The Description of His Illustrious Birth ﷺ

We have already related that when ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib slaughtered the hundred camels in ransom for his son ʿAbdullāh—having vowed to sacrifice him and Allah, exalted is He, spared him—it had been decreed from pre-eternity that from ʿAbdullāh’s loins the unlettered Prophet ﷺ, the Seal of the Messengers and the lord of Adam’s children, would arise. Accordingly, as mentioned earlier, he married ʿAbdullāh to the noblest lady of Quraysh, Āminah bint Wahb ibn ʿAbd Manāf ibn Zuhrah of the clan of Zuhrah. When ʿAbdullāh entered upon her and consummated the marriage, she conceived the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

Umm Qitāl, Ruqayyah bint Nawfal—the sister of Waraqah ibn Nawfal—had already noticed the light that shone between ʿAbdullāh’s eyes before he cohabited with Āminah. Because of what she heard from her brother about the glad tidings of Muḥammad’s advent ﷺ and the nearness of his time, she wished that the light might be joined to her and offered herself to him. Some say she proposed marriage—which is the more apparent meaning, and Allah knows best—but he declined. When that radiant light passed to Āminah through his union with her, it was as though she regretted her earlier offer; he therefore approached her again, hoping she would respond, but she said, “I have no need of you.” She lamented what she had missed and recited, on that occasion, the eloquent verses of poetry we have cited earlier (1).

This protection accorded to ʿAbdullāh was not for his own sake; rather, it was for the sake of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, for Allah the Exalted has said: “Allah knows best where to place His Message” (al-Anʿām 6:124). We have likewise cited, through a sound chain, the ḥadīth in which he ﷺ said, “I was born from lawful wedlock, not from fornication” (2).

The upshot is that when his mother conceived him, his father ʿAbdullāh died while he was still a fetus in her womb, according to the well-known view.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd (3) said: Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar—al-Wāqidī—narrated to us; Mūsā ibn ʿUbaydah al-Rabaḍī (4) [from Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb], and Saʿīd ibn Abī Zayd narrated to us from Ayyūb ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ṣaʿṣaʿah; both said:

“ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib set out for Syria, to Gaza, with a trading caravan of the Quraysh carrying merchandise. When they had concluded their business and turned back, they passed through Madinah while ʿAbdullāh was ill. He said, ‘I shall remain with my maternal uncles, the Banū ʿAdiyy ibn al-Najjār.’ He stayed with them, sick, for a month. His companions continued on until they reached Mecca. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib asked them about his son ʿAbdullāh. They replied, ‘We left him with his uncles, the Banū ʿAdiyy ibn al-Najjār, and he was ill.’ So he sent to him—”