IN THE NAME OF GOD; THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE MOST MERCIFUL

Ibrahim ibn Muhammad was the son of Muhammad and Maria al-Qibtiyya. He was born in Madinah in the eighth year of Hijrah [AD 629-320]. On the seventh day after his birth The Prophet slaughtered a sheep to celebrate his ‘Aqiqah, got his head shaved, and distributed as alms a sum of gold equal in weight to his hair. He was named after Prophet Ibraham (as). The child was placed in the care of a wet 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.

After the Battle of Tabuk, Ibrahim fell seriously ill. He was reported as being either sixteen or eighteen months old. He was moved to a date orchard near the residence of his mother, under her care and her sister Sirin. When it was clear that he would not likely survive The Prophet was informed. The Prophet was so shocked at the news that he felt his knees could no more 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. Muhammad took the child and laid him in his own lap with shaking hands. 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 Allah, 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 loudly and incessantly, but The Prophet never ordered them to stop.

As Ibrahim surrendered to death, 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."


Burial

The Prophet is also reported as having informed Maria al-Qibtiyya 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 `Abbas, in preparation for burial. Thereafter, he was carried to the cemetery upon a little bed among others by Muhammad , his uncle al-'Abbas. Here, after a funeral prayer led by The Prophet , he was interred. He then filled the grave with sand, sprinkled some water upon it, and placed a landmark on it, whereupon he is reported as saying that "Tombstones do neither good nor ill, but they help appease the living. Anything that man does, God wishes him to do well."


The Eclipse

The occasion of the death of Ibrahim also coincided with an eclipse of the sun. A phenomenon the Muslims began to circulate by rumor as a miracle. The word went out saying that the sun was eclipsed in sadness over the death of Ibrahim. Upon hearing this Muhammad is reported as saying "The sun and the moon are signs of God. They are eclipsed neither for the death nor birth of any man. On beholding an eclipse, therefore, remember God and turn to Him in prayer."