With his wives
“The best of you are the best towards their own, and I am the best of you towards my own” (Tirmidhi 3895, graded authentic by al-Tirmidhi and al-Albani).
He ﷺ spent time with them, and he played. On a feast day, some Abyssinians were performing games with shields and spears. Aisha no longer knew whether she asked him or he offered: she wanted to watch. He placed her behind him, her cheek against his, and waited until she had tired: “Is that enough for you?” “Yes.” “Then go” (Bukhari 2907).
On a journey, she raced him ﷺ and beat him. Later, when she had put on weight, they raced again, and he beat her: “This one for that one” (Abu Dawud 2578, graded authentic by al-Albani).
He ﷺ listened to their advice. At Hudaybiya, when his Companions, dejected by the truce, were slow to sacrifice despite his order repeated three times, he went in to Umm Salama and told her what was happening. She advised him to go out without saying a word, sacrifice his animals and call his barber. He did so, and all followed his example (Bukhari 2731).
He ﷺ never forgot Khadija, who died before the Hijra. “I was not jealous of any of his wives as I was of Khadija, whom I never saw”, says Aisha. He spoke of her often, and he would sometimes slaughter a ewe and send pieces of it to her friends. “It is as if there were no other woman in the world but Khadija!” she would say to him. “She was this and that, and it was from her that I had children” (Bukhari 3818). When her sister Hala asked to come in, he recognised Khadija’s way of asking, and he was shaken (Bukhari 3821).
With his daughters and his grandchildren
“I have seen no one resemble him in bearing and conduct as much as Fatima”, says Aisha. “When she came in to him, he would rise to her, take her hand, kiss her and seat her in his place. When he came in to her, she would do the same” (Abu Dawud 5217, graded authentic by al-Albani).
He ﷺ kissed his grandson al-Hasan in front of al-Aqra ibn Habis, who was astonished: “I have ten children, and I have never kissed one of them.” He looked at him: “Whoever shows no mercy is shown no mercy” (Bukhari 5997).
He ﷺ prayed carrying his granddaughter Umama: he put her down to prostrate, and picked her up again on rising (Bukhari 516).
Anas says that he saw no one more tender towards his family. His son Ibrahim was with a wet nurse in the heights of Medina, at the home of a blacksmith. He ﷺ would go there, enter the house full of smoke, take the child, kiss him and return (Muslim 2316).
With children
He ﷺ greeted children when he passed them (Anas, Bukhari 6247). He joked with them (Bukhari 6203), and once passed his hand over the cheeks of children who came to meet him (Muslim 2329).
Even prayer gave way before them. “I stand for prayer wishing to prolong it, I hear a child crying, and I shorten it, not wanting to burden his mother” (Bukhari 707).
With the weak
A black person used to sweep the mosque, a man or a woman, the narrator no longer knows. This person died without anyone telling him. He ﷺ asked after them. “Why did you not inform me? Show me the grave.” He went there and prayed over them (Bukhari 458).
Abu Dharr had insulted a man by reproaching him for his mother. “You are a man who still has in him some of the ignorance of before Islam. Your servants are your brothers, whom God has placed under your hand. Let whoever has his brother under his hand feed him from what he eats, clothe him from what he wears, and not burden him with what is beyond him; if you do burden them, help them” (Bukhari 30). Much later, Abu Dharr and his servant could be seen dressed alike.
“Gabriel kept urging me to care for the neighbour, until I thought he would give him a share of the inheritance” (Bukhari 6014).
With those who did not believe as he ﷺ did
A young Jew who served him fell ill. He went to see him and sat at his bedside. He invited him to Islam; the boy looked at his father, who told him: “Obey Abu al-Qasim ﷺ” (Bukhari 1356).
A funeral procession passed, and he ﷺ stood up. He was told it was that of a Jew. “Was it not a soul?” (Bukhari 1312).
He ﷺ traded with the Jews of Medina, and he died with his coat of mail in pledge to one of them (Bukhari 2916).
With animals
He ﷺ entered an enclosure of the Ansar. A camel saw him, moaned, and its eyes began to flow. He stroked it behind the ear, and the animal grew calm. He sent for its owner, a young man: “Do you not fear God concerning this animal He has entrusted to you? It complains to me that you starve it and wear it out” (Abu Dawud 2549, graded authentic by al-Albani).
On a journey, some Companions took the two chicks of a bird, which began to beat its wings above them. “Who has distressed this one by taking her young? Give them back to her.” They had also burned an anthill: “It belongs only to the Lord of the fire to punish with fire” (Abu Dawud 2675, graded authentic by al-Albani).
He ﷺ told the story of a man who was forgiven for giving water to a thirsty dog. “Is there a reward for us in animals?” he was asked. “In every living being there is a reward” (Bukhari 2363).
How this page connects to the others
- Gentleness and forgiveness: His character.
- His home ﷺ: His days and his nights.
- Hudaybiya in the account of his life: From Badr to Tabuk.