Hadith of the Day - October 24th, 2008

Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah's Apostle said, "The riding person should greet the walking one, and the walking one should greet the sitting one, and the small number of persons should greet the large number of persons." [Bukhari]

Another narration also adds, "The younger person should greet the older one."

This is just one small reason of many reasons why we call Islam the religion of peace. Rasulullah (saw) even taught us simple etiquette such as who should greet whom first.

Good Manners

One day, when Sayyidina Hassan (ra) and Sayyidina Hussain (ra), were still small boys, an old Bedouin from the desert visited their home in Madinah. The old man was new to Islam and still ignorant. When it was time to do the prayer and the old man began to do Wudu (ablution), it soon became apparent that he did not know how to do Wudu properly.

Sayyidina Hassan (ra) and Sayyidina Hussain (ra) both knew that it is necessary to do Wudu correctly and wanted to show the old Bedouin how to do it, but first they were not sure how to tell him. If he were to be told plainly by two small boys that he did not even know how to do Wudu, he might feel awkward or embarrassed.

Fortunately they thought of a good way to teach him without having to openly point out his mistakes. After putting some water in a jug, they too prepared to do Wudu, but before starting they asked the old Bedouin to watch them:

“Excuse us, old man,” they said respectfully, “we want to make sure that we are doing Wudu properly; please would you watch us and tell us if we make any mistakes.”

Having said this, they both did Wudu exactly as it should be done, with the old Bedouin intently watching them.

By the time they had both finished, he had learned how to do Wudu correctly without having been made to feel at all embarrassed.

“Yes.” He said with a smile, “you both know how to do Wudu perfectly!”
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