Section: His journey with his uncle Abū Ṭālib to Syria and the account of Bahīrā the monk
Ibn Isḥāq said: Abū Ṭālib set out with a trading caravan bound for Syria. When everything was ready and the departure had been fixed, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—so it is related—clung to him, took hold of the rein of his camel, and said, “My uncle, to whom will you entrust me? I have neither father nor mother!” Abū Ṭālib’s heart softened, and he replied, “By Allah, I shall take him with me; he will never part from me, nor I from him.” Or words to that effect. Thus he took him along.
When the caravan reached Buṣrā in the Syrian territories, they found there a monk named Bahīrā in his hermitage. He possessed the learning of the Christians, and he had remained in that cell from time immemorial; according to what is claimed, their knowledge came down to him from a book kept there, handed down from master to master.
That year, when they camped near Bahīrā—though they had passed him many times before without his speaking to them or taking notice—he prepared a generous meal for them. They say this was because of something he had seen from his hermitage: he had observed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ approaching with the caravan, a cloud shading him above the rest. When they dismounted and sat in the shade of a nearby tree, he saw the cloud continue to overshadow the tree, and the branches bend down over the Messenger of Allah ﷺ until he was fully sheltered beneath them.
When Bahīrā witnessed this, he came down from his cell, ordered the meal to be set out, and sent word to them, saying, “I …”
(1) The biography of Bahīra appears in vol. 2 and is also found in Mukhtasar Ibn Manẓūr (vol. 5, p. 54), Al-Iṣābah (vol. 1, p. 176), and Sharḥ al-Mawāhib (vol. 1, p. 234).
(2) Sīrah Ibn Isḥāq (p. 53)—from which the following is quoted in brackets—and also in Sīrah Ibn Hishām (vol. 1, p. 180), al-Rawḍ (p. 205), al-Ṭabarī’s History (vol. 2, p. 77), Mukhtasar Ibn Manẓūr’s abridgment of Ibn ʿAsākir’s History (vol. 2, p. 7), and Sharḥ al-Mawāhib (vol. 1, p. 233) and the subsequent passages.
(3) In Sīrah Ibn Isḥāq it reads ṣubba lahu—probably a scribal error—while some transmitters have fa-ḍubba bihi, meaning “he adhered to it”, as in Sharḥ al-Mawāhib (vol. 1, p. 233). This meaning was already noted (previous page, note 1) in this volume.
(4) Busra: the qūra of Ḥawrān under Damascus; it capitulated by treaty on 5 Shawwāl 13 AH and was the first city opened in al-Shām. It was restored to Muslim rule twice (may Allah have mercy on them): first by this treaty, and second during Khadīja’s trade caravan with her freedman Maisarah. See ʿUyūn al-Buldān (vol. 1, p. 441), Mukhtasar Ibn Manẓūr (vol. 2, p. 5), and Sharḥ al-Mawāhib (vol. 1, p. 234). Today it lies about 142 km south of Damascus.
(5) Qaṭṭ here means “time and eternity”; it is spelled with three qāfs. See al-Tāj (s.v. qaṭṭ).
(6) The term rāḥib appears in mss. H and T; the correct form is rāḥiban (accusative), and the word fīhā is omitted in H.
(7) In ms. H it reads ilayhim; this is confirmed by ms. T.
(8) In Sīrah Ibn Isḥāq and Mukhtasar Ibn Manẓūr it reads fīhum; this is affirmed by Sīrah Ibn Hishām and al-Rawḍ al-Anf.
(9) In ms. H it reads ilayhim; this reading is supported by the cited sources.
(10) Tahassarat: “it drooped toward him”, from al-ḥaṣr (the bending of a fresh branch). See Lisān al-ʿArab (s.v. ḥaṣr).