The First Profession: A Shepherd of Sheep

The first profession for the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was shepherding — that's the first thing he did. And in al-Bukhārī, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says, "Allah has not sent a prophet that wasn't a shepherd." His companions then asked, "And you?" He said, "Yes, I used to herd sheep in return for a wage, for the people of Makkah." Every prophet has been a shepherd. It's striking that Allah (swt) has trained all of His prophets by going through this line of work — being a shepherd.

What are the lessons that we can learn from prophets being shepherds? There are lessons to be learned from them being shepherds, and there are lessons to be learned from them being shepherds of specifically sheep, because that's what the hadith states. It didn't just make an unqualified statement that they were shepherds; it states that they were shepherds of sheep. Actually, the hadith says raʿā al-ghanam, and ghanam could mean either sheep or goats — the same word in Arabic refers to both.