Abu Talib's prayer for rain with the boy Muhammad

An account that "The Sealed Nectar" relates from Ibn Asakir: in a drought Quraysh asked Abu Talib to pray for rain, and he went out with a boy, Muhammad, and set the boy's back against the Ka'ba, and the boy clung to his finger; the clouds came and poured until the valley ran. ^{1 2}

Ibn Asakir reports from Jalhama ibn Arfata that he came to Mecca when its people were in drought. Quraysh said to Abu Talib that the valley had dried up and the families were in want, and asked him to pray for rain. ^{1 2} Abu Talib went out with a boy whom the narrator describes as like the sun when a cloud parts from it, with small children around him. Abu Talib took him and set his back against the Ka'ba, and the boy clung to his finger, while there was not a wisp in the sky. Clouds came from here and there and poured, the valley ran, and the settled and the desert were made fertile. ¹

The author says that Abu Talib alluded to this account when he described his nephew as a white man by whose face the clouds are asked for rain, the protector of orphans and the safeguard of widows, in his well-known ode. ^{1 2}

• The account comes to the author from Ibn Asakir, quoting the abridgement of the biography of the Messenger; the book does not state its grade, and the museum records it as an account from the biographical tradition.
• Jalhama ibn Arfata has no entry of his own; the book cites him only as a narrator.