The Life of the Prophet Muhammad by Ibn Kathir - Volume 1 of 4

164 THE LIFE OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD
I outweighed them too. The first man then said, 'Leave him now, for even if you
weighed him against his entire nation, he would outweigh them!'"
This has a fine, strong chain of authorities.
Ibn IshSq also narrated that Abii Nu'aym, the hi$?, related this story in his
work al-Dalzcil (The Signs) by way of Wmar b. al-Suhh, known as Aba Nu'aym,
from Thawr b. Yazid, from Md&til, from Shaddad b. Aws, in a much lengthened
version. But this Wmar b. Subh should be ignored, for he was a liar who was
accused of invention. For this reason we will not mention the text of the tradition,
for it gives no pleasure.
Ihn Ish~q then said that Aba 'Amr h. Hamdim related to him, quoting
al-Hasan b. Nafir, quoting 'Amr b. Wthmzn, quoting Baqiyya b. al-Walid, from
Buhayr b. Sa'id, from Khdid b. Ma'dan, from 'Abd al-Ra!nnzn b. 'Amr
&Salami, from Wtba b. 'Abd Alliih, as follows. A man asked the Prophet
(SAAS), "What was it happened to you first, O Messenger of God?" He replied,
"My wet-nurse was from the Bana Sacd h. Bakr. One time a son of hers and I
went off with our flock without taking any food with us. So I said, 'Hey brother,
go hack and get us some food from our mother's home.' So my brother hurried
away while I stayed with the animals. Then two white birds like eagles came along
and one said to the other, 'Is that he?' 'Yes,' the other replied. Then they both
swooped down, took hold of me and laid me out on my back. They then split my
abdomen, extracted my heart, cut it open, and took out from it two black clots.
One bird said to his companion, 'Bring me some ice water.' And with it they
cleaned my insides. The first bud then said, 'Now get some cold water.' With that
they washed my heart. Then the bird said, 'Bring me al-sakina (quietude).' This
they sprinMed into my heart. The one said to the other, 'Sew it up.' So he did that
and then placed on my heart the seal of prophethood. After that one bird said to
the other, 'Place him in one balance scale and a thousand of his people in the
other.' And when I looked up, there were the thousand above me, and I was concerned
that some of them might tumble down on to me. Then the bird said, 'If his
whole nation were balanced against him, he would stdl outweigh them.' Then
both birds went away, leaving me there. I was tremendously afraid and raced off
to my foster-mother and told her what had happened. She was afraid I'd lost my
mind and exclaimed, 'God protect you!' Then she got an ass of hers ready for
travel and put me on it. She rode behind me and we travelled till we reached my
mother. She then said, 'Well, I've fulfilled my pact and agreement.' She then
told my mother what had happened, but it didn't shock her. She said, 'What I
saw was that a light came from inside me that lit up the castles of Syria.'"
Ahmad related it from a tradition told by Baqiyya b. al-Walid. 'Abd All& b.
al-Mubzrak and others similarly told this from Baqiyya b. al-Walid.
Ibn 'Asakir related it through Abii Dawod al-Taydisi. Ja'far h. 'Abd Alliih b.
'Uthmzn al-Qurashi related to him that Wmayr b. Wmar b. 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr