He would walk both barefoot and wearing sandals. He would walk alongside his Companions, individually and in groups. Once, while walking during one of his military expeditions, he suffered a cut (1) to his finger (2), and blood flowed from it. He said (3):
“You are but a finger that has bled;
What you have suffered is in Allah’s cause.”
When travelling, he would remain at the rear of his Companions, urging the weak onward, taking them behind him on his mount, and supplicating for them. Abū Dāwūd reported this (4).
Chapter
His Guidance in Sitting and Reclining
He would sit on the ground, on woven mats, and on rugs. Qaylah bint Makhramah said: “I saw the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sitting with his knees drawn up and his hands clasped around his legs.” She said: “When I saw the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, (5) sitting so humbly, I trembled with fear (6).”
(1) ك and ع read: “wa-inqata‘at (and it was cut off).”
(2) I have not located a source for this. The reports concerning the Prophet’s finger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, state that it bled or was injured by a stone.
(3) Reported by al-Bukhārī (2802, 6146) and Muslim (1796), from Jundab ibn Sufyān.
(4) Under no. 2639, from Jābir. Also reported by al-Hākim (2:115) and, through him, al-Bayhaqī (5:257). The hadith is authentic.
(5) The passage from “while he was seated…” to this point is omitted in ك and ع.
(6) Reported by al-Bukhārī in al-Adab al-Mufrad (1178), Abū Dāwūd (4847), al-Tirmidhī in al-Shamā’il (127), al-Tabarānī (8:25), and al-Bayhaqī (3:235). Its chain includes ‘Abd Allāh ibn Hassān al-‘Anbarī, rated maqbūl (acceptable), and his two grandmothers, Safiyya and Duhayba, daughters of ‘Ulayba, both unknown narrators. Al-Hāfiz stated in al-Fath (11:68): “Its chain is unobjectionable.” Al-Albānī graded the hadith weak in Mukhtasar al-Shamā’il (101), but sound in Sahīh al-Adab al-Mufrad (902). In al-Sahīha (2124), he stated: “Its chain is sound as corroborating evidence.” The editors of Sunan Abī Dāwūd, al-Risāla edition, likewise graded it sound.