Sirah

The Grave at al-Abwa

The death of Aminah (RA), the Prophet's mother, c. 577 CE

c. 577 CE

Imagined 360° reconstruction of The Grave at al-Abwa

Educational historical reconstruction

Where

Al-Abwa, on the road between Makkah and Madinah, near Rabigh

23.0920, 38.8520 · View on OpenStreetMap

Background

Aminah bint Wahb (radiyallahu 'anha), the mother of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), died while he was still a young child, some years after his return from the desert fostering and after a season at Makkah with her. By the account of Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Sa'd she had taken her son, then about six years old, to Madinah (Yathrib) to visit the kin of his late father Abdullah among Banu al-Najjar and to see his father's grave; on the journey home she fell ill and died at al-Abwa, a waystation on the caravan road between Madinah and Makkah, near present-day Rabigh, and was buried there. The boy, already fatherless from before his birth, was thus orphaned of both parents and was taken back to Makkah, where the care of him passed first to his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib and, after the grandfather's death, to his uncle Abu Talib. The grave at al-Abwa is also remembered in a later moment: the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), on a journey near the place, visited his mother's grave and wept, and made those around him weep, and the report in Sahih Muslim records this visit and the tenderness of that day. This scene depicts only the place and the grave: a roadside waystation in the bare hill country between the two towns, a single plain grave of heaped stones, a water jar and a worn sandal left beside it, the caravan road winding on. In keeping with the Sirah tier no person is shown, neither the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) nor Aminah (RA); the early grief is conveyed through the quiet of the place and the plainness of the grave.

What you see

A waystation in bare hill country on the caravan road between two great Hijazi towns, the kind of halt where travellers and their mounts rest and water on the long route north from the valley sanctuary.

A single freshly raised grave of heaped stones beside the road, plain and unmarked, the simple early-Hijazi burial, no monument, no enclosure, no shrine.

This is al-Abwa, where, by the Sira, the mother of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) died and was buried on the way home from a visit to her late husband's kin at Madinah, leaving him orphaned of both parents while still a young child.

A place of early loss in the life of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): fatherless before birth and now motherless, taken back to Makkah to the care of his grandfather. The scene is the quiet roadside grave, shown soberly.

A water jar and a worn sandal left by the grave, a caravan road winding on beyond it; no figure is present, only the marks of travellers and the new grave.

The death of Aminah (RA) at al-Abwa is recorded by Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Sa'd; the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) later visited her grave and wept, and it moved those with him to tears (Sahih Muslim 976).

Primary sources

Ibn Ishaq via Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-Nabawiyya: The journey of Aminah (RA) with her son to Madinah, her death and burial at al-Abwa, and the passing of the orphan to his grandfather.

Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabaqat al-Kubra (9th c.): The biographical record of Aminah (RA), the visit to the kin of Abdullah, and the death at al-Abwa.

Sahih Muslim (976, the visiting of graves): The later report that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) visited his mother's grave and wept, used for the tenderness of the memory, not for the burial itself.

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