DAILYREFLECTION
Did He not find you an orphan and give you shelter?
Imagine being the first human being to hold the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) in your hands.
Not his mother. Not his grandfather. Not a midwife from Mecca's noble families.
A young Abyssinian slave girl named Baraka bint Tha'laba (RA).
She was purchased by Abdullah ibn Abdul Muttalib around 557 CE, thirteen years before the birth of the Prophet (ﷺ). Just one girl brought into the household. Just Abdullah, his wife Amina, and this young servant who would witness history unfold.
When Abdullah left for his summer trade route to Syria, he had no idea Amina was pregnant. He never came back.
Amina had seen a dream, a light pouring from her stomach, illuminating all of Mecca and stretching to the hills of Syria. Baraka told her: "Perhaps it's a blessed child."
The pregnancy was difficult. Every day, Baraka would walk to the edge of town, waiting for news of Abdullah's return. Every day, hoping. Until the day hope turned to grief.
The news arrived that Abdullah had died.
Baraka (RA) was the one who had to tell Aminah. The one who consoled a grieving widow carrying an orphan-to-be.
Then came the night of birth.
Just the two of them in that home. Amina in labor. Baraka beside her.
When the Prophet (ﷺ) emerged into this world, it was Baraka's hands that caught him. She saw the light, just as Amina had dreamed. She cleaned him. She held him. She handed him to his mother.
"This," she said, "is the interpretation of your dream."
She was one of three women who would nurse him.
Six years later, Amina fell ill while traveling to visit her husband's grave. Picture this scene: a six-year-old boy who never knew his father, now watching his mother die before his eyes.
Amina whispered to Baraka, fever burning through her. "I'm dying now."
And then came the wasiyyah, the entrustment.
"Take care of him as if you are his mother. Take care of him as if you are his mother." She repeated it. "Care for him, stay with him. Make sure that he doesn't know any sadness beyond this."
Reflect On This
Where in our lives might Allah be entrusting us with unseen responsibilities?
Share your reflections in the poll at the end of the email.
WATERMELONWATCH
A Palestinian man waves from a window as war-wounded people and patients, accompanied by relatives, get ready to leave Gaza for treatment abroad through the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, after it was opened by Israel on Monday for a limited number of people, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Rafah crossing reopened for limited medical evacuations, with the WHO confirming the first small group of patients and companions leaving Gaza for treatment. Even this narrow opening is giving families a concrete pathway to care, and a bit of breathing room amid a shattered health system.
Patients remain in limbo as the “pilot” reopening stays tightly restricted, leaving many of the most urgent cases still waiting. Yet medical teams and relatives continue organizing documentation, transport, and support networks so each rare exit becomes a lifeline for more than one person.
Aid groups warn that new access requirements and suspensions are constricting operations, including MSF refusing to hand over staff lists they say could endanger teams. At the same time, humanitarian workers are holding the line on protecting colleagues while trying to keep clinics and emergency care running for civilians.
QURANCORNER
تَرْمِيهِم بِحِجَارَةٍ مِّن سِجِّيلٍ
“Striking them with stones of hard clay”
Tarmīhim bi-ḥijāratin min sijjīl
"Bi-ḥijāratin min sijjīl": Stones of baked clay, each stone reportedly carried a name and caused severe destruction.
"Tarmīhim": They pelted the army, resulting in disease, injury, and death, signs of divine punishment.