The Story of the Lost Necklace
Under the mercilessly scorching sun of the Arabian desert, a caravan of travelers stops for a rest. The sand, hot from the heat of the day, softly creaks under the feet of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his companions. Among them are his best friend Abu Bakr and his beloved wife Aisha. They are going to rest and gain strength for the further journey.
In this resulting silence, broken only by the whisper of prayers, a seemingly simple and everyday story unfolds, which, as we will later see, contains many depths of wisdom.
Here, during a rest stop, Aisha lost her necklace. It disappeared, as if dissolved in the endless expanses of the desert. Our story began with this small incident, which ended with the revelation of the verse of the Holy Koran.
So, the efforts of Aisha to find the thing that belonged to her among the caravan that had paused for a rest were not fruitful. Her search did not escape the attention of the Prophet ﷺ. Here begins the most amazing thing. The Messenger of God ﷺ, whose heart is always turned to Allah ﷻ, whose thoughts were occupied with great deeds, began to look for it himself.
Just think about it, because the Prophet ﷺ was not attached to anything worldly and even if we imagine that this necklace was extremely expensive, made of gold or diamonds, it would not take up any place in the heart of the Beloved of God ﷺ. But his beloved wife Aisha,the daughter of his best friend, occupied an important place in his heart. As is known, she got married at a young age and perhaps for her this necklace had meaning, as a gift or something else symbolic. By finding the lost thing, the Prophet ﷺ wanted to please his wife.
Having started looking for the necklace, the Messenger of God ﷺ did not consider such an occupation unworthy of himself. And his faithful companions, seeing this, did not remain indifferent to what worried their leader and commander. They immediately joined the search. No one asked questions, no one doubted the importance of this matter. They simply supported the Prophet ﷺ, because his desire was a law for them.
But no matter how hard they tried the search did not bring results. The necklace could not be found. It was as if it had disappeared into thin air. The search dragged on. Time flew by in the hustle and bustle and now it was time for prayer and the area where the caravan had stopped was waterless. There was only sand all around. If they had set off earlier, they could have made it to the oasis with water, but, carried away by the search for the necklace, they remained in place. How could they now wash themselves for prayer? There was simply no water for it.
The caravan was delayed, it was time for prayer, everyone found themselves in a difficult situation, and all, it would seem, because of Aisha’s necklace. The righteous Abu Bakr began to worry and even scolded his daughter for what had happened.
But then the following verse was revealed to the Prophet ﷺ (meaning): “But if you are ill, on a journey, ˂…˃ and cannot find water, then purify yourselves with clean earth, wiping your faces and hands. And Allah is Ever-Pardoning, All-Forgiving.” (Sura An-Nisa, ayah 43).
Thus, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ Aisha,the daughter of his best friend Abu Bakr as-Siddiq,became to some extent the reason for the revelation of this verse, in which the Islamic community was given relief by performing tayammum - the opportunity in special cases to replace ablution with water for performing namaz by wiping the face and hands with clean sand. “This is not your first blessing, O family of Abu Bakr,” said the companions who understood the wisdom of what was happening.
Later, the lost necklace was found. “When we lifted our camel, it turned out that the necklace was under it,” Aisha later said.
From this short story, many instructive conclusions can be drawn. Having found the lost thing, the Prophet ﷺ wanted to please his wife. And in this situation, we see:
- a manifestation of his high morality and ethics, as well as special gentleness and care for loved ones;
- the significance of Aisha,who occupied a special place in his heart;
- the simplicity of the Prophet ﷺ, who was not embarrassed to personally engage in searches;
- understanding of the companions who showed respect for the wishes of the Prophet ﷺ;
- the high ethics of Abu Bakr,who worried about all his brothers in faith and put public benefit above personal or family benefit;
- the high dignity of Aisha,who became the reason for the revelation of another verse of the Koran.
This story, filled with many instructive lessons, is another opportunity to compare the behavior of these great people and their attitude towards each other with our modern reality, our behavior and attitude towards people around us, relatives and friends, who are just brothers and sisters in faith.
