An Orphan in Makkah

Many Mothers

Muhammad ﷺ began life without a father, but he was never without care. Babies in Makkah were often nursed by other women, and the bond this made was treated almost like a family tie. One of the women who nursed him was Thuwaybah. Many years later, he explained that Thuwaybah had nursed both him and his cousin Abu Salamah, which made them brothers through nursing. Bukhari 5101

Historians reportFamilies in Makkah also liked to send their babies to the open desert, where the air was cleaner and the Arabic was purer. Historians name his best-known nursing mother as Halimah, from the tribe of Banu Sa'd, who took him to live among her people's tents and flocks for his first years. Ibn al-Qayyim, Zad al-Ma'ad 1:81–82

The Day the Children Ran

One day, while Muhammad ﷺ was playing with the other children, the angel Jibril came to him. Jibril took hold of him, laid him on the ground and opened his chest. He took out the heart, removed a clot of blood from it and said, “This was Satan's share in you.” Then he washed the heart in a golden basin with the water of Zamzam, and put it back in its place. Muslim 162

The other children ran to his nursing mother, crying that Muhammad had been killed. When the adults reached him, they found him alive, though his face had turned pale. Anas ibn Malik, who reported this, said that years later he himself saw the mark of the stitching on the Prophet's ﷺ chest. Muslim 162

Allah was preparing him, from childhood, for what lay ahead.

A Grave at al-Abwa

Historians reportWhen he was about six, his mother Aminah took him to visit her relatives in Yathrib, the town that would later be called Madinah. On the way home she fell ill and died at a place called al-Abwa, and she was buried there. A young servant of the family, Barakah, better known as Umm Ayman, brought the little boy home to Makkah. Ibn al-Qayyim, Zad al-Ma'ad 1:75–76

He never forgot his mother. Many years later, he visited her grave. He wept, and the people with him wept too. Muslim 976

Umm Ayman stayed close to him all his life. When he was a grown man, he would visit her, and she would fuss over him like a mother. Muslim 2453 After he died, Abu Bakr and Umar went to visit her, “as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to visit her”. She wept, and when they asked why, she said she was not crying because she doubted that what Allah has is better for him; she was crying because revelation from the sky had stopped. The two men wept with her. Muslim 2454

A Grandfather and an Uncle

Historians reportAfter his mother died, his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, the respected chief of Banu Hashim, took him in. Two years later, when the boy was about eight, Abd al-Muttalib died too. His uncle Abu Talib became his guardian. Abu Talib was not rich and had many children of his own, but he loved his nephew and would protect him for the rest of his life. Ibn al-Qayyim, Zad al-Ma'ad 1:75–76

By the age of eight he had lost a father, a mother and a grandfather. The Qur'an would later remind him of this: “Did He not find you an orphan and give you shelter?”Qur'an 93:6 An orphan who had been sheltered would grow up to shelter orphans. He taught that the person who looks after an orphan will be with him in Paradise, holding up two fingers side by side. Bukhari 6005