What he ﷺ was served
“The Prophet ﷺ never criticised a dish: if he wanted it, he ate it; otherwise he left it” (Abu Hurayra, Bukhari 5409).
He ﷺ took what there was. He once asked his family for something to go with his bread. “We have only vinegar.” He sent for it and began to eat, saying: “What a fine accompaniment vinegar is! What a fine accompaniment vinegar is!” (Muslim 2052).
He ﷺ had his tastes, and the witnesses noted them. He loved sweet things, and honey (Bukhari 5431). A tailor invited him to a meal, and Anas saw him seeking out the gourd all around the dish: “From that day on, I have never stopped loving gourd” (Bukhari 5379). He once ate meat straight off a shoulder bone, then rose for prayer (Bukhari 5404).
He ﷺ also had his refusals, without making them a law. He was served a roasted lizard. He drew back his hand. Khalid ibn al-Walid asked: “Is it forbidden?” “No, but it is not found in the land of my people, and I find I have no taste for it.” Khalid pulled the dish towards him and ate, under his gaze (Bukhari 5391).
How he ﷺ ate
“I do not eat reclining” (Bukhari 5399).
He ﷺ ate with three fingers, and licked his hand before wiping it (Muslim 2032). When he drank, he took breath three times outside the vessel: “It quenches better, it is healthier and more pleasant” (Muslim 2028; Bukhari 5630).
He ﷺ taught table manners to children. Umar ibn Abi Salama, the son of his wife Umm Salama, was a boy whose hand went all over the dish. “My boy, name God, eat with your right hand, and eat from what is in front of you.” “That has been my way of eating ever since” (Bukhari 5376).
He ﷺ served first to his right, whatever the rank. He was brought milk mixed with water: on his left Abu Bakr, on his right a Bedouin. He drank, then passed the milk to the Bedouin: “The right, first the right” (Bukhari 5619).
A house without fire
What comes next is surprising: these accounts date from the years in Medina, when he ﷺ was in command.
Aisha tells her nephew Urwa: “We would look at the new moon: three new moons in two months, and no fire was lit in the houses of the Messenger of God ﷺ.” “What did you live on?” “The two black ones: dates and water. He also had neighbours among the Ansar, who had milk animals and would send him milk, and he gave us some to drink” (Bukhari 6459).
“From his arrival in Medina, the family of Muhammad ﷺ never had their fill of wheat three nights in a row, until his death” (Aisha, Bukhari 6454).
Sahl ibn Sa’d says that the Prophet ﷺ never saw white bread, from his mission to his death, nor a sieve. “How then did you eat unsifted barley?” “We would grind it and blow on it; what flew away flew away, and we moistened the rest and ate it” (Bukhari 5413).
Invited by people who had a roast ewe before them, Abu Hurayra refused to touch it: “The Messenger of God ﷺ left this world without having had his fill of barley bread” (Bukhari 5414). He died, says Aisha, with his coat of mail in pledge to a Jew for thirty measures of barley (Bukhari 2916).
What he ﷺ gave
He ﷺ did not go hungry for lack of goods: he gave. Abu Hurayra describes the people of the Suffa, the poor who lodged at the mosque, “the guests of Islam”: when alms arrived, he sent them on to them without touching them; when it was a gift, he took some and shared it with them (Bukhari 6452).
Abu Hurayra himself had sat down one day, hungry, on the Companions’ path. The Prophet ﷺ saw him, smiled, took him home, where there was a bowl of milk, and sent him to fetch the people of the Suffa. Abu Hurayra passed them the bowl one after another, and they all drank their fill. Then: “Only you and I remain. Sit down and drink.” Abu Hurayra drank, and drank again, until he said he had no room left. The Prophet ﷺ then took the bowl and drank what remained (Bukhari 6452).
What he ﷺ taught
“No human being has filled a vessel worse than his stomach. A few mouthfuls are enough for the son of Adam, to keep his back straight. If he must eat more, then a third for his food, a third for his drink, a third for his breath” (Tirmidhi 2380, graded authentic by al-Albani).
How this page connects to the others
- His clothing ﷺ: His clothing and his grooming.
- His bed and his home: His days and his nights.
- His death without fortune, and what it proves: The testimony of his person.