Khasaais of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
In the last summary we mentioned a few of the prophet’s Khasaais, but there are many more in terms of his physical characteristics and the nature of his person. First, the miracle and beauty of his appearance:
Many, many narrations report of the beauty of the prophet. Ar-Rubayyah bint Mu’awidh (RA), a sahabiyat, when asked by her son about the prophet said, ‘If you had seen him, you would have thought the sun had risen up.’
Amr ibn Al-As (RA), a former leader of Quraish who had only been a sahabi for about 2 years, would later say, ‘There was nothing sweeter to me than to stare at the face of the prophet… and yet along with this desire to stare at him, there was also this awe that couldn’t allow me to stare directly at him and I’d have to lower my face.’ The chief rabbi of Medina, Abdullah ibn Salam (RA), even converted to Islam just based on the prophet’s appearance, saying: ‘I knew that this face that he has could not be the face of a liar.’
Although these narrations speak of the overwhelming beauty of the prophet Muhammad ﷺ, most of the descriptions came from the younger sahaba who had felt these emotions less. Anas ibn Malik (RA), a sahaba who served the prophet at 7 years old, said, ‘The prophet ﷺ was neither very tall such that he stood above the crowd, nor short such that he would be ignored. And he was neither extremely white nor ruddy brown… (His hair) was not in curls nor was it straight… I never felt any velvet or silk softer than the hand of the prophet nor did I smell any fragrance any sweeter than the smell of the prophet’s sweat.’
Ali ibn Abu Talib (RA) said, ‘The prophet did not have a very fleshy face nor was his face round, it was slightly ovalish. He had (light brown) skin. His eyes were large with jet black pupils. And his lashes were long. His joints were long as was his upper back. And he did not hair all over his body but he did have a fine line of hair extending from the chest to the naval.’
As well as the physical beauty of the prophet, he also had many beautiful characteristics. Most notably his humility, demonstrated by the simple lifestyle he led. Once Umar ibn Khattab (RA) walked into the prophet’s personal compartment in the masjid in order to greet him. In that compartment was nothing but a jug of water and a bed made of woven date palm branches, so Umar saw that when Muhammad (SAW) got up to greet him that the bed had left red impressions on the back of the prophet. Keep in mind, this was in the 7th / 8th year of the Hijra where Muhammad (SAW) was the undisputed leader of most of Arabia. So Umar began crying and lamented, ‘How can we let you live like this, look at the kings! Surely you deserve better?’
At this the prophet got irritated and chided Umar, ‘Aren’t you happy that they have the world and we have the akhira?"
The prophet was also exceedingly kind. Anas ibn Malik narrates, ‘In the 10 years I was a servant to the prophet, not once did I hear an “oof” and not once did the prophet ask “why did/didn’t you do this?”’ This shows the perfection of the manners of the prophet.
He also had such a love for his ummah that on the Day of Judgement he will make a du’a for them – and this du’a is the one du’a that every prophet is given that is certain to be accepted. To put into perspective how powerful and valuable this du’a is, it is the du’a that gave Suleiman (AS) his huge dominion over man and Jinn, his ability to speak with animals and his massive kingdom, the size of which has only ever been given to him. And prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: ‘To every single rasul and nabi Allah has given one du’a and everyone has used it up in this world, except for me. I have saved it for my ummah and I will use it on them on the Day of Judgement.’ Because of the mercy of the prophet, every Muslim who believed even in the slightest will, eventually, reach Jannah and Allah will forgive their sins.
The prophet’s generosity was, and is unparalleled. He would never, ever refuse any asking of him. Once a sahabi gave him a very beautiful garment, seeing that the prophet was always wearing one set of clothing which was very ragged, and so the prophet went and changed into this. As soon as he went out in this, another sahabi asked him, "Can you give me this as a gift?"
Immediately the prophet replied ‘Yes.’ He went back home and came back wearing the tattered garment he had just changed out of. The other sahaba were all very angry at the one who had asked for the garment, but he claimed it was for his grave cloth.
The prophet was also blessed with a great, and yet still truthful, sense of humour which showed his humanity. There was a sahabi called Zahir whom the prophet loved very much. One day the prophet saw him in the market selling and calling out, ‘Who will buy this from me?’ etc. And so the prophet ﷺ snuck up behind him and grabbed him in a bear hug and began to call out as a joke, ‘Who will buy this abd (slave) from me?’
Zahir laughed, ‘In that case you will get a very bad bargain.’
But the prophet replied, ‘You are very expensive in the eyes of Allah.’ Note that even in this the joke is also truthful, as Zahir WAS a slave – a slave of Allah.
As we can see, the prophet ﷺ was a man of many beautiful blessings and qualities, ranging from his physical appearance to his internal characteristics. From this we can take inspiration, and have a further understanding of why he was so beloved of Allah and why we should look up to him and attempt to follow in his footsteps.
Dr.Yasir Qadhi’s Seerah of The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) 002
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udjM4dBVicE
