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The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, had a silver ring with a gemstone from Abyssinia which he used as a seal.
There was a time when he did not have a ring. However, when Islam started to spread and he began to write letters of invitation to Islam to the Emperor of Rome, the King of Persia, and so on, he was informed that none of these heads of state would accept a letter unless it bore a seal. The ring was made in either the 6th or 7th year after his migration to Medina.
His ring was inscribed on three lines, the first inscription read "Muhammad", the second "Messenger" and the third "Allah". The scholars are of the opinion that he was given several rings, however, he did not wear a ring every day and would remove his ring when praying. When he wore the ring which had the Name of Allah inscribed upon it he would remove it from his finger before going to the toilet. When he wore an ordinary ring he would sometimes wear it on either his right or left hand.
Before it was forbidden for a man to wear gold, the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, had a ring made of gold, as did some of his companions. When the injunction came, he said: "I will never wear it again."
When the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, passed away, the ring bearing the seal was passed on to Abu Bakr, then subsequently to Omar and then Othman. During the caliphate of Othman, Muaykeeb was entrusted with its safekeeping. One day as Othman and Muaykeeb were sitting by the well of Arees, near the Mosque at Kuba, Muaykeeb handed the ring to Othman however the ring fell from their hands into the well. Othman immediately ordered the well to be searched but to no avail. Water was hauled up for two days but there was no sign of the ring, it had been lost for ever.
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