boy! For he is destined to rule over us!” His milch-mother became frightened for him, but God delivered him.
The Prophet spent his boyhood in her house,18 and when he began to walk, his milch-sister was charged with looking after him. Once his milch-sister came and cried, “O mother! I just now saw a band of men take my brother and split open his abdomen!”19 Terrified, his milch-mother rose up and rushed to him; however, he merely sat there, white with fright, and she saw no one else with him.
She then set out with him so that she could present him to his mother. His milch-mother said to her, “Take your son from me, for I am afraid for his sake.” “No, by God,” said his mother, “there is no reason to be afraid for my son. While he was in my womb, I saw a vision: a light shone forth from me that illuminated the palaces of Syria.20 I gave birth to him, and right after he was born, he prostrated himself by leaning on his hands and lifting his head toward the heavens.”
His mother and grandfather ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib had him weaned from his milch-mother, and soon thereafter his mother passed away. The Prophet thus became an orphan in the custody of his grandfather. While he was still a boy, he would march up to his grandfather’s cushion and sit on it, pushing his grandfather off. His grandfather had grown quite old with age, and the slave girl who looked after ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib would say, “Get down from your grandfather’s cushion!” But ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib would reply, “Leave my boy be, for it suits the lad.”
1.1.5
ثمّ توفّي جدّه ورسول الله صلّى الله عليه وسلّم غلامٌ، فكفله أبو طالب وهو أخو عبد المطّلب لأبيه وأمّه. فلمّا ناهز الحلم، ارتحل به أبو طالب تاجرًا قبل الشام. فلمّا نزلا تيماء، رآه حبر من يهود تيماء.١ فقال لأبي طالب: ما هذا الغلام منك؟
فقال: هو ابن أخي.
قال له: أشفيق أنت عليه؟
قال: نعم.
قال: فوالله لئن قدمت به إلى الشام لا تصل به إلى أهلك أبدًا ليقتلنّه! إنّ هذا عدوّهم!
فرجع أبو طالب من تيماء إلى مكّة.
١ بد؛ مم: تميم.
While the Messenger of God was still a boy, his grandfather also passed away, and his uncle Abū Ṭālib, the full brother of ʿAbd Allāh, became his guardian. When the Prophet attained puberty, Abū Ṭālib traveled with him to Syria to trade, but when they arrived in the oasis of Taymāʾ a rabbi from the Jews of Taymāʾ saw him. The rabbi said to Abū Ṭālib, “This young man isn’t your son, is he?”
“He’s my brother’s son,” Abū Ṭālib replied.
“Do you care for the boy?” asked the rabbi.
“Yes,” he said.
“By God,” said the rabbi, “if you bring him to Syria, you will never again return him to your people. They will certainly kill him—for this young man is their enemy!”21
Abū Ṭālib returned, therefore, from Taymāʾ to Mecca.
1.1.6
فلمّا بلغ رسول الله صلّى الله عليه وسلّم الحلم، أجمرت امرأة الكعبة، فطارت شرارة من مجمرها في ثياب الكعبة، فأحرقتها ووهت. فتشاورت قريش في هدمـها وهابوا هدمـها. فقال لهم الوليد بن المغيرة: ما تريدون بهدمـها، الإصلاح تريدون أم الإساءة؟
فقالوا: بل الإصلاح.
قال: فإنّ الله لا يهلك المصلح.
قالوا: فمن الّذي يعلوها فيهدمـها؟
قال الوليد: أنا أعلوها فأهدمـها!
فارتقى الوليد بن المغيرة على ظهر البيت ومعه الفأس، فقال: اللهمّ إنّا لا نريد إلّا الإصلاح! ثمّ هدم، فلمّا رأته قريش قد هدم منها ولم يأتِهم ما خافوا من العذاب، هدموا معه حتّى إذا بنوها. فبلغوا موضع الركن. اختصمت١ قريش في الركن، أيّ القبائل ترفعه؟ حتّى كاد يشجر بينهم. فقالوا: تعالوا نحكّم أوّل من يطلع علينا من هذه السكّة.٢ فاصطلحوا على ذلك، فطلع عليهم رسول الله صلّى الله عليه وسلّم، وهو غلام عليه وِشَاحُ نَمِرَةٍ، فحكّموه فأمر بالركن فوضع في ثوب. ثمّ أمر بسيّد كلّ قبيلة، فأعطاه بناحية الثوب. ثمّ ارتقى ورفعوا إليه الركن، فكان هو يضعه.
١ بالأصل: اجتمعت؛ والصواب من كتاب الحج في مم.
٢ بالأصل: الشوكة؛ والصواب من كتاب الحج في مم.
When God’s Messenger reached puberty, a woman accidentally set fire to the Kaaba when sparks from the fire she had kindled flew up and onto its covering. The fire burned the Kaaba, and its structure became unstable. The Quraysh deliberated among themselves over whether it should be demolished, but they were too terrified to go through with it. Al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah said to them, “What do you want to accomplish by demolishing it? To repair it or to ruin it?”
“Only to repair it,” they said.
“God will surely not cause any man to perish who seeks to repair it,” al-Walīd said.
Then they asked, “But who will climb it and tear it down?”
“I will be the one to climb,” answered al-Walīd.
Al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah climbed to the top of the Sacred House, taking an ax with him, and declared, “O Lord, we desire nothing but to undertake a repair.” Then he began to tear down the Kaaba. When the Quraysh saw that he had demolished some of it and that the chastisement they feared had not come, they began to work alongside him to demolish it. When they had rebuilt it and reached as far as the cornerstone,22 the Quraysh quarreled over which tribe would put it back in place, and a fight nearly broke out between them. Then
