Seerah – Part 3
(March 26, 2021)
الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على سيد المرسلين وعلى آله وأصحابه أجمعين
In our last session, we talked briefly about the genealogy of the Prophet (S). We talked about Ibrahim (AS) and Isma‘il (AS), and then about Qusay, Hashim, and finally about ‘Abdul Muttalib.
InshaAllah, in today’s session of the Seerah, we will spend some time talking about the three important incidents that occurred in the life of ‘Abdul Muttalib – the paternal grandfather of the Prophet (S), and all these incidents which took place before the Prophet’s birth were: (1) The rediscovery of Zamzam, (2) ‘Abdul Muttalib’s vow to sacrifice one of his sons, and (3) The incident of Abraha and the elephants.
The rediscovery of Zamzam
The tribe of Jurham before they were defeated by Khuza’ah and expelled from Makkah had filled up the well of Zamzam and erased all its marks. All traces of the well of Zamzam were lost for over three hundred years, and the people of Makkah were forced to get water from other sources. They had to fetch their water from far away.
One day ‘Abdul Muttalib was very tired and fell asleep next to the Ka’bah. He had a dream in which he was told to dig up Zamzam. When he woke up he was puzzled because he did not know what Zamzam was, the well having disappeared many years before he was born. The next day he had the same dream, but this time he was told where to find the well. ‘Abdul Muttalib had one son at that time, and together they began to dig.
‘Abdul Muttalib’s vow to sacrifice one of his sons
The work of digging up Zamzam was so difficult that ‘Abdul Muttalib made an oath to Allah that if one day he were to have ten sons to help him and stand by him; in return he would sacrifice one of them in Allah’s honor. After working for three days they finally found the well of Zamzam. Pilgrims have been drinking from it ever since. The years passed by and ‘Abdul Muttalib did have ten sons. They grew into fine, strong men and the time came for him to keep his promise to Allah. He told his sons about the promise and they agreed that he had to sacrifice one of them. To see which one it would be, they decided to draw lots, which was the custom of Quraysh when deciding important matters.
‘Abdul Muttalib told each son to get an arrow and write his own name upon it and then to bring it to him. This they did, after which he took them to the Ka’bah where there was a man whose special task was to cast arrows and pick one from among them. This man proceeded to do this. On the arrow he chose was written the name of ‘Abdullah, the youngest and favorite son of ‘Abdul Muttalib. Even so, the father took his son near the Ka’bah and prepared to sacrifice him. Many of the Quraysh leaders were present and they became very angry because ‘Abdullah was very young and much loved by everyone. They tried to think of a way to save his life.
Someone suggested that the advice of a wise old woman who lived in Yathrib should be sought, and so ‘Abdul Muttalib took his son and went to see if she could decide what to do. Some of the Makkans went with them and when they got there the woman asked, ‘What is the price of a man’s life?’ They told her, ‘Ten camels’, for at that time if one man killed another, his family would have to give ten camels to the dead man’s family in order to keep peace among them.
So the woman told them to go back to the Ka’bah and draw lots between ‘Abdullah and ten camels. If the camels were chosen, they were to be killed and the meat given to the poor. If ‘Abdullah was picked then ten more camels were to be added and the lots drawn again and again until they finally fell on the camels.
‘Abdul Muttalib returned to the Ka’bah with his son and the people of Makkah. There they started to draw lots between ‘Abdullah and the camels, starting with ten camels. ‘Abdul Muttalib prayed to Allah to spare his son and everyone waited in silence for the result. The choice fell on ‘Abdullah, so his father added ten more camels. Again the choice fell on ‘Abdullah, so they did the same thing again and again, adding ten camels each time. Finally they reached one hundred camels, and only then did the lot fall on the camels. ‘Abdullah was saved and everyone was very happy. ‘Abdul Muttalib however, wanted to make sure that this was the true result so he repeated the draw three times and each time it fell on the camels. He then gave thanks to Allah that He had spared ‘Abdullah’s life. The one hundred camels were sacrificed and there was enough food for the entire city, even the animals and birds.
‘Abdullah grew up to be a handsome young man and his father eventually chose Aminah, the daughter of Wahb, as a wife for him. It was a good match for she was the finest of Quraysh women and ‘Abdullah the best of the men. He spent several months with his wife but then he had to leave her and travel with one of the caravans to Syria for trade. On his way back to Makkah from Syria, ‘Abdullah became ill and had to stop off in Yathrib to recover. The caravan, however, continued on its way and arrived back in Makkah without him. On hearing of ‘Abdullah’s illness, ‘Abd al-Muttalib sent one of his sons to bring ‘Abdullah back to Makkah, but he was too late. When he arrived in Yathrib ‘Abdullah was dead. Aminah was heartbroken to lose her husband and the father of the child she would soon give birth to. Only Allah knew that this orphan child would one day be a great Prophet.
The incident of Abraha and the elephants
A third very important event that took place during the life of ‘Abdul Muttalib was the story of Abraha. Abraha was the Christian governor of Yemen, under Najashi, not the same Najashi as the one that the Prophet’s companions emigrated to, but his father. Abraha used to see his people, every year, go north. So he said, “Where are you all going?” And they said, “We have to go to do hajj.” He said, “Why? What is there?” They said, “There’s a House of Allah.” So he said, “I will build you a house that is far better than any of your houses, and you will come for hajj here.” So he built a massive cathedral in Yemen, that would become the biggest house of worship of Christianity in the entire Arabian Peninsula, and he ordered everyone to come there for pilgrimage rather than going to Makkah.
It so happened that one of the bedouins went to the cathedral and relieved himself there. When Abraha came to know about this, he became very angry, and said that he would destroy the Ka’bah in Makkah so that people would only come to his House of worship in Yemen. As he was from Africa, he had trained elephants to be instruments of war.
And this was when he marched towards Makkah with the intention to destroy the Ka’bah. He hired an Arab guide named Abu Rughal for this journey. When he got to Makkah, he captured the livestock of about 200 camels belonging to ‘Abdul Muttalib. ‘Abdul Muttalib came to meet Abraha to get back his camels. It is said that when he entered into the tent, Abraha was in awe by ‘Abdul Muttalib’s personality and actually stood up from his seat and sat down on the floor to show respect to him and said, “Abdul Muttalib, the chieftain of Makkah has come.”
Then Abraha said to ‘Abdul Muttalib, “I have no problem with you. You get out of the city. There’s nothing personal against you. I have just come to destroy the Ka’bah. And that’s when ‘Abdul Muttalib said, “I didn’t come to you to talk about the Ka’bah. I came to you to talk about my camels.” And this is when Abraha lost all respect for ‘Abdul Muttalib and said, “I have come to destroy your sacred House, and you’re coming to talk to me about your camels.” “It’s not my business, said ‘Abdul Muttalib. “The House has a Lord who will protect it. And the camels are my responsibility and under my care, and it’s my job to protect them.”
‘Abdul Muttalib got back his camels. And that was when the Quraysh left the city for the mountains, after making lots of du’a. Abraha’s elephant called ‘Mahmud’ was directed toward the Ka’bah in order to demolish it, but the elephant would not go despite whipping it and beating it until it bled. But when it was directed toward Yemen, it began to move in that direction. It was as if Allah had stopped the elephant from entering the precincts of the holy Ka’bah.
Suddenly, flocks of birds appeared carrying stones as small as peas and they dropped them on Abraha’s army. The soldiers suddenly fell ill. Even Abraha was hit by the stones and fled in fear with the rest of his army back to Yemen, where he later died. On seeing their enemy flee the Arabs came down from the mountains to the Ka’bah and gave thanks to Allah.
After this, Quraysh gained great respect and became known as ‘the people of Allah’ and the year in which this event took place (570 CE) was named the ‘Year of the Elephant.’ In that year Allah had saved the Ka’bah and He would soon bring forth a Prophet from among Quraysh.
The Prophet is Born
One day, while travelling north, one of the Arab tribes from Makkah met a hermit in the desert. Some of the men stopped to speak with him. Hermits were known to be wise and the Arabs often asked their advice. The hermit asked where they had come from. When they replied that they were from Makkah, he told them that Allah would soon send a Prophet, who would come from their people. They asked the name of this Prophet and the hermit answered that his name would be Muhammad and that he would guide them to a new way of life. Meanwhile in Makkah, Aminah, although saddened by the loss of her husband, felt especially well and strong as she awaited the birth of her baby. During this time she dreamt of many things. On one occasion it was as if a great light were shining out of her, and on another she heard a voice telling her that she would have a boy and that his name would be Muhammad. She never forgot that voice but she told no one about it.
On Monday, the twelfth day of Rabi al-Awwal in the Year of the Elephant, Aminah gave birth to a son. Allah sends people many signs when one of His chosen Prophets is born and on that twelfth day of Rabi al-Awwal in the year 570 CE, many such signs were seen. Some were seen by Jewish scholars who had read in their scriptures of coming of a Prophet. One of these learned men in Yathrib, for instance, saw a brilliant new star he had never seen before as he studied the heavens that night. He called the people around him and pointing the star out to them, told them that a Prophet must have been born.
That same night another Jew was passing by the meeting place of the leaders of Quraysh in Makkah. He asked them if a baby boy had just been born and told them that if it were true, this would be the Prophet of the Arab nation. Aminah sent news of the birth to her father-in-law, ‘Abdul Muttalib, who was sitting near the Ka’bah at the time. He was very happy and began at once to think of a name for the boy. An ordinary name would not do. Six days came and went and still he had not decided. But on the seventh day, as he lay asleep near the Ka’bah, ‘Abdul Muttalib dreamt that he should give the baby the unusual name of Muhammad, just as Aminah herself had dreamt. And the child was called Muhammad, which means ‘the praised one.’ When ‘Abdul Muttalib informed the leaders of Quraysh about his grandson’s name, many of them asked him why he had not chosen a name used by them. ‘Abdul Muttalib replied that he wanted his grandson to be praised by Allah in the heavens and praised by men on the earth.
We’ll conclude here and inshaAllah, we’ll continue with the story of the Prophet’s life when he was just two years old, at the time when he came into the care of his foster mother – Halimah.
————————————————————————————————————
Resources and References:
Imam Ibn Kathir – Stories of the Prophets
Leila Azzam & Aisha Gouverneur – the Life of the Prophet Muhammad
Anwar Al-Awlaki – The Life of Muhammad (Makkan Period) & The Life of Muhammad (Medina Period): https://www.kalamullah.com/muhammad.html
Aisha Stacey – The Religion of Islam (islamreligion.com)
