Farewell to Mom

After this incident, Allah’s Messenger lived with his mother. He was the dearest one in the family. Amina was trying to make her son not feel his father’s absence. His grandfather and uncles also had a share in this, as they all looked after him too.

When the Prophet was six years old, Amina decided to go to Medina to visit her relatives and her late husband, Abdullah’s grave, so that she would pray for him there for. She set off with her servant, Umm Ayman, and her beloved son. When they reached Medina, Allah’s Messenger was destitute. He visited his father’s grave—he never saw him alive —and for the first time ever, he felt it in his heart that he was an orphan. Tears falling from his blessed eyes wet the soil on his father’s grave.

After a short time, Amina got sick during this visit and day-by-day, her disease became more serious. They immediately set out to return to Mecca. When they arrived near a village called Abwa, Amina didn’t have any energy to even take one step. They took a break under a tree. Apparently, the blessed mother was about to say goodbye. Her eyes were on her rosy-faced son. She was burning inside because she had to leave her already fatherless son motherless as well. She constantly wept. Seeing her like this made Umm Ayman and Allah’s Messenger cry, too. His head was on his mother’s knees. Allah’s Messenger could not stop his tears.

He was frequently asking, “Mommy, how do you feel?”

Amina felt a deep pang of sadness, when she saw her son in tears. Gasping for a final breath, she said to her son, “If what I had dreamt is true, you are the last Messenger who will be sent to all creatures and all humanity. You will complete what Prophet Abraham brought and you will venture away from worshiping idols. Every living being must eventually die. Everything new must eventually get old. I am dying today. But my name shall remain. Because I gave birth to a pure child and I have left behind abundant goodness.”

After saying these last words, she looked at her son’s bright face for the last time, and then she passed away. She had taken her last breath. From then on, he was an orphan, both fatherless and motherless. He was feeling a sense of sorrow, which could not be described with words. They buried Amina with the help of other people. Allah’s Messenger and Umm Ayman then returned to Mecca.