962 — Abū Bakr Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Hamīd al-Wāsitī narrated to us: Abū Alī al-Husayn ibn Alī al-Sudā’ī narrated to us: Muhammad ibn Ubayd al-Sulamī narrated to us: Umar ibn Subh al-Tamīmī narrated to us, from Thawr ibn Yazīd, from Makhūl, from Shaddād ibn Aws, who said:

While the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was speaking to us at the door of the chamber, an elderly man from Banū Āmir approached. He was his people’s spokesman and chief, an aged man leaning upon a staff. He stood before the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, addressed him by his grandfather’s name, and said:

“O son of Abd al-Muttalib, ⦗1423⦘ I have been informed that you claim to be the Messenger of Allah to mankind, bearing that with which Moses, Jesus, and the other prophets were sent. You have indeed uttered a momentous claim! Rulers and prophets have only ever arisen from two houses among the Children of Israel, yet you belong to neither of those houses. You are merely an Arab from among those who used to worship these stones and idols. What have you to do with prophethood? Every claim, however, has a reality behind it, so tell me the truth behind your claim and how your affair began.”

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was impressed by his questioning and said, “Brother of Banū Āmir, the matter about which you ask has a story that requires a sitting, so sit down.” The man bent his leg and settled down as a camel kneels. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, then began telling him:

“Brother of Banū Āmir, the truth behind my claim and the beginning of my affair is this: I am the fulfillment of the prayer of my father Abraham, and my brother Jesus, son of Mary, gave glad tidings of me. My mother carried me, and I was her firstborn. She carried me as the heaviest burden a woman could bear, until she began complaining to her companions about the weight she felt. Then my mother saw in a dream that the child within her was a light. She said, ‘I followed the light with my eyes, but it continued to outstrip my sight until the eastern and western reaches of the earth were illuminated for me.’

“She then gave birth to me, and I grew. As I grew, I was made to loathe the idols of Quraysh, and I was made to loathe poetry. I was being wet-nursed among Banū Layth ibn Bakr. One day, while I was some distance from my family with ⦗1424⦘ boys of my own age in the bottom of a valley, tossing al-julla back and forth, a group of three men approached me. They carried a golden basin filled with snow. They seized me and took me away from among my companions. My companions fled until they reached the rim of the valley. They then turned toward the three men and called out, ‘What do you want with this boy? He is not one of us; he comes from the chief of Quraysh and is merely being wet-nursed among us. He is an orphan boy with neither father nor mother. What benefit will killing him bring you? What will you gain from it? If you are determined to kill him, choose whichever one of us you wish, let him come to you in his place, and kill him instead. Leave this boy, for he is an orphan!’

“When the boys saw that the men gave them no reply, they fled swiftly to the encampment to inform its people and summon their help against the men. One of the three then gently laid me upon the ground. He cut me open from the center of my chest down to the end of my pubic region while I watched, yet I felt nothing. He then removed the organs from my abdomen and washed them with that snow, washing them thoroughly before returning them to their place.

“The second then said to his companion, ‘Step aside.’ He inserted his hand into my body, removed my heart, and split it open while I watched. He took a black morsel from it and cast it away. He then made a motion with his hand as though taking hold of something, and suddenly there was a seal of light in his hand, before whose brilliance the eyes of onlookers would be bewildered. He sealed my heart with it and returned it to its place. My heart was filled with light, and I continued to feel the coolness of that seal within my heart for a very long time.

“The third then said to his companion, ‘Step aside,’ and he moved away from me. He took me by the hand and gently raised me to my feet. They then bent over me, embraced me to their breasts, and kissed my head and the spot between ⦗1425⦘ my eyes. They said, ‘Beloved one, do not be afraid. If you knew the good intended for you, your eyes would be filled with delight.’

“The first of them, who had opened my abdomen, then said, ‘Weigh him against ten men from his nation.’ They weighed me against them, and I outweighed them. He then said, ‘Weigh him against one hundred men from his nation.’ They weighed me against them, and I outweighed them. He then said, ‘Weigh him against one thousand men from his nation.’ They weighed me against them, and I outweighed them. He said, ‘Leave him. Were you to weigh him against his entire nation, he would outweigh them all.’

“While we were thus, the whole encampment arrived, every last one of them. My mother—meaning my wet nurse—was at their head, crying at the top of her voice, ‘Oh, my helpless boy! You were singled out as weak among your companions and killed because of your weakness!’ The three bent over me, embraced me to their breasts, kissed my head and the spot between my eyes, and said, ‘How blessed a helpless boy you are, and how dear you are to Allah!’

“She then cried, ‘Oh, my lone child!’ They bent over me, embraced me to their breasts, and said, ‘How blessed a lone child you are! Yet you are not alone: Allah is with you, as are His angels and the believers among the people of the earth.’

“My wet nurse then cried, ‘Oh, my orphan boy!’ They bent over me, embraced me to their breasts, kissed my head and the spot between my eyes, and said, ‘How blessed an orphan you are! How dear you are to Allah!’

“When my mother—meaning my wet nurse—saw me, she said, ‘My son! Can it be that I see you alive after all?’ She gathered me into her lap. By Him in whose hand is my soul, I was in her lap as she held me close, while my hand was still in the hand of one of the three. I thought the people could see them, but they could not.

“One of the people said, ‘This boy has been afflicted by a visitation from the jinn. Take him to a soothsayer so that he may examine and treat him.’ ⦗1426⦘ I said, ‘My good man, I find myself entirely sound and my heart healthy. There is no affliction in me.’ My father—that is, my wet nurse’s husband—said, ‘Do you not see that the boy’s speech is sound? I hope there is nothing wrong with my son.’

“They nevertheless agreed to take me to the soothsayer. They carried me to him and related my story. He said, ‘Be silent until I question the boy, for he knows more about what happened to him than you do.’ He questioned me, and I related my story to him from beginning to end. He drew me close and cried, ‘O Arabs! O Arabs! Kill this boy, and kill me with him! By al-Lāt and al-Uzzā, if you leave him alive until he comes of age, he will surely oppose your religion and the religion of your forefathers. He will surely defy your ways and bring you a religion unlike anything you have ever seen!’

“My mother pulled me from his lap and said, ‘You are more foolish and more insane than this son of mine! Had I known that you would say such a thing, I would never have brought him to you. Find someone to kill you if you wish, for we shall not kill this boy.’ They carried me away and returned me to my family. By morning I still bore the mark of what had been done to me, and the incision from the center of my chest to the end of my pubic region remained like a sandal thong.

“That, brother of Banū Āmir, is the truth behind my claim and the beginning of my affair.”

The man from Banū Āmir said, “I bear witness by Allah—there is no deity but Him—that your cause is indeed true,” and he continued the hadith.