Traits of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH): Compassion

by resulullah.org
Source: resulullah.org

THE POOR THIEF

There was famine in Medina. A hungry Muslim entered a garden and picked dates from the trees and ate them. However, he was caught by the owner of the garden. He was beaten and his garments were impounded in return for the dates he ate. Later on, the poor thief came to the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) along with the owner of the garden, who beat him and took his garments. The poor thief complained to the Prophet about the owner of the garden because of his treatment. The prophet Muhammad (PBUH) listened to both of them and turned to the owner of the garden:
“He was ignorant; you should have taught him; he was hungry;, you should have fed him.”
The owner of the garden gave the garments back to the poor thief and in lieu of the beating, he gave to him a hundred and eighty kilograms of wheat. (1)

 
HELPING THE ENEMY

A tribe chief called Hamama, who was met all the needs of grain of Mecca became a Muslim. And he stopped selling grain to Meccans. The Meccan Pagans, who faced the danger of famine, got in contact with Hamama at first. However, the answer was negative. Upon this, as a last resort, they sent a delegate to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
They said, “If we cannot find a remedy from you, we will starve to death.”
He did not even think of the fact that Meccans had not given him and all Muslims a single grain of wheat for three years. He did not think of the fact that, along with His Muslim friends, they had been forced to migrate and had not been given the right of living in their native land just for saying, “Our Lord is Allah”. He did not even consider that there had been several attempts for killing him. He chose to forget that they had set up armies to march on Medina. He chose to forget what they did and commanded Hamama to sell them grain. After that, Mecca had its grain again. (2)

DO NOT LET HIM TORTURE HIMSELF

He saw an old man who was going on foot to the Kaaba between his two sons, who were riding camels. He asked the reason. He found out that his behavior was due to a vow he had taken. However, the old man was walking with difficulty. He sent him a message.
-Allah is not in need of this person’s torturing of himself. Tell him to mount on a camel. (3)

WHEN THE CITY OF TAIF WENT HUNGRY

He besieged the city of Taif after the conquest of Mecca. When the siege prolonged, people started to starve to death in Taif. He ended the siege, although the enemy was about to surrender. He was not in favor of capturing a city due to its people starving to death. That city of Taif, years ago, had stoned him and spat on him; they had made him live, with his own words, ‘the most bitter day of his life’. (4)

ZAINAB’S MURDERER

Aswad, the son of Habir, was the murderer of his daughter Zainab (RA). While Zainab was emigrating from Mecca to Medina to join her father, she was surrounded by a group of Meccan idolaters, among whom Habir was present and caused Zainab (RA) to fall from her camel with his spear. Zainab, who was pregnant, had a miscarriage and after a while, died because of this. When Mecca was conquered, the apostle of Allah sent a message to Habir, who had hidden and prepared to flee to Iran fearing that her revenge would be taken. The Prophet granted him life safety. When Habir came to his presence, He accepted his loyalty oath and forgave him. (5)

UHUD, THE PEAK OF COMPASSION

Uhud was the second greatest test of Islam in the battlefield. Uhud, which resulted in a defeat in terms of tactics, is a place where Hazrat  Muhammad (pbuh) and all Muslims suffered a lot. Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) suffered some great pains like the martyrdom of tens of his friends, the scattering of his army as well as some less severe pains like receiving seventy sword blows, breaking of one of his teeth, having a rip in his cheek and pieces of iron stuck into his gingiva.
During the hottest moments when all of those pains were experienced, he opened his hands toward the sky and prayed for the Makkan polytheists that caused all of those troubles:
“O Allah! Forgive my people because they cannot see the truth. If they saw it, they would not act like that.”
He was trying to wipe the blood that was coming down his cheek and his teeth with his hand, preventing them from falling to the ground. Some of his friends noticed it. Later, they asked,

He answered, “It is the law of Allah. If a nation injures a prophet who is sent to them as a mercy of Allah so much as to shed his blood on the ground, Allah will not grant them a delay. He will eliminate all of them.” [6]
THE CHILD OF A MARTYR
The son of a martyred Muslim in Uhud, asked the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), who was wounded and sorrowful, in the evening of the same day:

The son of the martyr started to cry. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) caressed his head, took him into his lap and asked the child:

HAVE YOU CALLED THEM TO ISLAM?

He saw the newly brought captives to Medina… And he asked His friends, who took them captive:

When he got the answer “No!”, he also asked the captives in order to clarify the situation:

When he got the answer “No!” from them, he gave an order and the captives were released; then, they returned to their countries. (8)

YOU CANNOT GIVE WHAT YOU DO NOT EAT TO THE POOR

One of his friends gave him a lizard (a creature living in the desert) to him as a gift to eat. However, He did not eat lizard since he was not accustomed to it. Hz. Aisha, who knew this, asked his permission to give the lizard to the poor person asking for something to eat at that moment. He did not permit:

DADDY, DADDY

Before Islam, killing daughters was a common custom among Arabs. It was one of the social customs that Islam severely prohibited at once. A friend of the Prophet narrated how he applied that custom in the presence of Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) as follows:
“O Messenger of Allah! I buried my daughters with my own hands. Once, I took my daughter, who was about to be a young girl, by her hand. I walked as much as I could into the desert. We reached a dry well. I started to look into the well as if I was looking for something.”
At that moment, Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) started to cry. The man went on narrating:
“Suddenly, I kicked her at the back. She started to roll down to the well headfirst, screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy!’
Hz Muhammad was crying his eyes out. Thereupon, his friends had to intervene and silenced the man, taking him out of the mosque. [10] 

SO THAT IT WILL NOT TO BE A FARD

Hz. Aisha (RA) narrates:
One night, the Apostle of Allah performed nafila (supererogatory) prayer in the mosque and a few people followed Him. The next night He performed again; this time the congregation increased in number. On the third night, the congregation which increased in number were waiting in the mosque again. However, the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) did not come. The next night, he explained the reason of his absence:

A SUCKLING BABY

His eighteen-month old son Abraham was agonizing in his lap. He was extremely sad. His tears were dropping on his son and he was kissing and smelling him for the last time.

POORER THAN ME

One of his friends committed a serious sin while he was fasting in the month of Ramadan. Then, he went to the presence of Hz Muhammad (pbuh) and asked him how he could be forgiven. Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) said,
“Can you free a slave?”
He said, “No. I have no money.”
Hz Muhammad (PBUH) asked, “Can you fast sixty days on end?”
He said, “O Messenger of Allah! It happened while I was fasting.”
The Prophet asked, “Can you feed sixty poor people?”
He said, “I cannot afford it.”
The Prophet said, “Then, stay with me and wait until Allah shows an easy way for you.”
His friend started to wait in the mosque. After a while, a person from Madinah brought a basket of dates as a present to the Prophet. Hz Muhammad gave the basket to his friend and said,

He said, “O Messenger of Allah! I do not know a family poorer than mine in Madinah.”
The Messenger of Allah started to smile and said,
Then, take it to your family and eat the dates together. [13] 

TEN SILVER COINS

He had ten silver coins in his pocket. He bought a shirt for four coins in the market of Madinah. A poor man asked him to give him the shirt he had just bought. He gave the shirt to the poor man and bought another shirt for four coins. Now, he had two silver coins left. After a while, he saw a little girl crying on the way. He approached her and asked her why she was crying. She was a maid.
She said, “My master gave me two silver coins to buy flour but I lost them.”
He gave the two silver coins in his pocket to her.
He said, “Do not cry. You can buy flour with these coins.”
The maid was still restless. She said,

Hz Muhammad (pbuh) took the little girl by the hand and bought flour first. Then, they went to the house where the little girl was a maid. The owners of the house were surprised by the guests that came to their house in the evening. The Prophet showed the little maid and said,
“She was afraid that she would be punished. Do not beat her.”
Her master, who was still shocked, said,
“O Messenger of Allah! Be a witness that I am freeing her because she caused you to honor my house; she is free from now on.” Thereupon, Hz Muhammad (pbuh) opened his hands and praised Allah by saying,
“O Allah! Those ten silver coins were so blessed. You made me and a poor person have a shirt with them. You also rejoiced a girl and gave her freedom with them. (14)

THE POWER OF ALLAH IS GREATER

Somebody was beating his slave with a whip. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) silently came close from behind and called the beating person:
“You should know that the power of Allah over you is greater than your power over this poor slave.”
The master who was filled up with fear from head to foot shook and the whip fell on the ground from his hand. He turned to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH):

The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) called again:
“If you had not done so, you would have been roasted in Hell.” (15) 

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY SHEEP

Abu Zura who is one of his friends serving him during some of his trips, narrates:
“In a trip, he had made me got on his camel, too. Sometimes, the whip that he was using in order to move the camel was touching my leg and hurting me. A little while later, he became aware of the situation and asked:
O Abu Zura, is my whip also touching you? I embarrassedly answered:

He did not say anything. A while later, we arrived at a place where the booties of war belonged to him were available. He separated one hundred and twenty sheep from there and gave them to me as a gift and said:
“O Abu Zura, these sheep are in return for my hurting you without being aware of it on the way.” (16) 

THE BELOVED OF THE LOVER

His adopted child Zayd was martyrized in the battle of Mute. On the day of the bad news arrived to Medina, the house of the martyr and his children were visited by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Along with the fresh sorrow of her father, the little daughter of Zayd embraced his garment and started to cry. The prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was hugging little orphans while crying. A friend near him could not help asking.
“O the Apostle of Allah! What is this?”

THE CONQUEST OF MAKKAH

He was at the peak of the part of his struggle that was limited to his own life. Now Makkah, his hometown, where he had not been allowed to convey the message of his religion to people, was being conquered by an army consisting of fully armed ten thousand Muslim soldiers, which was a super army in terms of the conditions of Arabia at that time.

The army had surrounded Makkah. It was nighttime. Makkah mountains were glittering due to the camp fires. Every soldier was ordered to make a fire and Makkah, which was dark, was surrounded by lights at night. Abu Sufyan, who was the archenemy of the Prophet, left the city and went to the Prophet with his little son; he knew the weak point of his fellow citizen.
He said, “I swear by Allah that if you do not forgive me, I will kill this child and myself.”
Abu Sufyan, who had been his archenemy for years, wanted forgiveness by using his life and the life of his son. He was forgiven.

The next day, the army started to move. Makkans were astonished and shocked by the view. Next to Hazrat Abbas, the uncle of Hazrat Muhammad, Abu Sufyan, who was the administrator of Makkah, was watching the Muslim army, which was entering Makkah. He asked Hazrat Abbas about each division and their tribe as they passed before them and he was astonished and fascinated by each answer that he received. After a while, he asked impatiently,
“Has Hazrat Muhammad not passed yet?” In the end, Hazrat Muhammad was seen on his camel, Quswa, in his armor. He bowed his head to show that one can enter a city that Allah declared to be sacred in modesty. He was in a position to praise Allah.

Meanwhile, Sa’d b. Ubada, one of the commanders of Madinah, turned to Abu Sufyan and shouted:
Today is the doomsday. Today is the day of revenge for Uhud. Today is the day of ridiculing the honor of the Quraysh tribe. Today is the day of destruction.”

Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) silenced Sa’d through a sign by his hand and said,
“Today is the day of mercy and compassion. Today is the day of elevating the honor of Quraysh. Today is the day when respect to the Kaaba and Makkah will be at its peak.”
Then the Prophet gave an order and expulsed Sa’d. He appointed his son as the new commander.
Very little blood was shed and Makkah surrendered. It was noon and very hot. His friends asked him,

A painful smile was seen on his face. He remembered his house. However, that house had been pulled down by Aqil, his cousin, in order to make him sad and depressed. He said,

However, nobody thought of even touching Aqil. Aqil was given a guarantee just like the other people of Makkah. He had immunity.
However, the people of Makkah still could not believe that all kinds of oppression, cruelty, torture and enmity that they inflicted upon Muslims for years would be unreturned. In order to make sure that they would not be touched and punished, they stood before Muhammad, who had just removed the idols in the Kaaba, in front of the door of the Kaaba. They were shy and timid. Hazrat Muhammad understood very well what they meant by bowing down and keeping silent.
He said to them,

“Today, my situation is like the one between Hazrat Yusuf and his brothers. He had said to his brothers, ‘This day let no reproach be (cast) on you: Allah will forgive you, and He is the Most Merciful of those who show mercy.’ Today, I am saying the same thing to you. You are free.”
All Makkans became Muslims when it was the evening time. The next day, the military forces were withdrawn from the city because they were no longer needed in the city.

However, when it became clear that Makkah was going to be conquered, some people left the city and went away. They were “severe criminals”, who did not know Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) and who believed that no power of compassion and pardoning could forgive them.

One of them was Wahshi, the murderer of the uncle of Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh). He sent for Wahshi and asked him to become a Muslim. Whashi was timid. He wrote the following in his letter:
“O Muhammad! You said, ‘The torture of a person who kills somebody or attributes partners with Allah is increased on the Day of Judgment; he remains in torture in a despicable state.’ I did all of them. Can there still be a way of salvation for me?”
Upon this answer, the 71^st verse of the chapter of al-Furqan was sent. Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) got the verse written and sent it to Wahshi.

“Unless he repents, believes, and works righteous deeds, for Allah will change the evil of such persons into good and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. And whoever repents and does good has truly turned to Allah with an (acceptable) conversion.”
Wahshi did not regard it sufficient.
He said, “O Muhammad! Repentance, belief and righteous deeds are heavy conditions. I might not be able to do them.”
The 48^th verse of the chapter an-Nisa answered Wahshi:
 “Allah forgiveth not that partners should be set up with him; but He forgiveth anything, else to whom He pleaseth.”
Wahshi had not been convinced yet. He wrote another letter:
“O Muhammad! It means ‘Allah will do so if he wishes’. I do not know whether Allah will wish something like that for me.”
Thereupon, the 53^rd verse of the chapter az-Zumar was sent down:
Say: “O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
Wahshi said,
“Now, it is all right.” Then, he went to Makkah and became a Muslim.
People asked,
“O Messenger of Allah! Are those glad tidings for Wahshi only or for all of us?”
He answered:
“For all of you!”

Safwan b. Umayya, who was one of the notables of Quraysh and who had sent assassins to Madinah to kill Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) in order to take revenge of his relatives killed in Badr, had also left Makkah. Wahb b. Umayr, whom he had sent as an assassin to Madinah was sent to Safwan. Wahb had the turban of Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) as a proof of the promise of immunity. Safwan was convinced and returned to Makkah. However, he was not ready to become a Muslim. He stood in the presence of Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) and said,
“Give me two months. I will think about whether to accept your religion or not.”
Hazrat  Muhammad (pbuh) answered,
“I will give you four months instead of two!”

Safwan became a Muslim on his own before four months passed.
The third one of those who had left Makkah was Ikrima, the son of Abu Jahl. Abu Jahl, who had been the archenemy of Islam and Hazrat Muhammad until he was killed in Badr, was described as “the Pharaoh of this ummah” by the Prophet. Ikrima did many things against Islam, too. Once, Hazrat Muhammad said about him, “I did not suffer from Abu Jahl as much as I suffered from his son.”
Ikrima’s wife undertook the task of bringing Ikrima back. She found him on the coast of Yemen aboard a ship to go to Africa. She took him back to Makkah. When Hazrat Muhammad was told that Ikrima was about to enter his presence, Hazrat Muhammad warned his friends near him.

When Ikrima arrived, the Prophet welcomed him by hugging him and saying,
“O cavalier mujahid, welcome.” He let Ikrima sit beside him. Ikrima, who was shocked by what he saw, heard and experience, made a promise.

“O Messenger of Allah! Be a witness that I will spend at least twice as much effort and money to serve your religion as I spent to prevent it.”

Ikrima kept his promise. He was one of the three mujahids that were martyred during the Battle of Yarmuk, which caused the Middle East to embrace Islam, without being able to drink a drop of water. They counted seventy sword wounds in his body.(18) (T/E01/IR)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)

 
Source: http://www.resulullah.org/

References:
[1]Fadl ar-Rahman, Siret Ansiklopedisi, I/44.
[2]Fadl ar-Rahman, Siret Ansiklopedisi, I/54.
[3]Fadl ar-Rahman, Siret Ansiklopedisi, III/210.
[4]Fadl ar-Rahman, Siret Ansiklopedisi, III/245.
[5]Fadl ar-Rahman, Siret Ansiklopedisi, I/53.
[6]Ataullah b.Fadlullah, Rawdatu’l-Ahbab, p.174; Onk. Dr. Haluk Nurbaki, Fahr-i Kainat Efendimiz, p.93.
[7]M. Yusuf Kandahlawi, Hayatu’s-Sahaba, I/128.
[8]M. Yusuf Kandahlawi, Hayatu’s-Sahaba, III/73.
[9]Ed: Prof. Dr. i. Lütfi Çakan, Hazreti Peygamber ve Aile Hayatı, p.82.
[10]M. Fethullah Gülen, Sonsuz Nur, I/39l.
[11]Abdurrahman Azzam, Peygamberimizin Örnek Ahlakı, p.69.
[12]Yüksel Çopur, Kainatın iftihar Tablosu. p.242; Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Algül, Alemlere Rahmet Hz. Muhammed, p.93.
[13]İbrahim Refik, Güllerin Efendisi, p.168.
[14]İbrahim Refik, Güllerin Efendisi, p.119.
[15]İbrahim Refik, Güllerin Efendisi, p.117.
[16]İbrahim Refik, Güllerin Efendisi, p: 208.
[17]M. Yusuf Kandahlawi, Hayatu’s-Sahaba, III/195.
[18]M. Yusuf Kandahlawi, Hayatu’s-Sahaba, I/55, 123, 192, 199, 205-209; (II/524; IV/27; İbrahim Refik, Güllerin Efendisi, p.172; Abdurrahman Azzam, Peygamberimizin Örnek Ahlakı, p.77, 83; Ataullah b.Fadlullah, Rawdatu’l-Ahbab, p.258