Mohammad: The Prophet of Islam Vol

to partake of food, and would say that this is how a servant of God should eat. He was very sensitive on this issue. Once a companion addressed him, saying, “If it be the will of God, and the will of the Prophet.” The Prophet’s face changed colour in anger when he heard this. “Are you trying to equate me with God?” he asked the man severely. “Rather say: ‘If God, alone, wills.’” On another occasion a companion of the Prophet said: “He that obeys God and His Prophet is rightly guided, and he who disobeys them has gone astray. You are the worst of speakers,” the Prophet observed, disliking a reference which placed him on the same plane as the Almighty. Three sons were born to the Prophet, all of whom died in infancy. His four daughters, all by his first wife, Khadija, grew to adulthood. Fatima was the Prophet’s youngest daughter, and he was extremely attached to her. When he returned from any journey the first thing he would do, after praying two raka’ats in the mosque, was to visit Fatima and kiss her hand and forehead. Jumai Ibn Umair once asked Aisha whom the Prophet loved most. “Fatima,” she replied. But the Prophet’s whole life was moulded by thoughts of the hereafter. He loved his children, but not in any worldly way. Ali, Fatima’s husband, once told Ibn Abdul Wahid a story about the Prophet’s most beloved daughter. Fatima’s hands, he said, were blistered from constant grinding; her neck had become sore from carrying water; her clothes would become dirty from sweeping the floor. When the Prophet had received an influx of servants from some place, Ali suggested to his wife that she approach her father and ask for a servant. She went, but could not speak to the Prophet because of the crowd. Next day, he came to their house, and asked Fatima what she had wanted to see him about. Ali told the Prophet the whole story, and said that he had sent her. “Fear God, Fatima,” the Prophet said, “Fulfill your obligations to the Lord, and continue with your housework. And when you go to bed at night, praise God thirty-three times, and glorify him with the same number of times; exalt his name thirty-four times, and that will make a full hundred. This would be much better than having a servant.” “If that is the will of God and His Prophet,” Fatima replied, “then so it be.” This was the Prophet’s only reply. He did not give her a servant. The truth revealed to the Prophet was that this world did not spring up by itself, but was created by one God, who continues to watch over it. All men are His servants, and responsible to Him for their actions. Death is not the end of man’s life; rather it is the