Halima al-Sa'diyya

Halima, of the tribe of Banu Sa'd, was the wet nurse of the Prophet ﷺ during his early childhood. According to custom, Meccans entrusted their newborns to Bedouin wet nurses. Several refused the little Muhammad because he was an orphan — with no father to reward them. Halima, poor and arriving empty-handed, finally took him. And blessing entered her life.

It was the custom in Mecca: Bedouin wet nurses would come to seek infants to nurse, for a fee, and take them to grow up in the fresh desert air. That year, a terrible drought was striking Halima's tribe; her camel was no longer producing milk, and her own baby was crying with hunger.

In Mecca, the little Muhammad, fatherless orphan, was presented to all the wet nurses. None wanted him: 'An orphan? What can his mother or grandfather give? It is from the father that one hopes for reward.' All of Halima's companions left with a child — except her, who had arrived too late and was too poor for a good family's infant to be entrusted to her.

Not wanting to return empty-handed, Halima said to her husband: 'By Allah, I will go back and take that orphan.' He replied: 'Do so. Perhaps Allah will bless us through him.'

From the moment she took him, she said, her breasts filled with milk, enough to nourish the child and her own to satisfaction. The camel that evening was overflowing with milk. On the return journey, her thin mount overtook the whole caravan. Her arid land turned green. Halima understood that a blessed soul had been entrusted to her. Later, now elderly, she saw again the child who had become a Prophet: at the sight of her his face lit up and he exclaimed 'My mother! My mother!', spread his mantle for her to sit on, and honoured her.

This account is dear to Muslim hearts, and its source must be correctly situated. It comes from the Sira (the prophetic biography: Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd), transmitted notably through Halima's own testimony. It is a widely accepted biographical tradition, but does not have the same status as an authenticated hadith of Bukhari or Muslim. On one point, it is good to correct a widespread formulation: it was not a single woman who cruelly refused the child. Several wet nurses declined him, for an economic reason (the absence of a father-provider), according to the custom of the time. Halima herself hesitated at first. The beauty of the account lies in this reversal: the one who took the orphan as a last resort received the greatest blessing. The episode of 'the opening of the chest' (the two men in white) that follows in the Sira is also reported; some of its versions are more solid than others. It is mentioned here as part of the traditional account, without going into detail.

Halima's story teaches that blessing often hides where others see only a burden. All saw an orphan without profit; Halima received the mercy for the worlds. It also teaches generosity towards the weak and the orphan: her husband had sensed it — 'perhaps Allah will bless us through him.' Welcoming the vulnerable is opening the door to grace.