The Star of Muhammad, Peace and Blessings of Allah Be Upon Him, Shone

A Jewish man named Ays from Syria lived some distance from Makkah.

Whenever he came to Makkah for some matter and met its people, he would say:

“In a very near age a child will be born among you. All of Arabia will follow his path. Everything will become humbled and subdued before him.

“He will also become the master of Persia and its cities.

“This is his era.

“Whoever lives to see his prophethood and follows him will achieve his goal. Whatever good he hopes for, he will obtain.

“And whoever lives to see his prophethood but opposes him will fail in his aims and ambitions.”

Whenever a child was born in Makkah, that Jewish man would investigate the child and say:

“He is not the one yet.”

At last, when the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, came into this world, Abd al-Muttalib left his house and went to the Jewish man.

He reached the door of the man’s place of worship and called out.

Ays asked:

“Who is it?”

Abd al-Muttalib gave his name.

Then he asked:

“What do you say about this child?”

The Jewish man looked at him and then said:

“Yes. You could indeed be his father.

“Without doubt, the child about whom I have been speaking to you has been born.

“The star that is a sign of his birth has risen.

“And one of his signs is that he is suffering pain now. This difficulty will last three days, and then he will recover.”

When the Jewish man said that the child would suffer for three days, the explanation is that the Prophet did not drink milk for three days.

As for the Jewish man saying, “Yes, you could be his father,” the meaning was that among the Arabs a grandfather was also sometimes called a father.

The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, once said:

“I am the son of Abd al-Muttalib.”

The Jewish man also told Abd al-Muttalib:

“Keep your tongue silent about this matter. Do not tell anyone. Otherwise people will become intensely jealous of this child, more jealous than they have ever been.

“They will oppose him with such severity that no one in the world has ever been opposed in the same way.”

After hearing these things about his grandson, Abd al-Muttalib asked:

“How long will this child live?”

The Jewish man replied:

“If his lifespan is natural, he will not reach seventy years. Rather, he will die before that, at the age of sixty-one or sixty-three.

“The average lifespan of his community will also be around that.

“At the time of his birth, the idols of the world will fall and break.”

All these signs, the Jewish man had learned from the predictions of earlier prophets, and they all came true.

Some men of Quraysh, such as Amr ibn Nufayl and Abdullah ibn Jahsh, used to go to an idol.

They also went to it on the night the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was born.

They found the idol lying face down.

They disliked this and lifted it back up, but it fell again.

They raised it once more, and it fell upside down again.

They became extremely astonished.

Then a voice came from the idol:

“This is news of the birth of a child whose light will illuminate every corner of the earth, from east to west.”

The voice coming from the idol increased their astonishment.

Another event also occurred:

The palace of the Persian emperor Kisra, Nushirwan, began shaking and cracks appeared in it.

This palace was extremely strong.

It had been built with huge stones and mortar.

The event caused terror throughout the entire empire.

The cracks produced a frightening noise.

Fourteen battlements of the palace collapsed.

Another event at the Prophet’s birth was that all the sacred fires of Persia went out.

The fire-worshippers worshiped those fires and never allowed them to be extinguished.

But on that night all of them suddenly went out at the same time.

There was widespread crying and mourning among the fire worshippers.

When Kisra received all these reports, he summoned a diviner.

He told him about the cracks in the palace and the extinguishing of the fires and asked:

“Why is this happening?”

The diviner himself could not answer.

However, he said:

“My maternal uncle can answer these questions. His name is Satih.”

Nushirwan said:

“Very well. Go and bring me the answers to these questions.”

He went and met Satih.

He told him about the events.

After hearing them, Satih said:

“A prophet with a staff will appear. He will dominate Arabia and Syria. Whatever is destined to happen will happen.”

The answer was conveyed to Kisra.

By that time Kisra had already obtained information from other diviners as well.

After hearing this, he said:

“Then the time of this event is still far away.”

Meaning, their power would come after him.

On the seventh day after the Prophet’s birth, Abd al-Muttalib performed his sacrifice and named him Muhammad.

Before this, no one among the Arabs had been named Muhammad.

The Quraysh found the name strange.

Some people said to Abd al-Muttalib:

“Abd al-Muttalib, why did you not give this child the name of one of his fathers or grandfathers?

“Why did you name him Muhammad, when none of your ancestors had this name, nor did anyone in your people have it?”

Abd al-Muttalib replied:

“I hope that Allah will praise this child in the heavens and that people will praise him on earth.”

The meaning of Muhammad is one who is praised greatly.

Similarly, through his mother he was also given the name Ahmad.

No one before him had been given the name Ahmad either.

Thus Allah preserved both of these names, and no one else could carry these names in the same way.

Ahmad means the one who praises most.

Allamah al-Suhaili wrote:

“You are Ahmad first and Muhammad later.

“In other words, others praised you afterward, but before that your own distinction is that you are the one who praises Allah most.”

His name Ahmad is mentioned in the ancient scriptures.

After his mother, the first person to nurse him was Thuwaybah.

She was the slave woman of Abu Lahab, the paternal uncle of the Prophet.

Abu Lahab freed her upon the birth of the Prophet.

Thuwaybah nursed him for a few days.

Her own son had also been born around that time.

His mother nursed him for only nine days.

After her, Thuwaybah nursed him.

Then it was the turn of Halimah al-Sa‘diyyah, may Allah be pleased with her.

Halimah al-Sa‘diyyah left her village.

Her nursing infant and her husband were with her.

Halimah arrived in Makkah after the other women.

Her mule was extremely weak and thin.

She also had an old and weak she-camel with her.

It walked very slowly.

Because of it, Halimah fell far behind the caravan.

The same thing happened on that journey.

She entered Makkah last of all.