page 4
The Prophet and
Human Dignity
Ismail Uddin
Prophet Muhammad not only respected but also elevated
the dignity of all those who were fortunate to meet him:
Muslims and nonMuslim. I will illustrate three incidents
when he had done so. First it was with his caretaker and
slave Barakah, who he had inherited from his parents.
She took care of him when he was a child and stayed
with his household when he was an adult. He freed her on
the day of his marriage with Khadijah, and later arranged
her marriage with a man from Yathrib, the city soon to be
named Medina. She lived happily and had a son named
Ayman, after whom her nickname became Umm Ayman.
Eventually she came back to Mecca and started living
with Muhammad’s
(pbuh) household once
again, either because
she was widowed or
divorced. Prophet
Muhammad had treated
her as a family member
and did everything he
could to take care of
her, and this was before
he had become a
Prophet. He would call her “Ummi”, my mother, and said
of her to others: “She is all that is left, of my family.”
He elevated her status once again after the message of
Islam was revealed. Along with Umm Ayman, another
‘slave’ lived in his household, Zayd ibn Harith from the
Tribe of Kalb. He was given as a wedding gift to
Muhammad (pbuh) by Khadijah at the age of fifteen. He
was proud of his lineage but he was content with serving
Muhammad (pbuh). After the message of Islam spread
throughout Mecca, the Prophet said to his companions of
Umm Ayman “Should one of you desire to marry a
woman from the people of Paradise, let him marry Umm
Ayman.” This had a great effect on Zayd, who was much
younger than Umm Ayman, and he asked to marry her.
This is the prophet uplifting and honoring what we would
consider today to be the lowest of society. Social status
meant little to the prophet. Human dignity meant
everything.
Another incident was with Abdullah ibn
Masud, a man of short stature. He used to
help out the Prophet (pbuh) in his day to day
necessities. One day he was climbing a
siwak tree and a gust of wind blew and
exposed his thin and unimpressive legs. His
friends laughed, but the Prophet asked,
“Why do you laugh?”. They replied, “Ya
nabi, look at his legs. They’re like twigs.”
The Prophet said, “These two legs will be
the weight of Uhud on the scale of good
deeds on the Day of Judgement." The
Prophet had such a deep impact on this man
that much later on in life, Abdullah Ibn
Masud (rh) would refuse to part with a copy
of his personal Quran that the Prophet had
taught him, despite Uthman (rh) explaining
why he was burning unofficial copies of the
Quran (so the Ummah
would have one
standard copy).
Furthermore, Abdullah
Ibn Masud(rh) was so
elevated by the Prophet
that he became a pillar
of knowledge, so much
so that this young man
a pious predecessor
reflected and Ali (rh)
were the springs from which all the learned
companions took.
[He] said of her
to others "She is
all that is left of
my family."
A third incident I’ll mention is about Zahir
(ra), who was repulsive in appearance and
had a very low selfesteem. The Prophet
always sought to uplift people and this
incident illustrates this quality. Reported by
Anas ibn Malik, “There was a man from the
people of the desert whose name was Zahir
bin Hizam (or Haram). And he was loved by
the Prophet (pbuh) – He was also not of a
pleasant (facial) appearance. The Prophet
came to him one day, while he (Zahir) was
selling his goods in the market and
embraced him from behind, so that he
(Zahir) could not see who it was.
continued on pg 6 ...
A MUNA Youth Publication