Nursed Among Banū Saʿd

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was nursed initially by his mother, and then by Umm Ayman, whose name was Barakah — Umm Ayman was an Abyssinian woman who lived in Makkah. She later became Muslim, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) married her to his emancipated slave, Zayd ibn Ḥārithah. Zayd ibn Ḥārithah was a slave, and the Prophet (peace be upon him) freed him and married him to Umm Ayman, so she also nursed him.

It was a tradition among the urban Arabs to send their children to grow up in the desert. They used to believe that the desert is more pure and is a cleaner environment, and is healthier for them to grow in. They also believed that this would strengthen their character, because of the harshness — it would make them stronger people. So they would send their children out of the cities to live in the desert. And that happened with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). He was brought up in the land of Banū Saʿd. Ḥalīmah al-Saʿdiyyah narrates this story to us. She says that she came with her friends to Makkah so that they could take children with them to nurse, and for them this was something that they were paid for. So you'd have these Bedouin women come into Makkah, and they would try to adopt or nurse some children.

Ḥalīmah al-Saʿdiyyah came into Makkah, and she said that that particular year was a year of famine, so they were very poor. She and her friends went around the houses of Makkah searching for children who needed to be nursed. She said that Muhammad (peace be upon him) was presented to each and every one of them, and they all declined to accept him. They all refused to accept Muhammad (peace be upon him). Why? Because he was an orphan, and they were saying, "What good is an orphan? Who will pay us if his father is dead?" So they wouldn't agree on a certain amount of money. What they would do is nurse the child, and then they would be given some financial compensation as a gift. Since Muhammad (peace be upon him) was an orphan, no one accepted him, because he had no father to pay for him, and they said his mother wouldn't really be able to pay as much, so they all declined to accept Muhammad (peace be upon him).

Ḥalīmah says: at the end of the day, all of my friends were going back to their camps with children, except myself. I found no one to take with me. So at night I told my husband, "I'm going to go tomorrow morning and accept that child called Muhammad, since we have no one else — I'm not going to go back home empty-handed." She said my husband agreed, so I went the next morning and I went to Muhammad's mother, Āminah bint Wahb, and I said that I accept to take your child. Ḥalīmah says that the night before, we couldn't get any sleep, because our camel wasn't providing any milk, and because of the famine and the hunger, I wasn't able to provide my own child with milk, so he would cry throughout the night and keep us awake. That was their situation — very poor.