Ibn Hibban

Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: Jibreel (peace be upon him) came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). At that time, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was playing with children. (That is, this incident took place during the childhood of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.) He caught the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), laid him down, split open his chest, took out a clot of blood from it and said: This was the portion of Satan within you. Then he placed the blessed heart of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in a basin made of gold and washed it with Zamzam water, then put it back in its place. The children ran to your mother, that is, your wet nurse, and said: Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) has been killed. They came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and saw that his complexion had changed. Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: I saw the mark of the stitching on the blessed chest of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

(Imam Ibn Hibban, may Allah have mercy on him, states:) The incident of the splitting of the blessed chest of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) (the first time) happened when he was a child and was playing with children. Then a clot of blood was taken out from inside him. Then, when Allah Almighty intended to take the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) on the Mi’raj, He commanded Jibreel (peace be upon him), and he split open the Prophet’s chest a second time. He took out his heart, washed it again, and then put it back in its place. Thus, this happened twice and on two different occasions. There is no contradiction between these two narrations.

Abdullah bin Ja'far narrates this statement from Sayyidah Halimah Sa'diyyah (may Allah be pleased with her), who was the foster mother of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). She states: I came to Makkah with some women from Banu Sa'd bin Bakr to find a child to nurse. I had come riding on my donkey, which had become extremely weak due to famine. My husband was also with me. We also had a she-camel with us. By Allah! It produced very little milk. I also had my small child with me. Because of his crying, we could not sleep at night, as I did not have enough milk in my breast to satisfy him. When we arrived in Makkah, every woman among us was offered to take the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) for nursing, but none of the women accepted it, because the women hoped to receive compensation for nursing from the child's father, and the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was an orphan. We used to say: What can the mother of an orphan do for him? Every woman who had come with me took a child in her lap. I did not like the idea of returning in such a state that I had not found a child, while my companion women had already taken children. I said to my husband: By Allah! I will take this orphan child. We will surely gain something from it. I went to the house of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and took him. When I returned to my place of residence, my husband said: You have taken him? I replied: Yes. By Allah! The reason is that I did not find any other child except him. My husband said: You have done right; perhaps Allah Almighty will bring some good to us through him. Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) states: By Allah! The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was in my lap, and during that time, Allah Almighty produced so much milk in my breast that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) drank from it and drank to his fill. His foster brother also drank from it, meaning Sayyidah Halimah's son also drank from it, until he too was satisfied. At night, my husband went to our she-camel, and its udder was also full of milk. My husband milked as much as we wanted. He drank and was satisfied, and I also drank and was satisfied. That night, we spent the night full and satisfied. Our children also slept peacefully. The father of the child, that is, Sayyidah Halimah's husband, said: By Allah! O Halimah, I think you have found a blessed soul. Our children are sleeping peacefully and are satisfied. Sayyidah Halimah states: Then we set out from there. By Allah! My donkey was walking ahead of all others, so much so that my companions said: May you be ruined! Take it easy with your donkey. Is this not the same donkey you came on? I replied: Yes, by Allah! (It is the same), but it kept moving ahead, until we reached our home in the area of Banu Sa'd bin Bakr. We had come to a place that was the driest of all. By the One in whose hand is Halimah's soul, other people would send their goats to graze in the morning, and my goat-herder would also take my goats. When my goats would return in the evening, they would be full of milk, while their goats would return hungry, close to perishing, and without any milk. Sayyidah Halimah states: We would drink as much milk as we wanted, while no one else in the tribe could get even a drop of milk to milk or drink. So they would say to their herders: May you be ruined! Do you not graze your goats where Halimah's herder grazes? Then they too would graze their goats in the same valley where my goats grazed, but even then, their goats would return hungry and without milk, while my goats would return full of milk. The growth of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) in one day was as much as that of an ordinary child in a month, and his growth in a month was as much as that of a child in a year. When he reached the age of one year, he appeared fully healthy and robust. Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) states: Then we went to the mother of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). I requested her, and my husband also requested her, to let us take the child back with us, because we feared that he might fall victim to an epidemic in Makkah. Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) states: We were greedy for the blessings we had seen from the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), so we kept talking to her until she said: You may take him with you. We took the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) back with us. The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) stayed with us for two months. Once, he was playing with his brother behind the houses. Both of them were playing with a kid of our goat. During this, the foster brother of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) came running quickly to us and said to me and his father: Go to my Qurayshi brother. Two men have come to him, they have laid him down and have split open his stomach. (Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) states) We ran to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and found him standing. The color of his face had changed. His father embraced him, and I also embraced him. Then we asked: O my son, what happened to you? He replied: Two men came to me. They were wearing white clothes. They laid me down and split open my stomach. By Allah! I do not know what they did. Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) states: We picked him up and brought him back. Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) states: His foster father said: O Halimah, I think there is something special about this boy. Come, let us return him to his family before any situation arises from his side that we fear. Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) states: When we brought him back, Sayyidah Aminah (may Allah be pleased with her) asked: Why have you brought him back? You wanted to keep him with you. Sayyidah Halimah (may Allah be pleased with her) states: I said: No, by Allah! We have fulfilled his guardianship and have fulfilled the right that was due upon us. Then, after that, we feared some difficulty (so we thought it best that he remain in his own home). Sayyidah Aminah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: What happened to him? By Allah! You both must tell me. Sayyidah Aminah (may Allah be pleased with her) kept insisting with us until we told her the real incident. Sayyidah Aminah (may Allah be pleased with her) asked: Are you afraid for him? Never! My son will have a great status. I will tell you about him. When I conceived him, I did not feel any difficulty in pregnancy. It was extremely easy and full of blessings for me. Then I saw a light, which was extremely bright. When I gave birth to him, that light came out from within me, and because of that light, the necks of the camels in Busra became visible to me (i.e., I could see them). Then, when I gave birth to him, he did not come out in the usual way that children come out, but when he came out, he placed his hands on the ground and raised his head towards the sky and supplicated. So you may compare this incident with your own incident.

(Imam Ibn Hibban, may Allah have mercy on him, says:) Wahb bin Jarir has narrated this narration with his chain, and Abdullah bin Muhammad has also narrated this narration with his chain.

Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: Sayyiduna Jibreel (peace be upon him) came to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) (this was during the childhood of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him) while the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was playing with other children. Sayyiduna Jibreel (peace be upon him) took hold of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), laid him down, and split open his blessed chest. He took out a clot from it and said: "This was the portion of Satan within you." Then he washed his blessed heart with Zamzam water in a basin made of gold and then returned it to its place. The children ran to the mother of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), meaning his wet nurse, and said: "Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) has been killed." They came to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and found that the color of his face had changed. Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: I saw the mark of that incision on the blessed chest of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).