'Abdullah, the Beloved Son

When 'Abdul-Muttalib was digging Zamzam alone with one young son, Quraysh's opposition made him feel his weakness, and he vowed: if Allah grants me ten sons who live to defend me, I will sacrifice one of them at the Ka'bah. The sons came, ten of them, and the vow came due.

Lots were drawn among the sons, and the arrow fell on the youngest and most beloved: 'Abdullah. 'Abdul-Muttalib, a man who kept his word, took the boy by the hand toward the place of sacrifice, and Makkah erupted. His daughters wept, the chiefs of Quraysh intervened, and one of them said words that would echo: do not do this, or it will become a custom, and every man will come dragging his son.

They sought a way to satisfy the vow, and the matter was settled by ransom. Lots were drawn between 'Abdullah and ten camels: the arrow fell on 'Abdullah. Ten more camels were added, and again, and again, until at one hundred camels the lot finally fell on the camels. They were sacrificed and the meat left for all, and 'Abdullah walked home alive. The Prophet ﷺ would later be called the son of the two sacrificed ones, descended from Isma'il (as), whom Ibrahim (as) was commanded to offer, and from 'Abdullah, ransomed at the House.

'Abdullah grew into the finest young man of Quraysh, and was married to Aminah bint Wahb of the clan of Zuhrah, noble in lineage and character. Soon after the marriage he left with a trade caravan to Syria. On the road home he fell ill, stopped at Yathrib among his father's maternal kin, and died there, months before his son was born.

The child who would teach the world to say 'our Lord' opened his eyes without a father, and the Qur'an would one day say to him with unbearable tenderness: did He not find you an orphan, and shelter you?