Lower your gaze

An amazing story

• An Inspiring story of a 16 year old Sahabi

Lowering the gaze

• This is the narration of the story of one of the

Companions of the Prophet Sallalahu Alayhi Wa

Salaam, Tha’alaba Abdur Rahman, who was

about 16 years old. He used to always run

errands for the Prophet (peace and blessings be

upon him).

• This is a narration about an amazing example of

“Lowering the Gaze”

• One day the Prophet (peace and blessings be

upon him), sent his young companion to run an

errand and he was walking through the city of

Medinah and he passed by a house with an open

door, he glanced towards the door and he saw a

curtain that they used to use to cover a shower

area...

• At that moment the wind blew open the curtain and he glanced at a Muslim lady bathing...

• He somehow glanced for a bit too long towards the bathing lady...

• All of a sudden he came to his senses and he

was overcome by intense feelings of guilt and

hypocrisy...

• He said to himself: “ Aoudhu Billahi”, and

he carried on “ how can I be one of the

Companions of the prophet (peace and

blessings be upon him), one that runs the

Prophet’s errands and be so horrible and

disrespectful of the lady’s privacy and the

privacy of a Muslim. Surely Allah will send

down an ayaat and mention me with the

hypocrites.”

• So due to his fear to be shown as a hypocrite

to the Prophet (sallahu Alayhu Wa

salaam), he decided to run away.

• The prophet (peace and blessings be upon

him) waited for him for hours, and for days.

• As the days went by the prophet kept on

asking if anybody had seen his young

companion.

• He then (peace and blessings be upon him)

sent Umar (ra) to look for him in the streets

of Madinah.

• When Umar (RA) came back he said to the

Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):

• “ O Prophet, we looked everywhere for

him, in the streets, in the markets and the

meadows and none of us could find him.

Perhaps he will come back.”

• So the Prophet (peace and blessings be

upon him) waited.

• Then he (peace and blessings be upon him)

said:

• “ O! Umar, go and look for him in the

outskirts of Madinah”.

• So they went.

• Eventually they reached some mountains between Makkah and Madinah where they saw a shepherd looking after a herd of goats.

• The man saw that they were looking for something so he asked them what they were looking for.

• So they told him that they were looking for the boy, giving him his description.

• The goat shepherd then said:

• “ Perhaps you are looking for the young man

who is always crying...”

• They said “ well we do not know but we are

looking for such and such boy, but tell us

about the boy you mentioned.”

• “ Well on the other side of the mountain”

said the shepherd,” there is a young man. In

40 days we have heard nothing else, but him

crying. He comes down to us from the

mountain every sunset, when we give him a

little milk to drink, which he drinks while his

tears flow mixing with it.”

• So the Companions said:

• “ Can we see him?”

• The shepherd replied that they could

see him if they were willing to wait

until sunset.

• So the Companions waited in hiding..,

• Eventually they saw the young Companion appearing , sad with tears flowing down his face.

• He had lost a lot of weight and when he tried to drink his milk he could not swallow due to his crying.

• As he eventually managed to drink his milk and turned to return to the mountain, Umar(ra) and his Companions appeared.

• The young companion got very scared when

he saw them and he asked? “ What do you

want of me?”

• They said: “ The prophet (saw) wants to see

you.

• He then asked them very frightened: “ Has

Allah revealed an ayaat, naming me among

the hypocrites?”

• They replied that they did not know but that

he needed to return to see the prophet (saw).

• The young Companion begged them to leave him to die in the mountains but after a lot of struggle they managed to take him back to Madinah . The young Tha’alaba was crying more that ever on his return to his home.

• The Companions informed the prophet of his return and the prophet (pbuh) visited Tha’alaba at his home.

• When young Tha’alaba saw the prophet ( saw)

started crying and asked the prophet if an

ayaat had been revealed about him and if he

was mentioned amongst the hypocrites. The

prophet ( pbuh)replied in the negative and took

the crying boy’s head and rested it on his thigh.

• Tha’alaba then said: “ O! Prophet of

Allah, remove a head that is full of sins and

transgression from your thigh.”

• The young Tha’alaba kept on crying and he

was adamant that he was not deserving of

the kindness and compassion of the prophet

of Allah .

• The prophet (saw) then asked him: “ O!

Tha’alaba what do you want?”

• He replied:

• “ The Mercy of Allah(swt)”.

• The prophet asked him then :

• “ What are you afraid of ?”

• He replied:

• “ I am afraid of the punishment of Allah”.

• The prophet then asked him:

• “ What do you wish for?”

• He replied:

• “ I wish for the forgiveness of Allah”.

• While Tha’alaba continued to cry the

Prophet made dua asking Forgiveness for

Tha’alaba.

• Suddenly Tha’alaba shook.

• The prophet (saw) asked him what was the matter.

• Tha’alaba replied:

• “ I feel, as though ants are walking between my flesh and my bones.”

• The prophet (saw) said to him:

• “ If you feel that, that is death. It is coming to you”

• Tha’alaba kept on saying the

Shahada, Astagfirullah, until the

soul left his body.

• The prophet (saw) washed his body and

covered him, and prayed over him.

• While they were carrying him to the

cemetery...

• ... While they were carrying him to the cemetery, the Prophet (saw) was walking behind his body and he was walking...

• ...He (saw) was walking on the tips of his toes as if the area around him was very crowded.

• Then Umar (RA) said:

• “O! Messenger of Allah! People are giving

you a lot of space and you are walking on

the tips of your toes!”

• The prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) replied:

• “ O!Umar, Allah had mercy on him. I can not find a place to

put my foot because of the way the Angels are crowding me

over him.”

• In the later generations, after the

generation of the prophet (saw) and

the Companions ,things that carried so

much significance during their time

started to become less significant.

• Now days looking at images on TV and

magazines and internet often is taken

for granted and people are so much

used to it they do not even think about

it.

• Slideshare: By Xenia

• http://xeniagreekmuslimah.wordpress.com

• Source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRq2Sfg77dA&feature=player_embedded#!