ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s Vow and the Lot

Abd al-Muttalib vowed to slaughter one of his sons should God grant him ten; the lots fell on Abdullah, who was ransomed with a hundred camels — and by this the Arabs' blood-wit became a hundred.

Abd al-Muttalib vowed that if God granted him ten sons who grew up to shield him, he would slaughter one of them at the Ka'ba; when his sons completed ten and he knew they would shield him, he told them his vow and they obeyed ¹.

He wrote their names on the divining arrows and handed them to Hubal's keeper, who cast the arrows — and they fell on Abdullah. Abd al-Muttalib took him, took the knife and led him toward the Ka'ba to slaughter him, but Quraysh prevented him — his maternal uncles of Banu Makhzum above all, and his brother Abu Talib ¹.

They counselled that he go to a divineress and seek her ruling; she ordered that lots be cast over Abdullah against ten camels, and if the lot fell on Abdullah he should add ten by ten until his Lord was content. He kept adding and the lot kept falling only on Abdullah until the camels reached a hundred — whereupon it fell on them, and they were slaughtered in his stead ¹.

Abd al-Muttalib left them free, turning away neither man nor beast from them. The blood-wit among Quraysh and the Arabs had been ten camels; after this event it ran at a hundred, and Islam confirmed it. It is related of the Prophet that he said: I am the son of the two slaughtered ones — meaning Ishmael and his father Abdullah ¹.