The prophet (SAS) was born on Monday, 12th Rabl'u’I-awwal, in the year of the elephant. Qays b. Makhrama said, ‘I and the prophet were born at the same time in the year of the elephant.’

Hassan b. Thabit said: ‘I was a well-grown boy of seven or eight, understanding all that I heard, when I heard a Jew calling out at the top of his voice from the top of a fort in Yathrib “O company of Jews” until they all came together and called out “Woe to you, what is the matter?” He answered: “Tonight has risen a star under which Ahmad is to be born.” ’

After his birth his mother sent to tell his grandfather Abdul-Muttalib that she had given birth to a boy and asked him to come and look at him. When he came she told him what she had seen when she conceived him and what was said to her and what she was ordered to call him.

It is alleged that Abdul-Muttalib took him to the Ka'ba, where he stood and prayed to Allah thanking him for this gift. Then he brought him out and delivered him to his mother, and he tried to find foster-mothers for him. Halima bint Abu Dhu’ayb of Bani Sa'd bin Bakr was chosen to suckle him.