Humility and Simplicity of Life
The head of a state who mended his own clothes
The Prophet ﷺ led a growing state from a mud-walled house. He mended his own sandals, milked his own goat, served his family, and refused to be treated as anything more than a servant of Allah.
Overview
This lesson describes how the Prophet ﷺ actually lived, day to day, after Islam had spread across Arabia and vast wealth was passing through Madinah. It contrasts his private simplicity with the offices he held.
Context
By 10 AH the Prophet ﷺ was the head of a state that received tribute, taxes and the spoils of expeditions. He could have lived as any king of his age lived. Instead, ʿA'isha said, months would pass without a fire being lit in his house to cook — they lived on dates and water. His mattress was of palm-fibre; it left marks on his side. His clothing was patched. His door was low and could be opened by hand.
What this means
He mended his own sandals, patched his own clothes, milked his own goat and helped his wives with housework. When asked what he did at home, ʿA'isha answered: 'He was in the service of his family; when the prayer came, he went out to prayer.' He refused when a man trembled on meeting him, saying: 'Take it easy — I am only the son of a Quraysh woman who used to eat dry meat.' He sat wherever there was space in a gathering, so that visitors could not tell which of the seated men was the Prophet ﷺ.
Primary Islamic evidence
Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim and Jami al-Tirmidhi contain many narrations describing the Prophet's ﷺ home, food, dress and manner. Musnad Ahmad and Sunan Abi Dawud add further material. Al-Tirmidhi's Shamā'il assembles the strongest of these into a single portrait.
Simplicity was a choice
The Prophet ﷺ was not poor by necessity in his later years. He chose simplicity, sometimes distributing entire treasuries in a single day so that nothing remained by evening. His companion ʿUmar, entering his room and finding him lying on a mat that had left marks on his side, wept. The Prophet ﷺ said: 'What makes you weep, ʿUmar? What is this world to me? My example and the example of this world is like a rider who paused under a tree for shade, then moved on.'
What this is not
Simplicity here is not a rejection of wealth in principle. Several of his closest companions — Abu Bakr, ʿUthman, ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn ʿAwf — were wealthy men, and he did not ask them to abandon their wealth, only to give from it. What he modelled was that authority does not require luxury and that a leader is not diminished by ordinary work.
Application today
Two questions to sit with. Would the people who work under me recognise that I do not think myself above them? And if my income doubled tomorrow, would my rooms look different — and if so, in what direction?
Reflection
The Prophet ﷺ held authority without luxury and did ordinary work without embarrassment. Where do you use rank as a shield from ordinary service?