Mawlid En-Nabaoui – Birth of the Seal of the Prophets
It is with great joy that we welcome the commemoration of the birth of the Prophet (PBUH) commonly called (Al-Mawlid Annabawi).
Muslims have for centuries commemorated the birth of the Prophet (PBUH) Muhammad, the messenger of Islam, in almost every country in the world. The event for them is significant, it is a precious opportunity, naturally, to evoke the wonderful life and behavior of this happy chosen one of God1. In addition, many Muslims take advantage of this opportunity to renew their pact, their love and their vision with regard to this Prophet (PBUH) and his Sunna2. The love of the Prophet (PBUH) only grows, the return to religion is detectable to the naked eye, by any observer.
Rich in experiences for us are the events surrounding his birth, the family context and his early childhood, of which here is a very succinct account.
The year of the elephant
The elephant knelt down, not wanting to advance, Abrahah, a furious and formidable army leader, who built a large church in Sanaa in Yemen with the intention of making a new Kaaba, came to destroy the sacred Kaaba of the Mecca. Suddenly flocks of birds sent by God threw stones of clay3 at them, which pierced them like arrows, which rendered them like devoured stubble. The event of this elephant expedition then drew the attention of the world to the nobility of Kaaba, house of God. This event happened about fifty days before the birth of the Prophet (PBUH).
The genealogy of the Prophet (PBUH)
Muhammad (PBUH) was born in Mecca on a Monday morning on the twelfth day of the month of Rabi’-Al-Awwal4, around 571 (AD), to his father Abdallah and his mother Aminah bint wahb5. He belonged to the Banou hachim tribe who had their deep roots in the lineage of the Adnan Arabs. They were a first-rank noble family in Mecca.
His genealogy as cited by chroniclers6 is as follows: Mohamed is the messenger of God, son of Abdallah son of Abdelmottalib, son of Hachim, son of Koussaie, son of Kilab, son of Mourrah, son of kaab, son from Louae, from the lineage of Ishmael son of Ibrahim devoted servant of God.
His family tree is pure of any fruit of adultery or incest.7
Abdallah, Mohamed’s father, was famous for his purity and good morals. He died, his wife being pregnant, while he was on a business trip to Medina.8
The birth of the brilliant light
When Amina bint wahb gave birth to him, Abdelmouttalib, his grandfather, was overwhelmed with joy. He celebrated his birth and named him “Mohammed”.
“I hope,” said Abdelmouttalib, “that by this name he will be praised and filled with glory in heaven (by the grace of God) and that he will be similarly praised and filled with glory here on earth”9
His mother would not have felt any of the pains of childbirth, the child would have come into the world circumcised naturally. The angels would have cleansed him of all filth and marked him with the seal of prophecy on his back between his shoulders.
At that very moment a brilliant light would have illuminated all the surrounding countries, the sacred fire of the Persians, lit for a thousand years, would have gone out as if by enchantment.
Early childhood and the cleft of his chest
He spent his early years alongside his mother Amina. It was customary in Mecca to entrust young children to Bedouin wet nurses. But no nanny had agreed to take care of him because he was an orphan and not well off. Not wanting to return empty-handed, Halima and her husband agreed to take the baby.
” Take it ! perhaps God will do it a favor for us and the blessing will come into our tent”10
Indeed, prosperity continued to inhabit their tent.
Aware of this blessing, Halima, after two years of taking care of Mohamed, begged her mother Amina, who wanted him back, to leave him with her for even more years.
It was during this period, and before Mohamed had completed his third year, that a very important incident was reported. One day, a foster brother ran to his parents to inform them, very frightened, that people dressed in white had grabbed Mohamed and had laid him on the ground and then cut open his chest. The parents ran to Mohamed and found him pale and his eyes fixed towards the sky. When questioned, he told them that two men came from heaven, opened his chest, removed his heart, removed a black clot (the part belonging to Satan), and put the rest back after washing it with water (of Zamzam11) whose freshness he still felt.12
Halima was so frightened that she returned the child to her mother Amina.
At the age of six, Mohamed lost his mother who died on the way home after visiting the grave of her husband Abdallah, near Medina. The little orphan then came under the guardianship of his caring grandfather. Later, at the age of eight, Mohamed lost his grandfather. He then came under the guardianship of his uncle Abou-Taleb who worked as a shepherd to contribute to the family’s meager budget.
Wonderful is this story, unfortunately too succinct, and happy will be the one who knows how to benefit from it by expressing through the heart, the word and the deed his love towards the Prophet (PBUH).
Loving and sympathetically following the Prophet (PBUH):
The entire Muslim community (the Umma) surrounds him with honor and great respect. Every reasonable Muslim carries in his heart and in his mind, a significant part of this love towards the person of the Prophet (PBUH), of this affection, and keeps in memory, several stories of his wise words or of his life.
Scholars, through their knowledge and their ability to write, helped to write the story of his life13, to compile his Hadiths or even to devote long poems to his praise. No detail of the life of the Prophet (PBUH) escaped them, and no personality in human history has received as much attention or “historicity”, as much love and as much following. Muslims taught their children, over the centuries, the life of the Prophet (PBUH) Mohamed as they made them learn and chant the Koran.
Every Muslim must manifest this love, it is indeed the best way to access transcendence. If real company has been missed, spiritual company (the Sohba)14 is always open, day and night, until the end of life on earth. No Muslim will feel wearied by having recounted his life or his inimitable wise “maxims”, which reveal, moreover, that he is a Messenger of God.
Meditate on this Hadith, of the greatest importance, forgotten in the collections of Hadith and which summarizes the regard and attachment that one must have towards this person, whom I would describe as “universal purity”:
The Prophet (PBUH) said: “When will I see my brothers? » Are we not your brothers? He replied: “You are my companions, and my brothers are those who believe in me without having seen me”15
The Prophet (PBUH) embodies the message he brought to the human species to bring it out of darkness into light16. God wanted his Envoy charged with this mission to be a man enjoying the highest qualities. But the Messenger nevertheless remains a man, so that he may be, in all the circumstances of his life, a model. Under no circumstances should we be cut off from this inexhaustible source, otherwise perdition would be in store.
Alas, the space here is too short for such a grandiose subject which in truth deserves a regular seat around Our Beloved.
But until then, let us listen attentively to the words, those of God and His Messenger, surpassing all other speech…
God said: “Surely, God and His angels bless the Prophet. O believers! Bless him and send him your greetings.”17
According to Al-Husayn, the Prophet (PBUH) said:
“The selfish person is the one who does not pray over me when my name is pronounced in his presence.”18
Oh! God ! Grant Your unitive graces, Your peace and Your blessing to the noblest of Your creatures, our Lord and Master Mohamed (PBUH), the ocean of Your lights!
Oh! God ! Grant him therefore a grace and a greeting by which You undo our (existential) knots, You dissipate our affliction, You accomplish our purpose and You make our approach succeed!
Notes:
1. We use in our article the word “God” in place of the Arabic word “Allah”, in order to make it clear to Muslims, as well as to non-Muslims, that our Lord is called God in French, Allah in Arabic and God in English. This is a wise way to avoid confusion in people’s minds because it is always the same and only God. Orientalists have played for a long time on this tuning fork. After September 11, a journalist titled his article: “God of Jesus versus Allah of the Arabs.” Furthermore, let’s look at what these authors (Sue Grabham and Tara Benson) wrote in the book entitled “The Children’s Encyclopedia”, France Loisirs edition, year 1999, page 127: “Islam is the religion of Muslims, They believe in a God, called Allah, whose words were written by Muhammad in the Quran. These Muslims are praying in the holy city of Mecca.” !
2.The Sunnah is the set of teachings of the Prophet PBUH
3. cf. Quran Surah the Elephant
4. According to Ibn Hisham, let us note in passing that the Meccan calendar was lunar
5. Several poems by Aminah have been preserved, as well as some by other relatives of Abdelmouttalib’s family (cf. Ibn Hicham)
6. Ibn Hicham, Ibn Saad, Abou Nou’aym, Qadi Ayyad, Attirmidi and others
7. There is a Hadith which speaks of this, reported by Muslim and Attirmidhi, see also Ibn Hisham
8. His father’s tomb was located in the tribe of “Banou An-najjar” in Medina, family of Abdelmouttalib. The Prophet later remembered that they had learned to swim in a place belonging to this tribe, which was also a few steps from the Qoba Mosque, the first mosque in Islam
9. Ibn Hicham, Biography of the Prophet PBUH
10. Ibn Hicham, Biography of the Prophet PBUH
11. The water of Zamzam is water that springs next to the Kaaba in Mecca.
12. The story of the “chest split” has been cited in several collections of authentic Hadiths, including Bukhari and Muslim according to Anas Ibn Malik. The Quran confirms (cf. Surah The Opening, Verse 1)
13.The first who wrote on the Sirah biography of the Prophet PBUH are: Ibn-Is’haq, Ibn Hicham, Ibn Sa’d, Al-Waqidi, Ibn-Al-Kalbi, Al-Baladhuri, Ibn Bakkar and others
14. Sohba is the good company and love of those who hold knowledge and high spirituality
15. Hadith reported by Ahmed
16. In ten years, the Prophet ended up establishing a State of more than 3 million square kilometers. He bequeathed it to his successors who extended it in just fifteen years, across three continents: Europe, Africa and Asia. This miraculous fact cannot be interpreted only by the law of “cause and effect”.
17. Quran Surah The Combined, Verse 56
18. Hadith reported by Ahmed, Attirmidi and An-Nassa-i
