91. Be brave and start from now! (cont.)

When he raised up from bowing, he said, “Allah hears the one who praises Him.” The Companions said, “Our Lord, to you belong all the praise!” Except that this man added, “O Allah, have mercy on me and Muhammad, and no one else!” The Prophet  heard him, and when the prayer finished, he turned around and asked who said those words. The Companions pointed out the man to him, so he asked him to come forward. When he came and sat in front of him, lo and behold, it was the same Bedouin. The Prophet’s love had entered into his heart so deeply that he wished that the Prophet and he be the Use the right flavour recipients of Allah’s mercy exclusively. The Prophet  said to him, “You have narrowed what is vast!” Meaning that Allah’s mercy was enormous enough to include them two and everyone else, so it should not have been restricted to the two of them only. Notice how the Prophet  managed to capture his heart by knowing how to deal with him, for he was a Bedouin who had just come from the desert. He could not be expected to be as knowledgeable as Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, or even Mu’adh and ‘Ammar, and hence he should not be treated like them either. Let’s look at the case of Mu‘awiyah bin al-Hakm, – may Allah be pleased with him – who was just a regular Companion. He did not live in Madinah, or even accompany the Prophet  often; rather, he had cattle in the desert to tend to. One day, Mu‘awiyah entered Madinah and visited the mosque. He sat in the gathering of the Prophet  and his Companions as they were discussing the etiquettes of sneezing. One of the etiquettes the Prophet  taught was that if one hears his brother sneeze and then praise Allah, he should say to him ‘YarhamukAllah’ (i.e., ‘May Allah have mercy on you’). Mu‘awiyah committed this to his memory and left. After a few days he returned to Madinah to fulfil a need and entered the mosque where the Prophet  was praying with his Companions, so he joined them. As they were praying, one of the Companions sneezed, and before he could say “al-Hamdulillah”, Mu‘awiyah remembered that he was supposed to respond, so he hurriedly said in a loud voice, “YarhamukAllah!” The people who were praying became confused and began to look at him with disapproving looks. When he noticed the commotion he became confused and said, “Woe be to me! Why are you staring Use the right flavour at me?!” The Companions began to strike their hands on their thighs, insisting that he be silent, and he complied. When the prayer was over, the Prophet  turned to the congregation. He had heard the commotion and the voice of the one who spoke, but the voice had belonged to a new, unfamiliar person. He asked, ‘Who spoke?’ and the people pointed at Mu‘awiyah. The Prophet  asked him to come forward and he did. He was terrified as he didn’t know what would happen to him for interrupting the prayer and ruining people’s concentration. Mu‘awiyah said, “May my mother and father be sacrificed for him! By Allah, I have never seen before him nor after him a leader who gave better instruction than he. I swear that he did not scold, beat or revile me, but simply said: ‘Talking to people is not befitting during the prayer, for it consists of glorifying Allah, declaring his Greatness. and recitation of the Qur’an.’ This is how brief his advice was.” Mu‘waiyah understood the advice and when he felt more comfortable, he began to ask the Prophet  about certain personal matters. He said, “O Messenger of Allah. I was till recently a pagan, but Allah has brought Islam to us; among us there are men who have recourse to soothsayers.” Soothsayers are those who claim to know the unseen, and people go to them to ask thereof. The Prophet  said in response, “Do not have recourse to them.” Meaning, you are a Muslim and no one knows the unseen except Allah. He said, “There are men who take omens.” Meaning, they Use the right flavour predict bad luck by looking at the flight patterns of birds. The Prophet  said, “That is something which they find in their breasts, but let it not turn their way.” Meaning, let it not prevent them from doing what is best, for these omens can neither harm nor benefit. This is how the Prophet  dealt with the man who urinated in the mosque and the man who spoke during the prayer, taking into consideration their situation, since people in their position are bound to make mistakes. But as for Mu‘adh bin Jabal , then he was from the closest of the Companions to the Prophet , and the most eager of them to learn. The way the Prophet  would deal with him would differ from the way he would deal with anyone else.