The Rude Bedouin

Based on a Sunnah told by Al Marwazi

WHEN someone had bad manners, Prophet Muhammed (peace and blessings upon him) still treated the person with respect and kindness. He believed that being nice to everyone, even a rude person, was a good way to make the world better.

One day the Prophet and his friends were going on a trip. They had just left town. A Bedouin saw them from a distance. He knew that the Prophet was very generous. The Bedouin had been living on the desert. He was dirty, his clothes were ragged, and his family did not have much food.

The Bedouin was riding a camel. He made his camel run quickly to the Prophet (peace upon him). “I need some food and water!” the man demanded in a rough voice. “And I need some clean clothes too.”

Prophet Muhammed (peace upon him) gave the Bedouin all the food and water that the Prophet had with him. The Prophet had packed an extra thobe (long shirt). He gave the thobe to the man also. “Is this enough to make you happy?” the Prophet asked.

“No!” the Bedouin said with a huff. “You didn’t give me enough!”

The Prophet’s friends heard the Bedouin. “Well, that was rude!” one of them said.

“Let’s teach him how to act!” another friend said. The Prophet’s friends started to fuss at the Bedouin.

The Prophet put up his hand and went, “Shhhh!” He did not want his friends to scold the rude man.

The Prophet (peace upon him) said to the Bedouin, “Let’s go back into town. I will take you to my house.”

The Prophet and the Bedouin rode their camels. They came to the Prophet’s house. The Prophet invited the man to come in. The Prophet (peace upon him) had a basket of dried dates, some camel jerky, and some bread. He gave the Bedouin most of all that.

The Prophet (peace upon him) had some cloth that someone had given him. He gave the cloth to the Bedouin. “You can make some nice clothes with this,” the Prophet said.

“Now are you happy?” the Prophet asked.

The Bedouin smiled really big. “Oh yeah!” he said. “May Allah give you lots of blessings because you were generous to me and my family.”

Prophet Muhammed (peace upon him) felt glad because the man was finally satisfied.

“You made my friends mad when you said that I had not given you enough at first,” the Prophet told the man. “I don’t want them to stay mad at you. Let’s ride back to where they are. You must thank me in front of them so they won’t be mad anymore. Say the same thing you just said.”

Prophet Muhammed (peace upon him) and the Bedouin rode back to where the Prophet’s friends were waiting. The Bedouin was smiling. He waved goodbye to the Prophet. In a really loud voice, the man said, “May Allah give you lots of blessings because you were generous to me and my family.”

The Prophet’s friends heard what the man said. After the man was gone, the Prophet told his friends, “What happened with this Bedouin reminded me of a story. A man had a camel that got loose. Everybody was trying to help him catch it. The camel got scared and ran around in circles. The people were shouting and running after it. The camel got more scared and ran further away.

“Finally the camel’s owner shouted to the people, ‘Please stop trying to help me! You’re just making the camel go further away. I know my camel better than you. I treat my camel better than you. I know how to make my camel come back, and you don’t. Just don’t help me anymore!’

“The people stopped running after the camel. The people became quiet and still. The man picked some dates from the ground. He walked toward the camel. The man was calm. He spoke nicely to the camel. The camel felt safe. The camel walked to the man and ate the dates from the man’s hand. ‘You’re such a good boy,’ the man said as he rubbed the camel’s neck. ‘Who’s your daddy?’ the man said smiling. The camel put his cheek against the man’s cheek. The camel sighed. He was glad the running and shouting were over. The man took the reins, got on the camel, and rode away. Everyone saw how well behaved the camel was after the man had treated him nicely.

“You were going to scold the Bedouin,” the Prophet reminded his friends. “If you had done that, the Bedouin would have stayed on his way to Hell.”

The rude Bedouin saw that people who worship the One God are really nice. Like the camel, the Bedouin became calm. When a person is calm, he or she can understand more about Allah (blessed and exalted is He). When the person understands more, then Allah may guide him or her to the Straight Way.

Sometimes people are rude or even cruel to us. If we fuss at them, then, like the camel, people will run further and further away. If we use mean words to tell them about Allah, they will stay away from Allah. When we are nice to them, it teaches them that Allah is nice too. Then they may want to come to Allah and follow Him (blessed and exalted is He).