Home > Sira > The nursing by Halima as-Sa’diyya
Halima as-Sa’diyya, wet nurse of Prophet Mohamed: the drought year, the blessing of milk, the opening of the chest by Jibril, the seal of prophethood, and mercy for Hawazin at Hunayn.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
The chapter of the nursing of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) by the noble wet nurse Halima bint Abi Dhu’ayb as-Sa’diyya, and of the blessings and signs of prophethood that appeared on that occasion. Ibn Ishaq said: a wet nurse was sought for him (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and she was Halima bint Abi Dhu’ayb as-Sa’diyya. Her son was named Abdallah ibn al-Harith ibn Shijna ibn Jabir ibn Rizam ibn Nasira ibn Sa’d ibn Bakr ibn Hawazin ibn Mansur ibn Ikrima ibn Khasafa ibn Qays ibn Aylan ibn Mudar. Halima’s husband, who shared in her nursing of him, was al-Harith ibn Abd al-Uzza ibn Rifa’a ibn Millan ibn Nasira ibn Sa’d ibn Bakr ibn Hawazin. The foster brothers and sisters of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) were Abdallah ibn al-Harith, Unaysa bint al-Harith, and Hudhafa bint al-Harith, who was Shayma’: she is reported to have held the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in her lap, beside his mother, while he stayed with them.
Ibn Ishaq said: Jahm ibn Abi Jahm, the freedman of a woman of Banu Tamim who lived with al-Harith ibn Hatib, told me, from one who heard Abdallah ibn Ja’far ibn Abi Talib, from what was related from Halima daughter of al-Harith: "I came to Mecca with women of Banu Sa’d seeking nurslings: al-Waqidi mentioned, with his own chain, that they were ten women of Banu Sa’d ibn Bakr who came for that purpose. It was a drought year: I rode a grey donkey worn out by the caravan, with our nursing infant and our grown son. By Allah, she gave not a drop, and we did not sleep two whole nights with that infant of ours: my breast gave nothing to satisfy him, nor our she-camel anything to feed him. But we hoped for rain and relief."
"My mount was so worn by the caravan that it seemed to them weakness and leanness. We reached Mecca, and by Allah I did not know a single woman among our companions who had not already taken a nursling: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) had been offered to each one, and each had refused him when it was said: he is an orphan, we left him behind; and we said: what could his mother do for us? We only hope for generosity from the boy’s father: but what could his mother do for us? By Allah, no companion of mine remained who had not taken a nursling other than me."
"When we found no one but him, and resolved to depart, I said to my husband al-Harith ibn Abd al-Uzza: by Allah, I hate to return from among my companions without a nursling: let us go to that orphan and take him. He said: there is no harm in that; perhaps Allah will place a blessing in him for us. So I went and took him, and by Allah I took him only because I could find no other. No sooner had I taken him and brought him to my mount than my breasts overflowed with milk: he drank until satisfied, and his brother drank until satisfied. My husband went to our old she-camel and found her full: he milked as much as she gave, we drank our fill, and we passed the best of nights. In the morning my husband said: O Halima, by Allah I see you have taken a blessed creature: did you not see the night of good and blessing we passed once we took him?"
"He kept increasing us in good because of him. We set out for our homeland, and by Allah my donkey outstripped the caravan so that nothing could keep pace with her, until my companions said: woe to you, daughter of Abi Dhu’ayb, is this the donkey you left with us? I said: yes, by Allah, it is she. They said: by Allah, there is something extraordinary about her."
"When we reached the land of Banu Sa’d, I knew no land of Allah more barren than ours: yet my flock went out to graze and came home full of milk. We milked at will, and that before everyone: while around us no one obtained a drop of milk. Their sheep came home starving, until they said to their shepherds: woe to you, go and see where the flock of the daughter of Abi Dhu’ayb grazes, and graze with it. They grazed with my flock wherever it went, but their sheep came home starving, without a drop of milk, while mine came home full: we milked at will. Allah kept showing us that blessing which we recognized until he reached his second year: he had grown into a sturdy boy unlike any other child. When he was two years old, and we were weary of sharing his blessing, we brought him back to his mother."
Halima said: "When his mother saw us, we said: O nurse, let us take your son with us for another year, for we fear the plague of Mecca for him. She granted it, and we departed with him. We stayed a month or two, until one day he was behind our houses with his foster brother, by the sheep. His brother came running to us and said: that Qurayshi brother of ours, two men in white garments came to him, laid him down and split open his belly! His father and I ran toward him and found him standing, pale in color. His father embraced him and said: my son, what has happened to you?"
"He said: two men in white garments came to me, laid me down, opened my belly, took something out of it, then restored it as it was. We brought him back with us, and his father said: O Halima, I fear something has befallen my son: take him and let us return him to his family before what we fear appears. Halima said: so we carried him, and his mother met us holding him. When we brought him to her she said: what makes you return him, when you were so eager for him? They said: by Allah, Allah has sufficed us and we have fulfilled our duty, but we feared harm and mishaps, so we return him to his family. She said: that is not why you come: tell me plainly your story. She gave us no rest until we told her the whole account. She said: were you then afraid of the devil for him? No, by Allah: the devil has no way against him. By Allah, this son of mine will have a great destiny. Shall I tell you his story? We said: yes. She said: I carried him, and I never carried a pregnancy lighter than his. When I conceived him, I saw in a dream that a light came out of me illuminating the palaces of Syria. And when I gave birth to him, he placed his two hands on the ground, raising his head to heaven: then he called upon Allah for him."
Ibn Kathir said: this account is reported through other chains: it is among the famous reports handed down among the people of the sira and the campaigns.
al-Waqidi reported, from Mu’adh ibn Muhammad ibn Ata ibn Abi Rabah, from Ibn Abbas: Halima went searching for the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in intense heat, and found him with his foster sister. She said: in this heat! His sister said: O mother, my brother felt no heat at all: I saw a small cloud shading him, stopping when he stopped and moving when he moved, until he reached this spot.
Ibn Ishaq reported, from Thawr ibn Yazid, from Khalid ibn Ma’dan, from Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): they said to him: tell us about yourself. He said: "Yes: I am the answer to my father Ibrahim’s supplication, and the good news of ’Isa. My mother saw, when she carried me, that a light came out of her illuminating the palaces of Syria. I was nursed among Banu Sa’d ibn Bakr, and one day, while I was by the sheep, two men came to me in white garments, with a basin of gold filled with snow. They laid me down, opened my belly, took out my heart, split it, and removed from it a black clot which they cast away. Then they washed my heart and my belly with that snow, until they had purified it. Then one said to the other: weigh him against ten of his nation. I was weighed against ten, and I outweighed them. Then he said: weigh him against a hundred of his nation. I was weighed against a hundred, and I outweighed them. Then he said: weigh him against a thousand of his nation. And when I outweighed them, he said: leave him: if you weighed him against his whole nation, he would outweigh them." Ibn Kathir said: this is a good, strong chain.
The hafiz Abu Nu’aym reported in ad-Dala’il, through Umar ibn Subh, who is Abu Nu’aym, from Thawr ibn Yazid, from Mak’hul, from Shaddad ibn Aws, this story in a very long version. But this Umar ibn Subh is a discarded transmitter, a liar, accused of fabricating hadiths: that is why we have not quoted the text of that hadith, for it is not to be rejoiced in.
Ibn Kathir then said: Abu Amr ibn Hamdan told us, from al-Hasan ibn Nufayr, from Amr ibn Uthman, from Baqiyya ibn al-Walid, from Buhayr ibn Sa’id, from Khalid ibn Ma’dan, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Amr as-Sulami, from Utba ibn Abd, that a man asked the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): how were your earliest days, O Messenger of Allah? He said: "My nurse was of Banu Sa’d ibn Bakr. I went out with her son to the sheep, taking no provisions, and I said: brother, go and bring us provisions from our mother. My brother went, and I stayed by the sheep. Then two white birds, like two eagles, came to me. One said to the other: is it he? The other said: yes. They rushed at me, seized me, laid me on my back and opened my belly. Then they took out my heart, split it, removed two black clots from it, and one said to the other: bring me snow-water. They washed my insides with it. Then he said: bring me fresh water: and they washed my heart with it. Then he said: bring me the serenity: and they sprinkled it into my heart."
"Then one said to the other: this pebble and that pebble: and he sealed my heart with the seal of prophethood. Then one said to the other: put him in one pan of the scale, and a thousand of his nation in the other. I looked at the thousand above me, fearing that some of them would fall on me. Then he said: even if his whole nation were weighed against him, he would outweigh them. Then the two departed and left me, and I was seized with violent fear. I went to tell my mother what I had met, and she feared that someone had been substituted for me. She said: I seek refuge for you with Allah. She saddled a camel for herself, mounted me on the saddle, then rode behind me, until we came to my mother. She said: I have fulfilled my trust and my pledge: then she told her own mother what she had met, and she was not alarmed by it. She said: I saw a light come out of me, illuminating the palaces of Syria." Ahmad reported this hadith from Baqiyya ibn al-Walid: and likewise Abdallah ibn al-Mubarak and others reported it from Baqiyya ibn al-Walid.
Ibn Asakir reported, through Abu Dawud at-Tayalisi, from Ja’far ibn Abdallah al-Qurashi, from Umar ibn Urwa: I heard Urwa ibn az-Zubayr, from Abu Dharr al-Ghifari: I said: O Messenger of Allah, how did you know you were a Prophet, and when did you become certain of it? He said: "O Abu Dharr, two angels came to me while I was in part of the plain of Mecca. One of them alighted on the ground, and the other stayed between heaven and earth. One said to the other: is it he? The other said: it is he. Then he said: weigh him against a man. I was weighed against a man, and I outweighed him." He then mentioned the rest of the account, the splitting of the chest and its stitching, and the seal placed between his two shoulders, then he said: "as soon as they turned away from me, it was as if I saw the matter with my own eyes." Ibn Asakir reported the like of this from Ubayy ibn Ka’b: and from Shaddad ibn Aws in a fuller version.
It is established in the Sahih of Muslim, from Hammad ibn Salama, from Thabit, from Anas ibn Malik: Jibril came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) while he was playing with the boys. He seized him, threw him down, opened his chest, took out the heart, removed from it a black clot, and said: "this is the devil’s share of you." Then he washed it in a basin of gold, with Zamzam water, joined it, then restored it to its place. The boys ran to his foster mother saying: Muhammad has been killed! Then they met him returning, and he was pale in color. Anas said: I saw the mark of that stitching on his chest myself.
Ibn Asakir also reported, through Ibn Wahb, from Amr ibn al-Harith, from Abd Rabbih ibn Sa’id, from Thabit al-Bunani, from Anas: it was in Medina that the prayer was prescribed. Two angels came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), took him to Zamzam, opened his belly, drew out its contents into a basin of gold, washed them with Zamzam water, then filled his inside with wisdom and knowledge.
And through Ibn Wahb likewise, from Ya’qub ibn Abd ar-Rahman az-Zuhri, from his father, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Amir ibn Utba ibn Abi Waqqas, from Anas: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was approached for three nights, and it was said: "take the best of them and their master." So they took the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), brought him to Zamzam, opened his belly, washed it in a basin of gold, then filled it with wisdom and faith.
The account is further established from Sulayman ibn al-Mughira, from Thabit, from Anas; in the two Sahihs, from Sharik ibn Abi Namir, from Anas; from az-Zuhri, from Anas; from Abu Dharr and Qatada, from Anas; and from Malik ibn Sa’sa’a, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in the hadith of the Night Journey, as the story of the splitting of the chest that night will be told in its place: and he was washed with Zamzam water. There is no contradiction here: for the event could have occurred twice: once in his childhood, and once on the night of the Night Journey, so that he would be prepared to appear before the highest assembly, and for the private address of his Lord, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
Ibn Ishaq said: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) used to say to his Companions: "I am the most eloquent of you: I belong to Quraysh, and I was nursed among Banu Sa’d ibn Bakr." Ibn Ishaq mentioned that Halima, when she returned him to his mother after weaning, passed by a group of Christians, who rose to him, examined him, and said: we shall take this boy to our king, for a great destiny awaits him. She hardly escaped them except with difficulty. He also mentioned that when she returned him to his family, fearing that some mishap had struck him, and as she drew near Mecca, she lost sight of him and could not find him. She went to inform his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, who went out with a party of men searching for him, and found him with Waraqa ibn Nawfal and another man of Quraysh. He was brought to his grandfather, who took him on his shoulder: then he circumambulated with him, seeking protection for him and supplicating for him: then he returned him to his mother Amina.
al-Umawi mentioned, from Uthman ibn Abd ar-Rahman al-Waqassi (and this transmitter is weak), from az-Zuhri, from Sa’id ibn al-Musayyab, the story of the Prophet’s birth (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and his nursing by Halima, other than the version of Muhammad ibn Ishaq. He mentioned that Abd al-Muttalib ordered his son Abdallah to carry him around the clans of the Arabs, to find him a wet nurse: Abdallah went around, then hired Halima for his nursing. He mentioned that he stayed with her six years, his grandfather visiting him every year. When the splitting of his chest occurred with them, she returned him to his family: he then stayed with his mother until he was eight years old, when she died. His grandfather Abd al-Muttalib took charge of him: then he died when the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was ten years old. His uncles az-Zubayr and Abu Talib, his father’s brothers, took charge of him. When he was about ten, he traveled with his uncle az-Zubayr to Yemen: it is mentioned that signs of him were seen on that journey, among them this: a male camel had cut off the road in a valley through which they had to pass. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) saw it, he approached it, stroked it until its knee touched the ground, then mounted it. And he led them through a raging flood which Allah dried up for them, until they crossed. Then his uncle az-Zubayr died, when he was fourteen, and Abu Talib alone took charge of him.
The point is that his blessing (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) rested upon Halima as-Sa’diyya and her family while he was small: then it returned to Hawazin in its fullness, when he took them captive after the battle of Hunayn, which came a month after the conquest of Mecca. They then appealed to him through the bond of nursing: he freed them, was tender toward them, and treated them well, as will be detailed in its place, Allah willing.
Ibn Ishaq said, concerning the battle of Hawazin, from Amr ibn Shu’ayb, from his father, from his grandfather: we were with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) at Hunayn, and when he had taken their wealth and their captives, the delegation of Hawazin came to him at al-Ji’rana, having accepted Islam. They said: O Messenger of Allah, we are a people of stock and kinship, and calamity has struck us as you know: grant us the favor Allah has granted you. Their spokesman, Zuhayr ibn Sard, stood and said: O Messenger of Allah, the captive women in the enclosures are your aunts and your wet nurses, those who raised you. If we had inflicted on the son of Abi Shamir or on an-Nu’man ibn al-Mundhir what was inflicted on them at your hands, we would have hoped for their return, and for your kindness toward them: and you are the best of those who were nursed. Then he recited:
Grant us favor, O Messenger of Allah, in generosity: for you are the man we hope in, and in whom we store our trust.
Grant favor to a clan that destiny has struck: its bonds torn apart, its ranks scattered through the years.
Time has left us crying out in sorrow: hearts drowned in grief and in the deep.
If Na’ma does not come to their rescue and spread their banner, O gentlest of men at the hour of trial...
Grant favor to the women you once nursed from, when your little mouth was filled with their pure milk.
Grant favor to the women you once nursed from, when they showed you what they brought and what they left.
Do not treat us like the man his ostrich casts away: keep us alive, for we are a people of the flower of youth.
We give thanks for blessings, even when they are denied: and after this day we hold a store laid up with you.
This story was also reported through Ubaydallah ibn Rumahsa al-Kalbi ar-Ramli, from Ziyad ibn Tariq al-Jushami, from Abu Sard Zuhayr ibn Jarwal, who was the chief of his people. He said: when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) took us captive on the day of Hunayn, and was separating the men from the women, I sat down before him, and he let me hear the poem I remembered from my youth, having grown up among Hawazin, where he had been nursed:
Grant us favor, O Messenger of Allah, in abundance: for you are the man we hope in, and for whom we wait.
Grant favor to a clan that destiny has struck: its bonds torn apart, its ranks scattered through the years.
War has left us crying out in sorrow: hearts drowned in grief and in the deep.
If Na’ma does not come to their rescue and spread their banner, O gentlest of men at the hour of trial...
Grant favor to the women you once nursed from, when your little mouth was filled with their pure milk.
When you were a little child the women nursed you: when they showed you what they brought and what they left.
Do not treat us like the man his ostrich casts away: keep us alive, for we are a people of the flower of youth.
We give thanks for blessings, even when they are denied: and after this day we hold a store laid up with you.
Then clothe with pardon those you once nursed from among your mothers: for pardon is with you a thing well known.
We hope for a pardon from you that you clothe upon these people, when you pardon and bring relief.
So pardon: may Allah pardon what you watch over, on the Day of Resurrection, when victory is guided to you.
He said: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) replied: "as for what belongs to me and to the sons of Abd al-Muttalib, it belongs to Allah and to you." The Ansar said: "and what belongs to us belongs to Allah and to His Messenger." It will come later that he released their offspring to them: they were six thousand, between children and women: and he gave them abundant livestock and many men, until Abu al-Husayn ibn Faris said: the value of what he released to them that day was five hundred thousand times a thousand dirhams, that is, five hundred million dirhams. All of this is from his hastened blessing in this world: how then will be his blessing upon whoever follows him in the hereafter.