Ibrahim ibn Muhammad

In his book "Al-Bidāya wa-n-Nihāya" Ibn Kathir mentions that Ibrahim died on Thursday 10 Rabee' Al Awwal AH 10, and on the same day right after his death, eclipse of the sun occurred, so people at the moment started talking that Allah is showing his condolences to his prophet by eclipsing the Sun. Muhammad not wanting his companions to fall into Fitna by giving him or his son divinity, he stood at the mosque and said[4] "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 Allah."[5]

Ibn Kathir's date of death is incorrect because solar eclipses occur when the moon is new, and the Islamic month begins when the moon is new. Consequently Ibrahim could not have died on 10 Rabi' I. His claim that Rabi' I was a Thursday in AH 10 is equally incorrect. We know this because it was Thursday in AH 11 on account of 29 Safar being a Monday.[6] The Islamic calendar had attained its present form by this time (Muhammad had outlawed intercalation at the pilgrimage of AH 10) and, just as in the Gregorian calendar, a given date cannot fall on the same day of the week in two successive years. NASA confirms the eclipse, and on its list of eclipses shows that an eclipse occurred on Monday 27 January AD 632.[7][8] NASA's date coincides with Monday 29 Shawwal AH 10, which means that Ibn Kathir deviates by six months and nineteen days from the actual date.

At the time of his death Ibrahim was reported as being either sixteen or eighteen months old.[9] He fell seriously ill sometime after the Battle of Tabuk in Rajab AH 9. If he was born in the last month of AH 8 and that was Dhu al-Hijjah and neither AH 8 or AH 9 was intercalary he would be sixteen months old if he died in Rabi' I AH 10. There was an intercalation between AH 9 and AH 10 and two successive years might be intercalated.[10] If both AH 8 and AH 9 were intercalated his age at death would have been eighteen months. Ibrahim was born in either Jammad Al-Awwal or Jamad Al-Akhir of AH 9.[9] There was an intercalation at the end of AH 9 and Jamal Al-Akhar of AH 9 corresponds to Jamal Al-Awwal if no allowance is made for it.

Ibrahim's mother was an Egyptian slave who was sent as a gift from Muqawqis, a Byzantine official, to Muhammad in 628. The child was named after Abraham (or Ibrahim, in Arabic) the Biblical prophet revered in Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions. The child 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.[11] 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.[11] 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 with shaking 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, but 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."[11]

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."[11]

• Qasim ibn Muhammad
• Abd-Allah ibn Muhammad
• Zainab bint Muhammad
• Ruqayyah bint Muhammad
• Umm Kulthum bint Muhammad
• Fatimah Zahra

• Islam and Children

• The Tribe of Quraish