The Guest and the Cushion

'Adi came to Madinah and found the Prophet ﷺ in the mosque. The Prophet ﷺ rose and took him home. On the way an old woman stopped them and kept the Prophet ﷺ talking about her need, and he stood with her for a long time. 'Adi said to himself that this was no king.

At the house the Prophet ﷺ pulled a leather cushion stuffed with palm fibre across to his guest and sat on the bare floor himself. 'Adi, a man used to rank, was struck by this. Then the Prophet ﷺ spoke to him honestly, without flattery, about what held him back. He pointed out that Christians treat their priests as lords beside Allah, that Muslims were poor now but would be rich, and that fear of the numbers of the enemy would pass.

'Adi accepted Islam. He also remembered the verse that was recited about his old faith: that people ﴿اتَّخَذُوا أَحْبَارَهُمْ وَرُهْبَانَهُمْ أَرْبَابًا مِّن دُونِ اللَّهِ﴾ (“took their rabbis and monks as lords besides Allah”) (9:31). The Prophet ﷺ explained to him that this meant they obeyed them in making lawful and unlawful what Allah had not.