replied: “I am only the master of my camels, but the House has its own Lord who is sure to protect it.” Abrahah snapped: “It cannot be defended against me.” The Makkan chief said: “You take your chance!” Abrahah returned his camels.
One report suggests that a number of Arab chiefs went with ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib to meet Abrahah. They offered to give the Abyssinian commander one-third of all the revenue of their land if he would go back without destroying the Kaʿbah. He refused their proposal. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib went back to the Quraysh and told them of his encounter with Abrahah. He ordered them to leave Makkah and seek shelter in the surrounding mountains. Then he went with a few important members of the Quraysh to the Kaʿbah, where they all prayed hard to God for His help and protection for the House. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib is reported to have held the door ring in his hand in a gesture of a most earnest plea. He is said to have recited the following lines of poetry in his prayers:
Our Lord, a creature protects his property, so protect Yours. Let not their cross and their might ever overcome Your might. If You are leaving them to destroy our House of worship, then You surely have something in mind.
In the morning, Abrahah gave orders to his army to prepare to march with the elephants to complete their mission. While they were making their preparations, Nufayl went to the elephant and whispered in his ear: “Sit down, elephant, or go back where you came from. This is God’s sacred city.” The big elephant sat down when the army was just outside Makkah, and refused to go any further. The soldiers exerted every effort to persuade the elephant to enter the city, but their efforts were in vain. This particular incident is a fact acknowledged by the Prophet. When his she-camel, al-Qaṣwā’, sat down some distance away from Makkah, on the day when the al-Ḥudaybiyah peace agreement was concluded, the Prophet said to those of his companions who claimed that she had become mulish, that she had not, and that mulishness was not in her nature. “But”, the Prophet added, “she has been prevented by the same will which debarred the elephant from entering Makkah.” (Related by al-Bukhārī.)
Then God’s will to destroy the Abyssinian army and its commander was fulfilled. He sent flights of birds to bombard the attackers with stones of sand and clay, leaving them like dry and torn leaves, as the Qur’ān tells. The majority – but not all – of the soldiers were hit by these stones. Whoever was hit was sure to die quickly. Abrahah suffered physical injuries. Those of his soldiers who were spared carried him back to Yemen, but his limbs began to separate from the rest of his body, and he started to lose one finger after another, until he arrived at Ṣanʿā’. According to various reports, Abrahah died after his chest was broken apart.
Thus God foiled Abrahah’s scheme to destroy the Kaʿbah. In their way, the Arabs were very thankful to God for saving His House from destruction at Abrahah’s hands. When God sent His Messenger with His final message, He reminded the Arabs of this event in a short sūrah in the Qur’ān which carries the title ‘The Elephant’, by way of recounting aspects of His favours to the Arabs. This sūrah was revealed as an endorsement of the Prophet’s call to the Arabs to accept Islam. It says: “Have you not seen how your Lord dealt with the people of the Elephant? Did He not cause their treacherous plan to be futile, and sent against them flights of birds, which pelted them with stones of sand and clay? Thus He made them like devoured dry leaves.”13
NOTES
1. Ismāʿīl ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah wal-Nihāyah, Maktabat al-Maʿārif, Beirut, Vol. 1, pp. 153-167. [All the details of Abraham’s family history given here are based on Ibn Kathīr’s account.]
2. ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah, Dār al-Qalam, Beirut, Vol. 1, pp. 116-118.
3. Ibid., pp. 119-123 and 130-137.
4. Ibid., pp. 123-124.
5. Ibid., pp. 138-140.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid., pp. 150-153.
8. Ibid., pp. 160-164.
9. Ibid., pp. 164-165.
10. Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, ʿUyūn al-Athar, Dār al-Turāth, Madinah, 1996, pp. 78-79.
11. Ibn Hisham, op.cit., pp. 43-47.
12. Ibid., pp. 47-49.
13. Ibid., pp. 49-56.
IT IS SAID that Āminah, the Prophet’s mother, had no great trouble with her pregnancy. Everything went right for her. She heard a great deal about other women having all sorts of trouble when they were pregnant. Hers, however, was a very easy pregnancy, associated with the hope that the coming child would brighten her life after the totally unexpected tragedy of her husband’s death.
There was nothing unusual about the birth of Muhammad. The only thing worth mentioning is that his mother reported later that she had an easy delivery. Historians could not determine for certain the exact year of his birth. Most reports, however, suggest that it was in AD 570, the year when Abrahah, the Abyssinian ruler of Yemen, launched his attack against Makkah. As for the date, it was most probably on the 12th of Rabīʿ al-Awwāl in the year 53 BH.1 There is nothing particularly significant about determining the exact date of Muhammad’s birth. Whatever celebrations are held nowadays on that date have no Islamic basis. They are merely traditional celebrations which have no religious significance.2
There are some reports about certain happenings which pointed to the forthcoming destruction of the Persian Empire and its pagan faith. Other incidents suggesting the eclipse of other religions are also reported to have taken place on the day Muhammad was born. While Muhammad’s birth heralded the imminent collapse of all erring beliefs, such reports cannot be taken seriously. We have no solid evidence to prove them. Moreover, no importance is attached to them from the Islamic viewpoint, even if one assumes them to be true.3
When Āminah delivered her baby, she sent for his grandfather, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, to come and have a look at him. He was very happy when he saw him. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was still very sad at the loss of his son, ʿAbdullāh, but the birth of Muhammad assuaged his sadness as he looked forward to a bright future for the newborn child. He took the baby and went to the Kaʿbah where he prayed for him at length. He thanked God for giving him a boy to bear the name of his deceased son. Then he took him back to his mother, who told him that she heard voices commanding her to call her child Muhammad.4
Muhammad means ‘often praised’, or ‘worthy of praise’. It was a totally unfamiliar name in Arabia. Nevertheless, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib had no hesitation in calling his grandson by that name. He could never dismiss the thought that the events which led to the birth of this child suggested that he was certain to have great influence on the life of his community. When he was questioned by the notables of Makkah about this unfamiliar name he had given to his grandchild, he answered that he wished the boy to be praised by human beings on earth and by God in heaven.5
Muhammad was given to Thuwaybah, a servant of his uncle, Abū Lahab, to breastfeed him for a few days until long-term arrangements for his nursing were made.
Infancy in the Desert
It was the tradition of the noblemen of Makkah to send their children to be breastfed by Bedouin wet nurses. They felt that the open space of the desert was far better for the children in their early years than the close atmosphere in the city. They thought that when a child was nursed in the desert he was certain to grow up physically strong and healthy.
Every now and then, Bedouin women came to Makkah to seek newborn babies. They were prepared to wet-nurse them for the wages and gifts which were certain to be given to them by the babies’ parents. There was no set fee for the task: it was left to the generosity of the father.
A group of such Bedouin women arrived in Makkah shortly after Muhammad