Preferring and Helping Others

They prefer them over themselves, even though poverty be their own lot. (al-Hashr 59:9)

 

295. Sahl ibn Sa’d, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “A woman brought the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, a woven cloak (burda) with a border and said, ‘I wove it with my own hands so that you could wear it.’ The Prophet took it as he was in need of it. He came out to us using it as a waist-wrapper. Someone admired it and said, ‘Give it to me to wear. How beautiful it is!’ He said, ‘Yes,’ and the Prophet sat down in the assembly and then went back and folded it and sent it to him. The people said, ‘You have not acted rightly. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, wore it out of need for it and then you asked him for it knowing that he never refuses a request.’ He said, ‘By Allah, I have not asked for it in order to wear it, but I have asked for it only so that it can be my shroud.’” Sahl said, “It was indeed his shroud.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Janaiz, 28; Libas, 18; Adab, 39).

 

Nawawi, Imam. Riyad As-Salihin; The Gardens of the Righteous: A collection of authentic hadiths. Tughra Books Press, Inc. 2014