the thumb and the finger next to it.

Then Ḥalīmah al-Saʿdiyyah nursed him:

Ḥalīmah bint Abī Dhuaib al-Saʿdiyyah suckled him, took him back with her to her land, and he stayed with her among Banū Saʿd for roughly four years before she returned him to his mother.

Yahyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah said: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related from Jahm ibn Abī Jahm, from ʿAbd Allāh Jaʿfar, from Ḥalīmah bint al-Ḥārith—the Prophet’s foster-mother, al-Saʿdiyyah—who said:

“I set out to Mecca with a group of women looking for infants to nurse. I was riding a pale-grey she-donkey of mine that had fallen so far behind the caravan it could scarcely keep up. We were travelling in a drought-stricken year that had spared nothing. We also had an old she-camel with us, but by Allah it was not giving us even a single drop of milk. I had my own little boy with me, and we could not sleep at night because of his crying.

“When we reached Mecca, every single woman among us was offered the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, yet each one refused him. We had hoped for the generosity of a child’s father, and he was an orphan. By the time my companions had all taken a child, I alone had none. I said to my husband, ‘Let me go back to that orphan and take him.’ So I went, took him in my arms, and my husband said, ‘Perhaps Allah will place blessing in him.’

“By Allah, no sooner had I put him in my lap than my breast brimmed with as much milk as he wished. He drank and his foster-brother drank until they were both satisfied. That night my husband went to our she-camel and found its udder full; he milked it, and we drank our fill until we were completely satiated. We spent the night well-fed and refreshed, and our children slept soundly. His (foster) father said, ‘By Allah, Ḥalīmah, I see that you have taken a most blessed soul.’ Then we set out, and by Allah, when I departed…"