It was made clear in the divine revelations he was to receive forty years later when the angel Gabriel told him that it was God’s choice to be His last messenger to mankind. Yet this was not indicated by some miraculous events accompanying his birth. 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. 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. We have various reports speaking of events that accompanied his birth, which people read as indicating his future role as God’s messenger. We also learn that he never engaged in loose pleasures, as young men often do in all types of society. Thus he combined noble descent with a good upbringing, a serious approach to life with honesty and faithfulness to trust, and varied life experience with high moral values. 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, and useful to him. Then as a young man, he traveled with a trade caravan to Syria, working as an agent for his future wife, Khadijah. Then as a teenager, he worked as a shepherd, tending sheep. Most hard was the loss of his mother when he was traveling with her in the desert. He also experienced life in the desert when he was with his wet nurse. He was nevertheless brought up by kind people: his wet nurse, mother, grandfather, as well as his uncle Abu Talib and his wife Fatimah. As we see later in his life, this was the spur for him to endeavor to be independent at an early age. What all this meant was that Muhammad (peace be upon him) was a young boy of noble descent in a society that attached much importance to family, tribal lineage, and loyalty. 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. Thus, Muhammad (peace be upon him) was deprived of both parents and grandfather by the time he was eight years old. On the way back he died.Īminah herself died when Muhammad (peace be upon him) was six years of age, and Abd Al-Muttalib followed her two years later. When this was done, he got married, but stayed only a brief period with his wife, Aminah, before joining a trade trip to Syria. However, he was ransomed for an offering of 100 camels. He was to be sacrificed in fulfillment of a pledge Abd Al-Muttalib had made long before his birth. His father, Abdullah, was the youngest of Abd Al-Muttalib’s 10 sons. His parents’ marriage lasted only a brief period. Special circumstances surrounded the childhood of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and these undoubtedly had a bearing on his character.
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