Humility · a Light

A stranger entering could not tell which man he was

The reports about how the Prophet ﷺ sat are unusually consistent. He sat wherever there was room in the gathering rather than at its head, so that visitors arriving and asking for him had to be told which of the men he was. He disliked people standing up when he came in, and told them not to do what the foreign courts did for their rulers. When a man stood trembling in front of him he said, be at ease, I am the son of a woman who ate dried meat. These accounts come through several chains in the collections of Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah, and they lie behind the discomfort many Muslims still feel about a reserved chair at the front of a room.

Described by several companions · Madinah