ʿABDULLĀH AND ĀMINAH
ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, a chieftain of the Quraysh, had ten sons, all of whom were worthy and outstanding, but ʿAbdullāh was the noblest and most prominent amongst his brothers. [1] ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib married him to Āminah, the daughter of Wahb ibn ʿAbd Manāf, who was the leading man of Banū Zuhrah. She was the most excellent woman among the Quraysh in birth and position at that time. [2]
Muḥammad was born after the death of his father (who fell ill while traveling back from Shām, Syria, and consequently passed away in the city of his maternal family, Yathrib, at the age of twenty-five). Before his birth, Āminah witnessed many an omen portending a great future for her son. [3]
BIRTH OF THE PROPHET
The Prophet was born on Monday, the 12th of Rabīʿ al-Awwal [4] in the year of the Elephant. In point of fact, it was the most auspicious day in the history of mankind.
Thus, Muḥammad was the son of ʿAbdullāh, son of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, son of Hāshim, son of ʿAbd Manāf, son of Quṣayy, son of Kilāb, son of Murrah, son of Kaʿb, son of Luʾayy, son of Ghālib, son of Fihr, son of Mālik, son of al-Naḍr, son of Kinānah, son of Khuzaymah, son of Mudrikah, son of Ilyās, son of Muḍar, son of Nizār, son of Maʿadd, son of ʿAdnān.
The parentage of ʿAdnān is further traced to Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm [5] by Arab genealogists. After the birth of Muḥammad, Āminah sent to inform his grandfather. He came, looked at the baby lovingly, and took him to the Kaʿbah, where he praised [6] Allah and prayed for the baby. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib named him Muḥammad, meaning ‘He who is Praised’. The Arabs were surprised at the unfamiliar name [7] that ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib had given to the newborn.
THE SUCKLING PERIOD
Thuwaybah, a bondswoman of the Prophet’s uncle Abū Lahab, suckled him for a few days while ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib continued to look for a wet nurse for his favorite grandson. It was customary in Makkah to place suckling babies in the care of a desert tribe, where the child would grow up in the free, chivalrous air away from the cramped, contaminating atmosphere of the city, and learn the wholesome ways of the Bedouins. Those were the days when the chaste, unaffected expression of the desert people was considered the finest model of grace and elegance of the Arabic language. Together with the milk of a Bedouin woman, the babies drank the fluent language that permeated the desert.
The people of the tribe of Banū Saʿd were known for the gracefulness of their speech. Ḥalīmah al-Saʿdiyyah [8], belonging to this tribe, ultimately came to take the precious baby under her wings. This was a year of famine when Banū Saʿd had been made destitute. The tribe came to Makkah to look for children to be suckled, but none of their women would take the Apostle of God because none expected a goodly return for nursing a child whose father was already dead.
They said, ‘An orphan! What will his mother and grandfather give in return?’ At first, Halimah also declined the offer, but suddenly she felt a longing for the baby. She had also failed to find a charge for herself and, therefore, before departing for her home, she returned and took the baby back with her. Before long, Halimah found that her household was blessed with good fortune: her breasts overflowed with milk, the udders of her she-camel were full, and everything seemed to bring forth happiness. The women of Halimah’s tribe now let out the murmur: “Halimah, you have certainly got a blessed child,” and began to feel envious of her.
Halimah weaned the baby when he was two years old, for it was customary for the foster-children to return to their families at that age. The boy was also growing faster than other children, and by the time he was two, he was a hearty child. Thus, Halimah brought the Apostle of God back to Aminah but begged to be allowed to keep the boy for yet some time, as he had brought her good fortune. Aminah agreed and allowed Halimah to take Muhammad back with her. [9]
Some months after his return to Banū Sa’d, two angels seized the Apostle of God, opened up his belly, and extracted a black globule from it. Then they thoroughly cleaned his heart and healed the wound after returning his heart to its place. [10]
The Apostle of God tended the lambs with his foster-brothers in the vast wilderness of the desert—far away from the pretensions, pomp, and pride of the city—where his thoughts became plain and clear like the desert air. His life was simple like the sand, and he learnt to put up with the hardships and dangers of the wilderness. And, with the people of Banū Sa’d, his ears became accustomed to the verbalism of the pure and classical language of the Bedouins. The Prophet often used to tell his Companions: ‘I am the most Arab of you all. I am of Quraysh, and I was suckled among Banū Sa’d ibn Bakr.’ [11]
DEATH OF AMINAH AND 'ABD AL-MUTTALIB
When the Apostle was six years old, his mother took him to Yathrib to pay a visit to her father. She also wanted to call on the grave of her late husband [12], but while on her way back to Makkah, she died at a place called Abwa' [13]. The Apostle must have felt lonely and grief-stricken at the death of his mother in the middle of his journey. Incidents of a like nature had come to pass ever since his birth, perhaps, by way of divine dispensation for his upbringing in a particular way. An Abyssinian bondswoman, Umm Ayman Barakah, brought him to his grandfather in Makkah.
'Abd al-Muttalib loved the Apostle dearly; he was the apple of his eye and never allowed him to be away from him. He would make the Apostle sit beside him on his couch in the shade of the Ka'bah and caress him to show his affection.
When the Apostle was eight years of age, 'Abd al-Muttalib also passed away. [14] The Apostle was now left behind, alone and abandoned. He had never seen his father and would have had no recollection of him, and the death of the adoring grandfather must have been disheartening and devastating for him.
ABU TĀLIB BECOMES THE GUARDIAN
After the death of 'Abd al-Muttalib, Abu Talib took the Apostle under his care, for he and 'Abdullah, the Apostle's father, were brothers by the same mother. 'Abd al-Muttalib had also insisted that Abu Talib take care of the Apostle. Accordingly, Abu Talib took the Apostle under his protection and treated him with more care and affection than his own sons, 'Ali, Jafar, and 'Aqil'. [15]
Once, when the Apostle was nine years old, [16] Abu Talib planned to go with a merchant caravan to Syria. The Apostle approached his uncle and, nestling close to him, insisted on accompanying him on the journey. Abu Talib agreed to take him to Syria. When the caravan reached Busrā in Syria, it broke the journey for a short stay near the cell of a monk called Bahīrā. Against his usual practice, he came out to welcome the merchants and made a great feast for them.
The caravan found favor with Bahīrā, so they relate, because of something he had seen while in his cell. When Bahīrā saw the Apostle of God (ﷺ), he satisfied himself of the signs of apostleship he had known and advised Abū Ṭālib: 'Return to your home with this youth, and guard him from the Jews; for great dignity awaits your nephew'. Abū Ṭālib followed his advice and took the Apostle (ﷺ) off quickly to Makkah. [17]
The Heavenly Host had made special arrangements for enlarging the mind of the holy Prophet and taken particular care to shut out the faults and failings of the pagan past from him. From early youth, the unobtrusive young man was known for his gentle disposition and the austere purity of his life as well as his candor, honesty, and integrity, and the stern sense of duty. He was the straight and narrow path, and none could find the slightest fault with him. The fair character and honorable bearing of the Apostle won for him from his fellow citizens, and in the flower of his youth, the title of al-Amīn, the Trustworthy. [18]
Evil were the ways of young men in Makkah, and no misdemeanor brought anybody into disgrace. But God helped His Apostle to abandon the pleasures of life familiar to everybody in Makkah. On the contrary, he was kind to his kinsmen, alleviated the sufferings of others, and spared no expense to meet their needs, entertained guests, was ever willing to join hands with anybody in a noble and virtuous task, [19] and liked to earn his living by his labor, although it meant living a life simple to the point of austerity.
When the Apostle was fourteen or fifteen years of age, the sacrilegious war, known as the Ḥarb al-Fijār, broke out between Quraysh and the tribe of Qays. The Apostle was present at these encounters and picked up the arrows that the enemy had shot and gave them back to the fighters of Quraysh. This was his first military experience in which he learnt horsemanship and futūwah (the praised quality of chivalry). [20]
Now that the Apostle was coming into his years of discretion, he turned his attention to finding a means of livelihood. Like other young men of his age, he took to tending sheep and goats. It was not deemed a disgraceful occupation in those days; rather, it taught one watchfulness, alertness, and quickened the responses; kindness and consideration to the weak, patience in leading the herd, and, besides, it provided an opportunity to inhale the freedom of the Arabian air and gain physical strength. More than that, it had been the custom of all the prophets of old, and this prepared him for his future prophetic office. The Prophet afterward used to say: ‘Verily, there has been no prophet who has not tended the flocks of goats.’ On being asked again whether he had also performed the work of a shepherd, the Prophet affirmed, ‘Yes, I did work.’
The Apostle was not entirely new to the job, for in his childhood days, he would accompany his foster-brothers who tended their flocks and herds. The reports in the Ṣiḥāḥ show that the Apostle would tend the goats on the neighboring hills and valleys for a meager payment from the owners of the flocks. [21]
MARRIAGE WITH KHADĪJAH
The Apostle married Khadījah when he was twenty-five years of age. Khadījah, daughter of Khuwaylid, was noble and intelligent, possessed wealth, and was respected for the goodness of her heart. A widow whose age was then forty years. [22] Her late husband was Abū Hālah. She carried on business and, like other merchants of Makkah, she would hire men to carry her merchandise outside the country on a profit-sharing basis. Khadījah had experienced the Apostle’s truthfulness, trustworthiness, and honorable character and had also heard about his immense integrity during his journey. Although Khadījah had turned down several offers for her hand by some of the eminent chiefs of Quraysh, she expressed her desire to marry the Apostle. Ḥamzah, an uncle of the Apostle, conveyed the message to him to which he readily agreed. Abū
Ṭālib recited the wedding sermon, and the Apostle united in wedlock with Khadījah. All the children of the Prophet (excepting Ibrāhīm, who died in infancy) were born to Khadījah. [23]
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE KAʿBAH
In his thirty-fifth year, the Apostle settled a grave quandary that threatened to plunge Quraysh into another sacrilegious war. The Quraysh wished to rebuild the Kaʿbah and to roof it, for it was made of loose stones, and its walls were a little higher than a man’s height. So, the walls were demolished and the work of reconstruction taken up [24], but when it was rebuilt as far as the position of the Black Stone, the question arose as to who should place the sacred relic into its place. Every tribe claimed the honor until they were ready for battle. The grounds which led to the war of attrition during the days of pagan past in Arabia were often trivial when compared to the grave issue that was made the point of honor on this occasion.
Banū ʿAbd ad-Dār brought a bowl full of blood; then they and Banū ʿAdī pledged themselves to fight unto death by thrusting their hands into the blood. The conflict appeared to be the starting point of a furious struggle that might have swallowed up all of Arabia in another of their oft-recurring wars. The impasse continued for a few days until it was agreed that the next man to enter the gate of the mosque would be made arbiter in the matter in dispute. The first man to enter was the Apostle of God. ‘This is Muḥammad, ’ they said as soon as they saw him coming, ‘He is trustworthy and we are satisfied with his decision. [25]
The Prophet asked them to bring a cloth. Then he took the Black Stone and put it inside it, and asked each tribe to take hold of an end of the cloth and lift it to the required height. When the people lifted the stone in this manner, the Apostle placed it in its position with his own hands, and building continued above it.³ The wisdom displayed by the Apostle on this occasion, which saved the Quraysh from measuring swords with one another, strikingly illustrates his sound judgment and the fire of his genius. The sagacity of the Prophet foretold how he was later to save humanity from perpetual strife and bloodshed as the divine harbinger of peace. The incident foreshadowed the signs of the Apostle’s prudence, the profundity of his teachings, his consideration and sweet temper, and the spirit of his friendliness and altruism; in fact, the cardinal virtues of one who was to become the ‘Mercy for the Worlds’.
These were the qualities through which the Apostle transformed a people, unruly and ferocious, continuously at war amongst themselves, into a well-knit fraternity by proving himself a Merciful Prophet (ﷺ) for them.
HILF AL-FUDŪL
It was during this period that Quraysh came to agree upon one of the noblest covenants in which the Apostle ﷺ played a prominent part. It so happened that a man from Zabīd [26] came to sell his merchandise in Makkah. One of the chieftains of Quraysh, al-‘Āṣ ibn Wā’il, acquired the lot of it but paid nothing in return. Zabīdī approached several influential leaders of Quraysh, but none agreed to pick a quarrel with ‘Āṣ ibn Wā’il. Now, Zabīdī called upon the people of Makkah, exhorting every bold and fair-minded young man to come to his rescue. At last, many of them, put to shame, assembled in the house of ‘Abdullah ibn Jud’ān, who entertained the people coming to his house. Then, they formed a pact, in the name of Allah, to repress the acts of lawlessness and restore justice to the weak and the oppressed within the walls of Makkah. The covenant was called Hilf al-Fudūl. The parties to the pact approached ‘Āṣ ibn Wā’il and forced him to return the merchandise of Zabīdī. [27]
According to historians familiar with the customs of the Arabs and, in particular, of Makkah, the religious and cultural center of the Arabian Peninsula, the motive for the formation of the pact was not simply the result of this one incident or the injustices committed against a few individuals. Rather, it was the outcome of a deep anxiety at the anarchy and sense of suspicion that had taken hold of Makkah and its surroundings. Consequently, there was a huge need for security and stability (particularly after Harb al-Fijâr), the safeguarding of the rights and dignity of others, as well as protecting the strangers and dignitaries who came to Makkah for trade. [28]
The Apostle ﷺ had been one of the prominent promoters of the pact, and he always used to express his satisfaction with the execution of this agreement. Once he remarked: ‘I had a hand in making such a pact in the house of ‘Abdullah ibn Jud’ān, to which if I were invited to have a hand in it even after the advent of Islam, I would undoubtedly join again. They had agreed to restore to everyone that which was his due and to protect the weak from the arrogance of the oppressors.’
A MYSTIFYING UNREST
Muhammad was now approaching his fortieth year. He felt a mystifying internal unrest, yet he did not know the reason for it. He was himself not aware what the inexplicable perplexity meant to him; nor did the idea that God was about to honor him with revelation and Prophethood ever cross his mind. This was how the Prophet felt, as has been attested by God:
And thus have We inspired in you (Muhammad) a Spirit of Our Command. You knew not what the Scripture was, nor what the Faith. But We have made it a light whereby We guide whom We Will of Our bondmen. And Lo! You verily do guide unto a right path. [29]
At another place, the inability of the Apostle to know the reason for his internal unrest is evinced in these words:
You had no hope that the Scripture would be inspired in you; but it is a mercy from your Lord, so never be a helper to the disbelievers. [30]
It pleased the Will of God, All-wise and All-knowing, that His Apostle should remain a stranger to the arts of reading and writing. His contemporaries could thus never accuse him of fabricating the divine revelations. This, too, has been addressed by the Qur’ān to settle the matter.
And you (O Muhammad) were not a reader of any Scripture before it, nor did you write it with your right hand, for then might those have doubted, who follow falsehood. [31]
That is why the Qur’ān calls him an unlettered Prophet.
Those who follow the messenger, the Prophet who can neither read nor write, whom they will find described in the Torah and the Gospel (which are) with them. [32]
***
[1] Ibn Hishām, vol. 1, p. 108.
[2] Ibid., p. 110.
[3] Ibid., p. 158.
[4] Noted astronomer Maḥmūd Pāshā of Egypt has computed the date of birth as Monday, the 9th of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, in the year of Elephant, which was, according to the Gregorian calendar, the 20th April, 571 AD.
[5] Ibn Hishām, pp. 1-2, and other books of history and genealogy give the undisputed pedigree of the Prophet.
[6] Ibn Hishām, pp. 159-160
[7] Ibn Kathīr, vol. I, p. 210; Ibn Hishām, vol. I, p.158. Suhaylī’s al-Rawḍ al-Unuf and al-Fuṣūl of Ibn Fawrak bear witness that only three persons in the entire history of Arabia had been called by the name of Muḥammad during the pre-Islamic period. They had been given this name since their parents had heard from the Jews and the Christians that a new Prophet was to be born in the near future and that his name would be Muḥammad. These persons whose wives were pregnant, had taken an oath that if a male child was born to their wives, they would give the child the name that they had heard—it might have been so, as related in the old traditions, or there might have been a few more persons, as related by others, but the matter needs investigation before reaching any firm conclusions.
[8] Her genealogy goes back to Saʿd b. Bakr b. Hawazin—she is the daughter of Abī Dhuʾayb, and her husband was al-Ḥārith b. ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā.
[9] The interesting story of the period, as told by Halimah, has been preserved by Ibn Hishām, pp. 162–166.
[10] The detailed account of the story can be seen in the biographies of the Prophet. Imām Muslim relates the incident on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik under the heading ‘Ascent of the Prophet’ in his Kitāb al-Imān. Shāh Wali Allāh of Delhi (d. 1176/1762) writes in Huijat Allāh al-Bālighah that the angels appeared and opened the heart of the Prophet to fill it with faith and wisdom. He further says that this incident pertains to a state in between the World of Similitude and the Sensorial World, or, in that state, there would neither be any harm done by the opening of the belly nor any visible effect of it would remain there. Such things happen according to the Shāh Wali Allāh, where the World of Similitude and Senses come close to one another (Huijat Allāh al-Bālighah, vol. II, p. 205).
[11] Ibn Hishām, vol I, p. 167.
[12] Later on, the Prophet used to relate some of the incidents of his journey with his mother. After his migration to Madinah, when the Apostle saw the house of Banū an-Najjār, he remarked that his mother had bivouacked at that place and the well there was full of husks (Sharḥ al-Mawāhib al-Ladunniyyah, vol I, pp. 167–8).
[13] The place is near Mastūrah, halfway between Makkah and Madinah.
[14] Ibn Hishām, vol. I, pp. 168–9.
[15] Ibn Hishām, vol. I, p. 179.
[16] As related in authentic traditions.
[17] The incident has been related in some detail by Ibn Hishām and other biographers of the Prophet, but the authorities doubt the correctness of the report, both on account of the weak chain of narrators as well as the circumstantial evidence cited in its support. Shiblī Nuʿmānī writes in the Sīrat an-Nabī that 'all the narratives of the story fall under the category of intersected hadith since the Companions relating it from others do not give the name of the original narrator'. The famous traditionist Tirmidhī says that one of the narrators of this happening is ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn Ghazwān, who has been held to be an unreliable narrator. He further classifies the hadith as ḥasan gharīb, and this as the only chain through which it is related. Dhahabī holds the view that ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn Ghazwān is the narrator of the largest number of spurious Traditions, and the most unreliable amongst those related by him is the story relating to the monk, Bahīrā. It has been stated in most of the traditions on the subject that Abū Ṭālib sent the Apostle back to Makkah with Bilāl. Drawing attention to this version of the story, as related in Tirmidhī and other collections, Ibn al-Qayyim writes in the Zād al-Maʿād that Bilāl was perhaps not present on the occasion and even if he were there, Abū Ṭālib would not have sent the Apostle back, even with Abū Bakr or with one of his own brothers (Zād al-Maʿād, vol. I, p. 18). Certain Orientalists and European biographers of the Prophet have made a mountain out of a molehill and tried to show that during this brief sojourn of the Prophet with Bahīrā, (about whose life, Christian denomination or leaning, we possess little or rather no information at all) the former learnt all about monotheistic belief and the teaching of Islam which he later unfolded after a spell of 30 years. It is even more amusing to see the flight of imagination of the French Orientalist Carra de Vaux, who has written a whole book called the author of the Qur'an, in which he has tried to prove that in a few minutes, Bahīrā dictated all 114 chapters of the Qur'an to the Prophet. Supposing that the incident relating to the Prophet's meeting with Bahīrā were correct, who, in his right mind would be prepared to accept that a boy whose age was only nine at that time, according to the most authentic traditions, or, twelve, at the most, was able to learn, in a meeting as brief as a single meal, all about those intricate problems, inexplicable intricacies, differences and corollaries of the abstruse creeds of the sixth century Christian heretical sects which were not adequately discussed even by the later reformers of Christianity. Such a supposition would be blatantly absurd; so far, we know that the language spoken by the monk was different and, most probably, incomprehensible to the boy. What is more, how could the monk have told about the events that were to happen in the opening decades of the seventh century (603–606CE), that is, thirty or forty years after his death, by which time his bones would have turned to dust. There are more than a few such events: the triumphant advance of the Persian armies and the retreat of the Byzantines to their capital until it seemed to be the end of the great Eastern Roman Empire; the phenomenal rise of Heraclius, his brilliant victories which carried his arms to the very centre of the Persian Empire, and his avenging the outrages of consecrated monasteries and churches. All this came to pass within a brief period of nine years as told in the Qur'an: The Romans have been defeated in the near land, and they, after their defeat, will be victorious—within ten years. Allah's is the command in the former and in the latter, and on that day, believers will rejoice (30:2–4). No one could have ever made such a prophecy save by God, praised be His name, who is the Living, the Powerful, the Mighty, the Omniscient; who makes the day to pass into the night and the night into the day and who brings forth the living from the dead and the dead from the living. When this prophecy was made, there was nothing more inconceivable than its fulfillment. At the time when the pagan Quraysh were rejoicing at the defeat suffered by the believing Christians, the Qur'an announced that after their defeat, the Romans would be victorious. It even fixed the time—within ten years they were to emerge triumphantly. The Quraysh thought the prophecy so impossible that some of them even wagered on it. But, the events took a miraculous turn and the prophecy was fulfilled in such an unexpected manner in the second year of Hijrah, when the Muslims won the battle of Badr, that Gibbon, the celebrated historian of the Roman Empire, had to admit that: ...the languid mists of the morning and evening are separated by the brightness of meridian sun: the Arcadius of the palace arose the Caesar of the camp; and the honour of Rome and Heraclius was gloriously retrieved by the exploits and trophies of six adventurous campaigns (vol. V, p. 76). This was not the solitary future event mentioned in the Qur’ān. Signal victory was promised after the truce of Ḥudaybiyyah which was considered shameful for the Muslims by friends and the foes alike (48:18). It was foretold that they would enter the religion of Allah in troops (110:2). The victory of Islam over other faiths was predicted at a time when eyes had grown wild and hearts had reached the throats (33:11), and the assurance was given to keep the Qur’anic text unchanged and pure forever (41:42). No man could have predicted that countless persons would ever continue to study, expound and commit the Qur’ān to their memory. In fact, the Qur’ān refers to many more astounding facts and predictions which could not have been foretold by the monk Bahīrā. All this goes to show that only he clutches at straws whose prejudice blinds him to the truth. We would have neither mentioned this incident here nor Carra de Vaux’s flight of imagination if the story told in some of the earlier biographies of the Prophet of Islam had not given rise to wild conjecture by Western writers, whose fictions of the mind cannot perhaps be adequately rewarded with anything else save the Nobel Prize in literature.
[18] Ibn Hishām, vol. I, p. 183.
[19] Khadījah, the Prophet’s wife, referred to these qualities of her husband when she found him perplexed after the first revelation came to him.
[20] Ibn Hishām vol. I, p. 186.
[21] The Arabic term used is qarārīṭ, about which Shiblī Nu‘mānī writes in the Sīrat an-Nabī (vol. I), that scholars differ about the meaning of the word. Suwayd ibn Sa‘īd, the teacher of Ibn Mājah, holds that a qirāṭ (pl. qarārīṭ) is a fraction of dirham or dīnār. The tradition means that the Prophet would tend goats for payment, and hence Bukhārī has included it under the Chapter pertaining to wages. The finding of Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī, on the other hand, is that the word signifies a place near al-Ajyād, and Ibn al-Jawzī prefers this meaning. ‘Aynī has also given many reasons to support the view, and the author of Nūr an-Nibrās has, after a detailed discussion of the word, upheld the latter view.
[22] Ibn Hishām, vol. I, pp. 189–90.
[23] Ibn Hishām, vol. I, p. 190, and other biographies of the Prophet.
[24] Mūsā b. ʿUqabah said: Quraysh had decided to rebuild the Kaʿbah after fearing that water from a drain pipe would enter it, so they demolished it. However, a man among them pointed out that a thief could gain access to the treasures of the Kaʿbah, and so they desired to strengthen its walls and raise its door so no crook could gain access. See At-Taḍāl fī ‘Uyūn al-Athār of Ibn Sayyid an-Nās, vol I, p.25.
[25] Ibn Hishām, vol. I, pp. 192–197
[26] A town in Yemen.
[27] Ibn Hishām, vol. I, pp. 257–59.
[28] According to some, the Quraysh named the covenant the pact of fudūl because three of its prominent members all bore the name faḍl; al-Faḍl b. al-Faḍālah, al-Faḍl b. Widā’ah and al-Faḍl b. Hārith, as indicated by Ibn Qutaybah. Others have named them as al-Faḍl b. Sharrā’ah, al-Faḍl b. Biḍā’ah and al-Faḍl b. Qaḍā’ah (p.113). Another opinion is that it was called the pact of fudūl because its members had taken up an allegiance of virtue (or faḍl). Ibn Sayyid an-Nās quotes in his book, “Uyūn al-Athar fī funūn al-Maghāzī wa ash-Shamā’il wa as-Siyar” that the Apostle (peace be upon him) was twenty years of age at the time of the covenant, which took place in Dhul Qa’dah after Harb al-Fijâr’, (vol. 1, p.46).
[29] Qur’ān 42:52.
[30] Qur’ān 28:86.
[31] Qur’ān 29:48.
[32] Qur’ān 7:157.
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