It is related that Mohammed's father died before his son's birth and his
mother six years later. Thus Mohammed was left to the care of his
grandfather, the virtual chief of Mecca. The venerable chief lived but two
years and Mohammed, who was a great favorite with his grandfather, became
the special charge of his uncle, Aboo-Talib, whose devotion never wavered,
even during the trying later years, when Mohammed's persecutions caused the
uncle untold hardships and trials.
At an early age Mohammed took up the life of a sheep herder, caring for the
herds of his kinsmen. This step became necessary because the once princely
fortune of his noble ancestors had dwindled to almost the extreme of
poverty, but although the occupation of sheep herder was despised by the
tribes, it is said that Mohammed himself in later life often alluded to his
early calling as the time when "God called him."
At the age of twenty-five he took up the more desirable post of camel
driver, and was taken into the employ of a wealthy kinswoman, Khadeejeh,
whom he afterwards married, although she was fifteen years his senior--a
disparity in age which means far more in the East, where physical charm
and beauty are the only requisites for a wife, than it does in the West
where men look more to the mental endowments of a wife than to the fleeting
charm of youth.
Pages:
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233