In the Desert of Banu Sa'd

It was the custom of Makkah's families to send their infants to the desert tribes, where the air was clean, sickness was rare, and children learned the purest Arabic at the springs of the language. That season, women of Banu Sa'd came to Makkah seeking nurslings, and every one of them passed over the son of Aminah. He was an orphan; what payment could be hoped for from a fatherless child?

Halimah bint Abi Dhu'ayb had arrived late on a weak donkey, with a she-camel that gave no milk and an infant of her own crying with hunger. When every other woman had taken a child and she alone had none, she said to her husband: I hate to return empty-handed; I will take that orphan. She took him ﷺ to her breast, and the milk came in abundance, enough for him and for her own son. The old she-camel's udder was full that night. Her husband said to her: O Halimah, by Allah, you have taken a blessed soul.

So it went for the years he stayed with them: their flocks came home satisfied and heavy with milk while their neighbours' came home hungry. Halimah, who had taken him out of empty-handedness, clung to him out of love, and when his two years of nursing were done she begged Aminah to let her keep him longer, and was granted it.

In the pastures of Banu Sa'd the Messenger of Allah ﷺ spent his earliest childhood, among tents and sheep, nursed by Halimah, minded by her daughter Shayma. He would honour them all his life. Decades later, after a battle, an old woman among the captives told the soldiers: I am the sister of your Prophet. When Shayma was brought to him ﷺ, he spread out his cloak and seated her upon it.