A woman approached, whereupon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ spread his cloak for her. I asked, “Who is she?” They replied, “She is the mother who suckled him.” This report is unusual; it may well mean his (foster) sister, for she used to look after him together with her mother, Ḥalīmah al-Saʿdiyyah. If, however, the narration is sound, then Ḥalīmah must have reached an exceptional age, for from the time she nursed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to the incident at al-Jiʿrānah is more than sixty years, and the youngest she could have been when she nursed him ﷺ is thirty. Allah knows best how long she lived after that.

A mursal ḥadīth has also come down stating that both of his foster parents visited him—Allah knows best how authentic it is. Abū Dāwūd said in Al-Marāsīl (1): Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Hamdānī narrated to us; Ibn Wahb narrated to us; ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith narrated that ʿUmar ibn al-Sāʾib told him it had reached him that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was sitting one day when his foster father came to him. He spread part of his cloak for him, and the man sat upon it. Then his foster mother arrived, so he spread the other side of his cloak for her and she sat on it. Next his foster brother came, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood up and seated him in front of himself.

It has already been noted that the entire tribe of Hawāzin is linked to him through suckling, via Banū Saʿd ibn Bakr, a clan of Hawāzin. Their spokesman, Zuhayr ibn Ṣurad, said: “O Messenger of Allah, those kept in the enclosures are your mothers, your maternal aunts, and your wet-nurses; so favour us—may Allah favour you.” Among the verses he recited were:

Show kindness to the women whose milk once nourished you,
When your mouth brimmed with pearls of its purest flow.
Show kindness to the women you nursed beside,
For all you do or leave undone still graces you.

That plea became the reason they were all set free, every last one. Thus the Prophet’s ﷺ generosity reached them once more—earlier and later, privately and publicly.

Al-Wāqidī (2) reported—through Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Sharḥabīl, from his father—that al-Naḍīr ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Kaladah was among the most forbearing of people. He used to say, “Praise be to Allah who has favoured us with Islam and with Muhammad ﷺ, and who did not cause us to die as our forefathers died, for which brothers and cousins were slain.” He then mentioned his former enmity toward the Prophet ﷺ and how he had gone out with his people from Quraysh to Ḥunayn while still upon their religion.

He said, “We had resolved that, should fortune turn against Muhammad, we would aid in his downfall, but that chance never came. When he reached al-Jiʿrānah—and by Allah I was still on what I had been—I suddenly heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saying, ‘O Naḍīr!’ I replied, ‘At your service.’ He said, ‘This is better than what you wanted on the Day of Ḥunayn, which Allah prevented you from attaining.’ I hurried to him and he said, ‘The time has come for you to see clearly what you have been floundering in.’

“I said, ‘I now realise that if there were any deity besides Allah it would have availed in some way. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone with no partner.’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then prayed, ‘O Allah, increase him in steadfastness.’ By Him who sent him with the truth,” al-Naḍīr continued, “my heart became as firm as a stone in faith and in recognising the truth.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Praise be to Allah who has guided him.”