Prophet Muhammad - 3: A Child In Difficult Circumstances -
The Fulfilling Messenger
2 March 2010By Adil Salahi
Special circumstances surrounded childhood of Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him) and these undoubtedly had
a bearing on his character. His parents’ marriage
lasted only a brief period. His father, Abdullah, was
the youngest of Abd Al-Muttalib’s 10 sons.
He was to be sacrificed in fulfillment of a pledge Abd
Al-Muttalib had made long before his birth. However,
he was ransomed for an offering of 100 camels. When
this was done, he got married, but stayed only a brief
period with his wife, Aminah, before joining a trade
trip to Syria. On the way back he died.
Aminah herself died when Muhammad was six years of
age, and Abd Al-Muttalib followed her two years later.
Thus, Muhammad was deprived of both parents and
grandfather by the time he was eight years old. Thus
he experienced being an orphan, cared for by relatives
who were kind, particularly his uncle Abu Talib who
treated him as his own son.
What all this meant was that Muhammad was a young boy
of noble descent in a society that attached much
importance to family, tribal lineage and loyalty.
However, he was of limited means. As we see later in
his life, this was the spur for him to endeavor to be
independent from an early age. He was nevertheless
brought up by kind people: his wet nurse, mother,
grandfather, as well as his uncle Abu Talib and his
wife Fatimah. He also experienced life in the desert
when he was with his wet nurse. Most hard was his loss
of his mother when he was traveling with her in the
desert. Then as a teenager he worked as a shepherd,
tending sheep.
Then as a young man, he traveled with a trade caravan
to Syria, working as agent for his future wife,
Khadijah. We learn that he was exemplary in his
attending to his work, faithful to his trust, with a
keen eye to ensure that his mission was profitable for
his employer, useful to him. Thus he combined noble
descent with good upbringing, a serious approach to
life with honesty and faithfulness to trust, and
varied life experience with high moral values. We also
learn that he never engaged in loose pleasures, as
young men often do in all types of society.
We have various reports speaking of events that
accompanied his birth, which people read as indicating
his future role as God’s messenger. These reports
cannot be confirmed. We do not, however, attach much
importance to them because they were not clear enough
to those who might have witnessed them so as to
understand their significance. It is true that
Muhammad’s birth signaled the end of confused ideas
about God, and the establishment of the true faith
that would remain available to mankind for the rest of
human life. Yet this was not indicated by some
miraculous events accompanying his birth. It was made
clear in the divine revelations he was to receive
forty years later, when the angel Gabriel told him
that he was God’s choice to be His last messenger to
mankind.
When we look at the situation of mankind at the time,
we recognize that the world was in great need for a
message from God to set its life on the right course.
And when we look at Muhammad’s early years, we realize
that his difficult childhood was part of his
preparation for his future role. He was the one most
suited to deliver God’s message, and his preparation
for that task was a continuous process that was soon
to yield its fruits.
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