Seerah · Chronology

Birth and Childhood

571–583 · 9 events

Birth and Childhood

571–583

570–571 Society #1

The Year of the Elephant

Makkah

Abraha, the governor of Yemen, had built a great church in Sana'a, but when he failed to draw the Arabs' interest to it, he marched on Makkah with elephants to destroy the Kaaba. The army camped at Mughammas near Makkah, and the Quraysh withdrew to the mountains. As the Quran relates in Surah al-Fil, the army was destroyed by stones dropped by flocks of ababil birds. The Arabs took this year, “the Year of the Elephant”, as the starting point of their calendar; the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was born about fifty days after this event.

20 Nisan 571 (12 Rebiülevvel) Birth #2

The birth of the Prophet ﷺ

Makkah

Muhammad ﷺ was born on a Monday, on the night of the 12th of Rabi al-Awwal, in Makkah, in the house in the quarter of the Banu Hashim. His father Abdullah had died in Madinah on his way back from a trading journey a few months before the birth; his mother was Aminah bint Wahb. His grandfather Abdul Muttalib took his grandson to the Kaaba, gave thanks, and named him “Muhammad” (the much praised), a name rarely used among the Arabs until then. In his first days he was nursed by his mother and by Thuwaybah, the slave woman of Abu Lahab.

571 Family #3

Given to his wet nurse Halimah

Land of the Banu Sa'd (near Ta'if)

The leading families of Makkah used to send their children to wet nurses among the desert tribes so that they would grow up in clean air and learn pure, eloquent Arabic. Halimah bint Abu Dhu'ayb of the Banu Sa'd took Muhammad, whom the others had not wanted because he was an orphan. As Halimah told it, after the child came to their home, blessing came to their drought-stricken land; her milk and the milk of her camel increased. The Prophet ﷺ grew up with this family in the desert air for about four years; his foster siblings were Shayma and Abdullah.

575 civarı Miracle #4

The opening of his chest (Shaqq as-Sadr)

age 4 Land of the Banu Sa'd

In his last year with Halimah, while he was tending lambs with his foster brother, two angels came, laid him down, opened his chest, took out his heart, washed it and put it back in place. His foster brother Abdullah ran to tell his mother what had happened; Halimah found the child pale in the face. This event is recorded in the hadith sources and is linked with the verse in Surah al-Inshirah: “Did We not open and expand your chest?” Fearing that something might happen to the child, Halimah took him back to his mother in Makkah.

575 Family #5

Return to his mother Aminah

age 4 Makkah

When he had turned four, his wet nurse brought him to Makkah and handed him over to his mother Aminah. For the next two years he grew up in Makkah under the care of his mother and his grandfather Abdul Muttalib. The Abyssinian slave woman Umm Ayman (Barakah) was among those who looked after him in this period; throughout his life the Prophet ﷺ called her “my mother after my mother”.

576 Passing away #6

The journey to Madinah and the death of his mother

age 6 Madinah – Abwa

Aminah took her son to Madinah together with Umm Ayman so that he could visit his father's grave and his relatives there, the Banu Najjar. They stayed about a month; years later the Prophet ﷺ said he remembered learning to swim and flying a kite in those days. On the way back, his mother fell ill in the village of Abwa, died, and was buried there. Umm Ayman brought the six-year-old Muhammad to Makkah, to his grandfather.

576–578 Family #7

Under the care of his grandfather Abdul Muttalib

age 6 Makkah

After his mother's death, his grandfather Abdul Muttalib, the chief of the Quraysh and the one responsible for the upkeep of the Kaaba, took him in. He would seat his grandson on the cushion spread for him in the shade of the Kaaba, on which not even his own sons sat, and say: “Leave him, he has a great future.” For two years Abdul Muttalib raised his grandson with love, treating him no differently from his own sons.

578 Family #8

The death of his grandfather and the care of his uncle Abu Talib

age 8 Makkah

Abdul Muttalib died at over eighty years of age; as he had willed, he entrusted his grandson to Abu Talib, the full brother of the boy's father Abdullah. Although Abu Talib was not well off, he loved his nephew more than his own children, would not begin a meal without him, and protected him against every kind of danger for more than forty years. The Prophet ﷺ spent his childhood and youth in this home.

583 Society #9

The journey to Syria and the monk Bahira

age 12 Busra (Syria)

When Abu Talib set out for Syria with a trading caravan, he took his nephew with him. When the caravan stopped at Busra, Bahira, the monk of the monastery there, saw in the boy the signs of the awaited final prophet. He advised Abu Talib not to take him on to Syria and to protect him from the Jews. Abu Talib sent his nephew back from Busra to Makkah. This journey was the first trip the Prophet ﷺ made outside Makkah during his childhood.

About this chronology

The events are ordered by the dates widely accepted in the classical Seerah sources (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Hisham, al-Waqidi, Ibn Sa’d) and in the Encyclopedia of Islam of the Turkish Diyanet Foundation (TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi). The year of some events in the Meccan period differs by a year or two between sources; in such cases the most common date is given, marked “civarı” (circa) where needed. Hijri years are shown for events of the Medinan period; ages follow the lunar calendar.

You can read the same chronology offline in the Dua Kitaplığı app; events shared from the app link to the matching event on this page.

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Birth and Childhood

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