Birlh and EducatiQn 15snow.,, 16 In other traditions, he exp lained the spiritual meaning o f those
events; in a discussion with so me Companio ns , reported by Ibn J\Iasud,
he said: '''There is no one among you but is acco mpanied by a jinn or an
angel specifically assigned to him.' They asked: 'Even you, Messenger?'
'Even me, but God has helped me and he [the jinn, here meaning the evil
spirit] has submitted, so he only enjoins me to do what is good.",17
Here, the Prophet guides our understanding of the event beyond the
mere facts reported, to its essential spiritual dimension: from his earliest
childhood, the Messenger was protected from the temptations of evil that
plague everybody else's heart. The purification of his chest prepared him
for his prophetic mission. About fifty years later, he was again to have a
similar experience, when his heart was opened once more and purified to
enable him to experience the Night Journey to Jerusalem, then the eleva-
tiun to Sid rat al-Muntaha, the Lotus of the Utmost Boundary.IS Such
spiritual experiences, singular and initiatory, prepared the Chosen One (ai-
Mustqfo) to receive fir st the message of Islam and then the command to
perform ritual prayer, the pillar of religious practice.^19
On a mo re general level, the Quran refers to this purification \vith
these words: " Have \'\Ie not opened your breast for you? And removed
from you your burden which galJed your back? And raised high the esteem
in which you are held?"zO For most commentators on the Quran, those
verses primarily refer to the threefold gift granted to the Prophet: faith in
the One inscribed in his heart, election as the Prophet, and, lastly, the sup-
POrt of God Himself throughout his mission. From his earliest child-
hood, as we have seen, Muhammad was to be accompanied b y signs and
trials that educated and prepared him for that mission.
Now back in Mecca, young Muhammad stayed with his mother for two
years. \'!hen he \vas six, she wanted her son to get acquainted with mem-
bers of her family who lived in Yat hrib (which would later be known as
Medina). They went there, but on the way back, Aminah fell ill and died
at Abwa, where she was buried. Now both fatherless and motherless,
rv[u hammad was surrounded by signs of his election as well as by grief,
suffering, and death. Barakah, who had traveled with them as Aminab's
servant, took the child back to Mecca. His grandfather, Abel al-Muttalib,
immediately took him into his care. I-Ie was constantly to show deep love
and particular respect for his grandson. However, he died two yeat s l ater.