Birth and Education II
Bedouin tribes living in the nearby desert. Because he was fatherless, one
nurse after another refused to take the ehild into her care, fearing that his
ambiguous Status would bring them no profit. Halimah, who had arrived
last because her mount was tired, decided with her husband that it was
better for them to take the child, although he was an orphan, than to risk
being mocked by their tribe when they went home. They therefore went
back with the infant Muhammad, and Halimah, just like Aminah, tells of
many signs that led her and her husband to think that this child seemed
blessed.
For four years, the orphan was looked after by Halimah and lived with
the Banu Sad Bedouins in the Arabian desert. He shared th e nomads' life
in the most barren and difficult natural environment, surrounded, as far
as the eye could see, with horizons bringing to mind the fragility of the
human being and spurring contemplation and solitude. Although he did
not yet know it, Muhammad was going through the first trials ordained
for him by the One, Who had chosen him as a messenger and was, for the
time being, his Educator, his Rabb.^8
The Quran would later recall his particular situation as an orphan as
well as the spiritual teachings associated with the experience of life in the
desert:Did He not fmd you an orphan and give you shelter? And He found you
wandering, and He gave you b'1.lidance. And He found you in need, and
made you independent. Therefore [for that reason], do not treat the
orphan with harshness, nor chide him who asks. But the bounty of your
Lord, proclaim!9Those verses of the Quran carry several teachings: being both an
orphan and poor was actually an initiatory state for the future Messenger
of God, for at least two reasons. The first teaching is obviously the vul-
nerability and humility he must naturally have felt from his earliest child-
hood. This state was intensified when his mother, Aminah, died when
Muhammad was six. This left him utterly dependent on God, but also
dose to the most destitute among people. The Quran reminds him that
he must never forget this throughout his life and particularly during his
prophetic mission. He was orphaned and poor, and for that rcason he is
reminded and ordered never to forsake the underprivileged and the needy.