Allah's Apostle manumitted Safiyya and then married her, and her Mahr was her manumission, and he gave a wedding banquet with Hais (a sort of sweet dish made from butter, cheese and dates).

"Alcoholic drinks were prohibited at the time we could rarely find wine made from grapes in Medina, for most of our liquors were made from unripe and ripe dates.

'A'isha reported this hadith through other chains of transmitters also (and the words are) that Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) died (in a state) when the people could afford to eat only the dates and water.

A bedouin came to the Prophet and said, "Please take my Pledge of allegiance for Islam." So the Prophet took from him the Pledge of allegiance for Islam. He came the next day with a fever and said to the Prophet "Cancel my pledge." But the Prophet refused and when the bedouin went away, the Prophet said, "Medina is like a pair of bellows (furnace): It expels its impurities and brightens and clears its good."

Hakim bin Hizam said, "O Allah's Apostle! I used to do good deeds in the Pre-Islamic period of Ignorance, e.g., keeping good relations with my Kith and kin, manumitting slaves and giving alms. Shall I receive a reward for all that?" Allah's Apostle replied, "You embraced Islam with all the good deeds which you did in the past."

Abu Dawud said: A similar tradition has also been transmitted by Isma'il b. Umayyah.

The Messenger of Allah (saws) was asked about fruit which was bung up and said: If a needy person takes some with his mouth and does not take a supply away in his garment, there is nothing on him, but he who carries any of it is to be fined twice the value and punished, and he who steals any of it after it has been put in the place where dates are dried to have his hand cut off if their value reaches the value of a shield. If he steals a thing less in value than it, he is to be find twice the value and punished.

Abu Dawud said: Jarin means the place where dates are dried.

[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

When the ailment of the Prophet got aggravated, he became unconscious whereupon Fatima said, "Oh, how distressed my father is!" He said, "Your father will have no more distress after today." When he expired, she said, "O Father! Who has responded to the call of the Lord Who has invited him! O Father, whose dwelling place is the Garden of Paradise (i.e. Al-Firdaus)! O Father! We convey this news (of your death) to Gabriel." When he was buried, Fatima said, "O Anas! Do you feel pleased to throw earth over Allah's Apostle?"

"Allah's Apostle sent an army towards the east coast and appointed Abu 'Ubaida bin Al-Jarrah as their chief, and the army consisted of three-hundred men including myself. We marched on till we reached a place where our food was about to finish. Abu- 'Ubaida ordered us to collect all the journey food and it was collected. My (our) journey food was dates. Abu 'Ubaida kept on giving us our daily ration in small amounts from it, till it was exhausted. The share of everyone of us used to be one date only." I said, "How could one date benefit you?" Jabir replied, "We came to know its value when even that too finished." Jabir added, "When we reached the sea-shore, we saw a huge fish which was like a small mountain. The army ate from it for eighteen days. Then Abu 'Ubaida ordered that two of its ribs be fixed and they were fixed in the ground. Then he ordered that a she-camel be ridden and it passed under the two ribs (forming an arch) without touching them."

The Prophet (saws) said: Islam does not allow for failure to perform the hajj.

The Prophet said, "The righteous (pious people will depart (die) in succession one after the other, and there will remain (on the earth) useless people like the useless husk of barley seeds or bad dates.

A complete month would pass by during which we would not make a fire (for cooking), and our food used to be only dates and water unless we were given a present of some meat.

Abu Taiba cupped Allah's Apostle and so Allah's Apostle ordered that a Sa of dates be paid to him and ordered his masters (for he was a slave) to reduce his tax.

The Prophet's companions did not take as a starting date for the Muslim calendar, the day, the Prophet had been sent as an Apostle or the day of his death, but the day of his arrival at Medina.

The Prophet said, "Whoever swears by a religion other than Islam (i.e. if he swears by saying that he is a non-Muslim in case he is telling a lie), then he is as he says if his oath is false and whoever commits suicide with something, will be punished with the same thing in the (Hell) fire, and cursing a believer is like murdering him, and whoever accuses a believer of disbelief, then it is as if he had killed him."

A young Jewish boy used to serve the Prophet and he became sick. So the Prophet went to visit him. He sat near his head and asked him to embrace Islam. The boy looked at his father, who was sitting there; the latter told him to obey Abul-Qasim and the boy embraced Islam. The Prophet came out saying: "Praises be to Allah Who saved the boy from the Hell-fire."

I heard Sa`id bin Zaid bin `Amr bin Nufail saying in the mosque of Al-Kufa. "By Allah, I have seen myself tied and forced by `Umar to leave Islam before `Umar himself embraced Islam. And if the mountain of Uhud could move from its place for the evil which you people have done to `Uthman, then it would have the right to move from its place."

'Aishah, the wife of the Prophet (saws) told him that there were four types of marriage during Pre-Islamic period of Ignorance. One type was similar to that of the present day i.e. a man used to ask somebody else for the hand of a girl under his guardianship or for his daughter's hand, and give her Mahr and then marry her. The second type was that a man would say to his wife after she had become clean from her period. "Send for so-and-so and have sexual intercourse with him." Her husband would then keep away from her and would never sleep with her till she got pregnant from the other man with whom she was sleeping. When her pregnancy became evident, he husband would sleep with her if he wished. Her husband did so (i.e. let his wife sleep with some other man) so that he might have a child of noble breed. Such marriage was called as Al-Istibda'. Another type of marriage was that a group of less than ten men would assemble and enter upon a woman, and all of them would have sexual relation with her. If she became pregnant and delivered a child and some days had passed after delivery, she would sent for all of them and none of them would refuse to come, and when they all gathered before her, she would say to them, "You (all) know waht you have done, and now I have given birth to a child. So, it is your child so-and-so!" naming whoever she liked, and her child would follow him and he could not refuse to take him. The fourth type of marriage was that many people would enter upon a lady and she would never refuse anyone who came to her. Those were the prostitutes who used to fix flags at their doors as sign, and he who would wished, could have sexual intercourse with them. If anyone of them got pregnant and delivered a child, then all those men would be gathered for her and they would call the Qa'if (persons skilled in recognizing the likeness of a child to his father) to them and would let the child follow the man (whom they recognized as his father) and she would let him adhere to him and be called his son. The man would not refuse all that. But when Muhammad (saws) was sent with the Truth, he abolished all the types of marriages observed in pre-Islamic period of Ignorance except the type of marriage the people recognize today.

I heard the Messenger of Allah (saws) say: Wine is made from grape-syrup, raisins, dried dates, wheat, barley, millet, and I forbid you from every intoxicant.

Boys used to be brought to the Messenger of Allah (saws), and he would invoke blessings on them. Yusuf added: "and soften some dates and rub their palates with them". He did not mention "blessings".

Yahya related to me from Malik that he had heard that al-Qasim ibn Muhammad was asked about a man who bought goods for 10 dinars cash or fifteen dinars on credit. He disapproved of that and forbade it.

Malik said that if a man bought goods from a man for either 10 dinars or 15 dinars on credit, that one of the two prices was obliged on the buyer. It was not to be done because if he postponed paying the ten, it would be 15 on credit, and if he paid the ten, he would buy with it what was worth fifteen dinars on credit.

Malik said that it was disapproved of for a man to buy goods from someone for either a dinar cash or for a described sheep on credit and that one of the two prices was obliged on him. It was not to be done because the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbade two sales in one sale. This was part of two sales in the one sale.

Malik spoke about a man saying to another, "'I will either buy these fifteen sa of ajwa dates from you, or these ten sa of sayhani dates or I will buy these fifteen sa of inferior wheat or these ten sa of Syrian wheat for a dinar, and one of them is obliged to me.' Malik said that it was disapproved of and was not halal. That was because he obliged him ten sa of sayhani, and left them and took fifteen sa of ajwa, or he was obliged fifteen sa of inferior wheat and left them and took ten sa of Syrian wheat. This was also disapproved of, and was not halal. It resembled what was prohibited in the way of two sales in one sale. It was also included under the prohibition against buying two for one of the same sort of food."

Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to `Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event, reached Ibn `Abbas who said, "If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah's Apostle forbade it, saying, 'Do not punish anybody with Allah's punishment (fire).' I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah's Apostle, 'Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.'"

The Prophet (saws) said: from grapes wine is made, from dried dates wine is made, from honey wine is made, from wheat wine is made, from barley wine is made.