In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
Treasures of the Seerah.
The paternal uncles of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
It is mentioned that 'Abd al-Muttalib had twelve sons.
They were: al-Harith,
who was the eldest of them,
Hamzah,
al-'Abbas,
Abu Talib,
Abu Lahab,
Hajl,
al-Zubayr,
al-Ghaydaq,
al-Muqawwim,
Saffar—
and it is also said Dirar—
'Abd al-Ka'bah,
and 'Abdullah,
the father of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
The sons of 'Abd al-Muttalib are divided into three categories:
The first:
those who lived until the advent of Islam and embraced it,
namely Hamzah and al-'Abbas.
The second:
those who lived until the advent of Islam but did not embrace it,
namely Abu Talib and Abu Lahab.
The third:
those who did not live until the advent of Islam,
namely the remainder of the sons of 'Abd al-Muttalib.
Treasures of the Seerah.
The paternal aunts of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him:
al-Bayda',
who was called Umm Hakim,
Safiyyah,
'Atikah,
Barrah,
Arwa,
and Umaymah.
Among them, Safiyyah embraced Islam.
According to the well-known report,
when 'Abd al-Muttalib dug the well of Zamzam,
Quraysh prevented him from claiming sole custody of it,
and he had no son to protect him.
He grieved because of this,
and made a vow, saying:
"If Allah grants me ten sons,
I will surely sacrifice one of them as an offering to Allah."
Allah, Blessed and Exalted, then granted him those sons,
and he wished to fulfill his vow.
So he cast lots,
and the lot fell upon his son 'Abdullah,
the father of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
When he intended to slaughter him,
Quraysh stood up against him and forbade him.
Thereupon 'Abd al-Muttalib said,
"Then what shall I do regarding my vow?"
They advised him to consult a female soothsayer and ask her.
So he went to her and asked her,
and she instructed him to cast lots between his son 'Abdullah
and ten camels.
So he cast lots,
and the lot fell upon 'Abdullah.
She said to him,
"Add ten more."
So he added ten more camels,
yet the lot fell upon 'Abdullah.
She said to him,
"Add ten more."
And thus it continued;
every time he added ten camels,
the lot fell upon his son 'Abdullah,
until the number of camels reached one hundred.
Then he cast lots,
and the lot fell upon the camels.
At that point, 'Abd al-Muttalib stood up and slaughtered the camels,
leaving them freely accessible to any human or beast of prey.
The blood money among the Arabs at that time was ten camels;
after this incident,
the blood money among the Arabs became one hundred camels,
and Islam confirmed this practice.
Thus, the blood money in the religion of Allah, Blessed and Exalted, is now
one hundred camels.
The maternal uncles of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
Al-Hafiz Ibn Hibban, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"The mother of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
was Aminah bint Wahb ibn 'Abd Manaf
ibn Zuhrah ibn Kilab ibn Murrah
ibn Ka'b ibn Lu'ayy ibn Ghalib.
She had no brother who would have been a maternal uncle to the Prophet, peace be upon him,
except 'Abd Yaghuth ibn Wahb.
However, the Banu Zuhrah say
that they are the maternal uncles of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
because Aminah, the mother of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, was from among them."
The biographers have mentioned
that the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, had two maternal aunts:
The first was
Fakhitah bint 'Amr ibn 'A'idh al-Zuhriyyah.
It is narrated from the Prophet, peace be upon him, in a marfu' hadith:
"I have given my maternal aunt a servant boy,
and I hope that Allah will bless him for her;
and I have forbidden her from making him a cupper, a butcher, or a goldsmith."
The second was
Furay'ah bint Wahb al-Zuhriyyah.
It is narrated that the Prophet, peace be upon him, raised her hand and said:
"Whoever wishes to look upon the maternal aunt of the Messenger of Allah,
let him look upon this woman."
In the month of Rabi' al-Awwal, according to the well-known view,
Allah, Blessed and Exalted, bestowed His grace upon humanity with the birth of the Master of the Messengers,
the leader of the righteous, and the guide of those marked with radiant white limbs.
That was several months after the Year of the Elephant, in Makkah al-Mukarramah.
He was born an orphan without a father,
because his father had passed away while his mother was still pregnant with him.
His birth, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was a natural birth,
and historians, as scholars mention, have not been able
to determine the exact day and month of his birth with precision.
As for the day of the week on which he was born,
it was Monday,
as the Prophet, peace be upon him, said:
"That is the day on which I was born."
But which specific Monday?
Allah knows best.
It was said on the ninth of Rabi' al-Awwal,
and it was said on the twelfth,
and other dates were also stated;
it was even said to be in Ramadan,
but the most widely known opinion is that it was on the twelfth of Rabi' al-Awwal.
Determining the exact day of his birth, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
carries no legal consequences in Islamic law.
As for what many people do in many Muslim lands,
namely celebrating the birthday of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
it is not a righteous deed.
That is due to several reasons, among them:
First:
the exact date of his birth, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, is not known with certainty.
Second:
the Prophet, peace be upon him, never once celebrated his birthday during his lifetime,
even though he lived for sixty-three years,
peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
Third:
neither the Companions nor the Tabi'un,
nor the leading scholars who are followed, ever celebrated his birthday;
and had it been good, they would surely have preceded us in doing it.
Fourth:
the Prophet, peace be upon him, never commanded us to do so,
despite having said:
"There is nothing that brings you closer to Paradise and distances you from the Fire
except that I have commanded you to do it."
Fifth:
it is unanimously agreed among scholars
that the twelfth of Rabi' al-Awwal
is the day of his death, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him;
so if we were to celebrate on this day,
it would be as if we were celebrating the day of his passing.
Since he, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, did not command us to do it,
it is not a good deed.
All good lies in following the Sunnah,
and all evil lies in religious innovation.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, said:
"Whoever introduces into this matter of ours that which is not part of it, it is rejected,"
meaning it will be turned back upon its perpetrator.
When the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was born,
Thuwaybah nursed him;
she was the freed slave of his uncle Abu Lahab.
Before nursing the Prophet, peace be upon him, she had nursed his uncle Hamzah,
thus making Hamzah the foster brother of the Prophet, peace be upon him, through nursing,
both having the same foster mother, Thuwaybah, the freed slave of Abu Lahab.
This arrangement did not last long,
for it was the custom of the Arabs
to seek wet nurses for their children for a period of two years,
after which the nurse would wean the child and return him to his mother.
Let us now leave Halimah al-Sa'diyyah to recount her story with the Prophet, peace be upon him.
Halimah al-Sa'diyyah said:
"I set out from my homeland with my husband and an infant son of mine whom I was nursing,
accompanied by some women of Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr,
looking for infants to nurse.
That was in a year of severe drought
that had left us with nothing.
I set out on a pale she-donkey of mine—
meaning an off-white one—
and with us was an old she-camel of ours,
that is, a camel,
and by Allah, she did not yield a single drop of milk.
We could not sleep the entire night
because our infant with us would not stop crying from hunger;
by Allah, there was nothing in my breast to satisfy him,
nor was there anything in our old she-camel to nourish him,
yet we were hoping for rain and relief.
So I rode on that she-donkey of mine
until we reached Makkah looking for infants to nurse.
There was not a single woman among us to whom the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was not presented,
only for her to refuse him
once she was told that he was an orphan.
That was because we hoped for generosity from the child's father,
so we would say, 'An orphan!
What could his mother and grandfather possibly do?'
For that reason, we were reluctant to take him.
Every woman who had come with me took a suckling child,
except me.
"When we decided to depart,
I said to my husband,
'By Allah, I loathe the thought of returning among my companions without having taken a nursing infant.
By Allah, I shall certainly go to that orphan and take him.'
He said,
'There is no harm in you doing so;
perhaps Allah will place a blessing in him.'
Glory be to Allah!
This poor woman, Halimah al-Sa'diyyah,
did not realize that all goodness and blessings lay in this very orphan, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
She said,
'So I went back to him and took him,
and nothing drove me to take him except that I could find no one else.
When I took him, I returned with him to my mount,
and as soon as I placed him in my lap,
my breasts overflowed with as much milk as he could desire.
He drank until he was fully satisfied,
and his foster brother drank along with him until he, too, was fully satisfied.
Then both of them went to sleep,
whereas before that we could never sleep because of my son's constant crying.
My husband then stood up to inspect our old she-camel,
and found her udders completely full—
that is, brimming with milk.
So he milked from her enough for him to drink, and I drank with him,
until our thirst was entirely quenched and we were completely full.
We spent the best of nights,
and when morning came, my husband said to me,
"You must realize, by Allah, O Halimah,
that you have taken a blessed soul."
I replied, "By Allah, I truly hope so."
Then we set out, and I rode my female donkey,
carrying him upon it with me'—
meaning she carried the Prophet, peace be upon him.
'By Allah, it outpaced the entire caravan
in a way none of their donkeys could match'—
that is, she sped far ahead of them on the journey—
'so much so that my female companions kept saying to me,
"O daughter of Abu Dhu'ayb!
Woe to you! Slow down and wait for us!"'—
meaning: do not rush ahead—
'"Is this not the very donkey you rode when you set out?"
And I would say to them,
"Yes, by Allah, it is indeed the very same one!"
And they would say,
"By Allah, there is surely something extraordinary about it!"
Then we arrived at our dwellings in the lands of the Banu Sa'd,
and I know of no land of Allah more barren than it was.
Yet my sheep would return to me in the evening, after we had brought him with us,
well-fed and full of milk,
so we would milk them and drink,
while no other person could milk even a single drop of milk,
because the land was so barren.
It reached the point where the people of our tribe would say to their shepherds,
"Woe to you!
Graze your flocks wherever the shepherd of the daughter of Abu Dhu'ayb grazes!"
Yet their sheep would return in the evening hungry,
unable to yield even a single drop of milk,
while my sheep returned full of milk.
We continued to witness an increase in grace and goodness from Allah,
until two years had passed and I weaned him'—
meaning she weaned him from nursing—
'and he was growing up unlike other young boys;
he had not even reached two years of age
before he had become a sturdy, robust boy'—
that is, strong.
'So we brought him back to his mother,
though we were intensely eager for him to remain among us
because of the abundant blessing we had seen from him.
We spoke to his mother, and I said to her,
"If only you would leave my little boy with me until he grows stronger,
for I fear the plague of Mecca for him."
And she did not truly fear the plague for him,
but she only wanted him because of the goodness she had witnessed upon his arrival, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
She said,
'So I kept persisting with her until she sent him back with us.'