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

When the people saw this, some men from Quraysh began to speak about it amongst each other, "How can Muhammad's daughter be allowed to join him when he did what he did to us at Badr?" Thus they went out looking for her until they found her at a place called Dhu Tuwa. The first one of them to reach her was Hibar bin al-Aswad. He frightened her with his spear as she sat in her howdaj. It said that she was pregnant and as a consequence she miscarried. The disbelievers began to race towards her with their weapons, whilst she had no one except her brother-in-law, Kinanah. When Kinanah saw this, he sat on the ground, laid his quiver down and picked up his bow ready to shoot. He then said, "I swear by Allah, if anyone of you comes near me I will shoot him with this!" He was a good archer. The people around him began to waver and retreat, and watched him from afar. Neither was he able to move, nor were the people able to approach him, until it reached Abu Sufyan that Zaynab was heading off to be with her father. Upon hearing this he appeared with a group of noble men from Quraysh. When he saw that Kinanah was ready to shoot and the people were ready to fight him, he shouted, "O man! Point your bow away so we may speak." Kinanah pointed his bow away. Gentleness only beautifies Abu Sufyan then approached him and said, "What you did was not right. You went out with the woman in broad daylight. You know of our suffering and catastrophe at Badr, and what happened to us due to Muhammad. Our noble men were killed and women were widowed. If people see you, and the tribes hear that you left with his daughter in broad daylight in the midst of everyone, they will think of it as another humiliation befalling us, and that this is due to our weakness and flaw. I swear that we have no need to keep her here away from her father. We have no need to exact revenge from her. So go back with the woman, until the voices calm down and the people think that we returned her back to Makkah. You can then secretly take her and return her to her father." When Kinanah heard this, he was satisfied and returned back to Makkah. She stayed a few nights in Makkah, until voices had calmed down. Soon after this, one night, he took her out and met up with Zayd bin Harithah and his companion. The two of them then brought her to the Messenger of Allah . Contemplate. How gentle was Abu Sufyan! Look how he succeeded in cooling Kinanah's anger, and preventing him from being killed when perhaps even the daughter of the Messenger of Allah would not have been spared. This was Abu Sufyan, who at the time was a disbeliever, so how about the Muslims? Revelation… Gentleness beautifies everything. Harshness disfigures. Gentleness only beautifies (54) Between the living and the dead There was a man who was extremely burdensome upon others. He was burdensome to his colleagues, his neighbours, his brothers and even his children. He was very unpleasant. He would always hear people saying to him, "Dear brother, you are cold, devoid of emotion!" But he would never respond to them positively. One day, his son came to him very happy and excited, waving his notebook since his teacher remarked on it, "Excellent!" But the father paid him scant attention, and only said, "O.K? So what? you'd think that it was a PhD!" Obviously, this wasn't quite the response the son expected. He was a teacher and he had a student in his lesson who was light-hearted. He felt that the lesson (and the teacher) were a bit cumbersome, so he decided to brighten up the atmosphere by making a joke. But the teacher's complexion did not change. He simply said, sarcastically, "Happy now?" Oh that his behaviour with his students was slightly different! He entered a grocery store where the shopkeeper said to him, "Al-hamdulillah! My family has sent me a letter!" But he did not react. He did not even ask himself why the shopkeeper decided to inform him of this! By Allah, the poor shopkeeper didn't inform him of this except to share his happiness with him. He visited one of his colleagues who made a cup of coffee for him and then showed him his first newborn, well-wrapped up in a blanket, and if he had been able to wrap him up with his eyelids he would have done! He stood in front of him with his baby and said, "What do you think?" He gave him a cold look and said icily, "MashaAllah… Allah will bless him for you." He then lifted his cup of coffee to drink. Obviously, he was expected to be more responsive, perhaps take the baby in his arms, kiss him and praise his looks and health.