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

He said, “O Messenger of Allah! My wife gave birth to a black child! We have never had any black person in our family!” The Prophet  looked at him. Although, he was well able to lecture him about having good thoughts about others, and that he should not have accused his wife, he decided to try a different method with him to solve his problem. He decided to make the man solve his own problem. He decided to give him examples with which he could easily discover the answer to his problem. But what kind of example should he have given him? The example of trees? Or bees? Or the Persians and the Romans? The Prophet  looked at him and noticed that he was a Bedouin who looked very confused due to all the thoughts that were coming to his mind about his wife. The Prophet  said, “Do you have any camels?” Do not be dictatorial “Yes”, said the man. The Prophet  said, “What is their colour?” He said, “Red.” The Prophet  said, “Is there any black amongst them?” “No”, he replied. The Prophet said, “Is there any grey amongst them?” “Yes”, the man replied. The Prophet said, “From where did that come?” Meaning; so long as they are all red, male and female, and not a single one of them is of any different colour, how did a red camel give birth to a grey camel, which happens to be different to that of the mother and the father? The man thought for a while and said, “Perhaps it is due to heredity”. Meaning; it is possible that one of its ancestors was grey. Hence, the grey colour remained in the lineage, and was inherited by this baby camel. Then the Prophet  said, “Perhaps, your son has also inherited this colour because of heredity.” (Muslim and Ibn Majah) The man heard the response, thought for a while and discovered that he came to a conclusion himself. He felt satisfied and certain of the response, and went back to his wife. On another occasion, the Prophet  sat with his Companions and began to inform them about various good actions. Amongst the things he mentioned was that he said, “In the intimacy of one of you is charity”; meaning for one of you to have intercourse with his wife is an action that carries a reward from Allah. Do not be dictatorial Upon hearing this, the Companions became surprised and said, “O Messenger of Allah, one of us comes to his wife to fulfil his desire, and for that he would be rewarded?” The Prophet  then responded in a way which made them feel that they were the ones who came up with the answer, and hence, there was no need for a discussion for them to be convinced further. The Prophet  said, “Don’t you see that if he were to do it in a forbidden way, he would be sinful?” They said, “Yes.” “So therefore, if he were to do it in a permissible way, he would be rewarded”, said the Prophet . In fact, even during a discussion with others, he would lead them on to the answer by beginning with matters that they both agreed upon. The Prophet  once left for Makkah along with a thousand and four hundred of his Companions, but the Quraysh blocked his way. This led to the famous al-Hudaybiyyah incident, where after a long session of discussion between the Prophet  and the Quraysh, they agreed upon a peace accord. Suhayl bin ‘Amr was the one who represented Quraysh whilst writing the conditions of the pledge. The Prophet  agreed with Suhayl on several conditions, and from amongst these were: - The Muslims should return to Madinah without having performed ‘Umrah - The Muslims in Madinah were not to accept anyone who wished to accept Islam from the people of Makkah and decided to migrate in Madinah. Do not be dictatorial - Whoever left Islam and decided to go to the pagans in Makkah would be accepted There were many other conditions that were apparently a sign of Muslim defeat and humiliation. In reality, though, the Quraysh were afraid of such a large number of Muslims, and realised that if they wished, they could have easily conquered Makkah. For this reason, the Quraysh were forced to be diplomatic. They could not dream that they would ever manage to get away with a quarter of those conditions. Most of the Companions were uneasy with these conditions. But how could they ever protest? The one who writing the contract and agreeing with its conditions was he who did not speak from his desires. ‘Umar was desperate. He was looking right and left, wishing if only he could do something. ‘Umar quickly approached Abu Bakr to discuss this with him. Due to his wisdom, he did not begin by protesting. Rather, he began with things they both agreed on.