Abrahah and the Prophet’s Birth

1. Home
2. Following The Legacy of Abraham
3. Abrahah and the Prophet’s Birth

 Abrahah and the Prophet’s Birth

By Ekram Haque

The story of Abrahah is an important milestone in the life of the Prophet Muhammad (s). A chapter of the Qur’an, called “Al-Feel” (The Elephant), describes Abrahah’s attempt to destroy the Ka’bah (the cube-shaped building in Makkah), and many scholars believe this attempt took place the year the Messenger of God was born.

Abrahah was a general in the Abyssinian army, which the king had deployed in Yemen. He served under the leadership of Aryat, whom the Abyssinian king had appointed governor of the area. Abrahah killed Aryat treacherously and installed himself as the governor. The king became furious and wanted to punish Abrahah, but the latter’s cunning and tact persuaded the king to spare his life. Abrahah was allowed to remain as governor.

Abrahah was given to grandiose ideas. He had built a massive Christian church to rival the House of God in Makkah. He wanted the pilgrims to come to his church and abandon the Ka’bah. This made some Arabs unhappy. The Ka’bah had for years enjoyed unsurpassed reverence, and they would allow nothing to challenge that reverence. One of the Arabs, in his envious rage, defiled Abrahah’s church by defecating in it. This vile action brought the ire of Abrahah, who, instead of catching and punishing the culprit, decided to destroy the Ka’bah itself.

Abrahah prepared a large army that also included an elephant named Mahmood. The news of Abrahah’s march sent fear and panic among the Arabs. Along his route to Makkah, Abrahah overpowered several Arab tribes. Some became so fearful of Abrahah that they offered to act as travel guides to help him reach Makkah by the best route.

When Abrahah finally arrived near Makkah, he began to plunder the villages. His army also confiscated some two hundred camels that belonged to Abdul Muttalib, the chief of the Quraysh and the grandfather of the Prophet Muhammad. As a leader of his people, Abdul Muttalib became very worried and ordered them to move up to the mountains to avoid being harmed by Abrahah’s forces. However, Abdul Muttalib decided that he would go and meet with Abrahah.

Abdul Muttalib was a man with extraordinarily good looks and an impressive personality, which allowed him to pass through checkpoints and reach Abrahah. Seeing a man of uncommon dignity, Abrahah left his throne, sat next to Abdul Muttalib, and asked what had brought him there. Abdul Muttalib said he wanted the governor to release his camels.

Abrahah was visibly surprised. “Here I am, ready to destroy your house of worship, and all you care about is your camels!” he exclaimed.

Abdul Muttalib said, “I am the lord of these camels, and the House also has a Lord who will protect it.”

Abrahah responded, “He will not be able to protect it from me.”

Abdul Muttalib said, “We shall see.”

So the troops marched into Makkah, and Abrahah ordered Mahmood, the elephant, to destroy the Ka’bah. But the outcome was very different from what he had anticipated. The elephant sat down and refused to move every time it was made to face the Ka’bah, and it got up and ran when it was faced away from the Ka’bah. Many years later, at the time of the incident of Hudaybiyah, the Prophet’s camel Qaswa refused to move, and some Companions called it stubborn; the Prophet said, “The same Lord who stopped the elephant has stopped Qaswa.”

Abdul Muttalib took back his camels, and he prayed to Allah to protect the Ka’bah. It was then that the sky became filled with small birds, which some say were either starlings or swallows. Each bird carried three pebbles of baked clay, one in the mouth and one in each claw, and threw them at the army of Abrahah. The powerful forces that Abrahah had arrayed against the House of God were soon decimated. Abrahah himself was gravely wounded, and he died upon returning home in a deplorable condition.

More than forty years later, Allah revealed the Surah Al-Feel (The Elephant), which captured the incident and the ignominious end of Abrahah and his army. In the next chapter, “Quraysh,” Allah made it clear that He had destroyed Abrahah not only to protect His House but also to safeguard the Quraysh from hunger and fear and to keep open their trade journeys to Yemen and Syria.

In the classic brevity of the Qur’an, “Quraysh,” with just four verses, summed up the reason for Abrahah’s destruction:

For the uniting of the Quraysh; and their caravans, in winter and in summer. So, let them worship the Lord of this House. Who has fed them against hunger, and has made them safe from fear. (Quraysh 106)

It was clearly an abnormal event. The small pebbles these birds carried did not have the power to wreak such havoc on an army, but this was an act of God. It was similar to what happened when the Prophet Muhammad threw a fistful of pellets at the Quraysh at the outset of the Battle of Badr. While throwing, he said, “shaahatil wujuh” (may the faces be disfigured), and the pebbles hit the enemy forces so hard that for a moment they were taken aback. In chapter 8 (Anfaal), verse 17, Allah called the Prophet’s actions His own. The event was also similar to the parting of the Red Sea when the Prophet Moses struck it with his staff.

When the birds dropped the little stones on Abrahah’s army, they killed the people they hit. Abrahah was smote in his body, and as they carried him away, his fingers fell off one by one. Pus and blood began to flow from their places. It is said that he died when his heart burst out from his chest.

This incident raised the stature of the Quraysh. They appeared to be people Allah wanted to preserve. Other tribes began to say the Quraysh were “Ahl Allah,” the People of God.

The Prophet’s Birth

Around the same time as Abrahah’s attack on the Ka’bah, or a little before that, Abdul Muttalib was seeking a wife for his most beloved son, Abdullah. He was relieved that Abdullah had been saved from the ceremonial sacrifice through the ransom of one hundred camels. After some searching, Abdul Muttalib decided upon Aaminah, the daughter of Wahb.

As Abdul Muttalib was walking toward Aaminah’s house, holding his son’s hand as if in a gesture of solidarity, they met a woman named Qutaylah, a sister of Waraqah bin Nawfal. She looked at Abdullah and said that if he were to marry her, she would give him one hundred camels, which would compensate Abdul Muttalib for the one hundred he had given in ransom for his son. Abdullah said he was going with his father to get married and would not disobey him.

Abdullah married Aaminah bint Wahb. Perhaps a few days later, when he was returning home, he saw Qutaylah again and mentioned her marriage proposal. Qutaylah said she no longer wished to marry him. It is said that when Abdullah was going to Aaminah’s house, Qutaylah saw a white blaze of light in Abdullah’s eyes, but when he was returning, after Aaminah had conceived, the blaze was no more.

Qutaylah had probably learned from her brother, Waraqah, who had knowledge of the Gospel (Injeel), that the time for the birth of a prophet had come. Forty years later, Waraqah, who had become a Christian, was the first person after Khadijah to testify that the one who had come to the Prophet Muhammad in the Cave of Hira was the Angel Gabriel (Jibreel) and that the Prophet had been chosen to be God’s Messenger.

Soon after returning home, Abdullah left on a trade journey to Syria. He did not know that Aaminah was pregnant. On the way back from Syria, he fell seriously ill and rested in Yathrib at his grandmother’s house. When Abdul Muttalib found out about the grave condition of his most beloved son, he sent someone on a fast horse from Makkah to bring Abdullah back. But it was too late. Abdullah had passed away.

The loss of his favorite son devastated Abdul Muttalib, so when Aaminah bore him a grandson a few months later, he became ecstatic. He thought it was a compensation for the loss of his son. He named his grandson Muhammad and took him to the Ka’bah and celebrated.

The signs of the Prophet’s birth were in the air. The Jews were waiting for their Messiah. Waraqah bin Nawfal, the Christian, and Salmaan Al-Farisi, the Persian who had made a long trek to Madinah in search of a prophet, were also expecting this prophet to appear.

There is not much authentically known about the early childhood of the Prophet. The reason for that is simple. Who would be sitting in the house of Aaminah to chronicle the beautiful childhood moments of baby Muhammad? After all, this was a normal family, and people went about their business without noticing anything extraordinary.

The only exception is what the Apostle of God himself confirmed after he became a Prophet or what others observed because of personal contact with him. He said, “I am the prayer of my father Ibraahim and the glad tiding of my brother Eesa; when my mother conceived me she saw a light issue from her and illuminate the palaces of Syria.” (Mustadrak Al-Haakim, 2:418; Ibn Hibbaan, Hadith #6404)

Aaminah, his mother, is reported to have said that she saw a light coming from her and illuminating the palaces of Bosra in Shaam. The land of Shaam was one of the first places that came under Islamic rule during the caliphate of Umar. Today, Shaam is Syria, but in the time of the Prophet Muhammad, the land of Shaam encompassed present-day Syria, Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon.

Some of the early books report that Aaminah heard a voice telling her that she was carrying the lord of his people and that she was to name him Muhammad. Stories that claim that the Prophet was born circumcised and that he prostrated to Allah after birth are just part of the legend, but there is no authentic narration to support them. The early books did report that Abdul Muttalib had had his grandson circumcised on the seventh day. Muslims would do better not to create stories out of nowhere when trying to honor the Prophet Muhammad. The Qur’an and Hadith have already provided ample proof of his stature in this world and the Hereafter, and they should suffice. In fact, the Prophet Muhammad has warned his followers not to exaggerate in respecting him.

When Was He Born?

Although the majority of Muslims believe that the Prophet was born on the twelfth day of the Islamic month of Rabi Al-Awwal, scholars have offered more than ten opinions concerning his date of birth. Some said the Prophet was born on the twelfth of Rabi al-Awwal; others said the third, eighth, or tenth. Some even said he was born in Ramadan. Even the year of his birth is subject to differences of opinion. A general consensus is that the Prophet was born in the Year of the Elephant (Al-Aam Al-Feel), meaning the year in which Abrahah came to destroy the Ka’bah, 570 or 571 CE. However, some scholars place his birth a few years away from the Year of the Elephant.

The only thing we know from the Messenger of Allah himself is the day of his birth. When asked why he fasted on Mondays, he said, “This is the day I was born.” So he fasted on Mondays to thank Allah for his birth. On another occasion he also said that deeds were taken up to Allah on Mondays and Thursdays, so he wanted his deeds to be presented to his Creator when he was fasting. Therefore he fasted on Thursdays as well.

The difference of opinion about the Prophet’s date of birth is quite understandable. More than fourteen centuries ago, it was not an Arab practice to record exact dates of birth. A person’s birth would be tied to something remarkable that happened around the time of his birth. In the Prophet’s case, many historians and chroniclers have opined that he was born the same year as Abrahah’s invasion of Makkah. Even if somehow the Prophet’s birth had been accurately recorded, fourteen centuries later there would be a difference of forty-two years due to the difference between the lunar and solar calendars.

Reflections: The discussion of the Prophet’s date of birth inevitably leads us to the subject of his birthday celebrations, called Mawlid in Arabic. In the Muslim world today, the birth of the Prophet is celebrated by a large number of people. In some countries it is an extravaganza. But from the study of historical records, we find that the practice of celebrating Mawlid did not gain ground until five hundred years after the passing of the Prophet. This means that the Prophet’s Companions, who learned his traditions firsthand, did not celebrate it, nor did many generations after them.

Yasir Qadhi, a contemporary American scholar, in a three-part article on muslimmatters.org (3/11/2009). wrote that it was not until the turn of the sixth century Hijri (1200 CE) that a Fatimid ruler celebrated the Prophet’s birthday. The Fatimids ruled over Egypt, and today’s Ismaa’ili and Bohra communities come from this Shi’ah group. Mawlid came into Sunni practice in the latter half of the sixth century AH, during the reign of Nuruddin Al-Zangi. It was popularized by a Sufi named Umar Al-Mulla.

As to why the twelfth of Rabi al-Awwal became more famous as the Prophet’s birthdate, it may be because Ibn Isshaaq mentioned it and also because a Sunni ruler chose this date.

Even though the Mawlid entered Muslim celebrations half a millennium after the Prophet’s death, it has become an entrenched tradition in our time, with millions celebrating it, some of whom are people of knowledge. And we leave this subject as one on which Muslims may continue to passionately disagree.