Reminders from the Sunnah-…” A Broken Dish…” Narrated Anas Bin Malik: “While the Prophet was in the house of one of his wives, one of the mothers of the believers sent a meal in a dish. The wife at whose house the Prophet was, struck the hand of the servant, causing the dish to fall and break. The Prophet gathered the broken pieces of the dish and then started collecting on them the food which had been in the dish and said, “Your mother felt… jealous.” Then he detained the servant till a (sound) dish was brought from the wife at whose house he was. He gave the sound dish to the wife whose dish had been broken, and kept the broken one at the house where it had been broken.” (Notice how the narrator has abstained from mentioning the names of the Mothers of Believers in order to cover their faults/shortcomings!) [Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 7, Book 62, Number 152] Picture this scenario happening in an average house: a woman breaking another’s crockery piece (and we all know how passionately women feel about their crockery pieces! Even their own child is scolded for accidentally breaking a cherished utensil.), laden with food the latter had freshly cooked, in an envious rage; this is in fact, a scene depicted often in modern soaps to spice up the plot! How would you expect an average husband witnessing such an action to react? – Probably by also losing his temper and screaming angrily, “What have you done? Are you out of your mind?!” The wise steps that Prophet Muhammad [صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم] took, however, to satiate his wife’s envy and to prevent the situation from turning into a domestic battle, are detailed below: - He refrained from rebuking her or shouting at her before others. This would have undoubtedly humiliated her. Instead, he calmly offered a simple explanation for her behavior to onlookers (i.e. his companions, including the narrator): “Your mother felt jealous.” Note how he referred to her with a respectful title before the assembled group. With this simple statement, he gave her leeway for being a human being – and a woman, at that – who got affected by her innate human emotions. - He physically remedied the situation by cleaning up the mess himself. This indicates his humility and greatness of character. He could have asked her, or one of his younger companions, to clean up – the narrator is Anas Bin Malik, who was much younger than the Prophet and dedicated for his service, yet the latter did not ask him to do the cleaning-up. He didnot ask his wife to do it either – knowing her angry state and not wanting to humiliate her by making her clean up before an audience – he humbly did the job himself. What a great model for every man! A husband cleaning up a dish broken by his wife, without even being asked! He executed justice, and arranged for compensation, by asking his wife to replace her co-wife’s broken utensil as well as its contents. That is, despite his patience and forgiveness for her angry outburst, he made her compensate the wife who had been unduly wronged for an action that was very praiseworthy in itself: preparing and sending them a meal. The reader might think that perhaps such petty jealousies were the norm among Prophet Muhammad’s [صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم] wives. Nay, they got along amicably otherwise, with mutual respect and sisterly love. Just like normal women, though, they had their human weaknesses and moody phases. I have personally noticed that women are very competitive as far as cooking is concerned. It is amusing to note even biological sisters and mother-daughter pairs making some less-than-nice comments as far as cooking skills are concerned. The reason I am bringing this up is so that we may realize why our Mother threw that dish in the first place.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 08:37:15 +0000
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