Did He not find you an orphan and give you refuge?
Allah speaks here to the Prophet ﷺ about his own childhood. The word He uses: yatîm, an orphan.
His father, 'Abdullâh, died while his mother Âmina was still carrying him.
He ﷺ never saw his father: Âmina gave birth to him after 'Abdullâh's death.
Umm Ayman (may Allah be pleased with her), an Abyssinian woman, had served his father.
From his birth, Umm Ayman looked after him, until he ﷺ had grown up.
Then he ﷺ freed her and married her to Zayd ibn Hâritha. She is the mother of Usâma (may Allah be pleased with them).
After the death of the Prophet ﷺ, Abû Bakr said to 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with them):
“Let us go to Umm Ayman and visit her, as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to visit her.”
She wept. She knew, she said, that what is with Allah is better for him: “I weep because revelation has ceased.”
He ﷺ himself named one of the women who nursed him. Umm Habîba (may Allah be pleased with her) heard him say:
“Thuwayba nursed me and Abû Salama.”
He ﷺ said it to give a ruling: the daughter of Abû Salama, his brother through nursing, was not lawful for him.
Thuwayba, it is added, was a freedwoman of Abû Lahab.
The biographers name the best-known nurse: Halîma, of the Banû Sa'd ibn Bakr.
Her husband was al-Hârith ibn 'Abd al-'Uzzâ. In her home he ﷺ had a foster brother and two foster sisters.
Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) tells of a day in that childhood: the day his chest was opened.
The boys who were with him ran “to his mother”: that is, to his nurse.
That day is told in “Muhammad ﷺ, a Life”, chapter 2. Here, keep one thing: he grew up in a nurse's care.
He ﷺ grew up without his father. The Qur'an says it in one word: orphan.
Women nursed him and cared for him.
Who were they, and how did he ﷺ remember them, years later?
Long after his childhood, he ﷺ still visited Umm Ayman, and he still named Thuwayba.
Tonight, call or visit one person who cared for you as a child, and thank them.