—because a century blankets the entire earth with those who dwell upon it. Hence the Prophet ﷺ said in the prayer for rain: “O Allah, send us rescuing, abundant, all-encompassing rain, a drenching downpour,” meaning rain that covers the whole land. As for Allah’s statement, “You will certainly ride layer upon layer” (Q 84:19), it means: state after state.

al-nuṭuq is the plural of niṭāq, a belt fastened around the waist; from the same root comes the word minṭaqah. The poet therefore means: you are the very center of your people in lineage. He set him in the loftiest heights and placed them beneath him like belts. “Ḍāʾat” is a dialectal variant of “aḍāʾat” (it shone).

Thuwaybah nursed him:

Thuwaybah, the slavegirl of his uncle Abū Lahab, suckled him together with his uncle Ḥamzah and with Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Asad al-Makhzūmī—may Allah be pleased with them.

Shuʿayb narrated from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUrwah, that Zaynab bint Abī Salamah and her mother told him that Umm Ḥabībah said: “I said, ‘Messenger of Allah, marry my sister, the daughter of Abū Sufyān.’ He replied, ‘Do you like that?’ I said, ‘I cannot keep you to myself, and it pleases me that my sister should share in the good that has reached me.’ He said, ‘That is not lawful for me.’ I then said, ‘Messenger of Allah, we hear that you intend to marry Durrah bint Abī Salamah.’ He said, ‘By Allah, even if she were not my step-daughter raised in my lap, she would still be unlawful to me. She is the daughter of a brother of mine through suckling. Thuwaybah nursed both me and Abū Salamah. Therefore do not present to me your daughters or your sisters.’” Al-Bukhārī recorded this report.

ʿUrwah added in al-Bukhārī’s wording: “Thuwaybah was the freedwoman of Abū Lahab; he emancipated her, and she suckled the Prophet ﷺ. When Abū Lahab died, a member of his family saw him in a dream in a miserable state and asked, ‘What have you encountered?’ He replied, ‘Since leaving you I have found no relief except that I am given drink from this little hollow of mine because of my freeing Thuwaybah,’” and he pointed to the depression between—