5. Would you like to meet him outside the institution? (cont.)

Do not ask them about anything, lest they inform you of the truth and you reject it, or they inform you of falsehood and you believe in it. I swear by the One who has my soul in His hand, if Musa was alive today, he would have no choice but to follow me." (Ahmad, Abu Ya'la and Bazzar, Hasan) Yes, although we urge gentleness, firmness is sometimes needed. During the early stages of the Prophet's prophethood, he used to come to the Ka'bah, whilst the Quraysh would be sitting in their gatherings. He would pray and not pay any attention to them. They would hurt him in many ways, whilst he would bear it all with patience. One day, the noble ones from Quraysh gathered together Gentleness only beautifies and mentioned the Messenger of Allah and said, "We have never come across anything more severe than what we have had to bear from this man. He has declared our views stupid. He has insulted our forefathers. He has condemned our religion. He has disunited our ranks, and insulted our gods. We are truly exasperated with him." Whilst they were discussing amongst each other, there came the Messenger of Allah and walked to the corner of the Ka'bah in order to touch it for the purpose of tawaf. When he began to make tawaf around the Ka'bah they started to mock him. The Prophet's complexion changed but his attitude remained calm with them and bore it with silence and continued. When he passed by them the second time, they mocked him again. His complexion changed, but he remained silent and continued with the tawaf. When he passed by them the third time, they mocked him again. He realised that gentleness was not working with such people. He went to them and said, "Pay attention, O Quraysh! I swear by the One who has my soul in His hand, I have come to you with slaughter!" The brave Messenger and leader said these words and remained standing, facing them. When the men heard the threat of being slaughtered from the 'most truthful and the most trustworthy one', they jumped up, until every single one sat upright and still, as if a bird was resting on his head, so much so that the harshest of them towards the Prophet began to show him gentleness. They said, "Make your way, O Abul-Qasim as a noble man. You were never foolish." Thus, the Prophet made his way. Yes, if it is said to you, "be gentle…", then say, "gentleness has Gentleness only beautifies its place." For one to be gentle at an inappropriate occasion is considered foolishness, although when one closely studies the life of the Prophet he realises that he was gentle on most occasions. But be careful! We are not calling for weakness and cowardice. We are only calling for gentleness. From the memorable examples of gentleness, we can relate that a month after the battle of Badr, Abul-'Aas, the husband of Zaynab the Prophet's daughter, wanted to send her to Madinah to her father. The Messenger of Allah sent Zayd bin Harithah and a man from the Ansar to Makkah and told them to wait at a place near Makkah on the road to Madinah. He said to them, "Wait at Ya'jah until Zaynab passes by you. You should then accompany her and bring her to me." Abul-'Aas, her husband, ordered her to pack her luggage. She began to collect her belongings, and as she was in the process there came to her Hind bint 'Utbah, the wife of Abu Sufyan. She said to her, "O daughter of Muhammad! Why didn't you tell me you are planning to meet up with your father?" Zaynab feared that Hind might be plotting against her, so she said, "No. This is not what I am planning to do." She said, "Dear cousin, if you do want to go and if you ever are in need of something for your journey, or some money in order to be able to get there, then do not be embarrassed to ask me, for the relationship between us isn't like the relationship between men." Zaynab said, "By Allah, I don't think she said this except because she wanted to plot against me. But I hid my plans and denied that I was going to do that." Gentleness only beautifies When Zaynab packed her luggage, her husband feared that if she went alone, the Quraysh might find out about her departure. Thus, he ordered his brother, Kinanah, to accompany her. Kinanah bin al-Rabi' gave her a camel to ride on. She mounted on the camel as he grabbed his bow and quiver, and began to lead her on their way in broad daylight, as she sat in the howdaj.