Jābir, Are You Married Yet?

And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) asks Jābir; he tells him, "Jābir, are you married yet?" So here the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), in this journey, is talking with the Companions, learning about their private lives, inquiring about them — and by now the ummah is pretty large; at Bayʿat al-Riḍwān there were fourteen hundred, so we are not talking about a small number — and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is asking about each and every one, knowing their condition, knowing their situation, their family life. He was very caring about his Companions (may Allah be pleased with them). So he is here asking Jābir; he said, "Did you get married yet?" Jābir was young. He said, "Yes, I am." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him, "To a woman previously married, or to a virgin?" He said, "I married a woman previously married." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him, "Why not a young girl, who could play with you and you could play with her? Why didn't you get married to a young girl?" — tulāʿibuhā wa tulāʿibuk: you would enjoy her and she would enjoy you; you would play with each other. Jābir ibn ʿAbdullāh (may Allah be pleased with him) said, "My father was killed at the Battle of Uḥud and left seven daughters, so I married a mature woman to look after them and bring them up well." That is the reason why he didn't marry a young virgin woman: "That's why I didn't marry a girl. I married an older woman because of this reason: my father fought alongside you in the Battle of Uḥud, and he died as a shahīd, and he left behind seven daughters, and I'm responsible for them." So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him, "You did well, let's hope to Allah."

Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, "And when we get to Ṣirār, we'll slaughter a camel and stay there, and she will hear about us coming, and she will dust off her cushions for us." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), before he would enter Madīnah, would stay outside of Madīnah and let his family know that he was coming in. He wouldn't surprise them; that is not appropriate. He would let them know so that they would get ready and prepare themselves to meet him. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, "We're going to stay in Ṣirār, slaughter camels, eat there, and then we're going to enter Madīnah, and your wife is going to hear about that, and she'll dust off the cushions for you." Jābir ibn ʿAbdullāh said, "We don't have cushions." So the situation was tough with Jābir ibn ʿAbdullāh (may Allah be pleased with him): a large family, very poor. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him, "You will have some; and when you get back, act wisely."

Now they get back to Madīnah, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) comes out of the masjid and he sees this camel tied up. He said, "What is this?" They said, "Jābir brought it to you; this is the camel that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) bought." So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) called Jābir; he said, "Go and bring me Jābir." They brought him Jābir. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him, "Cousin, lead your camel away; it is yours." And then he called Bilāl and told him, "Take Jābir away and give him an ounce of gold." So Jābir said, "I went with Bilāl, and he gave me an ounce and a little more as well. And by Allah, my financial affairs improved constantly thereafter, until they suffered recently in what befell us."

So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was negotiating that deal with Jābir about buying the camel, and he didn't really want to buy it. He just wanted to give Jābir money because of his condition. Or probably, when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) knew about the difficult situation of Jābir, he decided to give him the price of the camel and the camel as well. And when he told him that "she will dust off the cushions for you," and he said, "We don't have any cushions," the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, "You will have some." Yes: the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) gave Jābir money, and that money was invested, and it kept on growing constantly, Jābir says, "until we suffered recently." And what he was referring to in that recent suffering was Yawm al-Ḥarrah, which was the worst day on the people of Madīnah. Many of them were massacred. That was during al-Khilāfah al-Umawiyyah: this was a civil war that occurred during the Umayyad caliphate, and it was against the people of Madīnah, and many of them died; and Jābir is saying that that is when they suffered financially.