The shepherd
The Prophet ﷺ said: “God sent no prophet who did not tend sheep.” His Companions asked: “And you?” He replied: “Yes, I used to tend them for the people of Mecca, for qirats” (Bukhari 2262).
The qirat is a small coin: one qirat for each animal tended, according to Suwayd ibn Sa’id. Others took it to be a place in Mecca; Ibn Hajar prefers the coin, since the Meccans knew of no place by that name, and al-Salihi adds that a wage is what al-Bukhari understood (al-Salihi, II, 157).
Kept from the ways of his time ﷺ
When the Ka’ba was being rebuilt, he ﷺ was carrying stones with his uncle al-Abbas. He put his waist-wrap on his shoulder to shield himself from the stones, fell to the ground, and covered himself again (Bukhari 3829; Muslim 340, from Jabir; al-Salihi, II, 148). The biographers count this story among the signs of the divine protection that surrounded him before the mission. Ibn Ishaq reports another, “according to what I was told”, from his childhood: an unseen being struck him, saying “Tie on your waist-wrap” (Ibn Hisham, I, 183); if this story is authentic, says al-Suhayli, it is a second episode (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 55-56).
A saying is attributed to him ﷺ: “Never did I intend any shameful thing of those the people of the jahiliyya would intend, except twice.” As a young shepherd, on two evenings he meant to spend the night in Mecca as the young men did; he heard the music of a wedding, sat down to watch, and each time sleep overtook him (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 56; al-Salihi, II, 148). Ibn Hajar judges its chain “good and connected” (al-Salihi, II, 148). Ibn Kathir finds it “very singular”: it may be a saying of Ali himself, and the ending, “until God honoured me with prophethood”, may have been added (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 251-252).
Finally, two accounts report that he ﷺ refused al-Lat and al-Uzza: before Bahira, who wished to adjure him by them, according to Ibn Ishaq, who says here: “so they claimed” (Ibn Hisham, I, 182); before a man in the market of Busra, who asked him to swear by them, according to another account (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 62).
The journey to Syria and Bahira
While still a boy, he ﷺ went with Abu Talib to Syria. At Busra, a monk, Bahira, is said to have recognised in him the awaited prophet: the cloud that shaded him, the tree that bent over him, the seal of prophethood between his shoulders; he advised his uncle to guard him against the Jews. This story, and what it says of the expectation among the People of the Book, is presented on the page The witnesses of the expectation. Here is what the four books add.
His age ﷺ. Nine, according to al-Mawardi and al-Tabari, and according to some whom al-Suhayli cites; twelve, according to Ibn Sa’d, who has it from Dawud ibn al-Husayn; the year 13 of the Elephant, according to Abu Umar (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 52, 55; al-Salihi, II, 140). Al-Baladhuri holds twelve to be “the established view” (al-Salihi, II, 140), but Ibn Kathir notes that this figure comes only from al-Waqidi (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 248). The journey therefore falls between about 580 and 584 (calculated).
The sources. Ibn Ishaq reports it “so they claim”, and without a chain (Ibn Hisham, I, 180; Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 246). Al-Tirmidhi gives a version from Abu Musa al-Ash’ari, which he grades “good, singular”: good, but handed down through a single route. Its narrators are those of the Sahih (Tirmidhi 3620; Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 55; Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 247).
The reservations. This version adds seven Romans who had come looking for the foretold prophet, and a sentence: “Abu Bakr sent Bilal with him”. Ibn Kathir points out that Abu Musa, who arrived in 7 AH, reports what he did not witness; that the cloud appears in no more authentic hadith; that the sending of Bilal by Abu Bakr is strange: Abu Bakr was then nine or ten, and Bilal younger still (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 248). Ibn Sayyid al-Nas sees in the text “an objectionable element” (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 55); for Ibn Hajar, the sentence about Bilal comes from another hadith and was inserted into this one (al-Salihi, II, 144).
The monk. A Christian, according to Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Kathir, for whom “what emerges from the story is that he was a Christian monk” (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 249); a rabbi of Tayma’, according to the Siyar of al-Zuhri; a Christian of the Abd al-Qays, according to al-Mas’udi. He is also called Sarjis or Jirjis (al-Salihi, II, 145).
A second journey, at twenty, with Abu Bakr, in which Abu Bakr is said to have gone to a monk of the same name, is reported only through a weak chain; Ibn Hajar says only that, if it is authentic, it may have been on a different journey (al-Salihi, II, 144).
“He learned it all from Bahira.” The sources report only one meeting, in the course of a journey, with a boy of nine or twelve; and in the story the monk teaches him ﷺ nothing: he recognises him, and advises his uncle. The objection has its own page: Bahira and Waraqa.
The War of Fijar
A war set Quraysh and Kinana, on one side, against Qays Aylan, on the other, after the killing of Urwa al-Rahhal during a sacred month: the War of Fijar. He ﷺ was present at it. “I used to gather up the arrows for my uncles,” he said, according to Ibn Hisham (Ibn Hisham, I, 186); “I shot a few arrows in it,” according to Ibn Sa’d (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 60); al-Suhayli claims that he did not fight (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 59).
Accounts of his age differ: fourteen or fifteen, according to Ibn Hisham, who has it from Abu Amr ibn al-Ala’, around 585 (calculated); twenty, according to Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Sa’d, around 590 (calculated) (Ibn Hisham, I, 184, 186-187; al-Salihi, II, 152). Ibn Kathir places Fijar and the Pact of the Fudul in the same year, when he ﷺ was twenty (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 275).
The Pact of the Fudul
On the return from Fijar, in Dhu al-Qa’da, clans of Quraysh met at the house of Abd Allah ibn Jud’an. They pledged to take the side of anyone wronged in Mecca, resident or stranger, until he obtained his right (Ibn Hisham, I, 133-134; Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 60; Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 257-261).
The list of clans varies: Hashim, al-Muttalib, Asad, Zuhra and Taym, according to Ibn Ishaq (Ibn Hisham, I, 133); Hashim, Zuhra and Asad (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 60); Hashim, Zuhra and Taym (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 259). Ibn Kathir credits al-Zubayr ibn Abd al-Muttalib with the initiative (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 259).
A saying is attributed to the Prophet ﷺ: “I witnessed, in the house of Abd Allah ibn Jud’an, a pact I would not trade for red camels; were I called to it in Islam, I would answer.” It is reported through chains that name no Companion (Ibn Hisham, I, 134; Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 258). The variant that speaks of the “Pact of the Mutayyabin” refers beyond doubt to the Fudul, according to Ibn Kathir (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 257-258).
How this page connects to the others
- Bahira, the Jews of Yathrib and the other witnesses: The witnesses of the expectation.
- The objection “he learned it all from Bahira, or from Waraqa”: Bahira and Waraqa.
- Abu Talib, his guardian since the death of his grandfather: page 3, Childhood.
- The rebuilding of the Ka’ba, where he ﷺ carried the stones: page 5, Khadija, the Ka’ba and al-Amin.
Sources for this page
- The shepherd: Bukhari 2262.
- The waist-wrap: Bukhari 3829; Muslim 340.
- Bahira: Tirmidhi 3620.
- Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-nabawiyya, ed. al-Saqqa, al-Abyari and Shalabi, al-Babi al-Halabi, 1955, vol. I, pp. 133-134, 180-187.
- Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, Uyun al-athar, Dar al-Qalam, 1993, vol. I, pp. 52-62.
- Ibn Kathir, al-Sira al-nabawiyya, ed. Mustafa Abd al-Wahid, Dar al-Ma’rifa, 1976, vol. I, pp. 246-261, 275.
- al-Salihi al-Shami, Subul al-huda wa-l-rashad, ed. Abd al-Mawjud and Mu’awwad, Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, 1993, vol. II, pp. 140-157.
- Research file “His birth and life before the message”, v1.0, 2 November 2026, sections 9 and 10; research file “The Prophet ﷺ Foretold”, v1.0, part 2.