HALIMAH AS-SA'DIYYAH
The next woman to suckle the Prophet ﷺ was Halimah bint Abi Dhu'ayb as-Sa'diyyah.
She took him to her village and kept him there for about four years, then she returned him to his mother.
'Abdullah bin Ja'far
narrated from Halimah, the (foster) mother of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, she said, "I went to Makkah in the company of some women, hoping to find babies to nurse.
I was riding a whitish donkey of mine, which was so slow that I was blamed for delaying the group.
We went during a year of drought, and we didn't have anything.
By Allah, our camel could not produce even a drop of milk.
My infant son was with me and he would not sleep at night due to his crying.
"When we arrived in Makkah, each one of us was offered the Prophet ﷺ as a nursing son.
We all refused because we depended on the generosity of the child's father for our services, and he was an orphan.
Every woman in our group took a baby to nurse except me.
I said to my husband, 'I will surely return and take him.'
So I went back and took him.
My husband said, 'Perhaps Allah will place good within him.'
"I swear by Allah, as soon as I put him in my lap, he turned to my breast and drank his fill of milk.
Then his [foster] brother drank spent until his thirst was quenched.
When my husband went out that night to check our camel, its udder was full of milk.
So he milked the camel and we drank until our thirst was quenched.
We the night with full stomachs, replenished.
And our boys likewise slept that night.
My husband said,
'By Allah, O Halimah, I believe you have acquired a blessed soul."
"This time when we went out with our same old camel, it was in the lead and no one was able to keep up.
We reached the outskirts of where our tribe, Banu Sa'd bin Bakr, was camped, and it was a very dry land.
I swear by the One who has my soul in His Hand, our sheep would go out and graze and the sheep of the other people would go out and graze.
Our sheep would return with full bellies and udders full of milk, while their sheep would return hungry without any milk.
They would say to their shepherds, 'Why don't you graze where Halimah's shepherd is grazing?'
So they sent their sheep to graze in the same pastures as our sheep, but their sheep returned hungry with dry udders, and our sheep returned again with full bellies and udders full of milk."
The Splitting of His Chest:
Halimah said,
"The Prophet matured in a way which no other child matured.
The maturity the other children reached in a month, he achieved in one day.
And the maturity they reached in one year, he reached in one month.
When he completed two years, we returned to Makkah, his [foster] father and I.
We said to his mother, 'We have not seen a child more blessed than him, and we fear he will be harmed by the diseases of Makkah if he stays here, so allow us to take him back with us until he gets older and develops immunity from these diseases.'
We pleaded with her until she agreed.
We kept him for about three or four months before the incident happened.
"One day, he and his brother were playing with some animals behind the houses when his brother came to us trembling.
His father and I were inside the house when he came in and said,
"Two men wearing white garments took my Qurayshi brother, laid him down, and cut open his stomach!'
His father and I ran out only to find him standing, and his color had changed.
When he saw us, he was on the verge of tears.
We hugged him and asked him what had happened.
He said, "Two men came to me, laid me down, and cut open my abdomen and did something, and then returned me back how I was.'
His father said, "This boy has been afflicted with something, let's take him back to his mother before more signs appear.'
So we returned him to his mother.
"When his mother saw us, she knew something was wrong.
She asked why we returned him so soon after having been persistent in taking him.
We said, 'Nothing is wrong, we have completed the suckling period for him, so I thought it better for you to take him because we are concerned about him.'
She did not accept our excuse, and she insisted we tell her the real story.
After we told her what had occurred and why we feared for his wellbeing, she said, 'Nay, on the contrary, Allah will never disgrace him, my son is special.
Shall I tell you about him?
When I was pregnant with him, I felt as though I never carried a lighter load or a greater blessing than him.
When I delivered him, I saw a great light coming out of me, like a shooting star that illuminated the palaces in Basra.
When he came out, he did not come out like other children.
He came out supporting his hands on the ground, raising his head to the sky.
So leave him, I will take care of him.'
So we left him with her."
The Prophet Honoring Halimah as-Sa'diyyah:
Abu Tufayl said:
I saw the Prophet ﷺ distributing meat at al-Ji'irranah."
I was a youth that day, and I was carrying the camel bones.
I saw a woman turn towards him until she approached the Prophet ﷺ, and he spread out his cloak for her and she sat upon it.
I said, "Who is she?"
They said, "This is his mother who suckled him."
End.
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