Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Muhammad: "You have been sent to make things easy..."

Al Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 73, Number 149:

Narrated Abu Huraira:

A bedouin urinated in the mosque, and the people rushed to beat him. Allah's Apostle ordered them to leave him and pour a bucket or a tumbler (full) of water over the place where he has passed urine. The Prophet then said, "You have been sent to make things easy (for the people) and you have not been sent to make things difficult for them."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Islamic wisdom never ceases to astound me.

Unknown said...

I could see that one on Saturday Nite Live. Live ... from New York! ... It's the urinating bedouin in the mosque ... he has been sent to make things easy and pleasant for other mosque goers.

Abu Daoud said...

I posted the hadith because it shows a lighter, more flexible side of Islam and Muhammad, which often goes unnoticed.

John Stringer said...

Very flexible side.... Do your prayers as prescribed, and take any slave girl afterwards?

John Stringer said...

oops sorry, only if you are the owner, not the slavegirl of your neighbor. She belongs to him...

Unknown said...

Justin, not only does slavery have a place under Islam, but Islam has laws for it.

One Orientalist scholar (forgot his name) said that a slave has a chance of becoming free in Islam (under certain conditions), but a woman will always be a woman and cannot be freed from the laws on women.

Unknown said...

Just remembered: it's Bernard Lewis. Check out his two books:

[1] The Shaping of the Modern Middle East, by Bernard Lewis. See pages 55--58 for the slavery issue.

[2] The Middle East, by Bernard Lewis. Look up 'slavery' in the index for further info.