Majma al-Zawaid — Hadith 13840

Sayyidah Halimah bint al-Harith al-Sa'diyyah (may Allah be pleased with her), the foster mother of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), narrates: "I set out with some women of Banu Sa'd bin Bakr; our purpose was to obtain an infant to nurse in Makkah. I was riding a she-donkey of white colour that was exhausted and could not keep pace with the other riders." Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) narrates: We had set out in a year of drought; nothing of ours had been left. With me was my husband, al-Harith bin Abd al-Uzza. Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) says: With us was also an old she-camel of ours; by Allah, its milk came down only drop by drop. My child was also with me; at night when we slept he would be crying, because there was not enough milk in my breast to satisfy him, and our she-camel did not have enough milk for us to nourish him, but still we had hope. When we came to Makkah, every one of us women was offered the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), but every woman refused, because we women hoped that the child's father would give a good reward in return for the nursing, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was an orphan. So we would think: what can his mother do? Eventually it came about that each of my companion women obtained some child, and only I did not get any child. I also disliked going back like that, having taken no child while my companions had taken children. So I said to my husband: "By Allah, I will go to those people and obtain that child." Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) says: I came to the house of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and took the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). When I came back to my lodging with him, my husband asked: "Have you taken him?" I replied: "Yes, by Allah, I did not find any other child besides him." My husband said: "You have done well; Allah Almighty will put good in him." Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) says: By Allah, when I took him into my lap, he came to my breast and drank as much milk as he wished. He drank so much milk that he was satisfied; then his brother, that is, the son of Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her), also drank until he too was satisfied. During the night my husband got up and went to our she-camel, and she was full of milk. He milked for us as much milk as would suffice for our night. He drank until he was satisfied, and I drank until I too was satisfied. So we spent that night in a state where we were full, and our children also kept sleeping. Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) says: The father of this child, that is, the husband of Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her), said: "By Allah, O Halimah, my opinion about you is that you have obtained for us a blessed soul. Our children are sleeping and they are satisfied too." Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) narrates: Then we set off from there. By Allah, my she-donkey was going ahead of all the riders, so far ahead that the others could not catch up with her, until they were forced to say: "Woe to you, O daughter of al-Harith! Hold her back. Is this not the same she-donkey of yours on which you came?" I would say: "Yes, by Allah," but she still stayed out in front, until we reached our lodgings in the territory of Banu Sa'd bin Bakr. We had come to a place that was the most drought-stricken of Allah's land. By the One in whose Hand is the soul of Halimah, in the morning people would send out their goats, and my shepherd would take out my goats. In the evening my goats would return healthy, with their udders full of milk, while the people's goats would come back hungry and perishing, with no milk in their udders. Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) says: We could drink as much milk as we wished, while not a single drop of milk came out for anyone among the rest of the people; it simply was not available to them. They would say to their shepherds: "Woe to you! Why do you not graze the animals where Halimah's shepherd grazes?" So they would come to the same valley where our shepherd was grazing, yet their goats would still return hungry with no milk in them, while my goats would return full of milk. Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) narrates: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) grew in one day as much as any child grows in a month, and in one month he seemed to grow as much as any child grows in a year, until at the age of six months he looked like a big child. Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) narrates: We came to his mother and said to her: "Let your child stay with us; we will take him back, because we fear that the epidemic of Makkah will harm him." Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) says: Because we had seen the blessing of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), we were eager to keep him. Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) says: We kept talking to her about this until the mother of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Take him with you, both of you." So we came back with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stayed with us for two months. Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) narrates: Once the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his foster brother were playing behind the houses and were also grazing our animals. Meanwhile the Prophet's foster brother came running to us and said to me and to his father: "Both of you, reach my Qurashi brother! Two men have come to him; they have laid him down and split open his belly." So we ran towards him. When we reached him, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was standing and his colour had changed. My husband and I embraced the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and then we said: "O my son, what has happened?" He said: "Two men came to me wearing white clothes. They laid me down and then split open my belly. By Allah, I do not understand what they did." Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) says: So we picked him up in our arms and came back with him. Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) says: The foster father of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "By Allah, O Halimah, my opinion about this boy is that some harm may befall him. So come, let us return him to his family before what we fear for him happens to him." Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) narrates: We brought him to the mother of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). She asked us: "Why have you brought him back? You were both so eager to keep him with you." Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) says: I said: "No, by Allah! We have looked after him and fulfilled the right that was due from us concerning him, and we feared that some harm might befall him, so we thought that he should stay with his own family." Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) says: The mother of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "By Allah, that is not the matter. Tell me the real story about yourselves and about him." Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) says: By Allah, she kept talking with us until we told her about the situation of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). She said: "Do you both fear for him? By Allah, that will never happen! My son will have a great standing. Shall I tell you both about him? When I conceived him, I never saw any pregnancy lighter or more blessed than his. Then I saw a light like a shooting star that came out at the time I gave birth to him, by which the necks of the camels in Busra were lit up for me. Then I gave birth to him, and he did not come out the way other children come out; he had placed his hand on the ground and raised his head towards the sky. Leave him, and go your way."
Abu Ya'la recorded it, and at-Tabarani recorded something similar, except that he named her Halimah bint Abi Dhu'ayb. The narrators of both are thiqat (trustworthy).