He Has Never Scolded Me

"Indeed I have been sent to perfect noble manners" {Bukhari}

In the corner of the marketplace of Madinah, was a blind Jewish beggar, who would cry out daily to all those who came near him, "O my brothers, don't be near Muhammad! He's a lunatic, he's a liar, a sorcerer! If you are to be close to him, you will be influenced by him!" No matter whoever approached him, the blind Jewish beggar will definitely not waste his chance to incite them to hate Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). All kinds of curses would spew forth from the beggar's lips even though he had never known the Prophet personally.

The news about the blind Jewish beggar's daily cursing and badmouthing him came to the knowledge of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Even then, Prophet Muhammad did not get angry and he ignored the blind Jewish beggar's insults against himself. On the contrary, from that day onwards, at each morning, the Prophet (peace be upon him) visited the blind beggar and brought food for him.

Without saying a single word, the Blessed Messenger (peace be upon him) would feed the beggar with his own hand! The blind beggar would chew the food being fed to him and eat contentedly. Once he was full, he'd express his gratitude without knowing that the one who had fed him was the Prophet of Allah himself, Muhammad (peace be upon him).

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) continued to feed the blind beggar without fail each day till the day he died! Throughout his service to the blind beggar, he never identified himself to the blind Jewish beggar! After Prophet Muhammad had passed away, no one brought food to the blind beggar anymore! The blind Jewish beggar waited daily and was perplexed as to why the kind man did no longer come to feed him and provide for him as he had done all this while. The blind beggar waited in vain for the kind gentleman who had never missed visiting him each and every morning all these while .

One day, the closest Companion of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him), Saiyidina Abu Bakar As-Siddiq @ The Truthful One (may Allah be pleased with him) visited the home of his daughter, Saiyidatina Aishah, (may Allah be pleased with her), the widow of the Blessed Messenger.

Abu Bakar asked Aishah, "O my child, is there any habit of my beloved (Prophet) that I have yet to carry on?" Aisyah replied, "Dear Father, you are verily a follower of the Sunnah of the Prophet and there is none that you have yet to do except for one deed only!"

"What is that?" asked Abu Bakar. "Every morning, the Prophet of Allah will go to the end of the marketplace, bringing food to a blind old Jewish beggar who lives there and feed him by his hand," said Aishah.

The next day, Abu Bakar As-Siddiq went to the marketplace with food for the blind beggar. Abu Bakar  approached the beggar and started to feed him. At the first handfull of food being fed to him, the blind Jewish beggar became angry and shouted out, "Who are you?"

Abu Bakar answered "I am the one who usually feeds you every morning". "No! Don't you lie to me!" objected the blind beggar. Abu Bakar was shocked, thus he asked "Why do you say so?"

Answered the blind Jewish beggar, "Because when he comes to me, I always felt it easy to hold his hand and found it easy to chew the food he fed me! The man who used to feed me would make the food more delicate (softer) before feeding it to me!"

Abu Bakar As-Siddiq could not hold back his tears anymore and he burst out crying and had to disclose who he actually was to the beggar. "Verily, I am not the one who used to come and feed you. I am one of his Companions for the noble one is alive no more! He was none other than the Blessed Prophet of Allah, Muhammad (peace be upon him)."

"Muhammad?" asked the blind old Jewish beggar, totally shocked with what he had just heard. "You mean to tell me that the one who came each morning without fail and fed me by his hand was Muhammad?" asked the beggar.

"Yes! It was Muhammad!" answered Abu Bakar.

Immediately, the blind old Jewish beggar wailed out in despair and cried so pitifully coming to realise that it was none other than the Holy Prophet who had been feeding him all this while.

"All these while... all these while, I had been cursing him, I had been slandering him. Not once has he ever scolded me! He kept coming every morning to feed me! He is so noble!" cried the old blind Jewish beggar as he wiped away his flowing tears on his cheeks.

The blind beggar reached out to Saiyidina Abu Bakar As-Siddiq, the first Caliph of the Muslims and testified before him the Declaration of Faith: that There Is No God Worthy Of Worship Except Allah And That Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah."