A piece on the Prophet's biography (seerah) by Prothom Alo's religion desk draws lessons in patience and hope from three episodes in the life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
The first is Taif. When he went there to preach the oneness of God, its leaders set the town's louts on him and he was left bleeding from stones. As he sheltered in a vineyard outside the town, Jibreel came with the angel of the mountains and offered to crush the people of Taif between two mountains. He refused, hoping instead that their descendants would worship God alone (Sahih Bukhari, hadith 3231). The lesson drawn: answering persecution with forgiveness and goodwill.
The second comes from the migration to Madinah. Escaping a Quraysh plot to kill him, he and Abu Bakr hid in the cave of Thawr, in the opposite direction from Madinah, while Abu Bakr's daughter Asma brought them food at night. When the searchers reached the mouth of the cave and Abu Bakr feared they would be seen, the Prophet calmly asked what he thought of two people whose third was God (Surah At-Tawbah, verse 40; Sahih Bukhari, hadith 3653). The lesson: steadfast trust in God in a crisis.
The third is the Battle of the Trench. As an allied army moved to besiege Madinah, his companions dug a trench through bitter cold and hunger and struck a huge rock no spade could break. The Prophet took the spade himself, broke it in three blows and with each one gave news of future victories in Syria, Persia and Yemen (Sunan an-Nasa'i, hadith 3175).
The piece concludes that even amid uncertainty and hunger he kept hope alive in his companions, and that however great the crisis, a believer's hope does not go out.
Photo: Mohammed Tawsif Salam / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Prothom Alo
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