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The birth of the Prophet Muhammad: the Monday, the Year of the Elephant, the light between Abdallah’s eyes, the wonders of the night, Khusrau and the prophecy of Satiha.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
This is the chapter of the birth of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. He was born on a Monday, as Muslim reported in his Sahih, in the hadith of Ghaylan ibn Jarir ibn Abdallah ibn Ma’bad az-Zimmani, from Abu Qatada: a Bedouin said: O Messenger of Allah, what do you say of fasting on Monday? He said: that is the day on which I was born, and on which revelation came down to me.
The Imam Ahmad said: Musa ibn Dawud narrated to us: Ibn Lahi’a narrated to us, from Khalid ibn Abi Imran, from Hanash as-San’ani, from Ibn Abbas: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was born on a Monday, was made an announcer on a Monday, went out emigrating from Mecca to Medina on a Monday, arrived at Medina on a Monday, died on a Monday, and lifted the Black Stone on a Monday. Ahmad alone reports it, and Ibn Ufayr and Ibn Bukayr reported it from Ibn Lahi’a, adding: the chapter of the Table descended on a Monday, ’This day I have perfected for you your religion’ [al-Ma’ida: 3], and some reported thus from Musa ibn Dawud, and he added too: the battle of Badr fell on a Monday, and Yazid ibn Habib is among those who said this. This is very objectionable: Ibn Asakir said: the preserved account is that Badr and the descent of ’This day I have perfected for you your religion’ were on a Friday, and Ibn Asakir spoke truly.
Ubaydallah ibn Umar reported from Kurayb, from Ibn Abbas: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was born on a Monday and died on a Monday, and it was likewise reported by another route from Ibn Abbas that he was born on a Monday. What admits no dispute is that he was born on a Monday, and the likeliest is that whoever said he was born on a Friday, seventeen having passed of Rabi’ al-Awwal, erred. The hafiz Ibn Dihya reported it from what he read in the book I’lam al-Wara bi-A’lam al-Huda of some of the Shi’a, and Ibn Dihya then set about weakening it, and it deserves weakening, for it contradicts the explicit text. The majority hold that it was in the month of Rabi’ al-Awwal, and it was said: two nights having passed of it, as Ibn Abd al-Barr said in al-Isti’ab, and al-Waqidi reported it from Abu Ma’shar Najih ibn Abd ar-Rahman al-Madani; and it was said: eight had passed of it, as al-Humaydi reported from Ibn Hazm, and Malik, Uqayl, Yunus ibn Yazid and others reported it from az-Zuhri,
from Muhammad ibn Jubayr ibn Mu’im. Ibn Abd al-Barr reported from the historians that they considered it sound, and the great hafiz Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi judged it categorical, and the hafiz Abu l-Khattab Ibn Dihya preferred it in his book at-Tanwir fi Mawlid al-Bashir an-Nadhir; and it was said: ten had passed of it, which Ibn Dihya reported in his book, and Ibn Asakir reported from Abu Ja’far al-Baqir, and Mujalid reported from ash-Sha’bi as passed; and it was said: twelve had passed of it, and Ibn Ishaq stated it explicitly, and Ibn Abi Shayba reported it in his Musannaf, from Affan, from Sa’id ibn Mina, from Jabir and Ibn Abbas, that they said: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was born in the Year of the Elephant on the Monday, the twelfth of Rabi’ al-Awwal, and in it he was sent, in it he was taken up to heaven, in it he emigrated, and in it he died. This is the famous account among the majority, and Allah knows best.
It was said: seventeen had passed of it, as Ibn Dihya reported from some of the Shi’a, and it was said: eight remain of it, which Ibn Dihya reported from the hand of the vizier Abu Rafi’, son of the hafiz Abu Muhammad Ibn Hazm, from his father; and what is sound from Ibn Hazm, the first, is that eight had passed of it, as al-Humaydi reported from him, and that is firmer. The second view is that he was born in Ramadan, which Ibn Abd al-Barr reported from az-Zubayr ibn Bakkar, and it is a very strange view, its support being that revelation came to him in Ramadan without dispute, and that was at the beginning of forty years of his life, so his birth would be in Ramadan; and this merits examination, and Allah knows best.
Khaythama ibn Sulayman the hafiz reported from Khalaf ibn Muhammad Kurdus al-Wasiti, from al-Mu’alla ibn Abd ar-Rahman, from Abd al-Hamid ibn Ja’far, from az-Zuhri, from Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah, from Ibn Abbas: the Messenger of Allah was born on a Monday in Rabi’ al-Awwal, and prophethood descended upon him on a Monday at the beginning of Rabi’ al-Awwal, and the Cow descended upon him on a Monday in Rabi’ al-Awwal. This is very strange, as Ibn Asakir reported.
Az-Zubayr ibn Bakkar said: his mother carried him during the days of Tashriq, at the Shab of Abu Talib by the middle pillar, and he was born in Mecca in the house known as that of Muhammad ibn Yusuf, brother of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, twelve nights having passed of Ramadan. The hafiz Ibn Asakir reported it through Muhammad ibn Uthman ibn Uqba ibn Mukram, from al-Musayyab ibn Sharik, from Shu’ayb ibn Shu’ayb, from his father, from his grandfather: he was carried with the Messenger of Allah in Ashura of Muharram and born on a Monday, twelve nights having passed of Ramadan, in the twenty-third year from the campaign of the people of the Elephant; and others mentioned that al-Khayzuran, the mother of Harun ar-Rashid, when she performed the pilgrimage, ordered this house built as a mosque, and it is known as such today.
As-Suhayli mentioned that his birth, peace be upon him, was on the twentieth of Nisan. This is the most equable of times and seasons, and that for the year 2882 of Dhu l-Qarnayn, as the authors of the astronomical tables mention; and they claimed the ascendant was at twenty degrees of Aries, that Jupiter and Saturn were conjoined in three degrees of Scorpio, which is a degree in the middle of the sky, and the concordant sign of the zodiac was Aries, and that was at the rising of the moon at the start of the night. Ibn Dihya reported all of it, and Allah knows best.
Ibn Ishaq said: his birth, peace be upon him, was in the Year of the Elephant, and this is the famous account of the majority. Ibrahim ibn al-Mundhir al-Hizami said: it is this that none of our scholars doubt, that he, peace be upon him, was born in the Year of the Elephant and was sent at the beginning of forty years from the Elephant. Al-Bayhaqi reported it in the hadith of Abu Ishaq as-Sabi’i, from Sa’id ibn Jubayr, from Ibn Abbas: the Messenger of Allah was born in the Year of the Elephant. Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: al-Muttalib ibn Abdallah ibn Qays ibn Makhrama related to me, from his father, from his grandfather Qays ibn Makhrama, who said: I and the Messenger of Allah were born in the Year of the Elephant; we were contemporaries. And Uthman asked Qubath ibn Ushyam, brother of the Banu Ya’mur ibn Layth: are you older, or the Messenger of Allah? And he said: the Messenger of Allah is older than I, but I was born earlier, and I saw the elephant’s wound, green and festering. At-Tirmidhi and al-Hakim reported it from the hadith of Muhammad ibn Ishaq likewise.
Ibn Ishaq said: the Messenger of Allah was twenty years old at the year of Ukaz. And Ibn Ishaq said: the Fijar was twenty years after the Elephant, and the building of the Kaaba was fifteen years after the Fijar, and the commission five years after its building. And Muhammad ibn Jubayr ibn Mu’im said: Ukaz was fifteen years after the Elephant, and the building of the Kaaba ten years after Ukaz, and the commission fifteen years after its building. The hafiz al-Bayhaqi reported, in the hadith of Abd al-Aziz ibn Abi Thabit al-Madini: az-Zubayr ibn Musa narrated to us, from Abu l-Huwayrith: I heard Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan say to Qubath ibn Ushyam al-Kinani, then al-Laythi: O Qubath, are you older, or the Messenger of Allah? He said: the Messenger of Allah is older than I, and I am the oldest born in the time of the Messenger of Allah, in the Year of the Elephant, and my mother stopped me over the elephant’s dung, festering; and the prophethood of the Messenger of Allah was at the beginning of forty years.
Ya’qub ibn Sufyan said: Yahya ibn Abdallah ibn Bukayr narrated to us: Nu’aym, meaning ibn Maysara, narrated to us, from one of them, from Suwayd ibn Ghafala, that he said: I am the contemporary of the Messenger of Allah; I was born in the Year of the Elephant. Al-Bayhaqi said: it was reported from Suwayd ibn Ghafala that he said: I am younger than the Messenger of Allah by two years. Ya’qub ibn Sufyan said: Ibrahim ibn al-Mundhir narrated to us: Abd al-Aziz ibn Abi Thabit related to me: Abdallah ibn Uthman ibn Abi Sulayman an-Nufli related to me, from his father, from Muhammad ibn Jubayr ibn Mu’im: the Messenger of Allah was born in the Year of the Elephant, and Ukaz was fifteen years after him, and the House was built at the beginning of twenty-five years from the Elephant, and the Messenger of Allah became an announcer at the beginning of forty years from the Elephant. The point is that the Messenger of Allah was born in the Year of the Elephant, upon the view of the majority; then it was said: a month after it, or forty days after it, or fifty days after it, and that is the most famous; and according to Abu Ja’far al-Baqir the elephant arrived at the middle of Muharram and the birth of the Messenger of Allah was fifty-five nights after it.
Others said: rather the Year of the Elephant was before the birth of the Messenger of Allah by ten years, which Ibn Abza said; and it was said: by twenty-three years, which Shu’ayb ibn Shu’ayb reported from his father, from his grandfather, as preceded; and it was said: after the Elephant by thirty years, which Musa ibn Uqba said from az-Zuhri, and Musa ibn Uqba also chose it; and Abu Zakariyya al-Ajlani said: after the Elephant by forty years, as Ibn Asakir reported, and this is very strange. Stranger still is what Khalifa ibn Khayyat said: Shu’ayb ibn Hayyan related to me, from Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Amr, from al-Kalbi, from Abu Salih, from Ibn Abbas: the Messenger of Allah was born before the Elephant by fifteen years. This is a strange, objectionable and also weak hadith, and Khalifa ibn Khayyat said: the agreed-upon view is that he, peace be upon him, was born in the Year of the Elephant.
It has preceded that Abd al-Muttalib, when he slaughtered those hundred camels for his son Abdallah when he had vowed to slaughter him, Allah the Most High spared him, for what was decreed in eternity of the appearing of the unlettered Prophet, the seal of the messengers and the master of the children of Adam, from his loins; and he went as preceded, and he married him to the noblest of Aqila in Quraysh, Amina bint Wahb ibn Abd Manaf ibn Zuhra, the Zuhriyya. And when he entered upon her and consummated with her, she conceived the Messenger of Allah. And Umm Qan-al, Ruqayqa bint Nawfal, sister of Waraqa ibn Nawfal, had perceived what was between Abdallah’s eyes of light before he consummated with Amina, and she wished that it might be joined to her, because of what she heard from her brother of glad tidings of the existence of Muhammad and that his time was near,
and she offered herself to him. Some said: that he might marry her, and that is more apparent, and Allah knows best, but she was refused. When that brilliant light passed to Amina by his uniting with her, he seemed to regret what she had offered him, and exposed himself to her that she might return to him, and she said: I have no need of you, and she lamented what had escaped her, and recited thereupon what we have already reported of eloquent, weighty poetry. And this preservation of Abdallah is not his; rather it is the Messenger of Allah’s, for Allah the Most High knows best where He places His message [al-An’am: 124]. And the hadith has preceded, reported by a fair chain, that he said, peace be upon him: I was born of a marriage, not of a lewdness.
The point is that when his mother conceived him, his father Abdallah died while he was a pregnancy in his mother’s womb, upon the famous account. Muhammad ibn Sa’d said: Muhammad ibn Umar, who is al-Waqidi, narrated to us: Musa ibn Ubayda ar-Rabahi narrated to us, and from Muhammad ibn Ka’b, and Sa’id ibn Abi Zayd narrated to us, from Ayyub ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Sa’sa’a, that they said: Abdallah ibn Abd al-Muttalib went out to Syria, to Gaza, in one of Quraysh’ caravans, which loaded him with merchandise. They finished their trade and departed, and passed by Medina, and Abdallah ibn Abd al-Muttalib was that day ill, and he said: I shall stay with my maternal uncles the Banu Adi ibn an-Najjar. He stayed with them ill a month, and his companions went on and arrived in Mecca, and Abd al-Muttalib asked them of his son Abdallah, and they said: we left him with his uncles the Banu Adi ibn an-Najjar, ill.
So Abd al-Muttalib sent his eldest son al-Harith, who found that he had died and been buried in the house of an-Nabigha. He returned to his father and informed him, and Abd al-Muttalib and his brothers and sisters felt great grief, and the Messenger of Allah was then a pregnancy, and Abdallah ibn Abd al-Muttalib was twenty-five years old on the day of his death. Al-Waqidi said: this is the firmest of the sayings concerning Abdallah’s death and his age, as far as we are concerned. Al-Waqidi said: Ma’mar related to me from az-Zuhri that Abd al-Muttalib sent Abdallah to Medina to buy them dates and he died. Muhammad ibn Sa’d said: Hisham ibn Muhammad ibn as-Sa’ib al-Kalbi informed us, from his father, and from Awana ibn al-Hakam, that they said: Abdallah ibn Abd al-Muttalib died after twenty-eight months had passed over the Messenger of Allah, and it was said: seven months; and Muhammad ibn Sa’d said: the first is firmer:
that he died while the Messenger of Allah was a pregnancy. Az-Zubayr ibn Bakkar said: Muhammad ibn Hasan related to me, from Abd as-Salam, from Ibn Kharra-budh, who said: Abdallah died in Medina, the Messenger of Allah being two months old, and his mother died when he was four years old, and his grandfather died when he was eight, bequeathing him to his uncle Abu Talib, contrary to what al-Waqidi preferred and the hafiz Muhammad ibn Sa’d, his scribe, that his father died while he was a fetus in his mother’s womb. This is the earliest orphanhood and the highest of its ranks, and the hadith has preceded, and the dream of his mother which she had when she carried me, as if a light came out of her by which the palaces of Syria were lit. Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: Amina bint Wahb, mother of the Messenger of Allah, used to relate that she was visited when she carried the Messenger of Allah and told:
you carry the master of this community; when he comes down to earth, say: I place him under the protection of the One, from every envier firmly set in every good, and every audacious servant, and every descent other than a descending, for he is the servant of the Praised, the Glorified, until I see him reach the assemblies. And the sign of that is that a light will come out with him filling the palaces of Bosra of the land of Syria; and when he descends, name him Muhammad, for his name in the Torah is Ahmad: the people of heaven and earth will praise him; and his name in the Gospel is Ahmad: the people of heaven and earth will praise him; and his name in the Quran is Muhammad. And this and that require that she saw, when she carried him, peace be upon him, as if a light came out of her by which the palaces of Syria were lit; and when she bore him she plainly saw the fulfillment of that, as she had seen it before, here, and Allah knows best.
Muhammad ibn Sa’d said: Muhammad ibn Umar, who is al-Waqidi, informed us: Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Muslim informed us, from az-Zuhri; and al-Waqidi said: Musa ibn Ubayda narrated to us from his brother, and Muhammad ibn Ka’b al-Qurazi; and Abdallah ibn Ja’far az-Zuhri informed me, from his aunt Umm Bakr bint al-Miswar, from her father; and Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ibrahim al-Madani and Ziyad ibn Hashraj reported to us, from their father, and Jawza; and Ma’mar narrated to us, from Abu Najih, from Mujahid; and Talha ibn Amr narrated to us, from Ata’, from Ibn Abbas, the hadith of some of them entering into the hadith of others: that Amina bint Wahb said: I conceived him, meaning the Messenger of Allah, and found no hardship with it until I bore him; and when he was separated from me a light came out with him that lit what is between the East and the West. Then he fell to the ground leaning on his two hands, then took a handful of earth and clutched it, and raised his head to heaven. Some said: he fell kneeling, and a light came out with him lighting the palaces of Syria and its markets, until I saw the necks of the camels at Bosra, raising his head to heaven.
The hafiz Abu Bakr al-Bayhaqi said: Muhammad ibn Abdallah the hafiz informed us: Muhammad ibn Ishaq informed us: Abu Bishr Mubashshir ibn al-Hasan narrated to us: Ya’qub ibn Muhammad az-Zuhri narrated to us: Abd al-Aziz ibn Imran narrated to us: Abdallah ibn Uthman ibn Abi Sulayman ibn Jubayr ibn Mu’im narrated to us, from his father, from Ibn Abi Suwayd ath-Thaqafi, from Uthman ibn Abi l-As: my mother related to me that she witnessed the birth of Amina bint Wahb of the Messenger of Allah the night she bore him. She said: I saw nothing in the house but it was light, and I watched the stars drawing near, until I would say: they will fall upon me.
The judge ’Iyad mentioned, from ash-Shifa, Umm Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf, that she was his midwife, and that she reported that when he fell upon her two hands and made his first cry, she heard one saying: may Allah have mercy on you. And a light shone from him by which the palaces of the Romans were seen.
Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: when she bore him she sent her maidservant to Abd al-Muttalib, his father having died while she was pregnant, though it is said Abdallah died when the Prophet was twenty-eight months old; and Allah knows best which it was. She said: tonight a boy has been born to you; look at him. When she came to him she informed him and related what she had seen when she carried him, and what was said to her concerning him, and what she had been commanded to name him. Abd al-Muttalib took him and brought him into Hubal, in the hollow of the Kaaba, and Abd al-Muttalib stood praying and thanking Allah and saying: ’Praise to Allah who gave me this boy of good bearing. He has already led in the cradle over the boys: I place him under the protection of Allah, of the firm pillars, until he be the tongue of the young men, until I see him reach his full frame. I place him under protection against every detested one, against an envier with agitated lance, until I see him lift the tongue: you are he who was named in the Discernment, in books of firm ranks: Ahmad, written upon the tongue.’
Al-Bayhaqi said: Abu Abdallah the hafiz informed us: Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Hatim ad-Darabjardi informed me in Merv: Abu Abdallah al-Bushanji narrated to us: Abu Ayyub Sulayman ibn Salama al-Khabairi narrated to us: Yunus ibn Ata’ ibn Uthman ibn Rabi’a ibn Ziyad ibn al-Harith as-Suda’i related to us in Egypt: al-Hakam ibn Aban narrated to us, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas, from his father al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib: the Messenger of Allah was born circumcised and cut loose. His grandfather Abd al-Muttalib marveled and was favored by him, and said: there will surely be for this son of mine a great affair; and there was a great affair. This hadith requires examination in its authenticity, and the hafiz Ibn Asakir reported it from the hadith of Sufyan ibn Muhammad al-Massissi, from Hushaym, from Yunus ibn Ubayd, from al-Hasan, from Anas: the Messenger of Allah said: among my honors with Allah is that I was born circumcised and none has seen my private parts; then he brought it by the chain of al-Hasan ibn Arafa, from Hushaym, likewise; then he brought it by the chain of Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Sulayman, who is al-Baghandi: Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ayyub al-Himsi narrated to us: Musa ibn Abi Musa al-Maqdissi narrated to us: Khalid ibn Salama related to me, from Nafi’, from Ibn Umar:
the Messenger of Allah was born smiling, circumcised. Abu Nu’aym said: Abu Ahmad Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Ghatrifi narrated to us: al-Husayn ibn Ahmad ibn Abdallah al-Maliki narrated to us: Sulayman ibn Salama al-Khabairi narrated to us: Yunus ibn Ata’ narrated to us: al-Hakam ibn Aban narrated to us: Ikrima narrated to us, from Ibn Abbas, from al-Abbas: the Messenger of Allah was born circumcised and cut loose, and that marveled his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, who was favored by him and said: there will surely be for this son of mine a great affair; and there was a great affair. Some have claimed its authenticity for the chains that have come of it, until some claimed it mutawatir, and all of that requires examination. The meaning of circumcised is: with the prepuce cut; and cut loose is: with the umbilical cord severed from his mother’s womb. And the hafiz Ibn Asakir reported, through Abd ar-Rahman ibn Uyayna al-Basri: Ali ibn Muhammad al-Madaini as-Sulami narrated to us: Salama ibn Muharib narrated to us, from his father, from Abu Bakra: that Gabriel circumcised the Prophet when he cleansed his heart. This is very strange. It has also been related that his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib circumcised him and made a banquet for him, gathering Quraysh to it, and Allah knows best.
Al-Bayhaqi said: Abu Abdallah the hafiz informed me: Muhammad ibn Kamil, the judge, informed me orally that Muhammad ibn Ishaq, meaning as-Sulami, related to him: Abu Salih Abdallah ibn Salih narrated to us: Mu’awiya ibn Salih related to me, from Abu l-Hakam at-Tanukhi: when a newborn was born among Quraysh they would hand him to women of Quraysh until morning, to strike a cradle-guard over him. When the Messenger of Allah was born, Abd al-Muttalib handed him to women, and they struck a cradle-guard over him, and when morning came they came and found the cradle-guard split above him in two, and found him with his two eyes open, his gaze fixed to heaven. Abd al-Muttalib came to them and they said: we have seen no newborn like him; we found the cradle-guard split from him, and found him with his eyes open, his gaze fixed to heaven. He said: keep him, for I hope he will have a great affair, or attain some good. On the seventh day he slaughtered for him and invited Quraysh, and when they had eaten they said: O Abd al-Muttalib, what do you say of your son,
this son by whose face you have honored us, what have you named him? He said: I named him Muhammad. They said: why then have you turned from him the names of the people of his house? He said: I wished that Allah praise him in heaven and His creation on earth. The people of language said: everyone who gathers the qualities of good is named Muhammad, as one of them said: ’To you, where you dwell, I have driven my she-camel, to the Majestic, the energetic, the generous, the praised one.’ Some of the scholars said: Allah inspired them, peace be upon him, to name him Muhammad, for the praiseworthy qualities in him, that the name and the deed might meet and the name and the named coincide in image and meaning, as his uncle Abu Talib said, and it is attributed to Hassan: ’He was derived from His name to be exalted: the Owner of the Throne is Mahmud, and this is Muhammad.’ And we shall mention his names, peace be upon him, and his traits, which are his visible qualities, and his pure character, and the proofs of his prophethood, and the merits of his rank, at the end of the sira, Allah willing.
The hafiz Abu Bakr al-Bayhaqi said: Abu Abdallah the hafiz informed us: Abu l-Abbas Muhammad ibn Ya’qub narrated to us: Ahmad ibn Shayban ar-Ramli narrated to us: Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Halabi narrated to us: al-Haytham ibn Jamil narrated to us: Zuhayr narrated to us, from Muharib ibn Dithar, from Amr ibn Yathribi, from al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib: I said: O Messenger of Allah, you have called me to enter your religion: a sign of your prophethood, I saw you in the cradle conversing with the moon and gesturing to it with your finger, and wherever you gestured it inclined. He said: I used to speak to it and it spoke to me, and it kept me from weeping, and I heard its celestial food as it prostrated beneath the Throne. Then he said: al-Laythi alone reports it, and he is unknown.
We have already mentioned, in the chapter of the cries of the jinn, what preceded of the falling of many idols that night upon their faces and their falling from their places, and what an-Najashi the king of Abyssinia saw, and the appearance of the light with him until it lit the palaces of Syria when he was born, and his falling kneeling with his head raised to heaven, and the splitting of that cradle-guard before his noble face, and the light witnessed in the house in which he was born, and the drawing near of the stars to them, and other things. As-Suhayli relates from the tafsir of Baqi ibn Makhlad the hafiz that Iblis uttered four cries: when he was cursed, when he was sent down, when the Messenger of Allah was born, and when the Fatiha was revealed.
Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: Hisham ibn Urwa used to relate from his father, from Aisha, that she said: there was a Jew who dwelt in Mecca and traded there, and when the night came in which the Messenger of Allah was born, he said in an assembly of Quraysh: O assembly of Quraysh, has a newborn been born among you tonight? The people said: by Allah, we know not. He said: Allah is greatest; when it escapes you, no matter. Look and retain what I say to you: this night was born the prophet of this last community, with between his shoulder-blades a seal upon which are hairs like a horse’s mane; he will not suckle two nights, for an ifrit of the jinn will put his finger in his mouth and prevent the suckling. The people split from their assembly, marveling at his word and speech, and when they reached their homes each man among them informed his household,
and they said: by Allah, a boy has been born to Abdallah ibn Abd al-Muttalib whom they named Muhammad. The people met and said: have you heard the Jew’s speech, and has the birth of this boy reached you? They went until they came to the Jew and gave him the news. He said: come with me till I look at him. They went out with him until they brought him in to Amina, and they said: bring out your son to us. She brought him out, and they uncovered his back, and he saw that seal, and the Jew fell unconscious. When he came to, they said to him: what ails you, woe to you? He said: by Allah, prophethood has passed from the children of Israel; do you rejoice in it, O assembly of Quraysh? By Allah, they will overcome you with an overcoming whose report will go forth from East and West.
Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: Salih ibn Ibrahim related to me, from Yahya ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn As’ad ibn Zurara: those whom I wish of my people’s men, whom I do not suspect, related to me from Hassan ibn Thabit, that he said: I was a pubescent boy of seven or eight years, retaining what I saw and heard, when a Jew in Yathrib cried out one morning: O assembly of the Jews. They gathered to him while I listened, and they said: woe to you, what ails you? He said: the star of Ahmad has risen, with whom he was born this night.
The hafiz Abu Nu’aym reported in his book, the Proofs of Prophethood, from the hadith of Abu Bakr ibn Abdallah al-Amiri, from Sulayman ibn Suhaym and Rubayh ibn Abd ar-Rahman, both of them, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Sa’id, from his father: I heard my father Malik ibn Sinan say: I came to the Banu Abd al-Ashhal one day to converse with them, and we were that day under a truce of war, and I heard Yousha’ the Jew saying: the shadow of the going forth of a prophet called Ahmad will cover the sanctuary. Khalifa ibn Tha’laba al-Ashhali said to him, as though mocking: what is his description? He said: a man neither short nor tall, with a redness in his eyes, who wears a woolen wrap, rides a donkey, his sword upon his shoulder, and this land is his place of emigration. He said: I returned to my people the Banu Khudra, marveling that day at what Yousha’ said, and I heard one of us saying: and does Yousha’ say this alone? All the Jews of Yathrib say it. Malik ibn Sinan said: I went out until I came to the Banu Qurayza and found a gathering recalling the Prophet, and az-Zubayr ibn Bata said: the red star has risen, which rises only for the going forth of a prophet and his appearing; none remains but Ahmad, and this is his place of emigration. Abu Sa’id said: when the Prophet arrived,
my father told him this report, and the Messenger of Allah said: had az-Zubayr and his kin, chiefs of the Jews, accepted Islam, they are only followers of him. Abu Nu’aym said: Umar ibn Muhammad narrated to us: Ibrahim ibn as-Sindi narrated to us: an-Nadr ibn Salama narrated to us: Isma’il ibn Qays ibn Sulayman ibn Zayd ibn Thabit narrated to us, from Umm Sa’d bint Sa’d ibn ar-Rabi’: I heard Zayd ibn Thabit say: the rabbis of the Jews of Qurayza and an-Nadir used to mention the description of the Prophet, and when the red star rose they announced that he is a prophet, that there is no prophet after him, that his name is Ahmad, and that his place of emigration is to Yathrib. When the Messenger of Allah arrived in Medina they denied and envied and disbelieved. The hafiz Abu Nu’aym reported this account in his book by other chains, and to Allah belongs praise. Abu Nu’aym said: Abu Muhammad ibn Hayyan narrated to us: Abu Bakr ibn Abi Asim narrated to us: Wahb ibn Baqiyya narrated to us: Khalid narrated to us, from Muhammad ibn Amr, from Abu Salama, and Yahya ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Hatib, from Usama ibn Zayd: Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl said: a rabbi of the rabbis of Syria said to me: a prophet has gone forth in your land, or is about to go forth; his star has risen; return and believe him and follow him.
The hafiz Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ja’far ibn Sahl al-Kharayti said in his book, the Cries of the Jinn: Ali ibn Harb narrated to us: Abu Ayyub Ya’la ibn Imran, of the family of Jarir ibn Abdallah al-Bajali, related to me: Makhzoum ibn Hani al-Makhzoumi related to me, from his father, who had passed a hundred and fifty years: on the night in which the Messenger of Allah was born, Khusrau’s iwan convulsed and fourteen battlements fell from it, and the fire of Persia went out, which had not gone out before that in a thousand years, and the lake of Sawa dried up, and the Magians saw camels driving Arab horses that had crossed the Tigris and spread through their land. When morning came Khusrau was terrified by that and bore it with fortitude, then saw that he should not conceal it from his ministers, and gathered them, donned his crown, sat on his throne and sent for them. When they gathered before him he said: do you know why I sent for you? They said: no, unless the king inform us. While they were thus a document reached them of the extinguishing of the fires, and sorrow was added to his sorrow. Then he told them what he had seen and what had terrified him, and the Magian said: I, may Allah set right the king,
saw this night a dream, and he related to him his dream of the camels, and he said: what can this be, O Magian? He said: an event that will occur in the regions of the Arabs, and he is the most knowledgeable of them of themselves. He then wrote from Khusrau, king of kings, to an-Nu’man ibn al-Mundhir: after this, send me a man versed in what I wish to ask him about. He sent him Abd al-Masih ibn Amr ibn Hayyan ibn Buqayla al-Ghassani. When he arrived at Khusrau, he said to him: do you have knowledge of what I wish to ask you about? He said: inform me, or let the king ask me what he wishes; if I have knowledge of it I shall inform him, otherwise I shall inform him of one who knows. He informed him of the one he was dispatching to him for it. He said: knowledge of that is with an uncle of mine who dwells in the highlands of Syria, called Satiha. He said: go to him and ask him what I asked you, then bring me its interpretation. Abd al-Masih went out until he reached Satiha, who was lying upon the tomb, and greeted him and spoke to him, and Satiha gave him no answer, so he improvised, saying: ’Are you deaf, or does the Yemenite Ghitrif hear, or has the uproar of the sky overwhelmed him? O you who divide the plot, weary of who and who,
and you who lift anguish from a grave face: to you has come the elder of the tribe, of the lineage of the suns, his mother of the line of Dhib ibn Hajan: blue, broad-toothed, with a crumbled ear, white, with ample robe and body, the messenger of the lord of the Persians, traveling for the rough country, fearing neither thunder nor the shifting of time: it roams the land with me at noon, lean and grim, lifting me high and dropping me high, until it brought me to the naked one of wandering and cooing, whom the gale of Daman wraps in the wind, as if he had been shaken from the lap of two hollows.’ When Satiha heard his verse he raised his head: Abd al-Masih says, riding a white grizzled camel, he came to Satiha, having accomplished the circuit of the tomb: the king of the Sassanians sent you concerning the convulsion of the iwan, the extinguishing of the fires, and the dream of the Magians: he saw camels driving Arab horses that had crossed the Tigris and spread through their land. O Abd al-Masih: when recitation abounds, and the man of the club appears, and the valley of Samawa overflows, and the lake of Sawa dries, and the fire of Persia goes out, Syria will be Syria no more to Satiha: kings will rule from them,
and queens to the number of the battlements, and all that is to come will come. Then Satiha settled back into his place, and Abd al-Masih rose to his mount, saying: ’Gird up, for you are resolute in passing; let not dispersion and change affright you. If the kingdom of the Sassanians touches their utmost, then the ages are turnings and turnings. And sometimes they lodge in a station whose assault the lion of the slaughter fears: among them the brother of the palace, Bahram, and his brothers, and the Hurmuzans, and Shabur and Sabur. And men are the sons of slave-mothers: if they know the lineage has dwindled, then abased and abandoned. And oft a people whose master has an ear in which the pipes distract them. And they are the sons of the mother: if they have seen an ascent, that is in the unseen preserved and victorious. And good and evil are coupled in a horn: the good followed, the evil feared.’ When Abd al-Masih reached Khusrau he told him what Satiha had said, and Khusrau said: until fourteen kings rule from us, there will be affairs and affairs; ten of them ruled in four years, and the rest until the caliphate of Uthman. Al-Bayhaqi reported it from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Idris, from Ali ibn Harb al-Mawsili, in like fashion.
I say: the last of their kings, from whom the kingdom was stripped, was Yazdajird ibn Shahrayar ibn Abrawiz ibn Hurmuz ibn Anushirwan, and it was in his time that the iwan split; and his ancestors held the kingdom three thousand years and a hundred and sixty-four years, and the first of their kings was Khumars ibn Amim ibn Lawdh ibn Sam ibn Nuh, peace be upon him.
As for this Satiha, the hafiz Ibn Asakir said in his History: he is ar-Rabi’ ibn Rabi’a ibn Mas’ud ibn Mazin ibn Dhib ibn Adi ibn Mazin ibn al-Azd, and it is said ar-Rabi’ ibn Mas’ud, and his mother is Rad’a bint Sa’d ibn al-Harith al-Hajuri; other things were mentioned of his lineage, and he dwelt at al-Jabiya. Then he reported from Abu Hatim as-Sijistani, who said: I heard their elders, Abu Ubayda and others, say: after Luqman ibn Ad was born, in the time of the flood of al-Arim, and he lived to the reign of Dhu Nuwas, that being about thirty generations; his dwelling was Bahrain, and the Abd al-Qays claim he is of them, and the Azd claim he is of them; most of the transmitters say he is of the Azd, and we know not of whom he is, except that his descendants say he is of the Azd. Ibn Abbas said: nothing of the children of Adam resembled Satiha: he was but flesh in a hollow, without bone or nerve except in his head, his two eyes and his palms, and he was folded as a garment is folded, from his two feet to his neck, and there was nothing in him that moved but his tongue. Others said: when he became angry he swelled and sat. Ibn Abbas then mentioned that he came to Mecca and was met by a group of their chiefs, among them Abd Shams and Abd Manaf, sons of Qusayy, who tested him in things, and he answered them with truth. They asked him of what would be at the end of time,
and he said: take from me, and from the inspiration Allah gave me: you now, O Arabs, are in the age of senility; your discernment and the discernment of the Persians are equal: you have no knowledge and no understanding, and there shall arise of your progeny men of understanding who will seek kinds of knowledge and break the idol and follow the Raddam and kill the Persians and seek the flocks. Then he said: and the remainder forever, and the reaching of the term: there shall surely go forth from this land a guided prophet who guides to uprightness, who rejects Yaghuth and the Fand, who abstains from the worship of idols, who worships one sole Lord. Then Allah will take him in the best of abodes, praised, absent from the earth and present in heaven. Then the Truthful will succeed his affair when he has passed, without breach or deviation in restoring rights; then the Upright, the tested, the well-clad, who bestowed upon the giver and perfected the consecration, will succeed his affair. Then he mentioned Uthman and his slaying, and what after that of the days of the Umayyads, then the Banu Abbas and what follows of tribulations and battles, which Ibn Asakir drew out at length by his chain from Ibn Abbas. We have already reported his word to Rabi’a ibn Nasr, king of Yemen, when he told him of his dreams before he told him of them,
and then what will be in the land of Yemen of tribulations and the changing of dynasties until it returns to Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan. He said to him: will that of his dominion endure or be cut off? He said: rather it will be cut off. He said: who will cut it? He said: a pure prophet to whom revelation will come from on high. He said: and of whom is this prophet? He said: of the descendants of Ghalib ibn Fihr ibn Malik ibn an-Nadr; the kingdom shall be in his people to the end of time. He said: and does time have an end? He said: yes: the day wherein the first and the last are gathered, wherein the doers of good prosper and the wrongdoers are wretched. He said: is what you tell me true? He said: yes, by the twilight and the darkened night and the moon when it is joined: what I have told you is truth. And it agrees with that, expression after expression, as preceded. And of Satiha’s poetry is his saying: ’Upon you be the fear of Allah in secret and open, and clothe not the truth of trustworthiness with treachery, and be for the neighbor of the side a fortress and a shelter when the misfortunes of time afflict him.’ The hafiz Ibn Asakir reported that; then al-Mu’afa ibn Zakariyya al-Jariri brought it and said: the accounts of Satiha are many, and more than one of the people of knowledge gathered them, and the well-known is that he was a soothsayer,
and he informed of the Prophet and his description and his mission; and it was related to us by a chain, Allah knows best, that the Prophet was asked about Satiha and said: a prophet whom his people wasted. I say: as for this hadith, it has no basis in any of the known books of Islam, and I have seen it by no chain at all; the like of it is related in the account of Khalid ibn Sinan al-Absi, and it is not sound either. The apparent of these expressions indicates good knowledge for Satiha, and in it are glimmers of confirmation, but he did not reach Islam, as al-Jariri said, for we mentioned in this tradition that he said to his sister’s son: O Abd al-Masih, when recitation abounds, and the man of the club appears, and the valley of Samawa overflows, and the lake of Sawa dries, and the fire of Persia goes out, Syria will be Syria no more to Satiha: kings will rule from them, and queens to the number of the battlements, and all that is to come will come. Then Satiha settled back into his place. And that was a month, or less, after the birth of the Messenger of Allah, and his death was at the extremities of Syria adjacent to the land of Iraq; and Allah knows best his affair and what he came to. Ibn Tarrar al-Jariri mentioned that he lived seven hundred years, and others said five hundred, and it was said three hundred, and Allah knows best.
Ibn Asakir reported that a king asked Satiha concerning the lineage of a boy over whom there was disagreement, and he informed him plainly in a long, elegant, eloquent discourse. The king said: O Satiha, will you not inform me of this knowledge of yours? He said: this knowledge of mine is not from me, neither by inspection nor by conjecture, but I took it from a brother of mine, a jinn, who heard the revelation at Mount Sinai. He said: your brother, this jinn, is he with you, never leaving you? He said: he moves where I move, and I speak not but what he says. It has preceded that he and Shiqq ibn Mus’ab ibn Yashkur ibn Ruhm ibn Busr ibn Uqba, the other soothsayer, were born on one day, and both were carried to the soothsayer Tarifa bint al-Husayn al-Himyarite, who licked their mouths, and they inherited divination from her, and she died on her day, and he was half a man. It is said that Khalid ibn Abdallah al-Qasri is of his progeny, and Shiqq died long before Satiha.
As for Abd al-Masih ibn Amr ibn Qays ibn Hayyan ibn Buqayla al-Ghassani, the Christian, he was among the long-lived, and the hafiz Ibn Asakir gave him a notice in his History and said: he is the one who made peace with Khalid ibn al-Walid at Hira, and he mentions at his side a long story, and that he ate a poison of an hour from his hand and was not harmed; because when he took it he said: in the name of Allah, and by Allah, Lord of earth and heaven, with whose name no harm hurts; then he ate it, and a swoop came over him, and he struck his two hands upon his chest, then sweated and came to, and he mentions for Abd al-Masih verses other than what preceded.
Abu Nu’aym said: Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al-Hasan narrated to us: Muhammad ibn Uthman ibn Abi Shayba narrated to us: Uqba ibn Mukram narrated to us: al-Musayyab ibn Sharik narrated to us: Muhammad ibn Sharik narrated to us, from Shu’ayb ibn Shu’ayb, from his father, from his grandfather: there was at Marr adh-Dhahran a monk of the monks called Iys, of the people of Syria, in the service of al-As ibn Wa’il, and Allah had given him much knowledge and set in him many benefits for the people of Mecca, of perfumes and gentleness and knowledge, and he kept to his cell and entered Mecca every year and met the people and said: there will soon be born among you, O people of Mecca, a newborn to whom the Arabs will render religion and who will rule the Persians; this is his time; whoever attains him and follows him will attain his need, and whoever attains him and opposes him will miss his need. And by Allah I have never left the land of wine and wines and safety, nor lodged in a land of hunger and misery and fear, except in seeking him. And no newborn was born in Mecca but he asked about him, and he would be told: nothing after that; and he would be told: describe him, and he would say: no, concealing that, from fear for himself, knowing he might meet from his people an apprehension upon himself, that that might be an occasion for the least harm against him some day.
When the morning of the day came in which the Messenger of Allah was born, Abdallah ibn Abd al-Muttalib went out until he came to Iys and stood at the base of his cell, then cried: O Iys. He called: who is this? He said: I am Abdallah. He leaned over him and said: may you be the father; the newborn I spoke to you of is born on a Monday, and will be sent on a Monday, and will die on a Monday. He said: there has been born to me with the morning a newborn. He said: what have you named him? He said: Muhammad. He said: by Allah, I longed that this newborn be among you, people of the House, for three marks by which we know it: that his star rose yesterday, that he was born today, and that his name is Muhammad. Go to him, for he of whom I spoke to you is your son. He said: how do you know he is my son, when another might be born this day? He said: your son has coincided with the name, and Allah does not bring His knowledge near upon the learned,
for he is a proof; and the sign of that is that he is today ailing: he will complain three days, hunger will show thrice, then he will be healed. Guard your tongue, for none has ever been envied as he will be envied, nor hated against as he will be hated; if you live until his word appears and he invokes, your people will bring forth upon you what you will bear only with patience and humility; guard your tongue and keep apart from him. He said: and what is his lifespan? He said: long or short, he will not reach seventy; he will die odd, below it, of sixty, at sixty-one or sixty-three, within the lifespans of most of his community. It was reported that the Messenger of Allah was carried in Ashura of Muharram and born on a Monday, twelve having passed of Ramadan, in the twenty-third year from the campaign of the people of the Elephant; so Abu Nu’aym reported it, and in it is strangeness.