Before long, the infant Muhammad had reached three years of age under\nthe care of Halimah bint Abi-Dhua\u2019ib from the Banu Sa\u2019d.\u00a0Muhammad, who\nhad not yet become a Prophet, had another year to live in the desert,\nenjoying the clear and free air of the hinterland, unbound by any\nspiritual or material ties.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that time, before he reached the age of three, an event occurred\nthat has been widely recounted by people,\u201d wrote Husen Heikal in his\nbook Sejarah Hidup Muhammad.<\/p>\n
The story goes that Muhammad and his foster brother, children of the\nsame age, were behind the house outside the supervision of their family.\nSuddenly, the child from the Sa\u2019d family came running home and said to\nhis parents, \u201cMy Quraishi brother has been taken by two men in white\nclothes. He was laid down, his stomach was cut open, and he was turned\nover,\u201d the brother recounted, trembling.<\/p>\n
Husen Haekal noted that another version of what happened to the young\nMuhammad exists, in which Halimah said of herself and her husband: \u201cI\nwent with his father to the place. We found him standing. His face was\npale. I observed him, as did his father. We asked, \u2018What is wrong with\nyou, son?\u2019 He replied, \u2018Two men in white clothes came to me. I was laid\ndown, and my stomach was cut open. They were looking for something\ninside it. I do not know what they were looking for.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Halimah and her husband returned home. They were very afraid that the\nchild had been possessed. Afterwards, they took the child back to his\nmother in Makkah. Regarding this event, Ibn Ishaq cited a Hadith of the\nProphet from after his prophethood.<\/p>\n
However, in recounting this event, Ibn Ishaq appeared to be very\ncautious and stated that the reason for his return to his mother was not\nbecause of the story of the two angels, but rather\u2014as Halimah told\nAminah\u2014when she brought him home after he was weaned, some Abyssinian\nChristians observed Muhammad and asked Halimah about the child. They\nlooked at the child\u2019s back and said, \u201cLet us take this child to our king\nin our land. This child will become an important person. We are the ones\nwho know his condition.\u201d Halimah then quickly distanced herself from\nthem, taking the child with her.<\/p>\n
A similar story was also reported by Ath-Tabari, but this is still\ndoubted, because he mentioned Muhammad at that age, then later mentioned\nthat it happened not long before his prophethood, when he was forty\nyears old.<\/p>\n
Both orientalists and some Muslims themselves are not satisfied with\nthe story of the two angels and consider the source to be very weak. The\nonly witnesses to the two men (angels) in the accounts of the historians\nwere children who were just over two years old. Muhammad\u2019s age at the\ntime was the same. However, the sources agree that Muhammad stayed with\nthe Sa\u2019d family until he reached the age of five. If the event had\noccurred when he was two and a half years old, and Halimah and her\nhusband had returned him to his mother at that time, there would be an\nunacceptable contradiction in the two accounts.<\/p>\n
Therefore, some writers believe that he returned with Halimah for the\nthird time. In this regard, Sir William Muir did not wish to mention the\nstory of the two men in white, and only noted that if Halimah and her\nhusband had realised there was a disturbance affecting the child, it\nmight have been a nervous crisis, and if it did not affect his health,\nit was because of his good physical constitution.<\/p>\n
Perhaps others would say that there was no need for anyone to split\nopen his stomach or chest, since from birth God had already prepared him\nto carry out His message. Dermenghem believed that this story has no\nbasis other than what is known from the text of the verse: \u201cDid We not\nexpand your chest for you? And We removed from you your burden, which\nhad weighed down your back?\u201d (Qur\u2019an 94: 1-3).<\/p>\n
What the Qur\u2019an alluded to is purely spiritual in meaning, which is\nto purify and cleanse the heart that would receive the Holy Message, and\nthen convey it with complete sincerity, bearing all the burdens of that\nweighty Message.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/the-story-of-the-young-muhammads-chest-being-split-open-1787442656", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }