The Third Proof:

The Third Proof:
The Birth of the Prophet Muhammad (sws) and His Grandfather, Abdul-
Muttalib's, Promise to Sacrifice His Son, Abdullah
If we look at the story of the Prophet's (sws) grandfather's promise to sacrifice his son, Abdullah,
we will see that it is similar to the story of Ibrahim and his son, Ismail. Ibrahim intended to
sacrifice his son, Ismail, because he had a dream (and, as is well-known, the dreams of prophets
are true visions), in which he saw himself slaughtering him. Out of Allah's mercy, He substituted
a ram for Ismail, and instead of slaughtering Ismail, Ibrahim slaughtered the ram. Thus Allah
bestowed His favor upon his worshippers because He had no intention for His law to be that
fathers sacrifice their sons. The same situation actually occurred with the Prophet's grandfather,
Abdul-Muttalib, when he intended to sacrifice his son, Abdullah, the Prophet's (sws) father.
Once Abdul-Muttalib was responsible for providing the pilgrims with water, among other
tasks, and he began to think in that the hardships the pilgrims faced were due to the lack of
water. This made him remember the well of Zamzam. Zamzam had been the reason his ancestor,
Ismail, was saved after his father, Ibrahim, left him and his mother, Hagar, in the barren desert.
Abdul-Muttalib remembered the well of Zamzam which then attracted a host of tribes to Mecca.
He remembered his fathers and grandfathers talking about the tribe of Jurham, whose people
filled in the well in revenge for being forced out of Mecca.
So he set his mind on finding the place of the blessed, buried well. When he and his only son at
the time managed to find it, he got a pickax and began to dig between two idols. Quraish
objected to this, saying that it was their place of ritual sacrifice, and they forbid him from digging
the well again. He persisted, however, and dug until the stones beneath it appeared. At that point,
Quraish asked him to let them share in the well for Ismail was their forefather as well, but Abdul-
Muttalib refused, arguing that, from among all of them, he was the one who had been chosen to
provide water to the pilgrims. He then became the sole guardian of the well.
Abdul-Muttalib had few children, so on that day, he vowed to God that if ten sons were born
to him and they grew to maturity and were able to stand by him, he would sacrifice one of them
at the Kaäba, in gratitude for the resolution of his conflict with Quraish while digging the well
and their eagerness to deprive him of it.
Many years later, having been blessed with ten sons, Abdul-Muttalib, took his sons out to
decide between them with divining arrows. Each son had an arrow with his name on it, and the
one whose arrow was chosen would be sacrificed. The arrow chosen was that of Abdullah, the
youngest of all his sons. Abdul-Muttalib was just about to carry out his vow when Quraish
intervened, worried that others would follow in his footsteps and this would become a regular
practice.
So they decided that a divining arrow be set to choose between Abdullah and ten camels. If it
pointed to the camels, Abdullah would be saved, and if it pointed to Abdullah, Abdul-Muttalib
would add another ten camels. They did this over and over again until the arrow pointed to the
camels, at which time there were 100 camels. So this is how the camels came to be taken to the
slaughter instead of Abdullah, and this is how Abdullah, the father of the Prophet (sws), was
rescued from death.
Perhaps this may remind us of the story of Ibrahim and his son, Ismail (peace be upon them);
for they set the foundations of the Ancient House, and thus Allah honored them with the
message and prophecy.
Muhammad (sws), the son of Abdullah, was chosen by Allah to purify that Ancient House,
built by Ibrahim and Ismail, from the worship of idols and false gods. Many messengers were
sent to the nation of Israel, but they were met with disbelief, lying and murder. The Jews believed
that the prophet of the end days would also come from among their own. Yet, the wisdom of
Allah Almighty required that the Seal of the Prophets would come from the descendants of their
uncle, Ismail, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: from the Arabs.