. But that was his nature to always take permission from somebody who had a right to give it to somebody who had the fadl or the virtue.

 

He would always occupy people in what benefited them and the ummah. He would ask about them. He would ask news about them. If somebody was not there, he would say “where is so and so?”. These are teachings for the people. Now we have people disappear and nobody remembers them. They do not ask about them. This is the messenger of Allah and he had an ummah. This was a whole ummah of people. The old woman who used to clean the masjid. She used to sweep the masjid. One day she died and they buried her. The Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) came and asked about her. They said “she died O Rasulullah”. He said “Why didn’t you tell me she died so I could go pray on her?”.

 

He would ask about somebody who was not there and say “tell me about people in need who are not able to come and ask me”. He told them “those people who help other people who are not able to go and get help, Allah will make firm their feet on the day of judgment”. Looking after people, taking care of people, he was teaching people how to be human beings. This is all it is. We are just learning, it is like human beings do not know how it is to be human. This is all just to teach you to be human beings. The beginning is to force yourself until it becomes your nature. It is not easy. Being human is the highest thing in creation. There is nothing higher, it is higher than the angels. That is the maqam of Bani Adam that if you fulfill your humanity you are higher than the angels and if you do not then you are lower than the animals because you had the potential. The animal could only be what it was made to be. You can go either up or down.

 

They used to come in seeking and go out guides. What a beautiful description of his majlis. That people come in looking and go out showing other people what to find what they were looking for.

 

• He never spoke except with what concerned him.

 

• He always brought people together and never separated them.

 

• He would honour the dignatories of every people and put him over those people.

 

• He guarded himself with people and he was vigilant because of the makar of those people.

 

• The Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) knew human nature and he knew what people were upto but never by being rude. He would still always smile.

 

• He would seek out his companions.

 

• He would consider what was beautiful beautiful and he would show people it was a good thing. What was foul, he would show it to be foul. He would make it look insignificant to them, not worth doing.

 

• He was always moderate and never departed from that quality.

 

• He would never be weary of a people when people were speaking he would never lose his attention out of fear that they would lose their attention and get bored. He was always present with them.

 

• He was ready for anything and everything.

 

• The best people for him were the ones who benefited and were the most sincere. The ones he had the highest estimation for were the ones who served the most, helped others and consoled others. Those were the people who he looked at not those sitting around and doing nothing. Sometimes everybody looks at those who serve as the low ones, that is why they are doing the khidmah. That is why the old woman in the mosque, maybe people thought she was not very significant but she was in khidmah.

 

• He gave all of the people who sat with him full attention so that each one of them thought thy were the most important person in the majlis. “I was sent to perfect noble character”.

 

• If somebody got angry in his presence or had some need and was forceful, he would be patient with him and he would do that to the point where that man would end up being calm or forgetting about what he wanted because he was so patient.

 

• If anybody asked him anything he never refused. If they did not get specifically what they wanted they went out with words of wisdom and consolation from him. He encompassed all of these people with his character. He was like a father to them and they were all the same as far as he was concerned in rights. Only he saw differences in taqwa.

 

• His majlis was a majlis of clemency, modesty, sabr, trustworthiness, never were voices raised, never were anything that was holy and sacred in any way desacrilised, all of them were humbled in his presence.

 

• Always he honoured the older and had mercy on the younger. They would help those in need and they had special compassion for strangers and guests.

 

Then he said “I asked him about his qualities when he sat with people”.

 

• He was always smiling, he had gentle character. He was always kind and gentle with people. He was not harsh or coarse.

 

• He never shouted. He did not use foul language.

 

• He rarely found fault, if he did it was to point out something that was harmful.

 

• He was not excessively praiseworthy, it does not mean he did not praise, he did not do praise that was not warranted.

 

• He would tell people to encourage them and speak highly of people to encourage. He did not flatter.

 

• If he did not like something, he would act as if he did not notice it. No one ever despaired of him.

 

There were three things that were not part of his nature: 1. Ostentation, 2. Excessiveness and 3. Things that did not concern him. He left three things that he did not do to people 1. He never blamed anybody 2. He never found fault and 3. When he spoke people in his gathering lowered their heads as if birds were perched on them. When he was silent they spoke and never argued in his presence. If anybody spoke in his gathering they would all listen until that person finished his words and then they would begin the speech of what they were talking about.

 

• He would laugh at what they laughed at, he would wonder at what they wondered at or marveled.

 

• If somebody who did not know his gathering was harsh, then he was patient with them.

 

• If he saw anybody he would tell his companions “help them out” if that person was in need.

 

• He never sought any praise.

 

• He never cut anybody off when they were speaking until they wer