Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 24
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 24 spread under the Ka’aba and on it the aged chief reclined in shelter from the heat of the sun. Around the carpet, but at a respectful distance, sat his sons. Little Muhammad would run up close to his grandfather and take possession of his rug. His sons wou ld seek to drive him off, but Abdul Muttalib would interpose, saying: ‘Let my little son alone. ’ He would stroke him on the back and would be delighted to listen to his childish prattle. The boy was still under the care of his nurse, but he would often qui t her and run into the apartment of his grandfather, even when he was alone or asleep. The guardianship of Abdul Muttalib lasted but two years, for he died at the age of eighty - two. The orphan child felt the loss of his indulgent grandfather bitterly; as he followed the bier he was seen to weep, and when he grew up he retained a distinct rem embrance of his death. The heart of Muhammad, in his tender years, was thus again sorely wounded, and the fresh bereavement was rendered more poignant by the dependent position in which it left him. The nobility of his grandfather’s descent, the deference paid to him by everyone in Mecca, and his splendid hospitality towards the pilgrims, in furnishing them with food and drink, must have been witnessed with satisfaction by the thoughtful child. The events that Muhammad’s father had died before his birth, that his mother died in his seventh year, and that his grandfather died a couple of years later, were not a series of coincidences of little significance. They were part of the divine design, so that he might develop early the qualities of self - reliance, reflection and steadfastness. Though repeatedly bereaved at a