The incident of the SPLITTING of the Prophet’s CHEST
What happened on that day was from the signs of Prophethood, and
was a clear proof that Allah chose Muhammad for a very
important mission in life.
Imam Muslim related in his Saheeh the story of the Prophet’s chest
being split open. In Imam Muslim’s narration, Anas ibn Maalik
& said, “While the Messenger of Allah (Peace and blessings be upon him) was playing with some
other boys, Jibreel came to him, took him, forced him to the
ground, and split him open, revealing his heart. Jibreel extracted
his heart, removed from it a blood clot, and said, ‘This is the
portion of Shaitaan (the Devil) in you.’ He then washed the heart
with Zamzam water in a basin made of gold. He then joined the
heart together, and returned it to its place. The children hurried
off to his mother – i.e., his mother from breast-feeding. They said
to her, ‘Verily, Muhammad has been killed They went to him
and found that his colour had changed (though he was otherwise
fine)
Anas said, “I used to see the marks of that stitching on
his chest.”
Without a doubt, purification from Shaitaan’s influence was more
than an early sign of Prophethood; it was also preparation for
protecting the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) from evil and from worshipping other
than Allah. Only pure Islamic Monotheism was to remain in his
heart.
The above-mentioned incident served its purpose, for even
prior to receiving revelation, the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) never bowed down to
an idol or perpetrated a major sin, even though polytheism and evil
deeds were practiced on a widespread scale among the Quraish.
“It appears that the wisdom behind it was both to announce the importance of the
Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) and to prepare him at a very early age for Al-‘Ismah
(protection from major sins, from making a mistake when
conveying the message of Islam, and so on) and revelation.
Physical means were employed (for that preparation) to make it
easier for people to have faith in him and to believe his message.
Therefore, the incident involved spiritual purification, but was
manifested in a physical, tangible manner” The removal of the
blood clot purified the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) from the immaturity, foolishness,
and recklessness of youth. The incident also shows us the degree to which Allah protected the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) and prevented Shaitaan
from having any influence over him whatsoever.
