Once there was an old Jewish beggar in the city of Madinah. He was blind and poor. Most of the time, he sat and begged to the passerby on a corner of the city market. Most of the people didn’t really like him, since most of the time he cursed and insulted Prophet Muhammad SAW. All the time he would say, “Brothers and sisters! Don’t go near Muhammad. He is nothing but an impostor, a witch, a mad man. If you approach him, you will be under his influence and become like him. ”
When Rasulullah SAW heard about this, he came to him and looked upon him without saying anything. From that day on, Rasulullah SAW began to come to him everyday to tend and feed him without telling him who he was. And the old man kept shouting all the nonsense about Rasulullaah SAW. After Rasulullaah passed away, Abubakar as Sidiq R.A visited his daughter Aisyah R.A. and asked her whether he has left out any daily habits that has been done before by the prophet. Aisyah R.A answered that her father has not done the daily activities of feeding the old beggar on the corner of the Madinah city market.
Hence, Abubakar RA, came to that old beggar to carry the habit of Rasulullah SAW. He began to feed him for a while but then the beggar was annoyed and shouted angrily to Abubakar R.A, “Who are you feeding me?”
“It is I who always come here to feed you”, answer Abubakar.
“No, you’re not! You’re a different person. The man who always comes here, usually grind the food until it is soft enough for me to chew and then feed me gently with his own hand. You didn’t do the same thing and your hands are different.”
Hearing his words, Abubakar could not help himself but cried. He told him, ” The noble man that always came here to feed you was not here anymore. He has left us to his Rabb.”
“Who was this man?”, asked him, with softer voice. “He is Rasulullah, Prophet Muhammad sallallahu allaihissalaam.”
Hearing this, the man cried unintentionally. When he finally got a grip of himself, he said “So he was the man that I always cursed and insulted but nevertheless he still tended me so gently and dearly. And I never had the chance to ask for his forgiveness. May Allah forgive me for my sins.” And at that moment in front of Abubakar as Sidiq he cited the syahadat and converted to Islam.
Today, in the midst of many irresponsible people trying to insult our beloved Prophet Muhammad SAW, I personally believe that we should refer back to what the Prophet has taught us through his action. Never had he reacted violently towards people who spread fitnah or insulted him. On the contrary, he prayed to Allah to show them the righteous way.
That’s what we should have done as Muslim. We show other people that we are a religion of logic and peace. It was very logical for Rasulullah to ask to Al Wakil who will protect him from anything in the world and not by showing up force. And he would change other people’s opinion of him with his gentle heart and kind actions. If we love our Prophet and would like to defend him for all the blasphemy thrown to his name, we should have done the same thing as him, contradict the fitnah by showing one of the true nature of Islam, Salaam which means peace. We can for instance spread books about the life of the Prophet or discuss about him with people who don’t know him yet to raise more awareness about who is Prophet Muhammad, The Messenger of Allah.
We surely condemn all the blasphemy toward Rasulullah and then assume that those people may have the same nature as the old beggar of Madinah. They were “blind”, “bitter” and “hopeless”, and therefore they have nothing to do but spreading insult about someone that they never know at all. And then pray, may Allah give hidayah to those people. Amin.
Muhammad bin Kamarulazizi
