Halima al-Sa'diyya
حليمة السعدية
c. 540 (approx.) CE – c. 600 (approx.) CE
A Bedouin woman of Banu Sa'd who nursed the infant Muhammad in the desert for several years, as was the Meccan custom, and is remembered in tradition as his foster-mother.
At a glance
- Counted among
- Sunni
- Era
- The Prophetic Era · Pre-Islamic Arabia
- Region
- Arabia
- Review
- Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it
In time
In space
Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph
WomenFamily, marriage and kinship
Place in the story
- CompanionTradition
Arabian polytheism (transmitted) · Sunni (transmitted)
Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.
Brief
Halima was a Bedouin woman of Banu Sa'd who nursed the infant Muhammad in the desert, as wealthier Meccan families arranged for their children. Tradition remembers her as the Prophet's foster-mother.
Life
It was the custom of Quraysh families to send newborns into the desert to grow strong among the tribes. Around 570 CE Halima of Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr, a clan of Hawazin, took the orphan Muhammad into her tent, and he remained with her family for several years 1.
The sira reports her later meetings with the Prophet — including a visit in Mecca, and tradition counts her among those who embraced Islam 2. The details of her later life and death are thinly recorded.
Legacy
Through Halima, the museum's story touches a real institution: fosterage in pre-Islamic Arabia, which created bonds as binding as blood — the Prophet called her family his own.
For young visitors
In those days, city families sent their babies to live with desert families to grow up healthy. Muhammad's desert mother was Halima, and he loved her all his life.
Connections
- Member of
- Hawazin
- Spouse of
- al-Harith ibn Abd al-Uzza
- Lived in
- Mecca
- Participated in
- The opening of the breastThe Year of the Elephant and the Prophet's birth
People and things also explored
MuhammadAbd al-Muttalib ibn HashimThe Battle of HunaynThe early Muslim communityThe Prophetic EraThe Prophet's marriage to KhadijaThe Prophet's marriage to Sawda bint Zam'aThe Year of the Elephant and the Prophet's birth
Sources
- Ibn Ishaq / Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad (1955)
- Ibn Sa'd, Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir (Bewley translation, Ta-Ha)
- Nisa' Hawl al-Rasul: Tarajim wa Qisas — al-Maktaba al-Asriyya
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Halima al-Sa'diyya”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/halima-al-sadiyya/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-12.