The Night a Light Was Born

The world had been made ready. The family had been made ready. And now the moment we have waited for all this time is finally here: the birth of our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. But before we hear about that special night, let us stop and wonder at one lovely question.

Why Did Allah Choose Arabia?

Allah could have sent His final Prophet ﷺ to any place in the whole world. He could have chosen the mighty Romans, with their marble palaces and grand libraries. He could have chosen the ancient Persians, with their great cities. So why did Allah choose a simple, dusty land of deserts and tents, where most people could not even read or write?

There is deep wisdom in it. Arabia sat right in the middle of the world, between the two greatest empires of the time, yet it belonged to neither of them, connected to everyone, but free. Its people were simple and honest, brave and true to their word. Simple hearts have a special gift: when the truth arrives, they can accept it quickly, without a hundred tangled arguments getting in the way. And these desert people were used to hardship, which would one day make them strong and patient.

Here is a surprising thing to know about the people of Makkah. Deep down, they already believed in Allah! If you asked them, “Who made you? Who sends the rain? Who feeds you?” they would answer, “Allah.” Their mistake was thinking they were too small and sinful to speak to Allah directly, so they used their idols as go-betweens. One of the most beautiful things the Prophet ﷺ came to teach is this: you never need anyone in between. You can call upon Allah yourself, any time, and He hears you.

And there was one more reason, the most beautiful of all. Do you remember Prophet Ibrahim and his son Ismail building the Ka’bah, long, long ago? As they built it, Ibrahim raised his hands and prayed: “O our Lord, send among these people a messenger from their own family, who will teach them Your words and make their hearts pure.” Allah heard that prayer. And now, after all those years, Allah was about to answer it. Makkah, where the very first house of worship stood, was the perfect place for the last and greatest Prophet ﷺ to be born. Later, the Prophet ﷺ himself would say, “I am the answer to the prayer of my father Ibrahim.”

A Wedding and a Sad Goodbye

Do you remember Abd al-Muttalib’s beloved son Abdullah, the one Allah saved? When Abdullah grew up, his father chose a wife for him, a kind and noble young woman named Amina. Amina was the daughter of Wahb, the chief of another branch of the Quraysh. So Abdullah and Amina were married.

But their happiness together was very short. Only a few days after the wedding, Abdullah had to leave with a trading caravan on the long journey north to Syria. He kissed his home goodbye and set off, not knowing that Amina was going to have a baby.

On the way back home, Abdullah fell sick. He was so unwell that he could not keep up with the caravan, so he stopped to rest with relatives in a city called Yathrib, the very city that, one day, would open its arms to his son. And there, far from home, gentle Abdullah passed away. He was only a young man, barely into his twenties. He never got to see his baby.

So poor Amina became a widow when she was still very young, carrying her precious child all alone. It was a sad, sad beginning. And yet, Allah was watching over that little one every single moment.

The Night He Was Born

At last, in the famous Year of the Elephant, the same year Allah saved the Ka’bah from Abraha’s army, the baby was born. It was about the year 570 in the Christian calendar, and we know for certain it was a Monday. Many people say it was the twelfth day of the month called Rabi’ al-Awwal; others say a different day, and the truth is that no one wrote down the exact date, because at that time nobody yet knew what a great person this baby would become. But a Monday it was, and, it is said, right at midday, when the sun was shining at its very brightest.

And something wonderful happened. The Prophet ﷺ himself later told us about it: when his mother Amina gave birth to him, she saw a light shine out from her, a light so bright that it lit up faraway palaces in the land of Syria. It was as if the whole world was being told, in the language of light, that the one who would bring light to every heart had finally arrived.

Is it not lovely? We do not need to make up fancy tales about that night. The simple truth is beautiful enough: a baby, born to a poor young widow in a dusty town, with a light that reached across the world.

A Name from the Heavens

When the news reached grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, his heart filled with joy. He took the tiny baby in his arms to the Ka’bah, thanked Allah, and on the seventh day he held a feast to celebrate.

Then came the important moment: choosing a name. And Abd al-Muttalib chose a name that almost no one in Makkah had ever used before: Muhammad. The people were puzzled. “Why not give him one of the old family names?” they asked. Abd al-Muttalib gave a beautiful answer: “I want him to be praised by the people of the earth, just as he is praised by the angels in the heavens.” For the name Muhammad means “the one who is praised.” Do you remember, from our very first chapter, how truly that name came to fit him?

Even an Uncle Rejoiced

The happy news spread through the family. One of the Prophet’s uncles, named Abu Lahab, was so delighted that a baby boy had been born to his brother’s family that he set free a slave-woman of his, named Thuwaybah, as a gift of joy. (This same Thuwaybah would be one of the very first to help nurse and care for baby Muhammad ﷺ.)

Now, this uncle Abu Lahab would sadly grow unkind to the Prophet ﷺ when he was older, and we will hear about that later. But on this one happy day, he did a small good thing out of love. And a small good deed is never, ever wasted with Allah.

A Little Light in the Dark

And so he came into the world: a baby boy with no father, born to a young mother in a simple town, in a land the great empires had never even noticed. To anyone watching, he was just a tiny orphan. But Allah knew. This little one, cradled in Amina’s arms, would grow up to change the whole world and guide it out of darkness, exactly as Ibrahim had prayed, and exactly as the light over Syria had promised.

In the next chapter, we will follow baby Muhammad ﷺ out of the busy town and into the fresh, open desert, to meet a kind woman named Halimah, and to see the sweet years of his childhood begin.