The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was born in Makkah around the year five hundred and seventy of the common era, into the clan of Hashim of the tribe of Quraysh. The year is remembered as the Year of the Elephant, after a failed expedition against Makkah described in Surah Al-Fil. His father, Abdullah, had died before he was born.

Following Makkan custom, the infant was given to a wet-nurse from the desert, Halimah of the Banu Sa'd, and spent his early years in her care. When he was about six, his mother Aminah took him to visit relatives in Yathrib, and she died on the journey home. His grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, took him in, and when his grandfather died two years later, his uncle Abu Talib became his guardian. Abu Talib was not wealthy, and the boy worked tending sheep, a task the Prophet later noted that the prophets before him had also done. As a young man, he travelled with his uncle's trading caravans to Syria.

Older biographies also tell the story of a Christian monk, Bahira, who is said to have recognised in the boy the description of a coming prophet. This account should be treated with real caution. The early historian Ibn Ishaq gives it only on unnamed authorities, hadith scholars have questioned several of its details, and a number of scholars reject the story entirely. It is mentioned here only because you will meet it in older books, not because it is established.

What is not in doubt is his reputation. Long before any claim to prophethood, the people of Makkah called him the trustworthy, and the truthful, and they left their valuables in his safekeeping. When the Ka'bah was rebuilt and the clans nearly came to blows over who would set the Black Stone in place, they agreed to accept the judgement of the next man to enter. It was Muhammad. His solution, laying the stone on a cloak carried by all the clans together, satisfied everyone.

He also stood apart from the worst of Makkan life. He never worshipped idols. As a youth he took part in a pact to defend people who had been wronged, and he was known for keeping ties of kinship and helping the poor.

When revelation finally came, and he feared for himself, it was his wife Khadijah who reassured him by pointing to exactly this record: “Allah will never disgrace you — you keep good relations, carry the weak, and help the afflicted.” His character was formed before revelation, and trustworthiness and honesty were the ground on which the message was built.