The Wisdom in the Prophet ﷺ Orphanhood

Why would Allah lay upon His beloved Prophet ﷺ three bereavements, one after another, his father before his birth, his mother at six, his grandfather at eight? Had Allah willed, He could have raised him in the lap of loving parents. The scholars draw out the wisdom.

First, that none might claim a favour over him, and that his upbringing was Allah's own, as He said to Musa:

وَٱصْطَنَعْتُكَ لِنَفْسِي

"And I produced you for Myself" (Ṭā Hā 20:41), and: لِتُصْنَعَ عَلَىٰ عَيْنِي, "that you might be reared under My eye." If this was said of Musa, then how much more of Muhammad ﷺ.

Second, that hardship forges what comfort cannot. The orphan grows independent, mature beyond his years, and tender toward the weak, for it is the rich who are often stingy and the poor who are generous, the comfortable who are hard and the bereaved who are merciful. These were the very qualities a Prophet would need. That is why the care of orphans stands so high in this religion, and the Prophet ﷺ, himself an orphan, said:

أَنَا وَكَافِلُ ٱلْيَتِيمِ كَهَاتَيْنِ فِي ٱلْجَنَّةِ

"I and the guardian of the orphan will be in Paradise like these two", and he held up two fingers together. Surely, when he spoke so of orphans, he was remembering his own childhood. The least we can do, then, is to seek out an orphan to sponsor and care for, to be, by his side, "like these two."