The Sealed Nectar (7 page)

In brief, ‘Abdul- Muttalib received an order in his dream to dig Zamzam well in a particular place. He did that and found the things that Jurhum men had buried therein when they were forced to evacuate Makkah. He found the swords, armours and the two deer of gold. The gate of Al- Ka‘bah was stamped from the gold swords and the two deer and then the tradition of providing Zamzam water to pilgrims was established.

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When the well of Zamzam gushed water forth, Quraish made a claim to partnership in the enterprise, but ‘Abdul- Muttalib refused their demands on grounds that All? had singled only him out for this honourable job. To settle the dispute, they agreed to consult Bani Sa‘d’s diviner. On their way, All?

showed them His Signs that confirmed ‘Abdul- Muttalib’s prerogative as regards the sacred spring. Only then did ‘Abdul- Muttalib make a solemn vow to sacrifice one of his adult children to Al- Ka‘bah if he had ten.

The second event was that of Abraha As- Sabah Al- Habashi, the Abyssinian (Ethiopian) viceroy in Yemen. He had seen that the Arabs made their pilgrimage to Al- Ka‘bah so he built a large church in San‘a in order to attract the Arab pilgrims to it to the exclusion of Makkah. A man from Kinana tribe understood this move, therefore he entered the church stealthily at night and besmeared its front wall with excrement. When Abraha knew of that, he got very angry and led a great army – of sixty thousand warriors – to demolish Al- Ka‘bah. He chose the biggest elephant for himself. His army included nine or thirteen elephants. He continued marching until he reached a place called Al- Magmas. There, he mobilized his army, prepared his elephants and got ready to enter Makkah. When he reached Muhassar Valley, between Muzdalifah and Mina, the elephant knelt down and refused to go forward.

Whenever they directed it northwards, southwards or eastwards, the elephant moved quickly but when directed westwards towards Al- Ka‘bah, it knelt down.

Meanwhile, All? loosed upon them birds in flights, hurling against them stones of baked clay and made them like green blades devoured. These birds w ere very much like swallows and sparrows, each carrying three stones; one in its peak and two in its claws. The stones hit Abraha’s men and cut their limbs and killed them. A large number of Abraha’s soldiers were killed in this way and the others fled at random and died everywhere. Abraha himself had an infection that had his fingertips amputated. When he reached San‘a he was in a miserable state and died soon after.

The Quraishites on their part had fled for their lives to the hillocks and mountain tops. When the enemy had been thus routed, they returned home safely. [Ibn Hisham 1/43- 56; Tafheemul- Qur'an 6/462- 469]

The Event of the Elephant took place in the month of Al- Muharram, fifty or fifty five days before the birth of Prophet Muhammad [pbuh] which corresponded to late February or early March 571 A.D. It was a gift from All?

to His Prophet and his family. It could actually be regarded as a Divine auspicious precursor of the light to come and accompany the advent of the Prophet and his family. By contrast, Jerusalem had suffered under the yoke of the atrocities of All? ’s enemies. Here we can recall Bukhtanassar in B.C. 587

and the Romans in 70 A.D. Al- Ka‘bah, by Divine Grace, never came under the hold of the Christians – the Muslims of that time – although Makkah was populated by polytheists.

News of the Elephant Event reached the most distant corners of the then civilized world. Abyssinia (Ethiopia) maintained strong ties with the Romans, while the Persians on the other hand, were on the vigil with respect to any strategic changes that were looming on the socio- political horizon, and soon came to occupy Yemen. Incidentally, the Roman and Persian Empires stood 34

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for the powerful civilized world at that time. The Elephant Raid Event riveted the world’s attention to the sacredness of All? ’s House, and showed that this House had been chosen by All? for its holiness. It followed then if any of its people claimed Prophethood, it would be congruous with the outcome of the Elephant Event, and would provide a justifiable explanation for the ulterior Divine Wisdom that lay behind backing polytheists against Christians in a manner that transcended the cause- and- effect formula.

‘Abdul- Muttalib had ten sons, Al- Harith, Az- Zubair, Abu Talib, ‘Abdullah, Hamzah, Abu Lahab, Ghidaq, Maqwam, Safar and Al- ‘Abbas. He also had six daughters, who were Umm Al- Hakim – the only white one, Barrah, ‘Atikah, Safiya, Arwa and Omaima. [Rahmat- ul- lil'alameen 2/56,66; Talqeeh Fuhoom Ahl Al- Athar, p8,9]

3.
‘Abdullah:
The father of Prophet Muhammad [pbuh]. His mother was Fatimah, daughter of ‘Amr bin ‘A’idh bin ‘Imran bin Makhzum bin Yaqdha bin Murra. ‘Abdullah was the smartest of ‘Abdul- Muttalib’s sons, the chastest and the most loved. He was also the son whom the divination arrows pointed at to be slaughtered as a sacrifice to Al- Ka‘bah. When ‘Abdul- Muttalib had ten sons and they reached maturity, he divulged to them his secret vow in which they silently and obediently acquiesced. Their names were written on divination arrows and given to the guardian of their most beloved goddess, Hubal. The arrows were shuffled and drawn. An arrow showed that it was ‘Abdullah to be sacrificed. ‘Abdul- Muttalib then took the boy to Al- Ka‘bah with a razor to slaughter the boy. Quraish, his uncles from Makhzum tribe and his brother Abu Talib, however, tried to dissuade him from consummating his purpose.

He then sought their advice as regards his vow. They suggested that he summon a she- diviner to judge whereabout. She ordered that the divination arrows should be drawn with respect to ‘Abdullah as well as ten camels. She added that drawing the lots should be repeated with ten more camels every time the arrow showed ‘Abdullah. The operation was thus repeated until the number of the camels amounted to one hundred. At this point the arrow showed the camels, consequently they were all slaughtered (to the satisfaction of Hubal) instead of his son. The slaughtered camels were left for anyone to eat from, human or animal.

This incident produced a change in the amount of blood- money usually accepted in Arabia. It had been ten camels, but after this event it was increased to a hundred. Islam, later on, approved of this. Another thing closely relevant to the above issue goes to the effect that the Prophet [pbuh]

once said:

"I am the offspring of the slaughtered two," meaning Ishmael and ‘Abdullah.

[Ibn Hisham 1/151- 155; Rahmat- ul- lil'alameen 2/89,90]

‘Abdul- Muttalib chose Amina, daughter of Wahab bin ‘Abd Munaf bin Zahra bin Kilab, as a wife for his son, ‘Abdullah. She thus, in the light of this ancestral lineage, stood eminent in respect of nobility of position and descent. Her father was the chief of Bani Zahra to whom great honour was attributed. They were married in Makkah, and soon after ‘Abdullah was sent by his father to buy dates in Madinah where he died. In another version, ‘Abdullah went to Syria on a trade journey and died in Madinah on his way back. He was buried 35

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in the house of An- Nabigha Al- Ju‘di. He was twenty- five years old when he died. Most historians state that his death was two months before the birth of Muhammad [pbuh] . Some others said that his death was two months after the Prophet’s birth. When Amina was informed of her husband’s death, she celebrated his memory in a most heart- touching elegy. [Ibn Hisham 1/156-158; Fiqh As- Seerah p.45]

‘Abdullah left very little wealth —five camels, a small number of goats, a she-servant, called Barakah – Umm Aiman – who would later serve as the Prophet’s nursemaid. [Muslim 2/96; Talqeeh Fahoom Ahl- Athar p.4; Mukhtasar Seerat Ar-Rasool p. 12]

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Muhammad’s Birth and Forty Years prior to Prophethood
His Birth

Muhammad [pbuh], the Master of Prophets, was born in Bani Hashim lane in Makkah on Monday morning, the ninth of Rabi‘ Al- Awwal, the same year of the Elephant Event, and forty years of the reign of Kisra (Khosru Nushirwan), i.e. the twentieth or twenty- second of April, 571 A.D., according to the scholar Muhammad Sulaim? Al-Mansourpuri, and the astrologer Mahm? Pasha. [Muhadarat Tareekh Al- Umam Al-Islamiyah 1/62; Rahmat- ul- lil'alameen 1/38,39]

Ibn Sa‘d reported that Muhammad’s mother said: "When he was born, there was a light that issued out of my pudendum and lit the palaces of Syria." Ahmad reported on the authority of ‘Arbadh bin Sariya something similar to this. [Mukhtasar Seerat-ur- Rasool, p.12; Tabaqat Ibn Sa'd 1/63]

It was but controversially reported that significant precursors accompanied his birth: fourteen galleries of Kisra’s palace cracked and rolled down, the Magians’ sacred fire died down and some churches on Lake Sawa sank down and collapsed. [Reported by Al- Baihaqi, but Al- Ghazali didn't approve it - see Fiqh- us- Seerah p.46]

His mother immediately sent someone to inform his grandfather ‘Abdul- Muttalib of the happy event. Happily he came to her, carried him to Al- Ka‘bah, prayed to All?

and thanked Him. ‘Abdul- Muttalib called the baby Muhammad, a name not then common among the Arabs. He circumcised him on his seventh day as was the custom of the Arabs. [Ibn Hisham 1/159,160; Zad Al- Ma'ad 1/18; Muhadarat Tareekh Al- Umam Al- Islamiyah 1/62]

The first woman who suckled him after his mother was Thuyebah, the concubine of Abu Lahab, with her son, Masrouh. She had suckled Hamzah bin ‘Abdul- Muttalib before and later Abu Salamah bin ‘Abd Al- Asad Al- Makhzumi. [Talqeeh Furoom Ahl-al- Athar p.4; Mukhtasar Seerat- ur- Rasool p.13]

Babyhood

It was the general custom of the Arabs living in towns to send their children away to bedouin wet nurses so that they might grow up in the free and healthy surroundings of the desert whereby they would develop a robust frame and acquire the pure speech and manners of the bedouins, who were noted both for chastity of their language and for being free from those vices which usually develop in sedentary societies.

The Prophet [pbuh] was later entrusted to Haleemah bint Abi Dhuaib from Bani Sa‘d bin Bakr. Her husband was Al- Harith bin ‘Abdul ‘Uzza called Abi Kabshah, from the same tribe.

Muhammad [pbuh] had several foster brothers and sisters, ‘Abdullah bin Al- Harith, Aneesah bint Al- Harith, Hudhafah or Judhamah bint Al- Harith (known as Ash-Shayma’), and she used to nurse the Prophet [pbuh] and Abu Sufyan bin Al- Harith bin ‘Abdul- Muttalib, the Prophet’s cousin. Hamzah bin ‘Abdul- Muttalib, the Prophet’s 37

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uncle, was suckled by the same two wet nurses, Thuyeba and Haleemah As-Sa‘diyah, who suckled the Prophet [pbuh]. [Za'd Al- Ma'ad 1/19]

Traditions delightfully relate how Haleemah and the whole of her household were favoured by successive strokes of good fortune while the baby Muhammad [pbuh]

lived under her care. Ibn Ishaq states that Haleemah narrated that she along with her husband and a suckling babe, set out from her village in the company of some women of her clan in quest of children to suckle. She said: It was a year of drought and famine and we had nothing to eat. I rode on a brown she- ass. We also had with us an old she- camel. By All? we could not get even a drop of milk. We could not have a wink of sleep during the night for the child kept crying on account of hunger. There was not enough milk in my breast and even the she- camel had nothing to feed him. We used to constantly pray for rain and immediate relief. At length we reached Makkah looking for children to suckle. Not even a single woman amongst us accepted the Messenger of All? [pbuh] offered to her. As soon as they were told that he was an orphan, they refused him. We had fixed our eyes on the reward that we would get from the child’s father. An orphan!

What are his grandfather and mother likely to do? So we spurned him because of that. Every woman who came with me got a suckling and when we were about to depart, I said to my husband: "By All? , I do not like to go back along with the other women without any baby. I should go to that orphan and I must take him." He said,

"There is no harm in doing so and perhaps All? might bless us through him." So I went and took him because there was simply no other alternative left for me but to take him. When I lifted him in my arms and returned to my place I put him on my breast and to my great surprise, I found enough milk in it. He drank to his heart’s content, and so 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 All? Haleemah, you must understand that you have been able to get a blessed child." And I replied: "By the grace of All? , I hope so."

The tradition is explicit on the point that Haleemah’s return journey and her subsequent life, as long as the Prophet [pbuh] stayed with her, was encircled with a halo of good fortune. The donkey that she rode when she came to Makkah was lean and almost foundered; it recovered speed much to the amazement of Haleemah’s fellow travellers. By the time they reached the encampments in the country of the clan of Sa‘d, they found the scales of fortune turned in their favour. The barren land sprouted forth luxuriant grass and beasts came back to them satisfied and full of milk. Muhammad [pbuh] stayed with Haleemah for two years until he was weaned as Haleemah said:

We then took him back to his mother requesting her earnestly to have him stay with us and benefit by the good fortune and blessings he had brought us. We persisted in our request which we substantiated by our anxiety over the child catching a certain infection peculiar to Makkah.[Ibn Hisham 1/162- 164] At last, we were granted our wish and the Prophet [pbuh] stayed with us until he was four or five years of age.

When, as related by Anas in
Sahih Muslim
, Gabriel came down and ripped his chest open and took out the heart. He then extracted a blood- clot out of it and said: "That 38

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was the part of Satan in thee." And then he washed it with the water of Zamzam in a gold basin. After that the heart was joined together and restored to its place. The boys and playmates came running to his mother, i.e. his nurse, and said: "Verily, Muhammad [pbuh] has been murdered." They all rushed towards him and found him all right only his face was white. [Muslim 1/92]