even though she was in the throes of labor, it was as if she were not giving birth at all. Umm Sulaym then said to her husband Abū Ṭalḥah, “Go on.” So he proceeded and entered Madinah with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and when they reached the city she delivered her child. In this lies an honor for Abū Ṭalḥah, may Allah be pleased with him, for Allah lightened his wife’s pains in response to his supplication.

After the birth, Umm Sulaym said to her son Anas ibn Mālik—who was the newborn’s maternal half-brother—“Carry him to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him,” and they took with them a few dates. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, would take a date, chew it, and then rub it on the baby’s palate, a practice that yields two benefits.

The first benefit is the blessing that comes from the Prophet’s saliva. The Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, used to seek blessing from his saliva and his perspiration. Indeed, their habit was that, when morning came and he had led the dawn prayer, they would bring basins of water; the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, would dip his hands into the water and rub them together, after which the boys would carry that water home so their families could receive blessing from the trace of the Messenger of Allah.

Likewise, whenever the Prophet performed ablution, the Companions would almost compete for the leftover water so that they could seek blessing from it, and they did the same with his sweat and his hair. Umm Salamah—one of the Prophet’s wives and thus one of the Mothers of the Believers—even kept a small silver flask containing a few strands of the Prophet’s hair; people would seek healing through them, bringing two or three strands at a time.