Teaching; and Defeat 113course.,,6 H e thus invited them to deny or despise nothing in their human-
iry and taught them that the core of the matte was achieving self-control.
SpiriLualiLY means LOlli <l.UXpUllg aIlJ m<l.Hailig unc::'s imtincts: living
one's natural desires in the light of one's principles is a prayer. It is never
a misdeed, nor is it hypocrisy.
The Prophet hated to let his Companions nurture a pointless feeling of
guilt. H e kept telling them that they must never stop conversing with the
One, the Most Kind, the Ivlost rt'lerciful, who welcomes everyone in His
grace and benevolence and who loves the siccerity of hearts that regret
(:}teir misdeeds and return to Hi m. This is the profound meaning of at-taUi-
bah, offered to everyone: sincerely returning to God after a slip, a mistake,
a sin. God loves that sincere return to Him and H e forgives and purifies.
The Prophet himself exemplified that in mmy circumstances. On one
occasion a Bedouin came and urinated in the mosque; the Companions
rushed on him and wanted to beat him up. The Prophet stopped them
and said: "Leave him aJone, and just throw a bucketful of water on his
urine. God has o nly sent you to make obligations easy, and no t to make
6em difficult.,, 7
Aishah reports that once a man came to the Prophet and told him: "J
am lostl" When the Prophet asked why, the man confessed: "1 had inter-
course \vith my wife during the fasting hours of Ramadan." 1Iuhammad
answered, " G ive charity!" The man replied, "I own nothing!" Then he sat
down a short distance from the Prophet. Some time later, a man arrived,
bringing a dish of food as a gift fat Muhamm<.d.^8 The Prophet ca lled out:
"\'.;;rhere is the man who is lost?" "Here," answered the first man, the one
who had confessed his transgression. Muhanmad to ld him, "Take this
food and give it away in charity." In asronishm::nt, the man cried, " To one
pOorer Lban myself? My family has nothing to cat!" " \Vell, then, eat it
)-'OUtselves," the Prophet replied with a smileY
That gentleness and kindness were the very essence of his teaching. He
kept saying: "God is gentle [nifiqJ and he loves gentJeness [ar-rifty] in every-
thing.,,10 He also said: "He gives for gentleness what He does not give for
violence or anything else."ll He declared to one of his Companions:
"Thete are in you two qualities that God loves: clemency [ai-hiim] and for-
bearance [ai-ana, "nobleness," "tolerance'l,,12 He invited all his Compan-
lons to that constant effort of gentleness and forgiveness: "If you hear
about your brother somedting of wh.ich you disapprove, seck from one to