Throughout his life, Muhammad remained deeply conscious that he had nearly never been born.
Every Monday, he would refrain from eating and drinking during daylight hours. When asked why he fasted, Muhammad replied, “That was the day on which I was born.” In sixth-century Arabia, many people did not even know the year of their birth, let alone the day of the week.
Yet Muhammad not only held on to this fact, he reminded himself of it every week.
The details of Muhammad’s unlikely birth were well known to him, thanks to the eyewitness testimony of his lifelong foster mother, Barakah.
