that. Indeed, whatever in it is true provides no evidence of that, while the remainder is either false or contains nothing worthy of praise.

(As for his divorcing this world three times)(1), it is widely reported of him(2) that he said:

“O gold, O silver! I have divorced you three times. Beguile someone else; I shall never take you back.”

However, this does not show that he was more ascetic than those who did not say this. Our Prophet, Jesus son of Mary, and others were more ascetic than he, yet they did not say this. Moreover, when a person renounces the world, he is not obliged to declare aloud(3), “I have renounced the world.”(4) Nor has everyone who says, “I have renounced the world”(5), truly done so. Thus, neither failing to make such a declaration proves an absence of asceticism, nor making it proves its presence. It therefore proves nothing.

As for the claim that he always subsisted on coarsely ground barley without anything to accompany it(6), this proves nothing for two reasons: first, it is false; and second, it contains nothing worthy of praise. The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—the foremost exemplar of asceticism(7), would neither refuse what was available nor go to trouble to procure what was unavailable(8). If chicken was served, he ate it; if mutton, he ate it; and if sweets, honey, or fruit, he ate them. If he found nothing, he did not go to trouble to obtain it. Whenever food was set before him(9), he ate it if he desired it; otherwise, he left it, and he did not go to trouble to obtain what was not at hand,