They relate that al-Shaymāʾ would cradle the Messenger of God ﷺ alongside his mother whenever he was staying with them.
Ibn Isḥāq says: Jahm ibn Abī Jahm—freedman of a woman from Banū Tamīm who had been married to al-Ḥārith ibn Ḥāṭib and was therefore called “the freedman of al-Ḥārith ibn Ḥāṭib”—told me: someone who had heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib told me that he said, “I was informed by Ḥalīmah bint al-Ḥārith that she said:
‘I came to Mecca with a group of women from Banū Saʿd—Al-Wāqidī, through his chain, states that we were ten women from Banū Saʿd ibn Bakr—seeking infants to nurse during a year of severe drought. I arrived riding a pale she-donkey of mine that had lagged behind the caravan, and I had with me our small son and an old she-camel which, by God, was not giving a single drop of milk. We passed our nights sleepless with that child of ours, for I could find nothing in my breasts to satisfy him, nor in the camel any milk to nourish him, though we kept hoping for rain and relief.
‘I set out on that very donkey, and it held the whole party back so badly—weak and emaciated as it was—that the delay troubled them. When we finally reached Mecca, by God, there was not a single woman among us who was not offered the Messenger of God ﷺ, yet each one refused him; whenever we were told that he was an orphan we turned away, saying, “What could his mother possibly do for us? We count on the generosity of a child’s father; as for his mother, what can she give us?” By God, every one of my companions had taken a nursling except me.
‘When no infant remained but him and we were ready to depart, I said to my husband, al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā, “By God, I dislike returning with my companions while I have no baby. I shall go to that orphan and take him.” He replied, “There is no harm if you…’