Al Minah Al `Aliyyah (27)

The non-timed related

Sunnan

this makes up the second part of the daily Sunnan and is a detailed and miscellaneous section. Some of these Sunnan do not change due to change of place, people or time, and I shall illustrate what is the most repeated. I am going to pass over certain Sunnan as this section cannot be restricted to something specific. I put my trust in the Lord and I will do my best  - if my memory will serve me correctly – to apply the information in this humble paper .

The first thing to start with in this section is:

The Sunnan of food

 I did not find it suitable to include the Sunnan of food with the time related Sunnan because eating and drinking do not have a specific time, therefore you can adjust the Sunnan accordingly. Though, eating and drinking may occur at certain intervals nowadays, that was not the case during the times of the Companions and pious predecessors. They did not have the luxury of having various types of food like we do in this day and age. At this juncture, I am particularly referring to those who were unable to have meals at certain times due to a lack of it.  The majority of them – may Allah have mercy on them all often queried whether they had anything to eat or not?

Here is the example of the Prophet r, the luminous lamp of this nation and the best that Allah has ever created, where he goes to 'Aishah (may Allah have mercy on her) and asks her one day,

 “O 'Aishah! Do we have anything to eat?” She answered, “O Messenger of Allah! No.” He then said, “So, I am fasting.”^[1]

Abu Hurairah y narrated,

“One day a poor and hungry man came to Prophet Muhammad r to ask for some food. Prophet Muhammad r guided him to go to the homes of his wives and get something to eat. All of them had no food in their homes and thus could not offer the poor man anything. He returned to Prophet Muhammad r who then asked his Sahabah (Companions), 'Who is going to invite this guest to his home?' Then, a man from among the Ansaar (Helpers) hosted him." ^[2]

That was a true indication of the Companions' life and at the top we find Abu Bakr and 'Umar  (may Allah be pleased with them). It was reported by Imam Muslim through Abu Hurairah t who said,

"The Prophet r went out during an hour in which he would normally not go out, nor meet with anyone. Then Abu Bakr t came to him. So he said: ‘What brought you O Abu Bakr?’ He said: ‘I came to meet the Messenger of Allah r  and to look at his face, and to make sure he was safe. It was not long before 'Umar t came. He said: ‘What has brought you O 'Umar?’ He said: ‘Hunger O Messenger of Allah!’ He said: ‘I also experienced some of that’ So they went to the home of Abu al-Haitham at-Taiyyihan al-Ansari t. He was a man with many date palms and sheep, but he had no servants so they did not find him there. They said to his wife: ‘Where is your companion?’ She said: ‘He has gone to fetch us some good water.’ It was not long before Abu Al-Haitham t came along hauling a large water-skin which he put down. Then he came to hug the Prophet r and uttered that his father and mother should be ransomed for him. Then he went to his grove and he spread out a mat for them. Then he went to a date palm and returned with a cluster of dates, which he put down in front of them. He also slaughtered an animal for them. The Prophet r said: ‘Why don't you select some ripe dates for us?’ He said: ‘O Messenger of Allah r ! I wanted you to select from the ripe dates and the unripe dates.’ So they ate and they drank from that water. The Messenger of Allah r said: ‘By the One in Whose Hand is my soul! This is among the favors which you shall be asked about on the Day of Judgment. Cool shade, tasty ripe dates, and cool water.’"^[3]

Furthermore, we have heard the transmitter of the Sunnah, namely, Abu Hurairah t through Al-Bukhari (may Allah have mercy on him) report, that Prophet Muhammad r said, “We were with Abu Hurairah t and he was wearing two linen garments dyed with red ochre. He blew his nose in one of them and said: 'Excellent! Abu Hurairah blows his nose in linens! I saw a time when I would pass out between the Minbar of the Messenger of Allah r and the dwelling of 'Aishah from overwhelming hunger. Someone came and placed his foot on my neck thinking that I was a mad man, but I was not crazy, it was nothing but hunger."^[4]

 It was not only Abu Hurairah t, but ponder over those Companions who fell down whilst in prayer due to hunger. It was reported by At-Tirmidhi through Fudalah ibn 'Ubaidt who said, “When Messenger of Allah r led the prayers, some people would fall down from their standing posture out of extreme hunger. They were from the people of As-Suffah. The nomad Arabs would say that they were insane. After concluding the prayer, the Messenger of Allah r would turn to them and say, ‘If you were to know what is in-store for you with Allah, the Exalted, you would wish to augment your starvation and lack of provisions.’ Fudalah t said, ‘I was with the Prophet r at that time.’”^[5] At-Tirmidhi graded it as sound.

That was the norm during the golden era of Islam and with the generations that followed. They would only eat when there was food and they did not have specific times set for meals because most of the time they did not have anything to eat. Yet, this is not the place to narrate such stories and reports of those great people (may Allah have mercy on all of them).