(The appearance and introduction of Rasûlullah, [sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallâm]).
The shapes of all the visible limbs of our master, Rasûlullah, his idiosyncracies, his beautiful manners, his entire life, with all their delicacies, have been very detailedly and clearly written by savants along with references and documents. These are called siyer books. Of the thousands of siyer books, the one which was written first was Ibnî Is-haq’s book, Sîrat-i Rasûlullah, which was elaborated upon under the same title by Ibni Hisham Humayrî and reprinted by Westenfeld, a German orientalist. Allahu ta’âlâ also bestowed upon Muhammad (alayhissalâm) all the mujizas (miracles) which He had given to all His anbiyâ (prophets). Many of them are written in the books al-Mawâhib-ul-Ladunniya (Arabic); Madârij-un-Nubuwwa (Persian); al-Anwar-ul-Muhammadiyya (Arabic), which is the mukhtasar (abridged version) of Mawâhib; and Hujjatullahi alal’âlamîn fî mu’jizâti Sayyed-il-mursalîn (Arabic).
In this booklet of ours, we quoted from the two-volumed book entitled al-Mawâhib-ul-ladunniya by Hadrat Imâm-ı Ahmad Qastalânî, one of the great Islâmic savants from Egypt. Abdulbâqî Efendî, a Muslim poet, has translated this book from Arabic into Turkish. Out of the whole book, the parts considered necessary for youngsters have been written briefly as follows:
The blessed face and all the blessed limbs and the blessed voice of Fakhr-i kâinât (Muhammad [sall Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallâm]) were more beautiful than the faces and limbs and voices of all people. His blessed face was roundish. When he was cheerful, his blessed face used to shine like the moon. It would be evident by his blessed forehead that he was pleased. Resûlullah (sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ used to see during the night just as well as he saw during the day. He used to see what was behind him just as he saw what was in front of him. Hundreds of events proving this fact are communicated in books. Allahu ta’âlâ, who creates vision in the eye, is a well potent enough to create it in another organ. When he would look towards one side or look around, he used to turn with all his body and then look. He used to look at the earth more than he looked at the sky. His blessed eyes were large. His blessed eye-lashes were long. There was a certain amount of reddish colour in his blessed eyes. The iris of his blessed eye was extremely black. Fakhr-i âlam had a broad forehead. His blessed eye-brows were thin. His eye-brows were apart from each other. The vein between his two eyebrows used to swell when he became angry. His blessed nose was extremely beautiful and was a little higher in the middle. His blessed head was great. His blessed mouth was not small. His blessed teeth were white. His blessed front teeth were sparse. When he expressed a word, it used to sound as if haloes (nur) were coming through his teeth. Among the creatures of Allahu ta’âlâ, no one has been seen with a more eloquent or sweeter speech than his. His blessed words used to be understood easily, pleasing hearts and attracting souls. When he spoke, his words used to string like pearls. Had someone wanted to count his words, it would have been possible to count them. Sometimes, he used to repeat something three times in order that it might be understood well. In Paradise everybody will speak like Hadrat Muhammad. His blessed voice could reach a distance which no one else’s could.
Fakhr-i âlam (sall-Allahu ’alaihi wa sallâm) was affable. He used to smile pleasantly. When he smiled, his blessed teeth used to be seen. When he smiled, his sacred light used to enlighten the walls. His weeping was easy like his smiling. As he never burst out laughing, so he never used to cry loudly, but his blessed eyes would shed tears and the sound of his blessed chest would be heard. He used to weep when thinking of the sins of his Ummat [that is, Muslims], and he used to weep out of fear of Allah. He also wept when he heard the Qur’ân al-kerîm and, sometimes, when performing namâz (ritual prayer).
Fakhr-i âlam’s (sall-Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam) blessed fingers were big. His blessed arms were fleshy. His blessed palms were wide. The scent of his entire body was more odorous than the most beautiful scent. His blessed body was both soft and strong. Anas bin Mâlik says, “I served Rasûlullah for ten years. His blessed hands were softer than silk. His blessed sweat was more odorous than the most fragrant scent or than any flower. His blessed arms, feet and fingers were long. His blessed toes were big. The bottom of his foot was not too high and was soft. His blessed belly was wide and his chest and his belly did not exceed each other. [They were in the same vertico-frontal plane.] The bone at the point of his shoulder was big. His blessed chest was wide, his qalb-i sharîf (blessed heart) was nazargâh-î ilâhî (a place of Divine Sight).
Rasûlullah (sall-Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam) was not too tall, nor was he short. When someone came near him, Rasûlullah would look taller than the person. When he sat, his blessed shoulders would he higher than all of those who sat down.
His hair and the hairs of his beard were not too curly, nor too straight, but they were undulate from his creation. His blessed hair was long. Formerly he used to have a ringlet of hair in front, later he parted his hair into two. Sometimes he use to grow his blessed hair long, and sometimes he used to have it cut and shortened. He didn’t use to dye his hair and beard. When he passed away the white hairs in his hair and beard were less than twenty. He used to trim his blessed moustache. The length and the shape of his moustache were as much as and like his blessed eye brows. He had private barbers in his service. [Also, it is a sunnat for Muslims to grow their beard as long as a small handful and to cut what is more than this and to trim their moustache.]
Rasûlullah (sall-Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam) always had his miswâk and his comb with him. [A miswâk is the twig of the arak tree that grows in Arabia. It is used for brushing the teeth.] He used to look in a mirror when he combed his blessed hair and beard. At nights he used to put kohl in his blessed eyes.
Fakhr-i kâinat (Muhammad [sall-Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam]) used to walk fast while looking down at the ground in front of him. When he went past a place, he would be recognized by his odorous scent.
Fakhr-i âlam had a white complexion mixed with red, and was extremely handsome with a blessed and lovable appearance. If a person says that the Prophet was ugly he becomes a disbeliever.
He (sall-Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam) was an Arab. ‘Arab’ means ‘beautiful’ in the dictionary. For instance, ‘lisân-i arab’ means ‘beautiful language.’ In the geographical sense, ‘Arab’ means the person who was born on the Arabian Peninsula and who grew up in its climate with its water and food and who is of the blood of its people. As those of Anatolian blood are called Turks, those who are born and raised in Bulgaria are called Bulgarians and those in Germany German; likewise, Rasûlullah is an Arab because he was born in Arabia. Arabs, during the time of Rasûlullah were white, light-complexioned. Especially the family of our Prophet (Muhammad) was white and very beautiful. As a matter of fact, his ancestor Hadrat Ibrâhîm had a white complexion and was the son of a Muslîm named Târuh, who was one of the inhabitants of the city of Basra. Âzer, who was a disbeliever, was not Hadrat Ibrâhim’s (’alaihi’s-salâm) father. He was his uncle and stepfather.
The fame of Rasûlullah’s ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ father, Abdullah, had spread outward even to Egypt due to his beauty and owing to the blessed light on his forehead; almost two hundred girls had come to Mecca in order to marry him. But, Hadrat Muhammad’s sacred light fell to Âmina’s lot.
For a century, in Turkey and in many Islâmic countries, the Raghâib Kandil is referred to as the night on which Abdullah got married. It is not right to give such a meaning to the Raghâib night. It would mean that Rasûlullah honoured the world with his presence earlier than nine months, which is a deficiency, a defect. As he was superior to every man in every respect and as he was perfect in every way, so he was perfect and adequate when he enlightened our mother Âmina. A deficiency in this gestation time is considered a defect and fault in medical science.
The first Friday night (the night between Thursday and Friday) of Rajab-i Sharîf is called the Raghâib Night, for Allahu ta’âlâ endows raghîbats, that is, blessings and gifts, on His human creatures on that night. The prayer done on that night will not be refused and the worships, such as namâz, fasting and alms, will be rewarded many times more than usual. He (Allah) will forgive those who respect that night.
In the early ages of Islâm, and before Islâm, it was harâm (forbidden) to war in the months of Rajab, Zilqâ’da, Zilhijja and Muharram. It is written in the eighth paragraph of the second chapter of the book Riyâd-un-nâsihîn, ‘It is writen in the Tafsîrs of Zâhidî and Alî Jurjânî and in all the Tafsîrs that before Islâm the Arabs used to change the places of the months in order to be able to make war in the months of Rajab and Muharram by putting them forward or backward. Rasûlullah, when he performed the Farewell Hajj with ninety thousand Muslims in the tenth year of the Hegira, said, “O my Ashâb! We are performing the hajj just at its proper time. The sequence of months is just as it was when Allahu ta’âlâ created it!” In the year when Abdullah got married the places of the months were wrong. The month of Rajab was in the place of Jamâ’zil’âhar. That is, it was one month ahead. Then, the transition of the Prophet’s blessed light to our mother Âmina is in today’s month of Jamâ’zil’âkhar. It is not on the Ragâib Night.
His uncle Abbâs and his son Abdullah shared his fair complexion. Also, our Prophet’s descendants until the end of the world will be beautiful and sympathetic. For example, the Amîr of Jordan, the late Abdullah, who had been to Istanbul, was such a person. The virtuous Ahmad Makkî Efendî, the late mufti of Kadiköy, was a sayyed (a descendant of the Prophet), and like his ancestors, he was white with black eye-brows, big black eyes, very sympathetic and affable. Rasûlullah’s Ashâb were sympathetic and beautiful, too. Hadrat ’Uthmân was white with blond hair. Dihya-i Kelebî, the ambassador whom Rasûlullah used to send to the Emperor of Byzantium, Heraclius, was very handsome, and as he went around on the streets of Istanbul, the Byzantine girls used to rush out into the streets in order to see his face. Hadrat Jabrâil (Gabriel) usually came in the disguise of Hadrat Dihya (radî-Allâhu ’anh).
The natives of Egypt, Damascus, Africa, Sicily and Spain aren’t Arabs. But since the Arabs came to these places after having migrated from the Arabian Peninsula in order to spread Islâm all over the world, there are Arabs in these lands, too. Likewise, they exist in Anatolia, India and other countries. But, today, none of the citizens of these countries can be called Arabs.
The Arabic language, the one and only language of knowledge and civilization in the Middle Ages and which is, in fact, the most advanced and sophisticated language among the seven hundred and seventy languages used in the world today with its richness in grammar, eloquence and literature, had entered and settled in every countries along with the Islâmic civilization. In those times, the French and other European people who had gone to Arabic universities and Muslim schools in Spain for specialization had taken with them many Arabic words, especially technical terms used in knowledge and science, to their countries and mixed them with their own languages. Today, in Western languages, Arabic words are still in use.
In “The Gospel in Many Tongues,” published by The British and Foreign Bible Society in London, in 1947, there are a few lines written as examples of each of the seven hundred and seventy languages.
The people of Egypt have a light-brown complexion. The people of Ethiopia (Habashistân, Al-habashatu) are black and are called habashî. The people of Zanzibar (Zanjîbar) are called Zanjî (negro), and they are also black. It is an act of worship to love and respect our Prophet’s relatives, the Arabs. Every Muslim loves them. Everybody who came to Asia Minor as guests, introduced themselves as Arabs to us in order to receive respect and kindness, and the credulous Anatolian Muslims believed and loved them. This was because the black and the white weren’t looked upon differently in terms of this love. For a Muslim, a black Muslim is better, dearer, and more lovable than a white disbeliever. To be black does not diminish the value of îmân (faith) for any person. Some of Rasûlullah’s Ashâb were black even though they were Arabs. Hadrat Bilâl-i Habashî and Usâma whom the Prophet loved very much were black. But such disbelievers as Abû Lahab and Abû Jahl, whose evil and baseness are known by everybody, were white. Allahu ta’âlâ evaulates a man not with regard to his colour, but with respect to the strength of his îmân and taqwâ.
However, the enemies of Islâm, the Jews, introduced blacks as if they are of a low class and horrible. They used them as slaves. They wanted to wipe out the love existing among Muslims and to break off their relation of brotherhood. On the other hand, by calling black pets such as cats and dogs ‘Arab’ and by referring to the blacks in their pictures, cartoons, magazines and newspapers as Arabs, they tried to misrepresent the Arabs to our youth as badly as they could in order to alienate Muslim children from our Prophet (sall-Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam). Today, people living in Arabia, Mecca-i mukarrama, and Medina-i munawwara are the descendants of the foreigners who came in the course of centuries from Africa, Asia, and other places and settled there. Those foreigners were black and were lovers of Allah and Rasûlullah. Eyyüb Sabri Paşa, ‘rahmatullâhi aleyh’, one of Sultan Abdulhamîd Khan II’s ‘rahmatullâhi aleyh’ admirals, writes in his five-volumed Turkish book Mir’ât-ul-harâmayn that in the entire city of Mecca there are only two Arab homes left. And today, there aren’t any. After our Prophet’s death, all of his companions and then his descendants moved out of Arabia for jihâd, that is, in order to spread Islâm all over the world. They spread far into Asia, Africa, Cyprus, Istanbul and, in brief, everywhere. In order to introduce Allah’s religion to His human creatures, they fought and they sacrificed their lives. These vast lands are full of those blessed martyrs. They sent their sons to the faculties of Baghdad University, which was at that time the greatest universtiy in the word –and it can be seen in its existing artifacts today that they had experimented and discovered many new things in physics, chemistry, astronomy, geography and mathematics– in order that they might learn knowledge. When Hulâghu, the famous tyrant, and the disbeliever Genghis [Whose real name is Timuchin] Khan’s grandson persecuted and killed more than eight hundred thousand Muslims, including women and children, and burned and destroyed Baghdad in 656 (1258 A.C.), only those who hid in wells and those who escaped to Anatolia were able to remain alive. Thus, the descendants of our master, the Prophet, and his companions had at that time settled in every part of Anatolia, especially in the East. Today, the intelligent, patient, and studious persons, whom we call Kurds, are all descendants of those blessed people. There are two groups of Kurds. One of them is the descendants of Yâfes, Hadrat Nûh’s son. This group consists of the rude and ignorant people who in very ancient times came to Asia Minor from Central Asia and who now lead a nomadic life. The historian Xenophon, a pupil of Socrates, writes that he has seen the Kurds in eastern Anatolia. The second group of people who are called Kurds are civilized and polite people living in cities. Almost all of them are the descendants of our Prophet and of his companions. Imâm-i Hasan’s descendants are called “Sharîf” and Imâm-i Husayn’s descendants are called “Sayyeds.” Sayyeds are higher than Sharîfs. During the time of the Ottomans, in Aleppo there was a great court of justice reserved for Sayyeds and Sharîfs. All their descendants were registered there and liars couldn’t claim to be Sayyeds. The famous Irîsân Beghs, who lived on the land between Van and Hakkârî, are the descendants of the Abbasid Khalîfas and have multiplied out of a child who had escaped the massacre of Hulâghu. In every part of our country today, there are descendants of the Prophet’s companions and Sayyeds. We should appreciate their value and spare no effort to respect them.]
All the beautiful habits were accumulated in Rasûlullah. His beautiful habits were given to him by Allahu ta’âlâ; he did not acquire them later by striving. He never cursed a Muslim by mentioning his name, nor did he slap anybody with his blessed hand. He never took revenge for himself. He used to avenge for Allah’s sake. He used to treat his relatives, companions and servants well and modestly. He was very mild and affable in his home. He used to visit the sick and attend funerals. He used to help his companions with their work and take their children on his lap. Yet his heart wasn’t busy with them. His blessed soul was in the world of angels.
Fear would grasp a person who saw Rasûlullah suddenly. If he hadn’t behaved mildly, no one could have sat near him, no one could have had the strength to listen to him, owing to his manners of prophethood. However, out of embarrassment, he himself would never look at anybody in the face with his blessed eyes.
Fakhr-i âlam (sall-Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam) was the most generous of human beings. He has never been heard to say, “I don’t have,” about something asked from him. If he had the thing asked for, he gave it; if he didn’t have it, he didn’t answer. The Prophet had so many great attributes and had done so many favours for so many people that the Byzantine emperors and the Persian shahs could not do enough to compete with him. But he himself liked to live in inconvenience. He led such a life that he would not even remember to eat or drink. He never used words like “Bring something to eat,” or “Cook such and such food.” He used to eat when they brought the meal to him, and he used to accept whatever fruit they gave him. Sometimes he ate very little for months, and he liked hunger. And sometimes he ate much. He used to eat with three fingers. He didn’t drink water after meals. He used to drink water while sitting. When he ate with others, he used to stop eating after everybody had finished. He used to accept presents from everybody. In response to someone who had brought him a present, he used to give much more.
Rasûlullah, together with twelve thousand heroes, after departing from Medina on the tenth day of Ramadân, conquered Mecca on Thursday, the twentieth of Ramadân, in the eighth year of the Hegira. On the following day, Friday, when reciting the khutbah, he had a black turban around his blessed head. After staying eighteen days in Mecca, he went to Hunayn. He used to let the end of his turban hang down. He used to say, “The turban distinguishes Muslims from disbelievers.” It was his habit to wear various clothes. When ambassadors from foreign countries came, he used to adorn himself. That is, he used to wear precious and beautiful clothes and expose his beautiful face. First, he used to have a gold ring, but later he wore a ring with an agete. He used his rign as a seal. “Muhammadun Rasûlullah” was written on his ring. It is not permissible for men to wear gold rings in all four madhhabs. His bed was made of leather filled with date tree shredding. Sometimes he laid on his bed and sometimes on the leather laid on the ground, on a mat and sometimes on dry soil. He laid on his right side putting his blessed palm under his right cheek.
Rasûlullah (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam) didn’t accept zakât, and he didn’t eat such things as raw onions or garlic, and he didn’t recite poems.
Rasûl-i akram (sall-Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam) was born in Mecca, in the hegira year 571, on the twelfth of the month of Rabî’ul-awwal, on a Monday night, which coincides with the twentieth of April, towards morning. Every year, Muslims all over the world celebrate this night as the Mawlid Kandil. Everywhere, Rasûlullah is remembered by reciting Mawlid Qasidas [Eulogy of Mawlid]. The Sultân of Erbil, Abû Sa’îd Muzaffar-ud-dîn Kukburî bin Zaynaddîn Ali, used to organize festivals on mawlid nights and used to give gifts and presents. The beautiful character, benevolence and good deeds of the sultân is noted in detail in a history book by Ibni Khillîgân, on the 234th page of Hujjatullâhi ’alal’âlamîn and in a pamphlet entitled Mawlid-î sharîf by Sayyed ’Abdulhakîm-i Arwâsî. ‘Mawlîd’ means ‘the time of birth.’ ‘Rabî’ul-awwal’ means ‘the Spring.’ Our Prophet, after he had become the Prophet, used to lay very much stress on this night every year. The ummat of each prophet had made the birthday of their prophet a feast day. And this day is the Muslims’ feast day. It is a day of pleasure and happiness. When Hadrat Âdam was between soul and body, he (Muhammad) was the Prophet. Hadrat Âdam and everything were created for his honour. His blessed name is written in Islâmic letters on the Arsh, on skies and heavens. His name Muhammad was given to him by his grandfather, Abdulmuttalib. He had dreamt that (Muhammad’s) name would be spread over the world and that everybody would praise and laud him. ‘Muhammad’ means ‘he who is praised much.’ Hadrat Jabrâil’s first coming and informing him of his prophethood, his leaving the city of Mecca for a Hegira, his setting foot in the village of Kubâ of Medîna-i-munawwara, his leaving Madina for the conquest of Mecca, and his death all took place on Mondays. When he was born, it was discovered that his umbilical cord had been cut and that he had been circumcised. When he honoured the earth with his presence, he raised his index finger and prostrated. Angels used to cradle him. He began talking while yet in the cradle. It is said in the annotation Zerkânî of Mawâhib, “When they got married, Hadrat Abdullah was eighteen and Hadrat Âmina was fourteen years old. Hadrat Âmina passed away when she was twenty. First he was suckled by his holy mother for nine days, then by Suweyba, a jariya of Abu Lahab, for a few days. Then, Halîma-i Sa’diyya suckled him for two years. He stayed in the village of Banî Sa’d bin Bakr for two years; then, when he was four years old, he was brought to the city of Mecca. When he began to walk, he used to watch children play; he wouldn’t join the playing. When he was six years old, his mother Âmina passed away, and when he was eight, his grandfather Abdul-muttalib passed away. When he was twenty-five years old, he married Hadrat Hadîjah ‘radiy-Allâhu anhâ’. When he was forty years old, in the month of Ramadân on a Monday, as he was in a cave on a mountain that was called Jabal-i-hirâ and Jabal-i-nûr and which was an hour’s walk north of the city, the angel appeared to him and he was informed that he was the Prophet for all human beings and genies. First, Hadrat Jabrâil came. Then, for three years Hadrat Isrâfil kept coming to teach him. Yet, Isrâfil didn’t bring the Qur’ân al-kerîm. Then, Hadrat Jabrâil began to come and conveyed all of the Qur’ân al-kerîm in twenty years. Jabrâil ‘alaihis-salâm’ came to him twenty-four thousand times. [However, he had descended to Hadrat Âdam twelve times, to Hadrat Nûh (Noah) fifty times, to Hadrat Ibrâhim forty times, to Hadrat Mûsâ (Moses) four hundred times, and to Hadrat Îsâ ten times.] He didn’t manifest his prophethood for three years, and then, with the command of Allahu ta’âlâ, he declared it.
When he was fifty-two years old, on the twenty-seventh night of the month of Rajab, in Mecca, Hadrat Jabrâil descended and took him from Masjid-i-Harâm to Masjid-i-Aqsa in Jerusalem and thence to heavens. In this Mi’râj, he saw Allahu ta’âlâ. On this night, the five times of namâz (ritual prayers) during the day became fard. Please read the last page on the fifth chapter of the second part (of the Turkish version).
When he was fifty-three years old, he migrated to Medina with a divine command. He left his house early in the morning, on Thursday, the twenty-seventh of the month of Safar. He came to Abu Bakr Siddîq’s house in the afternoon. After a short time, he and Abu Bakr left the latter’s house together. They went to a cave on Mount Sawr, five and a half kilometres south-east of Mecca. The way to this mount, which is 759 metres (about 2530 ft.) above sea level, was very rough. His blessed feet bled. They stayed in the cave for three nights and left it on Monday night. After a week’s travel, they arrived at Kubâ village near Medina on Monday, the eighth of Rabî’ul-awwal, which coincided with the twentieth of September. It is written in the book of Tafsîr entitled Baydâwî that after staying here until the twenty-third of September, when day and night are of equal length, they spent the day here and left for Medîna on the twelfth of Rabî’ul-awwal, a Friday, arriving in the blessed city on the same day. Later, during the caliphate of ’Umar ul-Fârûq, the first day of the month of Muharram of that year, which was sixty-six days before the Hijrat, became the beginning of the Muslims’ Hijrî kamarî calendar. That first day, according to historians, was in the year 622 A.D. It is written in Ahmad Ziyâ bey’s book Ilm-i Hey’et, printed in 1316 [1898 A.D.], that it corresponds with Friday, the sixteenth of July. The beginning of Muslim’s Hijrî shamsî year (Hegira solar calendar) is the day when he entered the village, Kubâ, which was the 20th of September. The first day of the year of 623 A.D. was in the first year of the Hegira solar calendar, and lunar calendar.
One solar year contains 365.342 days. And one lunar year contains 354.367 days, that is, 354 days plus eight hours plus 48.5 minutes.
He went to war twenty-seven times, nine times of which he attacked as a soldier, and the other times he occupied the rank of commander-in-chief. He used two types of flags in his holy wars. His Râya was black. His Liwâ, which was smaller, was white. We have already explained in the twenty-ninth chapter of the first part (of the Turkish version) that the banner of the Ottoman State was designed by Timurtaş Paşa.
In the city of Medina, he passed away before noon on Monday, Rabî’ul-awwal 12th, 11 [632 A.D.], when he was 62 or 61, according to the calculations done by using the lunar calendar or the solar calendar, respectively. Without taking his holy shirt off, he was washed three times, was wrapped with a new white shrould folded three times, and was buried where his blessed soul was taken.
Sarwar-î âlam’s (Muhammad) blessed eyes used to sleep, but his blessed heart would not sleep. He used to go to bed hungry, but he would feel satiated when he got up. He never yawned. His blessed body was luminous, and he never cast a shadow on the ground. Flies didn’t alight on his clothes, nor would mosquitos or other insects suck his blessed blood. When he was made Rasûlullah (Allah’s Messenger) by Allahu ta’âlâ, satans could not ascend to the sky and could not get news any longer, nor could soothsayers make predictions.
If a person dreams of Rahmatan-lil-âlamîn ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’, this person certainly has seen him, for the Devil cannot disguise himself as him.
Sarwar-i âlam ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ is now alive in a life we do not understand. His blessed body never rots. An angel stays in his tomb and informs him of the prayers which his Ummat (Muslims) say for him. Between his pulpit and his blessed tomb is a place called Rawda-i-mutahhara. This place is one of the gardens of Paradise.
It is one of the greatest and most valuable of worships to visit his blessed shrine. He said, “My shafâ’at is certain for him who visits my shrine.”
Sarwar-i âlam ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ had three blessed sons and four blessed daughters, eleven blessed wives, twelve uncles and six paternal aunts.
[In order to deceive youngsters, immoral and indecent people, the enemies of religion say that the Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ was fond of women and girls, and they insolently slander him by saying and writing very loathsome things which become their abominable souls, but of which we would be ashamed to write in this book of ours. Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ first got married when he was twenty-five years old; he married Hadrat Khadîja. She was forty years old and a widow. But she had much property, beauty, wisdom, knowledge, honour, nobility, chastity and decency. They lived together for twenty-five years, and she passed away three years before the Hegira in the month of Ramadân in Mecca. When she was alive, Rasûlullah (sall-Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam) never married another.
Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’, secondly, married Hadrat Âisha ‘radiy-Allâhu anha’, Hadrat Abû Bakr’s daughter, when he was fifty-five years old. He took her under his nikâh [religious betrothal in Islâm] one year after Hadrat Hadîja’s death, with the command of Allahu ta’âlâ, and lived with her for eight years, until he died.
He married all the others after marrying Hadrat Âisha ‘radiy-Allâhu anhunna’ and did so either for religious or political reasons or out of mercy or as a blessing. All these women were widows. Most of them were old. For example, when the Meccan disbelievers’ persecution and harm to the Muslims had become unbearable, a group of the Prophet’s companions migrated to Ethiopia. Najashî (Negus), the Ethiopian emperor, was a Christian. He asked the Muslims several questions, and, admiring the answers he received, he converted to Islâm. He did the Muslims many favours. Ubaydullah bin Jahsh, who had a weak belief, in order to escape poverty, submitted to the priests and became a renegade by changing his faith for t