Life-of-Muhammad

Life of Muhammad sa 229you seem to have brought upon yourself what I hadfeared.' I then went to the Holy Prophet sa and found himlying down on a rough matting. He was at that timewearing no shirt and his body bore the marks of thepattern of the matting. I sat down near him and said: ‘OMessenger of Allah! the Kaiser and the Chosroes do notdeserve any of God's favours and yet they pass theirlives in great comfort and you who are His Messengerpass your days in such discomfort.' The Prophet sareplied: 'That is not so. The Messengers of Allah are notexpected to spend their time in comfort. That kind of lifebefits only secular monarchs.' I then related to theProphet sa all that had passed between me and my wifeand daughter. Hearing me, the Prophet sa laughed andsaid: ‘It is not true that I have divorced my wives. I havemerely thought it advisable to spend a little time awayfrom them' " (Bukhari, Kitabun Nikah).He was so careful concerning the sentiments ofwomen that on one occasion when he was leading theprayers he heard the cry of a child and concluded theservice quickly, explaining thereafter that as he hadheard the cry of the child he imagined that the child'smother would be distressed at its cry and he hadtherefore concluded the service quickly so that themother could go to the child and look after it.When during any of his journeys women were alsoamong the party he always gave directions that thecaravan should move slowly and by easy stages. On onesuch occasion when the men were eager to pushforward, he said: "Take care of glass! Take care of glass!"meaning thereby that women were of the party and thatif camels and horses were put to the gallop they wouldsuffer from the joltings of the animals (Bukhari, KitabulAdab). During a battle confusion arose among the ranksof the mounted soldiers and the animals became unmanageable.The Holy Prophet sa fell from his horse andsome of the women also fell from their mounts. One ofhis Companions ra , who was riding a camel immediatelybehind the Prophet sa jumped down and ran towards him