God (r) was offered, agreed to take the child because none expected a goodly return for
nurturing or nursing an infant whose father was already dead. They said, “An orphan! What
will his mother and grandfather give in return?” At first, Halima also declined the offer but
suddenly she felt a craving for the baby. She had also failed to get a charge for her and,
therefore, before going back home, she returned and finally took the baby back with her.
Halima found before long that her household was blest with luck, her breasts overflowed
with milk, the udders of her she-camel were full and everything seemed to bring forth hap-
piness. The women of Halima’s tribe now spread out the rumor: “Halima, you have certainly
got a blessed child.” They began to feel envious of her already.
Halima weaned the baby when he was two years old, for it is customary upon the foster-
children to return to their respective families at such an age. Besides, the boy was also
developing faster than the other children, and by the time he was two, he was already a
well-grown child. Thus, Halima brought the Prophet of God (r) back to Amina but begged
her to be allowed to keep the boy for some extended time as he had brought her luck.
Amina agreed and allowed Halima to take Muhammed back with her.
Some months after his return to Bani S’ad, two angels seized the Prophet of God (r),
opened up his chest and extracted a black drop from it. Then they thoroughly cleaned his
heart and healed the wound after putting his heart back in its place.
Muhammed (r) tended the lambs with his foster-brothers in the boundless wilderness of
the desert, far away from the pretensions, hypocrisy, pomp and pride of the city, rendering
his thoughts dry and clear like the desert air. His life was as simple as the sand and he
learned to endure with the hardships and dangers of the wilderness. And with the people of
Bani S’ad, his ears became accustomed to the rhetoric and eloquence of the pure and clas-
sical language of the Bedouins. The Prophet (r) often used to tell his companions: “I am the
most Arab of you all for I am of Quraysh origin and I was suckled among Bani S’ad Ibn Bakr.
(Ibn Hisham, Vol. I, 167).
DEATH OF AMINA AND ‘ABDUL MUTTALIB
When the Prophet (r) was six years old, his mother took him to Yathrib to pay a visit to
her father. She also wanted to call on the grave of her late husband, but while on her way
back to Makkah, she died at a place called Abwa. Muhammed (r) must have felt lonely and
sorrowful at the death of his mother in the middle of his journey. Incidents of such nature
had been a common fixture in his life since birth, perhaps as a divine dispensation for his
upbringing in a particular way, one which is reminiscent of the great role that he has to play
in the future. Finally, the Abyssinian bondwoman, Umm Ayman Barkah, brought him to his
grandfather in Makkah. ‘Abdul Muttalib loved Muhammed (r) so dearly, making him the
apple of his eye and never allowed him to be distant from his sight.