Excerpt from 'The Message':
Birth of a child further cements the bond of matrimony and makes life bright and brilliant. The Prophet's wife bore him six children. Two of them were sons - the elder one being Qasim and the younger one Abdullah. They are also called Tayyib and Tahir. She also gave birth to four daughters.
Ibne Hisham writes: 'Their eldest daughter was Ruqayyah and the other three were Zaynab, Umme Kulsum and Fatimah'. The male children died before Muhammad was appointed to the prophetic mission, but the daughters continued to live.'
Self-control of the Holy Prophet in the face of calamitous happenings was proverbial. However at the time of the death of his children the sentiments of his heart sometimes appeared from his eyes in the shape of tears which trickled down to his cheeks and this matter became more evident at the time of the death or Ibrahim, whose mother was Mariyah.
At that time, while his heart was grief-stricken, the Prophet was busy praising Allah with his tongue. So much so that an Arab, owing to his ignorance and lack of knowledge about the fundamentals of Islam, objected to the weeping of the Prophet. The Prophet, however, said: 'Weeping of this kind is a blessing.'