June 26th: Prophet Muhammad (Part 3)

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)- Part 3

The year of the elephant:
- Meanwhile, in Yemen. Abrahah (the governor) had a goal to build a church to rival the Kaabah. He said to his king, I’m going to build you a beautiful church that will actually divert the people while their on their way to the Kaabah.
- So he constructed this church.
- One of the Arabs vandalized the church, when abrahah found out about it he decided to go and destroy the kaabah.
- He collects a massive army and the began heading towards the Kaabah to level it. The army was led by an elephant.
- When they reached the kaabah, Abrahah asked them to speak to their chief. They had no chief though at that time so they chose to send Abdul-Muttalib.
- Abrahah is impressed by the way Abdul-Muttalib looks so he actually stand up for him. He explains to him that he’s not there to fight and that he only needs to level the Kaabah and leave.
- Abdul Muttalib says, on your way here there was a pasture and in that pasture there were two hundred camels which you took, can Ihave them back?
- Abrahah is shocked at this response and says that he lost all the respect he had for him.
- Abdul Muttalib said, I’m the owner of the 200 camels and so I’m worried about them. Allah is owner of the Kaabah and He will take care of it.
- Abrahah gives him bag the camels and says we’ll see what your Lord will do.
- Abdul Muttalib orders everyone to exit the city and so they head to the mountains. Abdul Muttalib makes dua at the Kaabah before he leaves “oh Allah protect your house”
- The next morning Abrahah wakes up and he decides to go ahead with the plan. The elephant however won’t move except when they turn him towards Yemen.
- They’re wondering what’s going and instead of turning back while they had the chance they kept forcing the elephant to turn back towards the kaabah. Allah of a sudden the sky turns pitch black and all these birds cover the entire sky and each bird had three pebbles… one in each claw and one in the beak. They start to drop the pebbles and the army starts to die… some died there, some died on the way to Yemen and some died in Yemen. Abrahah also died.
- The Arabs realized that there was a special characteristic about Quraish.
- It was referred to as the year of the elephant.
- Abdullah was not in Makkah during this time, he was in a caravan heading to Syria. Abdullah became sick in Yathrib on his way back and he passed away.
- Aamenah received news that her husband passed away and she was devastated. She was a pregnant newlywed.
- She had a special pregnancy though. She saw a light emanating from her womb. She had a very easy pregnancy.
- The Prophet was born in Makkah. Abdul Muttalib took the baby to the kaabah and made dua for him
- The custom among Quraish was to send the baby to the desert to be nursed, weaned , and then raised.
- This is because the desert is a very natural environment, and to teach their kids the purest Arabic language. Arabic was their pride… the ability to speak it in the most eloquent way. Someone who is eloquent is considered noble.
- Desert tribes would come to Makkah to seek babies they could take care of
- This was not done for money but for connection, the baby would become a link between them and a tribe in Makkah.
- One of the tribes that had the highest reputation for the ability to raise children was called bani saad.
- Aamenah wanted her son to be taken by the tribe of bani saad. However, all the women kept refusing taking her baby because her father died young… which means he had little to give as far as power…
- The poorest amongst the wet nurses was called Haleemah. She was so poor that as she traveled to makkah her own baby was crying all night because of hunger. She wasn’t even producing milk.
- She and her husband came on a donkey and the donkey was starving as well, it was thin and very slow. All the wet nurses got there before her and all the babies were taken.
- Aamenah then approaches Haleema to take her baby. Haleema refuses because the baby is an orphan, etc.
- After she says no, she realizes that there aren’t any other babies left. She tells her husband that they should take the baby because it’s better to go back with something than to go back empty handed.
- That simple decision changed Haleema’s life.
- As soon as Haleema takes the Prophet (pbuh) she becomes filled with milk. The Prophet would eat and sleep and she would be able to feed her own child as well.
- The milkless camel and donkey they had also had milk now…both her and her husband drank milk and went to sleep as well.
- Now they got on the donkey and donkey is twice the speed of a normal donkey, they were now faster than the whole tribe.
- When they got home it was barakah upon barakah for them.
- Her animals were always filled with milk…
- The story about the man, the dream and the 1000 dirhams (barakah)
- Anytime you carry on anything associated with the Prophet (his sunnah), there’s barakah.
- The Prophet grew up and he was a healthy baby, at 2 he was weaned and that’s when they usually return the baby to the mother. Haleemah asked Aamenah to keep the baby a little longer and she agreed.
- One day he was playing behind the tent with his foster brother. Haleemah’s son comes running to her and tells her that two men came to the Prophet, they took him and opened his chest. She got worried, ran to see what happened. She saw that he was ok… but there was an obvious mark on his chest.
- She asked the Prophet about what happened and he said the two men opened his chest and they seemed to be looking for something but he didn’t know what it was.
- Later on the Prophet tells us that those angels took out his heart, washed it, and removed a tiny black clot from it.
- After this Haleema got worried and wanted to return him to his mother. They go back and tell the mother, expecting her to panic. Aamenah reassures them, she says… don’t worry, this is a really special baby. She told them how a light that came out of her womb while she was pregnant allowed her to see very far distances. However, she still chose to keep him with her.
- At 6 yrs old he was taken to Yathrib to visit his relatives. There he learned how to swim and he learned how to fly a kite.
- On the way back, his mother died.
- Abdul-Muttalib was now taking care of the Prophet (pbuh).
- He had a very special place in the heart of his grandfather. He would take him with him to important meetings he would have with Quraish and he would ask for his opinion and take it into consideration.
- 2 years later his grandfather passes away.