١ بالأصل: اجتمعت؛ والصواب من كتاب الحج في مم.
٢ بالأصل: الشوكة؛ والصواب من كتاب الحج في مم.
When God’s Messenger reached puberty, a woman accidentally set fire to the Kaaba when sparks from the fire she had kindled flew up and onto its covering. The fire burned the Kaaba, and its structure became unstable. The Quraysh deliberated among themselves over whether it should be demolished, but they were too terrified to go through with it. Al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah said to them, “What do you want to accomplish by demolishing it? To repair it or to ruin it?”
“Only to repair it,” they said.
“God will surely not cause any man to perish who seeks to repair it,” al-Walīd said.
Then they asked, “But who will climb it and tear it down?”
“I will be the one to climb,” answered al-Walīd.
Al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah climbed to the top of the Sacred House, taking an ax with him, and declared, “O Lord, we desire nothing but to undertake a repair.” Then he began to tear down the Kaaba. When the Quraysh saw that he had demolished some of it and that the chastisement they feared had not come, they began to work alongside him to demolish it. When they had rebuilt it and reached as far as the cornerstone,22 the Quraysh quarreled over which tribe would put it back in place, and a fight nearly broke out between them. Then someone said, “Come now, let us choose the first one we see coming down this road,” and they agreed upon that. It was the Messenger of God who approached them—he was a boy at the time, wearing a striped sash23—so they appointed him for the task. They ordered the cornerstone to be placed inside a cloth. After that, he called for the head of each tribe, and gave each an edge of the cloth. Then he ascended, and they raised the cornerstone aloft for him. Thus it was the Messenger of God who put the cornerstone in place.
1.1.7
ثم طفق لا يزداد فيهم على١ السنين إلا رضىً حتّى سمّوه الأمين قبل أن ينزل عليه الوحي. ثمّ طفقوا لا ينحرون جزورًا إلّا درأوه٢ فيدعو لهم فيهم.
فلمّا استوى وبلغ أَشُدَّه، وليس له كثير مال، استأجرته خديجة ابنة خويلد إلى سوق حباشة، وهو سوق بتهامة، واستأجرت معه رجلًا آخر من قريش. فقال رسول الله صلّى الله عليه وسلّم وهو يحدّث عنها: ما رأيت من صاحبة أجير خيرًا من خديجة. ما كنّا نرجع، أنا وصاحبي، إلّا وجدنا عندها تحفةً من طعام تخبّئه لنا.
قال: فلمّا رجعنا من سوق حباشة، قال رسول الله صلّى الله عليه وسلّم، قلت لصاحبي: انطلق بنا نتحدّث٣ عند خديجة. قال: فجئناها، فبينا نحن عندها، إذ دخلت علينا منتشية من مولّدات قريش. والمنتشية: الناهد الّتي تشتهي الرجل. قالت: أمحمّد هذا؟ والّذي يُحلف به إنْ جاء لخاطبًا؟ فقلتُ: كلّا! فلمّا خرجنا، أنا وصاحبي، قال: أمن خطبة خديجة تستحي؟ والله ما من قريشيّة إلّا تراك لها كفوًا.
قال: فرجعنا إليها مرةً أخرى، فدخلتْ علينا تلك المنتشية. فقالت: أمحمّد هذا؟ والّذي يُحلف به إن جاء لخاطبًا. قال: قلت على حياء: أجل.
قال: فلم تعصنا خديجة ولا أختها. فانطلقتْ إلى أبيها خويلد بن أسد، وهو ثمل من الشراب. فقالت: هذا ابن أخيك محمّد بن عبد الله يخطب خديجة وقد رضيت خديجة. فدعاه، فسأله عن ذلك، فخطب إليه، فأنكحه. قال: فخلّقت خديجة وحلّت عليه حلّة، فدخل رسول الله صلّى الله عليه وسلّم بها.
فلمّا أصبح، صحا الشيخ من سكره. فقال: ما هذا الخلوق؟ ما هذه الحلّة؟ قالت أخت خديجة: هذه حلّة كساكــها ابن أخيك محمّد بن عبد الله. أنكحته خديجة وقد بنى بها! فأنكر الشيخ، ثمّ سلّم إلى أن صار ذلك واستحيى. وطفقت رجّاز من رجّاز قريش تقول:
لاَ تَزْهَدِي خَدِيْجُ عن مُحَمَّدْ | جلدٌ يُضِيءُ كَضِيَاءِ الفَرْقَدْ |
١ مم: عن.
٢ مم: دروه.
٣ زب؛ مم: نحدث.
As the years passed, he became all the more admired among them, and eventually they named him “the Trustworthy” (al-amīn) before the revelation descended upon him. So it came to be that none would butcher a camel for sale without urging him to invoke God’s blessing over it on their behalf.
Once he had grown to his full height and reached manhood—though without attaining any great wealth—Khadījah bint Khuwaylid hired him, sending him to Ḥubāshah, a market in Tihāmah. She also hired alongside him another man from the Quraysh. Speaking of Khadījah, the Messenger of God remarked, “Of all the women who hired servants, I never saw one kinder than Khadījah. We would always return, my companion and I, and find at her home a gift of food she had stored away for us.”
The Prophet continued, “When we returned from the Ḥubāshah market, I said to my companion, ‘Let’s leave, and we’ll have a chat at Khadījah’s house.’ So we went there, and while we were in her home, a muntashiyah—one of the slave-born women of the Quraysh—came into the room where we were. A muntashiyah is a buxom young woman who desires men. She said, ‘Is this Muḥammad? By Him with Whom pacts are made, has he come as a suitor?’ And I said, ‘Not at all!’ Once my companion and I had left, he said, ‘Are you too shy to accept Khadījah’s proposal? By God, there’s not a single Qurashī woman would not consider you her equal!’”
The Prophet continued, “We returned to her another time, and that buxom girl returned to us and asked, ‘Is this Muḥammad? By Him with Whom