When we reached our tent, my husband turned to me with tears in his eyes and said, “I fear that this blessed boy has been struck by something we are unable to ward off… Return him to his people; they are better able than we to deal with it.”

So we lifted the boy and traveled with him until we reached Mecca. We entered his mother’s house; the moment she saw us she fixed her gaze on her child’s face, then hurriedly asked me, “What has brought you back with Muhammad, Halimah, when you were so eager for him, so keen that he stay with you?!”

I replied, “His frame has grown strong… his youth is now complete… I have fulfilled my duty toward him, and I feared unforeseen mishaps for him; therefore I have brought him back to you…”