The Opening of Muḥammad's Breast ATTESTATION IS ONLY ONE THEME reflecting the idea of the predestined elec- tion of Muḥammad to the prophetic office. Another theme that serves to promote the idea of election is that of preparation. Like many prophets, Muḥammad too is said to have been prepared for his future assignment at a very early stage of his life, already before he actually started his prophetic mission.

One of the crucial preparatory acts which he experiences is a ceremony of initiation, consisting of the opening of his breast and the purification and adaptation of his heart to the prophetic disposition. Important observations concerning the traditions about this ceremony have already been made by Harris Birkeland. Some scholars before him suggested Christian and other non-Arab legends as the original models of the story. As for Birkeland, he dedicated his own study to laborious attempts at reconstructing the history of the various Is- lamic versions, as if each of them represented a certain stage in a hypothetical process of dogmatic development. He also addressed himself to the question of the “authentic experience” of the Prophet that comprises the background of the story. In his efforts to isolate the “earliest” versions of the story, he seems to have overlooked some basic points important to the understanding of the traditions within the general context of the story of Muḥammad's life. For this reason, a reconsideration of the entire corpus of traditions about the opening of Muḥammad's breast is called for. Our attention will be focussed on the process by which the universal theme of physical purification was adapted to Islamic models.

I The theme of purification emerges in Muḥammad's earliest biographies. It is included in a peculiar story of attestation recorded by Ibn Ishaq, in which an Arab kähin announces to his audience:

The actual act of purification as related in the earliest sources forms part of Muḥammad's infancy legends, which means that the event takes place long before his actual prophetic emergence. In this setting it is not only a story of preparation, but of annunciation as well. The event takes place in the desert, where the young Muḥammad lives after having been sent away from Mecca and entrusted to a bedouin wetnurse, Halima, from the tribe of Banu Sa'd.