Life-of-Muhammad

Life of Muhammad sa 203occasions. The Prophet sa did not approve of thesuggestion and said: "It would not be pleasing to God forme to adopt ways like this. I shall meet everybody in theclothes that I normally wear." On one occasion silkgarments were presented to him and of these he sentone to ‘Umar ra . Upon this ‘Umar ra said, "How can I wearit when you have yourself disapproved of wearing silkgarments." The Holy Prophet sa observed: "Every presentis not meant for personal use." His meaning was thatsince the garment was of silk ‘Umar ra should havepresented it to his wife or to his daughter or should haveput it to some other use (Bukhari, Kitabul Libas).The Prophet's sa bed was also very simple. He neverused a bedstead or a couch but always slept on theground, the bedding consisting of a piece of leather or ofa piece of camelhair cloth. ‘A’isha ra relates: "Our beddingwas so small that when the Holy Prophet sa used to getup at night for prayers I used to lie on one side of thebedding and stretched out my legs while he was in thestanding posture and folded them back when he had toprostrate himself (Muslim, Tirmidhi and Bukhari).He adopted the same simplicity with regard to hisresidential arrangements. His house consisted normallyof one room and a small courtyard. A rope used to bestrung half way across the room so that when he hadvisitors a piece of cloth could be hung from the rope toconvert a part of the room into an audience chamberseparated from the portion occupied by his wife. His lifewas so simple that ‘A’isha ra related that during thelifetime of the Prophet sa they often had to sustainthemselves on dates and water and that on the day ofhis death there was no food in the house except a fewdates (Bukhari).