Ibrahim ibn Muhammad

Muhammad's wife, and the mother of believers, Ibrahim's mother was an Egyptian woman who came from Byzantine official to Muhammad in 628. According to Ibn Kathir, quoting Ibn Sa'd, he was born in the last month of the year 8 AH, equivalent of 630 CE.[3] Muslim scholars such as Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj and Al-Nasa'i mention that Al-Waqidi is not reliable and is not trustworthy to be quoted. The child was named after Abraham (or Ibrahim in Arabic) the Biblical prophet revered in Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions. Ibrahim was placed in the care of a nurse called Umm Sayf, wife of Abu Sayf, the blacksmith, in the tradition of the Arabs of the time, to whom Muhammad gave some goats to complement her milk supply.[4] When he fell ill he was moved to a date orchard near the residence of his mother, under the care of her and her sister Sirin. When it was clear that he would not likely survive, Muhammad was informed.[4] His reaction to the news is reported as:

He was so shocked at the news that he felt his knees could no longer carry him, and asked `Abd al Rahman ibn `Awf to give him his hand to lean upon. He proceeded immediately to the orchard and arrived in time to bid farewell to an infant dying in his mother's lap. Prophet Muhammad took the child and laid him in his own lap while shaking his hand. His heart was torn apart by the new tragedy, and his face mirrored his inner pain. Choking with sorrow, he said to his son, "O Ibrahim, against the judgement of God, we cannot avail you a thing," and then fell silent. Tears flowed from his eyes. The child lapsed gradually, and his mother and aunt watched and cried incessantly, and the Prophet never ordered them to stop. As Ibrahim surrendered to death, Prophet Muhammad's hope which had consoled him for a brief while completely crumbled. With tears in his eyes he talked once more to the dead child: "O Ibrahim, were the truth not certain that the last of us will join the first, we would have mourned you even more than we do now." A moment later he said: "The eyes send their tears and the heart is saddened, but we do not say anything except that which pleases our Lord. Indeed, O Ibrahim, we are bereaved by your departure from us."[4]

In his book Al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, ibn Kathir mentions that Ibrahim died on Thursday 10 Rabi' al-Awwal 10 AH, and on the same day right after his death, an eclipse of the sun occurred, so people at the moment started talking that God was showing his condolences to his prophet by eclipsing the Sun. Muhammad, not wanting his companions to fall into fitna by ascribing divinity to him or his son, stood at the mosque and said, "The sun and the moon do not eclipse because of the death or life (i.e. birth) of someone. When you see the eclipse pray and invoke God."[5]

Muhammad is also reported as having informed Maria and Sirin that Ibrahim would have his own nurse in Paradise. Different accounts relate that the ghusl for Ibrahim was performed by either Umm Burdah, or al-Fadl ibn ʿAbbas, in preparation for burial. Thereafter, he was carried to the cemetery upon a little bier by Muhammad, his uncle al-ʿAbbas, and others. Here, after a funeral prayer led by Muhammad, he was interred. Muhammad then filled the grave with sand, sprinkled some water upon it, and placed a landmark on it, saying that "Tombstones do neither good nor ill, but they help appease the living. Anything that man does, God wishes him to do well."[4]

Since none of Mohammed's other partners save Khadija bore him a boy and few a child, a rumor spread that it was actually Maria's male cousin Mabur, who had also been given to him as a slave that had in fact impregnated Maria. When Mohammed heard those rumors, he ordered the killing of Mabur without any court trial, which would have been required by Shari'ah (Islamic Law) in a similar case with any other person. Also, since this was fornication between two unmarried slaves the penalty should have been 50 lashes, not death.

Anas reported that a person (a coptic slave whose name was "Mabur" and he was the cousin of Maria al-Qibtiyya) was charged with fornication with the slavegirl of Allah's Messenger (i.e. Maria al-Qibtiyya). Thereupon Allah's Messenger said to 'Ali: Go and strike his neck. 'Ali came to him and he found him in a well making his body cool. 'Ali said to him: Come out, and as he took hold of his hand and brought him out, he found that his sexual organ had been cut. Hadrat 'Ali refrained from striking his neck. He came to Allah's Apostle and said: Allah's Messenger, he has not even the sexual organ with him."[6]

• Qasim ibn Muhammad
• Abd Allah ibn Muhammad
• Zainab bint Muhammad
• Ruqayya bint Muhammad
• Umm Kulthum bint Muhammad
• Fatima

• Islam and children

• The Tribe of Quraish