[From The Pages Of The Life Of Prophet Muhammad (Sallellahu Alaihi Wa Sallam]
Traditions delightfully relate how Haleemah and the whole of her
household were favoured by successive strokes of good fortune while
the baby Muhammad [Sallellahu Alaihi Wa Sallam] lived under her care.
Ibn Ishaq states that Haleemah narrated that she along with her
husband and a suckling babe, set out from her village in the company
of some women of her clan in quest of children to suckle. She said: It
was a year of drought and famine and we had nothing to eat. I rode on
a brown she-ass. We also had with us an old she-camel. By Allah we
could not get even a drop of milk. We could not have a wink of sleep
during the night for the child kept crying on account of hunger. There
was not enough milk in my breast and even the she-camel had nothing to
feed him. We used to constantly pray for rain and immediate relief.
At length we reached Makkah looking for children to suckle. Not even a
single woman amongst us accepted the Messenger of Allah [Sallellahu
Alaihi Wa Sallam] offered to her. As soon as they were told that he
was an orphan, they refused him. We had fixed our eyes on the reward
that we would get from the child’s father. An orphan! What are his
grandfather and mother likely to do? So we spurned him because of
that. Every woman who came with me got a suckling and when we were
about to depart, I said to my husband: “By Allah, I do not like to go
back along with the other women without any baby. I should go to that
orphan and I must take him.” He said, “There is no harm in doing so
and perhaps Allah might bless us through him.”
So I went and took him because there was simply no other alternative
left for me but to take him. When I lifted him in my arms and returned
to my place I put him on my breast and to my great surprise, I found
enough milk in it. He drank to his heart’s content, and so did his
foster brother and then both of them went to sleep although my baby
had not been able to sleep the previous night. My husband then went to
the she-camel to milk it and, to his astonishment, he found plenty of
milk in it. He milked it and we drank to our fill, and enjoyed a sound
sleep during the night.
The next morning, my husband said: “By Allah Haleemah, you must
understand that you have been able to get a blessed child.” And I
replied: “By the grace of Allah, I hope so.”
The tradition is explicit on the point that Haleemah’s return journey
and her subsequent life, as long as the Prophet [Sallellahu Alaihi Wa
Sallam] stayed with her, was encircled with a halo of good fortune.
The donkey that she rode when she came to Makkah was lean and almost
foundered; it recovered speed much to the amazement of Haleemah’s
fellow travellers. By the time they reached the encampments in the
country of the clan of Sa‘d, they found the scales of fortune turned
in their favour. The barren land sprouted forth luxuriant grass and
beasts came back to them satisfied and full of milk.
Muhammad [Sallellahu Alaihi Wa Sallam] stayed with Haleemah for two
years until he was weaned as Haleemah said: We then took him back to
his mother requesting her earnestly to have him stay with us and
benefit by the good fortune and blessings he had brought us. We
persisted in our request which we substantiated by our anxiety over
the child catching a certain infection peculiar to Makkah.[Ibn Hisham
1/162-164] At last, we were granted our wish and the Prophet
[Sallellahu Alaihi Wa Sallam] stayed with us until he was four or five
years of age.
When, as related by Anas in Sahih Muslim, Gabriel came down and ripped
his chest open and took out the heart. He then extracted a blood-clot
out of it and said: “That was the part of Satan in thee.” And then he
washed it with the water of Zamzam in a gold basin. After that the
heart was joined together and restored to its place. The boys and
playmates came running to his mother, i.e. his nurse, and said:
“Verily, Muhammad [Sallellahu Alaihi Wa Sallam] has been murdered.”
They all rushed towards him and found him all right only his face was
white. [Muslim 1/92]
After this event, Haleemah was worried about the boy and returned him
to his mother with whom he stayed until he was six.
[Talqeeh Furoom Ahl-al-Athar p.7; Ibn Hisham 1/168]
[Al Raheeq Al Maqtum / The Sealed Nectar]