The Prophet's Birth and Early Life

Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri's 'When the Moon Split' opens with a panoramic survey of the world into which the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was born — a world in spiritual darkness, moral chaos, and political fragmentation that would be transformed by his mission into the greatest civilizational movement in human history. Understanding the context of the Prophet's birth is essential for appreciating the magnitude of what his life achieved.

The Arabian Peninsula in the late sixth century CE was a patchwork of tribal confederacies governed by custom, blood feud, and the law of the strong. The Quraysh of Makkah enjoyed a unique prestige as the custodians of the Ka'bah — the ancient house of worship attributed to Ibrahim (Abraham) and Ismail — but had long since filled it with idols and built an elaborate polytheistic cult around it. The social practices of the time included female infanticide, the institutionalized exploitation of women, hereditary slavery, and the ruthless subordination of the weak to the powerful.

Muhammad was born in the Year of the Elephant — approximately 570 CE — so named for the miraculous repulsion of Abraha's elephant army from Makkah, an event described in Surah al-Fil. His birth into the noble Hashimite clan of the Quraysh gave him social standing, but the early deaths of his father Abdullah (before his birth) and his mother Aminah (when he was six) gave him the formative experience of orphanhood that the Quran later recalls: 'Did He not find you an orphan and give you refuge?' (93:6).

Mubarakpuri traces the early years with attention to the details recorded in authentic hadith. The Prophet's years with his wet-nurse Halimah among the Banu Sa'd tribe of the Hawazin — a traditional practice among Makkan nobility — are associated with the remarkable incident of the opening of the chest (shaqq al-sadr), in which two angels removed and purified the Prophet's heart. Whether understood literally or metaphorically, this event signifies the special preparation of the Prophet's soul for his prophetic mission.

The young Muhammad's character as it emerges from early biographical reports is that of a person of exceptional moral quality in a society that largely lacked moral framework. He was known as 'al-Amin' — the Trustworthy — a title earned through consistent reliability in a culture where trust was frequently violated. His early career as a merchant, particularly his employment by and eventual marriage to the widow Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, built on this reputation and gave him experience of the commercial world he would later regulate with divine guidance.

The chapter also recounts the famous incident of the Black Stone — when the Prophet, in his thirties before the revelation, resolved a potentially violent dispute among the Quraysh about who should have the honor of replacing the Black Stone in the Ka'bah by having representatives of each tribe hold a sheet and together lift the stone to its place. This story illustrates the natural wisdom and conflict-resolution capacity that would later characterize his prophetic governance.