571 CE / Early Childhood of Prophet Muhammad Important events and incidences that took place It was the general custom of the Arabs to send their children away to bedouin wet nurses so that they might grow up with fresh air for the breasts, pure Arabic for the tongue, and freedom for the soul. Away from the hustle and bustle of the town they were to form a lasting bond with the desert and would spend up to eight years there. The bedouin tribes would visit the Quraysh periodically and in the year Muhammad was born many tribes had suffered from severe famine. The tribe of Bani Sa’d were desperate and despite Muhammad being an orphan child of poor background, Halima, decided to take him anyway because she had not been able to find another suckling. But Halima was so hungry herself that she had no milk to give her own baby, the milk of her camel had dried up and even the donkey on which she had ridden to Makkah was on its last legs. But this is what happened as soon as she took the baby Muhammad (sollaloohu alai wasallam): “When I lifted him in my arms and returned to my place I put him on my breast and to my great surprise, my breasts overflowed with milk. He drank to his heart’s content and so too did his foster brother, and then both of them went to sleep although my baby had not been able to sleep the previous night. My husband then went to the she-camel to milk it and, to his astonishment, he found plenty of milk in it. He milked it and we drank to our fill, and enjoyed a sound sleep during the night. The next morning, my husband said: By Allah Halimah, you must understand that you have been able to procure a blessed child. And I replied: By the grace of Allah, I hope so.” Not surprisingly Halima was reluctant to lose Muhammad and begged Aminah to let him stay with them a little longer. Then a frightening but portentous incident made her change her mind. The story goes that one day Muhammad’s foster brothers had rushed to their ?parents, crying in terror that two men in white had seized Muhammad and had seemed to slit his chest open. Halima had rushed to the scene to find the little boy lying weakly on the ground: later he explained the men had taken his heart from his body and extracted a blood-clot out of it and said: That was the part of Satan in thee. They then washed it with the water of Zamzam in a gold basin. After that the heart was joined together and restored to its place. After this event, Halimah was worried about the boy and returned him to his mother who calmed them down and reassured them of Muhammad’s exceptional nature. She decided to keep him with her in Makkah, but when he was six years old Aminah died and Muhammad had been orphaned twice over. He went to live in the household of his grandfather Abdul Muttalib who grew to love him dearly. Nonetheless, his orphanhood cut deeply into Muhammad’s soul. Even the Quran had to console the Prophet reminding him, as it were, Did God not find you an orphan and give you shelter and protection? Did He not find you erring and guide you to the truth? It is related that a mattress was put in the shade of the Ka‘bah for ‘Abdul-Muttalib. His children used to sit around the mattress in honour to their father, but Muhammad used to sit on it. His uncles would take him back, but if ‘Abdul-Muttalib was present, he would say: Leave my grandson alone. I swear by Allah that this boy will hold a significant position. He used to seat the boy on his mattress, pat his back and was always pleased with what the boy did. End of 571 CE __The Prophetic Timeline
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 20:17:51 +0000
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