Chapter XI: Living and Character of the Prophet (cont.)
The Holy Prophet eat whatever he got. To him, the best food was what all partook of . When the dining cloth was spread, he used to say. In the name of God, O God, make it a gift to express gratefulness that there might be gifts in paradise . Whenever the Prophet sat to eat, he used to sit as praying man sits not placing one leg upon another and say : I am a mere servant, I eat as a.
servant eats. He used not to take any hot food and said: There is no grace in it and God, will not feed us with fire. So make this food cold. He used to eat whatever was presented to him with three fingers with the help of the fourth finger at times. Once a tiffin made of clarified butter, honey and wheat presented to him.
214 The Book of Wordly Usages Vol-II
He eat it and said : How good it is. He used to eat bread, cury, dates and salt. Of all the fresh fruits, the dearest to him was grapes, cucumber and water melon.
He used to eat gourd with bread and sugar and sometimes with dates. His ordinary, meal consider of dates and water.
Sometimes he mixed milk with dates. Meat was his most favourite curry. He said : Meat increase the power of hearing and is the king of foods in this world and the next. Had I prayed to my lord for eating meat everyday. He would have granted it. He used to eat cooked meat with gourd. He liked gourd and said : It is the fruit of a plant of my brother Jonah. The Prophet said to me :
O Ayesha, when you cook meat, mix therewith much water as it makes the broken hearted strong. He used to eat the meat of hunted birds but he did not himself hunt or follow game.