Sulaymān ibn al-Mughīrah narrated from Thābit, from Anas, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ stated, “While I was with my family, someone came to me and led me to Zamzam. My chest was then opened, and a golden basin filled with wisdom and faith was brought and poured into my chest”—Anas added, “and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ showed us the scar”—“after which the angel carried me up to the lowest heaven,” whereupon he related the rest of the ḥadīth of the Miʿrāj.

A report to the same effect was transmitted by Sharīk ibn Abī Numayr from Anas, from Abū Dharr, and likewise by al-Zuhrī from Anas, from Abū Dharr. Qatādah narrated it from Anas, from Mālik ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿah, in similar wording.

I have mentioned these accounts so that it is known that Gabriel opened his chest on two occasions: once during his childhood and once on the night of the Isrāʾ.

The Death of His Father

ʿAbd Allah, the Prophet’s ﷺ father, died when the Prophet ﷺ was twenty-eight months old, though some say he was even younger.

Another view holds that he died while the Prophet ﷺ was still in the womb. ʿAbd Allah had fallen ill in Medina after stopping there to purchase dates; others say he merely passed through the city on his return from Syria. Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Qurazī and others narrated that ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib traveled with a trading caravan to Gaza in Syria. On their return they passed through Medina, and ʿAbd Allah, being sick, said, “I will remain with my maternal uncles, the sons of ʿAdiyy ibn al-Najjār.” He stayed with them, ailing, for a month. When word reached ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, he sent al-Ḥārith—his eldest son—to him, but he found that ʿAbd Allah had already died and been buried in the house of al-Nābighah, one of the sons of al-Najjār. According to the soundest opinion, the Prophet ﷺ was still in the womb at that time. ʿAbd Allah lived twenty-five years; al-Wāqidī said that this is the strongest view regarding the year of his death.