MUHAMMAD THE IDEAL CHARACTER

~ 18 ~ “No white man has any superiority over a black man. The Prophet once saw a wealthy Muslim gathering up his loose garment so that a certain distance would be kept between himself and a poor Muslim sitting close by. He remarked, “Do you fear that his poverty will cling to you?’’ Although, in the later years of his life, a proper Muslim state had been set up at Madinah with the Prophet at its head, he lived like any ordinary person, and did not assume any superior rights. He once had to borrow some money from a Jew called Zaid ibn Sana’a. The Jew came to demand the immediate return of the loan a few days before the expiry of the stipulated period. Tugging at the mantle around the Prophet’s shoulders he jibed that the progeny of Abd al Muttalib were always defaulters. Umar Faruq, not being able to tolerate this misbehaviour on the part of the Jew, started berating him, and was on the point of beating him when the Prophet said to the Jew, smiling, “There are still three days to go before the promise has to be fulfilled. To Umar Faruq he said, “We might