Chapter 7 : Living With The Bedouins

Question 1

Regarding the nursing of the Prophet

Answer 1

• His mother Aminah nursed him immediately after his birth :-

” The first to nurse the Messenger of God ( After Aminah ) was Thuwayba, the slave of Abu Lahab with the milk she was offering to her son Masruh. She nursed him in the days before a permanent wet nurse could be found. And before him, she nursed Hamza, son of Abdul Muttalib … Whenever she would enter upon the Messenger of God, he would honour her. And he would send her gifts until she died in 7 AH after Khaybar. “

• Bihar Al-Anwar, Volume 15, Page 384 - 385
• Imam Al Sadiq also narrates :-

” Ali once mentioned the daughter of Hamza to the Messenger of God ( In the context of marriage ). The Prophet replied ‘ Do you not know that she is my niece through milk ? ‘ “

• Al-Kafi ( Al-Kulayni ), Volume 5, Page 537
• The most notable woman who nursed the Prophet was Halima Al-Sa’diyyah
• She belonged to the Bedouin Clan of Banu Sa’d who had a high reputation for nursing and rearing children in the desert
• It was the custom of all noble families to send their sons, soon after birth to be nursed and raised in the desert among one of the Bedouin Tribes
• This may seem unusual to us but the upper class members of Quraysh did not only do this as a status symbol but for practical reasons :-

1) It was healthier for children to grow up in the desert. Epidemics ( Cholera Outbreaks, etc ) were not infrequent and infant mortality rate was high so families would send their newborns to the deserts as a means of survival
2) Children who grow up in rural towns are generally tougher than city kids. If you could adjust to life in the desert, you can live anywhere. This shows that the Arabs were long term planners. They wanted their children to learn to adapt to hardships
3) Life in the desert instilled a sense of discipline in the child
4) Children could learn the pure unadulterated Arabic of the Bedouin Arabs ( Makkah is a commercial hub with people of different nationalities visiting and interacting regularly with the Arabs and thus the quality of the Arabic Language will be deteriorated when compared to the Pure Arabic spoken by the Bedouin Arabs )

• It was common for desert dwelling wet nurses to periodically visit Makkah and offer their services to Quraysh
• Historical accounts present Halima’s famous visit to Makkah during the Year of The Elephant :-

” It was a year of drought and we had nothing left. I set out on a gray donkey of mine and we had with us an old she camel which could not yield one drop of milk. We were kept awake all night by our son who was wailing from hunger, for I had not enough in my breasts to feed him, and that donkey of mine was so weak and so emaciated that I often kept the others waiting. “

• Muhammad : His Life Based on the Earliest Sources by Martin Lings
• When Halimah and her husband Harith arrived in Makkah, they set about looking for a newborn to nurse
• Aminah offered her son first to one and then another until finally she had tried all of them and they had all refused
• All of the wet nurses were reluctant to accept an orphan because they hoped for some favour from the boy’s father
• When presented with the newborn Muhammad, they said “ An orphan ! What will his mother and his grandfather be able to do for us ? “
• Their refusal to accept the orphan had little to do with the fear of not being paid by the family
• In fact, wet nurses did not want direct payment for their services, since it was considered dishonorable for a woman to take a fee for suckling a child
• The recompense they hoped for though less direct and less immediate was of a wider scope
• The advantage for the Bedouin was to make an enduring link with one of the great families ( In situations where they need anything, they can call in a favour )
• A wet nurse gained a new son who would look to her as a second mother and feel a sense of duty to her for the rest of his life
• He would also feel himself a brother to her own children
• But little or nothing could be expected from the foster child himself until he grew up, and meantime, his father could normally be relied on to fulfill the duties of his son
• A grandfather was too remote and in this case they would have know that Abdul Muttalib was an old man who could not reasonably be expected to live much longer
• And when Abdul Muttalib dies, his sons and not his grandson would be his heirs
• Aminah was poor and the child’s father had been too young to have acquired wealth
• He had no more than 5 camels, a small flock of sheep and goats and 1 slave girl
• Foster parents were not expected to be wealthy but they were also expected not to be too poor
• Halima and her husband were poorer than any of their companions
• Whenever the choice lay between her and another, the other was preferred and chosen
• When all of the wet nurses were hired to suckle, Halima, the poorest wet nurse and the poorest baby Muhammad were left
• Halima narrates :-

” When we decided to leave Makkah, I told my husband ‘ I hate to return in the company of my friends without having taken a baby to suckle. I shall go to that orphan and take him ‘. ‘ As you wish ‘ her husband said. ‘ It may be that God will bless us through him. So i went and took him for no reason except that I could find none but him ‘. … ‘ I carried him back to where our mounts were stationed and no sooner had I put him in my bosom than by breast overflowed with milk for him. He drank his fill and with him his foster brother drank likewise his fill. Then they both slept and my husband went to that old she camel of ours and lo ! Her udders were full. He milked her and drank of her milk and I drank with him until we could drink no more and our hunger was satisfied ‘. … ‘ We spent the best of nights and in the morning my husband said to me ‘, ‘ By God, Halima, it is a blessed creature that you have taken ‘. ‘ That is indeed my hope ‘ I said. Then we set out and I rode my donkey and carried him with me on her back. She outstripped the whole troop not could any of their donkeys keep pace with her. … We reached the Bani Sa’d country and I know of no place on God’s earth more barren than that then was. But after we brought him to live with us, my flock would come home to me replete at every eventide and full of milk. We milked them and drank and when others had no drop of milk. … And we ceased not to enjoy this increase and this bounty from God until the baby’s 2 years had passed and I weaned him. He was growing well, she continued and none of the other boys could match him for growth. By the time he was 2 years old, he was a well made child and we took him again to his mother, although we were eager that he should stay with us for the blessings he brought us. So i said to her ‘ Leave my little son with me until he grow stronger, for I fear lest he be stricken with the plague of Makkah ‘ ( At that time there was a Cholera Outbreak in Makkah )

• Muhammad : His Life Based on the Earliest Sources by Martin Lings

Question 2

Regarding the childhood of the Prophet

Answer 2

• According to Sunni sources, there was an incident that took place when the Prophet was about 4 years old known as the incident of the opening of the heart :-

” Anas Ibn Malik reported that Gabriel came to the Messenger of Allah ( While he was playing with his playmates ). He took hold of him and lay him prostrate on the ground and tore open his breast and took out the heart from it and then extracted a blood clot out of it and said ‘ That was part of Satan in thee ‘. And then he washed it with the water of Zamzam in a golden basin and then it was joined together and restored to its place. The boys came running to their mother ( Halimah Al-Sa’diyyah ) and said ‘ Verily Muhammad has been murdered ‘. They all rushed towards him ( and found him all right ). His colour was changed, Anas said. I myself saw the marks of needle on his breast “

• Sahih Muslim
• Shia scholars completely reject this narration :-

1) Surgical operations that remove physical clots do not make a person pure and righteous
2) This contradicts the Quranic Verse where God says that Satan has no authority over His Chosen Servants :-

” Indeed, My Servants - No authority will you have over them, except those who follow you of the deviators “

• Al-Quran 15 : 42

3) Is this the only way for God to purify his Prophet ? By making him endure a traumatic open heart surgery multiple times in his life ! ( In Sunni Traditions, this happened multiple times over the Prophet’s Life )

4) The transmitter Thawr Ibn Yazid is tagged by Rijal Scholars as a Qadari ( Jabri ) ( He believes in Predestination ). This implies that the Prophet’s virtue and purity was a factor of this open heart surgery and not a factor of his free will
5) Some reports claim that this was repeated another 4 times in his life even after he became a Prophet