The Prophet Is Born

During the year in which the army of Abraha with the Elephant marched to Makah, an orphan child was born to Amana the Daughter of Wahb, Abd Allah’s young widow.  He was named Mohamed Ibn Abd Allah Ibn Abd El-Motaleb Ibn Hashem.

Let us return back to the past for a little while.

The Kabba was attended to and looked after by Allah’s prophets, Ibrahim and Ismail, peace upon them.  Then the children of Ismail carried on doing the same, one generation after another, until it was taken over by a man called Modad Ibn Amro Al-Gorhmy.  His tribe Garham became in charge of Makah, and then many of the descendants of Ismail left Makah and went elsewhere.

Garham were unjust and took the money and offerings given to the Kabba.  The two tribes of Bakr and Khozaa decided to fight them.  They defeated Garham who left Makah and went to Yemen from which they came originally.  However, before leaving Makah the buried the well of Zamzam and the Corner stone and two gold deer were inside the Kabba.

They tribe of Khozaa went on looking after the Kabba and being in charge of its keep.  The last man to have done that was a man called Holil.  A man of the line of Ismail called “Qusi Ibn Kelab” married Holil’s daughter.  Qusi had many children and over the years he had a great wealth.  Holil died and Qusi wanted the honour or looking after the Kabba to be his and in the line of Ismail again.  A conflict arose between Qusi and the other two tribes of Bano Bakr and Khozaa.

Fighting started but it went out of hand, they all agreed to seek the judgement of one of the wise Arab, who ruled for Qusi.  Qusi then had all the honour and everything to do with the Kabba, its keep, its key, feeding those on Hajj, watering them, had the banner of Qurish and Qurish counsel was to be held in his house and in his presence, and for that he built a special house called “Dar El-Nadwa”.  Qusi became the king of Makah.

The Well of Zamzam:

Of the children of Qusi was a man called “Abd Manaf” and of the children of Abd Manaf was “Abd El-Motaleb”, the grandfather of Mohamed prayer and peace upon him.  Abd El-El-Motaleb was an honourable and generous man.  He became the chief in Makah and had the honour of feeding and watering the pilgrims.  He was well liked and respected among his people.

One day while dosing off by the Kabba in its shade, heard in his sleep a caller.  This went on for three days and on the fourth the caller called him in his sleep and said to him to dig for Zamzam, which never runs out and told him the exact location of the well. 

Abd El-Motaleb took his only son called Al-Hareth and went to dig for the well of Zamzam at the described location.  The surprise was that he found it, but then, the people of Makah wanted their share in the well, but he refused.  They decided to go to a woman priest of the idles, to rule in this dispute.  This woman’s place was near sham (Jordon and Syria, Lebanon now).

On their journey but before getting there, Abd El-Motaleb and his companions ran out of water, while those from other tribes accompanying them had water, but refused to give any to Abd El-Motaleb and his company.  They decided that every man should dig his grave and site waiting for his death, yet suddenly, Abd El-Motaleb decided not to die without doing his best and he got up and rode his camel.  When his camel got up, water burst from under its hove.  Abd El-Motaleb drank and invited every one else to drink and carry what they can of water.  At this point, every one acknowledged Abd El-Motaleb sole right to the well of Zamzam and they said to him: “Allah has ruled for you against us Abd El-Motaleb.  Indeed He who watered you in this dry desert is the same as he who gave you Zamzam, return safely to your well”.  And they all returned to Makah. 

When Abd El-Motaleb saw what happened to him, he vowed that if he has ten children boys and they reach the age when they can defend him, he will sacrifice one of them.  Indeed, when he had 10 boys and the youngest was about 18, he gathered them all and went to the Kabba to fulfill his vow.  They made a draw between them and it came out on Abd Allah. 

Abd El-Motaleb took Abd Allah to slaughter him by the idles; Esaf and Naela, but the people of Makah went and stopped him.  They did not want Abd El-Motaleb to set a precedent that a man may sacrifice one of his children.

They eventually agreed to go to a priest fortune teller in Khyber.  They told her what happened and next day she told them to make a draw between Abd Allah and a man’s ransom, if the draw came on Abd Allah, they increase the ransom by another man’s ransom which was ten camels at the time, until the draw comes on the camels. 

They all went to Makah and kept drawing lots between Abd Allah and the camels until it reached a hundred camels, then the draw came on the camels.  Abd El-Motaleb insisted on repeating the draw three times and it came on the camel before accepting the result of the draw.  He slaughtered the hundred camels and left them for man and beast to eat.

Abd El-Motaleb took his son Abd Allah to Wahb bin Abd Manaf bin Zahrah who was the chief of Bani Zahrah and proposed to Wahb’s daughter Amana for Abd Allah.  The marriage between the two noble young people took place.  Amana became pregnant and soon after Abd Allah travelled in a trading Caravan to Sham.

While Amana was pregnant she saw a number of visions:

She saw light coming out of her illuminating the palaces of Basra in Sham.

She heard a voice telling her: “You are carrying the noblest man of this nation.  When he is born say: I seek the protection of the one and only from the evil of every envious, and call him Mohamed”.

Sadly, Abd Allah Ibn Abd El-Motaleb, Amana’s husband fell ill during the journey and died before the birth of the child.  It is said that the caravan left him with his maternal uncles in Yathrib (Medina now) when he was ill, and there he died and was buried.

One can see that all that happened of the ransom for Abd Allah, was just to have Allah’s will fulfilled, and for Mohamed to born out of this decent and from the womb of Amana Bint Wahb.  Indeed, Allah’s will is always fulfilled.

Birth of Mohamed prayer and peace upon him:

When Amana gave birth, she sent to Abd Al-Motaleb to tell him that he had a grandson.  Abd El-Motaleb went to see his grand son, and Amana told him what saw and heard while carrying him.  He called him Mohamed, which was not a common name at the time, and he carried him to the Kabba where he stood praying and thanking God for him, then took him back to his mother Amana.

Hassan Ibn Thabet, a man lived in Yathrib (Medina) was 7-8 years older than Mohamed prayer and peace upon him, who was a poet, and was called Allah’s messenger poet, he said: “I was a grown up boy of seven, understanding what I hear.  I heard a Jew calling out on the roofs of Yathrib saying: ‘Jewish people, Jewish people’.  When they gathered around him he said to them: What is the matter.  He said: “The Star of the birth of Mohamed appeared today”.

The Wet-Nurse:

Abd El-Motaleb looked for Wet-Nurse to breast feed his grandson Mohamed as the noble of Makah used to do at the time.  They used to give their infants to be breast fed by the women in the desert tribes to feed them and to live the first years of their lives in the desert with its clean air.  Also to learn their first words in the pure Arabic tongue of the desert.

Halima Bin Abi Zaob from a tribe called “Bani Saad” went with other women from her tribe to Makah looking for infants to breast feed them.  They used to earn a living by breast feeding the children of the noble and well off in Makah, each according to his means.  Halima carried her suckling infant on the back of a thin and weak donkey, which kept falling behind the small caravan. 

The small caravan arrived to Makah and Halima arrived late because of her donkey. When Halima arrived, she found that every woman already had an infant to breast feed, and the only one left was that orphan infant she did not also want, as she did not expect his grandfather to give her much, it was usually the fathers who were generous to the wet-nurse.  Halima decided to go back to take this orphan infant Mohamed instead of going back home empty handed.

Blessing:

As soon as Halima took the infant Mohamed Ibn Abd Allah and put him to her breast, her empty breasts filled with milk.  She fed Mohamed until he was full, and then fed her baby until he was full too, and they both slept.

Halima’s husband who accompanied her on the journey went to look at his female camel, and to his surprise he found her adder full of milk.  He milked her and he and Halima had a good drink of mild and slept comfortably.

On the way back home, Halima was carrying her two babies on the back of her donkey, to her surprise her donkey was the fastest one of the caravan.

It was a dry year, with very little rain.  There was little water in the wells, and little grass for the animals to feed on.  Halima and her husband had few sheep, like many of the Arabs at the time.  Their sheep use to go out grassing, and return fed and watered and with milk in their adders, unlike the other sheep which returned thirsty, hungry and with dry milk.

Halima and her husband realized that they were blessed by this orphan infant Mohamed since she took him.  Therefore, when reached the age of 2 and she weaned him; she took him back to his mother in Makah, but hoping to keep his with her for longer.  There was a disease spreading in Makah at the time, which made Amana decide to let Halima keep Mohamed for longer.

Washing Mohamed’s Heart:

Few months after the return of Mohamed with Halima and while he was playing out with his milk brother and other children; his milk brother ran panicking to his parents.  He saw two men in white cloths took his milk brother Mohamed and cut his chest open.  They something like a clot out and said: “This was what Satan can get through with you”, and then they washed his heart with Zamzam Water, in a gold basin.  The children thought that Mohamed was killed, but when Halima reached him, he was well, but just looked pale.  (Muslim)

Anas Ibn Malik who served Allah’s messenger prayer and peace upon him said:  “I used to see the mark of a stitch in his chest”.

Halima feared for him then, and decided and her husband to take him back to his mother.

Dr. Ahmed Saafan