His father died before he was born, and his mother was never healthy. She felt he would grow stronger if he lived outside of the city, so he went to live with a shepherd’s family in an oasis village in the hills. He grew up surrounded by vineyards and flowering orchards full of apple and peach trees. He helped tend the sheep, and grew to be healthy and strong.

When he was five, Muhammad was walking in a field when he suddenly fell down, screaming that two men in white were splitting his belly open and stirring it up. Later, he said two angels had been searching for something in his stomach. The shepherd family was terribly worried about him, and sent him back to live with his mother in Mecca. She said he was all right, and that she had expected that something like this might happen. Muhammad stayed with his mother for a year. Then she died, and he went to live with his grandfather.

After two years his grandfather died, and from then on Muhammad was raised by his uncle, Abu Talib. Abu Talib was the head of a clan. There were many separate Arabic tribes at that time, comprised of a number of smaller clans. Abu Talib, like many others, believed that children should earn their keep, so he put Muhammad to work as a shepherd in the rocky, desert hills around Mecca.