His house was but a hut with walls of unbaked clay and a thatched
roof of palm leaves covered by camel skin. He had separate
apartments for his wives, a small room for each made of similar
materials. His own apartment contained a rope cot, a pillow stuffed
with palm leaves , the skin of some animal spread on the floor and a
water bag of leather and some weapons. These were all his earthly
belongings, besides a camel, a horse, and an ass and some land which
he had aquired in the later part of his life (Bukhari, Muslim, Abu
Dawud). Once a few of his disciples, noticing the imprint of his
mattress on his body, wished to give him a softer bed but he
politely declined the offer saying,
"What have I to do with worldly things. My connection with the world
is like that of a traveler resting for a while underneath the shade
of a tree and then moving on."
Amr Ibn Al-Harith, a brother in law of the prophet (pbuh), says that
when the prophet died, he did not leave a cent, a slave man or
woman, or any property except his white mule, his weapons and a
piece of land which he had dedicated for the good of the community
(Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari).
He advised the people to live simple lives and himself practised
great austerities. Even when he had become the virtual king of
arabia, he lived an austere life bordering on privation. His wife
Aiysha (ra) says that there was hardly a day in his life when he had
two square meals (Muslim, Sahih Muslim, Vol.2, pg 198). When he died
there was nothing in his house except a few seeds of barley left
from a mound of the grain obtained from a Jew by pawning his armour
(Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari, Chapter "Aljihad").
He had declared unlawful for himself and his family anything given
by the people by way of zakat or sadaqa (types of charity). He was
so particular about this that he would not appoint any member of his
family as a zakat collector (Sahah-Kitab Sadqat).
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