Book 29: Excellent Qualities and Description of the Prophet

Al-Bara' said: The first of the companions of God's messenger to come to us were Mus'ab b. `Umair and Ibn Umm Maktum who began to teach us the Quran[1]. Then `Ammar,[2] Bilal[3] and Sa'd[4] came. Then `Umar b. al-Khattab came with twenty of the Prophet's companions. Then the Prophet (ﷺ) came, and I never saw the people of Medina so happy about anything as they were about him. I even saw the little girls and boys saying, "This is God's messenger who has come." By the time he came I had learned "Glorify the name of your most high Lord"[5] along with similar suras from al-Mufassal. 1. These two were sent to Medina before the Hijra to teach the people who had sworn allegiance to the Prophet. 2. 'Ammar b. Yasir. 3. Bilal b. Rabah. 4. Sa'd b. Abu Waqqe. 5. Quran:87 Bukhari transmitted it.

Abu Sa'id al-Khudri said: God's messenger sat on the pulpit and said, "A man was given his choice by God as to whether He should give him as much worldly comfort as he wished, or whether he should have what was with Him, and he chose what was with Him." Abu Bakr then wept and said, "We would ransom you with our fathers and our mothers." We were surprised at him, and some people said, "Look at this old man who says when God's messenger is telling about a man who was given his choice by God as to whether He should give him worldly comfort or whether he should have what is with Him, `We would ransom you with our fathers and our mothers'." Now God's messenger was the one who was given his choice and Abu Bakr was the one among us who had most knowledge. (Bukhari and Muslim.)

`Uqba b. `Amir told that God's messenger prayed eight years after the battle of Uhud over those who were slain there like one who was bidding farewell to the living and the dead. He then mounted the pulpit and said, "I am one who goes before you and I shall be a witness to you. Your appointed place is the Pond at which I am looking while I am where I am just now. I have been given the keys of the treasures of the earth, and I do not fear for you that you should become polytheists after I am gone, but I fear lest you should long for worldly things (some adding, and fight), and perish like your predecessors." (Bukhari and Muslim.)

`A'isha said: One of God's favours to me was that God's messenger died in my house on my day resting on my breast, and that God joined his saliva with mine[*] when he died. When I was supporting God's messenger `Abd ar-Rahman b. Abu Bakr came in to -visit me with a tooth-stick in his hand. I saw the Prophet (ﷺ) looking at it, and I knew it was a characteristic of his to like a tooth-stick, so I asked if I would get it for him and he nodded his assent. He took it, but it was too hard for him, so I suggested softening it for him and he nodded his assent. I softened it and he moved it over his teeth. There was a jug of water in front of him and he began to put his hands into the water and wipe his face with them saying meanwhile, ``There is no god but God. Death has pangs." The he raised his hand and began to say, ["Put me] among the highest companions" until he died and his hand dropped. *The reference is to the detail mentioned later in the tradition telling that she softened the tooth-stick in her mouth before the Prophet (ﷺ) used it. Bukhari transmitted it.

She said: I heard God's messenger say, "No prophet becomes ill without being given his choice between this world and the next. "During his complaint of which he died he was afflicted by severe hoarseness, and I heard him say, "With those of the prophets, upright, martyrs and pious ones to whom Thou hast shown favour," so I knew that he had been given his choice. (Bukhari and Muslim.)

Anas told that when the Prophet's illness became heavy, he began to be overwhelmed by anxiety, and Fatima said, "Alas for the anxiety, father!" He replied to her, "Your father will have no anxiety after to-day." Then when he died, she said, "0 my father! He has responded to a Lord who summoned him. 0 my father! In the garden of Firdaus is his destination. 0 my father[*] To Gabriel we shall announce his death!" Then when he was buried Fatima said, "Anas, have you people found it an easy task to scatter earth over God's messenger?" Bukhari transmitted it.