Umm Habiba Ramla bint Abu Sufyan, may
Allah be pleased with her, in fact married the Prophet Muhammad (peace
and blessings of Allah be upon him) in 1 AH, although she did not
actually come to live with him in Medina until 7 AH, when the Prophet
was sixty years old and she was thirty-five. Umm Habiba was the daughter
of Abu Sufyan, who for some of his life was one of the most resolute
enemies of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)
spending much of his great wealth in opposing the Muslims, and leading
the armies of the kafirun against the Muslims in all the early major
battles, including the battles of Badr, Uhud and al-Khandaq. Indeed it
was not until the conquest of Mecca, when the Prophet generously
pardoned him, that Abu Sufyan embraced Islam and began to fight with the
Muslims instead of against them.
Umm Habiba and her first husband, who was called
Ubaydullah ibn Jahsh, the brother of Zaynab bint Jahsh, were among the
first people to embrace Islam in Mecca, and they were among those early
Muslims who emigrated to Abyssinia in order to be safe. Once in
Abyssinia, however, Ubaydullah abandoned Islam and became a Christian.
He tried to make her become Christian, but she stood fast. This put Umm
Habiba in a difficult position, since a Muslim woman can only be married
to be a Muslim man. She could no longer live with her husband, and once
they had been divorced, she could not return to her father, who was
still busy fighting the Muslims. So she remained with her daughter in
Abyssinia, living a very simple life in isolation, waiting to see what
Allah would decree for her.
One day, as Umm Habiba sat in her solitary room, a
stranger in a strange land far from her home, a maidservant knocked on
her door and said that she had been sent by the Negus who had a message
for her. The message was that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings
of Allah be upon him) had asked for her hand in marriage, and that if
she accepted this proposal that she was to name one of the accepted this
proposal then she was to name one of the Muslims in Abyssinia as her
wakil, so that the marriage ceremony could take place in Abyssinia even
though she was not in the same place as the Prophet. Naturally Umm
Habiba was overjoyed and accepted immediately. "Allah has given you good
news! Allah has give you good news!" she cried, pulling off what little
jewelry she had and giving it to the smiling girl. She asked her to
repeat the message three times since she could hardly believe her ears.
Soon after this, all the Muslims who had sought refuge
in Abyssinia were summoned to the palace of the Negus to witness the
simple marriage ceremony in which the on the Prophet's behalf and her
wakil, Khalid ibn Sa'id ibn al-As, acting on her behalf. When the
marriage was finalized, the Negus addressed the gathering with these
words:
"I praise Allah, the Holy, and I declare that there is
no god but Allah and that Muhammad is His servant and His messenger and
that He gave the good news to Jesus the son of Mary.
"The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him) requested me to conclude the marriage contract between him
and Umm Habiba, the daughter of Abu Sufyan. I agreed to do what he
requested, and on his behalf I give her a dowry of four hundred gold
dinars." The Negus handed over the amount to Khalid ibn Sa'id who stood
up and said:
"All praise is due to Allah. I praise Him and I seek His
help and forgiveness and I turn to Him in repentance. I bear witness
that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger whom He has sent with the
deen of guidance and truth so that it may prevail over all other
religions, however much those who reject dislike this. "I agreed to do
what the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) requested
and acted as the wakil on behalf of Umm Habiba, the daughter of Abu
Sufyan. May Allah bless His Messenger and his wife. Congratulations to
Umm Habiba for the goodness which Allah has decreed for her."
Khalid took the dowry and handed it over to Umm Habiba.
Thus although she could not travel to Arabia straight away, she was
provided for by the Prophet, (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)
from the moment and that they were married. The Muslims who had
witnessed the marriage contract were just about to leave, when the Negus
said to them, "Sit down, for it is the practice of the Prophets to
serve food at marriages." Joyfully everyone sat down again to eat and
celebrate the happy occasion. Umm Habiba especially could hardly believe
her good fortune, and she later described how eager she was to share
her happiness, saying: "When I received the money as my dowry, I sent
fifty mithqals of gold to the servant girl who had first brought me the
good news, and I said to her, 'I gave you what I did when you gave me
the good news because at that time I did not have any money at all.'
"Shortly afterwards, she came to me and returned the
gold. She also produced a case which contained the necklace I had given
to her and gave it to me, saying, 'The Negus has instructed me not to
take anything from you, and he has commanded the women in his household
to present you with gifts of perfume.'
"On the following day, she brought me ambergris, saffron and aloes wood oil and said, 'I have a favor to ask of you.'
'"What is it?' I asked.
'"I have accepted Islam,' she replied, 'and now I
followed the deen of Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him). Please convey my greetings of peace to him, and let him know that I
believe in Allah and His Prophet. Please do not forget.'"
Six years later, in 7 AH, when the emigrant Muslims in
Abyssinia were finally able to return to Arabia, Umm Habiba came to
Medina and there the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him), who had just returned victorious from Khaybar, warmly
welcomed her. Umm Habiba relates: "When I met the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him), I told him all about the arrangements
that had been made for the marriage, and about my relationship with the
girl. I told him that she had become a Muslim and conveyed her greetings
of peace to him. He was filled with joy at the news and said, 'Wa
alayha as salam wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh' - 'And on her be the
peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessing.'"
The strength of Umm Habiba' s character can be measured
by what happened shortly before the conquest of Mecca, when her father,
Abu Sufyan, came to Medina after the Quraish had broken the treaty of
Hudaybiyya, in order to try and re-negotiate a fresh settlement with the
Prophet Muhammad and the Muslims. He first went to Umm Habiba's room
and was about to sit down on the blanket on which the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him) slept when Umm Habiba, who had not seen
her father for over six years, asked him not to sit on it and quickly
folded it up and put it away. "Am I too good for the bed, or it is the
bed too good for me?" he asked. "how can the enemy of Islam sit on the
bed of the Holy Prophet?" she replied.
It was only after Abu Sufyan had embraced Islam, after
the conquest of Mecca, and had become the enemy of the enemies of Islam,
that Umm Habiba accepted and loved him again as her father. When she
received the news that her father and brother Mu'awiya, who later became
the Khalif of the Muslims, had become Muslims after the conquest, she
fell down in prostration to Allah out of thankfulness. Umm Habiba spent
four years of her life with the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of
Allah be upon him) and lived for another thirty-three years after he
had died, dying at the age of seventy-two in 44 AH, may Allah be pleased
with her.
Like all the wives of the Prophet (peace and blessings
of Allah be upon him) Umm Habiba spent much of her time remembering
Allah and worshipping Him. She has related that once the Prophet (peace
and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to her, "A house will be built
in the Garden for anyone who, in the space of a day and a night, prays
twelve voluntary rak'ats;" and she added, "I have never stopped doing
this since I it from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessinof Allah
be upon him).
Safiyya bint Huyayy, (may Allah be
pleased with her) married the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of
Allah be upon him) in 7 AH, when the Prophet was sixty years old and she
was seventeen years old. As in the case of juwayriyya bint Harith,
this marriage occurred after one of the Muslims' decisive battles, in
this case, the battle of Khaybar. After the battle of Khaybar in which
the Muslims defeated the Jews, two women were brought before the Prophet
Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) by Bilal, the
black mu'adhdhin of Medina whose beautifully piercing voice constantly
called the Muslims to prayer right up until the Prophet's death- after
which he could not bring himself to call the adhan anymore, until he was
present at the surrender of Jerusalem to the khalif Umar in 17 AH.
They had passed by those who had been killed in the fighting. One of
the two women was shrieking and screaming, and rubbing dust in her hair,
while the other was mute with shock.
The silent one was Safiyya, the daughter of Huyayy ibn
Akhtab, the chief of the Banu Nadir who had all been expelled from
Medina in 4 AH after plotting to kill the Messenger of Allah by dropping
a stone on his head as he sat talking with their leaders. The noisy
one was Safiyya's cousin. Safiyya could trace her lineage directly back
to Harun, the brother of the Prophet Moses (peace be upon them). The
Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) asked
someone to look after the woman who was screaming and then took off his
cloak and placed it over the shoulders of Safiyya, whose husband had
been killed in the battle. It was a gesture of pity, but from that
moment she was to be honored and given great respect in the Muslim
community. Then the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)
turned to Bilal and said, "Bilal, has Allah plucked mercy from your
heart that you let these two women pass by those of their menfolk who
have been killed?" This was considered a severe reprimand, for the
Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) rarely
criticized the behavior of those who served him. Anas ibn Malik, for
example once said, "I served the Messenger of Allah (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him) for eight years. He never once scolded
me for something that I had done or for something that I had not done."
Like Umm Habiba, Safiyya was the daughter of a great
chief. The only person who could save her from becoming a slave after
having enjoyed such a high position was the Prophet. Although her
father had planned to assassinate Muhammad (peace and blessings of
Allah be upon him) after the battle of Uhud, and had conspired with the
Banu Qurayza to exterminate all the Muslims during the battle of
al-Khandaq, it was characteristic of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him) that he did not bear any grudges. For
those who did wrong, he felt pity rather than anger, and for those who
had done no wrong, he had even greater compassion. The Prophet
Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) invited Safiyya to
embrace Islam, which she did, and having given her, her freedom, he then
married her. Some people may have wondered how it was that Safiyya
could accept Islam and marry the Prophet when her father had been his
bitter enemy, and when bloody battles had taken place between the Jews
and the Muslims. The answer may be found in what she has related of her
early life as the daughter of the chief of the Banu Nadir.
She said, (may Allah be pleased with her): "I was my
father's favorite and also a favorite with my uncle Yasir. They could
never see me with one of their children without picking me up. When the
Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) came to
Medina, my father and my uncle went to see him. It was very early in the
morning and between dawn and sunrise. They did not return until the
sun was setting. They came back worn out and depressed, walking with
slow, heavy steps. I smiled to them as I always did, but neither of
them took any notice of me because they were so miserable. I head Abu
Yasir ask my father, 'Is it him?' 'Yes, it is.' 'Can you recognize
him? Can you verify it?' 'Yes, I can recognize him too well.' 'What do
you feel towards him?' 'Enmity, enmity as long as I live.'
The significance of this conversation is evident when we
recall that in the Torah of the Jews, it was written that a Prophet
would come who would lead those who followed him to victory. Indeed
before the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)
came to Medina, the Jews used to threaten the idol worshippers of
Yathrib, as it was then called, that when the next Prophet came to the
believers were going to exterminate them, just as the Jews had
exterminated other tribes who refused to worship God in the past. As in
any case, of the Prophet Jesus, (peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him) who had been clearly described in the Torah - but rejected by many
of the Jews when he actually came - the next and last Prophet was
accurately described in the Torah, which also contained signs by which
the Jews could easily recognize him. Thus Ka'b al-Ahbar, one of the
Jews of that time who embraced Islam, relates that this Prophet is
described in the Torah as follows:
'My slave, Ahmad, the Chosen, born in Mecca, who will
emigrate to Medina (or he said Tayyiba - another name given to Yathrib);
his community will be those who praise Allah in every state.'
And 'Amr ibn al-'As said that it also says in the Torah:
'O Prophet, We have sent you as a witness, a bringer of
good news and a warner and a refuge for the illiterate. You are My
slave and My messenger. I have called you the one on whom people rely,
one who is neither coarse nor vulgar, and who neither shouts in the
markets nor repays evil with evil, but rather pardons and forgives.
Allah will not take him back to Himself until the crooked community has
been straightened out by him and they say, "There is no god but Allah."
Through him, blind eyes, deaf ears and covered hearts will be opened.'
It was thanks to these descriptions in the Torah, that
the most learned rabbi of the Jews, 'Abdullah ibn Salam, had embraced
Islam on seeing Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and
it was because of these descriptions that Huyayy ibn Akhtab was also
able to recognize him. However Huyayy, like most of the other Jews, was
deeply disappointed that the last Prophet (peace and blessings of
Allah be upon him) was a descendant of Isma'il and not of Ishaq, (the
two sons of the Prophet Ibrahim, peace be upon them), since the Jews of
that time claimed exclusive descent from Ishaq, through the twelve sons
of his son Ya'qub (who was also known as Israel), from whom the twelve
tribes of Israel had originated. Not only did Huyayy resent the fact
that the last Prophet had appeared amongst the Arabs, but also he did
not want to lose his position of power and leadership over his people.
It was for these reasons that Huyayy secretly decided to
oppose and fight the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him) while in public he and the other leaders of the Jews made
peace treaties with the Muslims and the Jews broke as soon as it seemed a
favorable time to do so. Although Safiyya was Huyayy's daughter, she
had a pure heart and had always wanted to worship her Creator and Lord,
the One who had sent Moses, to whom she was related, and Jesus, and
finally Muhammad, may Allah be pleased with all of them. Thus as soon
as the opportunity arose, not only to follow the last Prophet, but also
to be married to him, she took it. Although Safiyya had in Muhammad
(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) a most kind and considerate
husband, she was not always favorably accepted by some of his other
wives, especially when she had first joined the Prophet's household. It
is related by Anas that on one occasion, the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him) found Safiyya weeping. When he asked
her what the matter was, she replied that she heard thHafsa had
disparagingly described her as 'the daughter of a Jew'.
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)
responded by saying, "You are certainly the daughter of a Prophet
(Harun), and certainly your uncle was a Prophet (Moses), and you are
certainly the wife of a Prophet (Muhammad), so what is there in that to
be scornful towards you?" Then he said to Hafsa, "O Hafsa, fear Allah!"
Once the Prophet was accompanied on a journey by Safiyya
and Zaynab bint Jahsh when Safiyya' s camel went lame. Zaynab had an
extra camel and the Prophet asked her if she would give it to Safiyya.
Zaynab retorted, "Should I give to that Jewess!" The Prophet turned
away from her in anger and would not have anything to do with her for
two or three months not to show his disapproval of what she had said.
Some three years later, when Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him) was in his final illness, Safiyya felt for him deeply and
sincerely. "O Messenger of Allah," she said, "I wish it was I who was
suffering instead of you." Some of the wives winked at each other which
made the Prophet cross and he exclaimed, "By Allah, she spoke the
truth!"
She still underwent difficulties after the death of the
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Once a slavegirl
she owned went to the Amir al Muminin Umar and said, "Amir al Muminin!
Safiyya loves the Sabbath and maintains ties with the Jews!" Umar asked
Safiyya about that and she said, "I have not loved the Sabbath since
Allah replaced it with Friday for me, and I only maintain ties with
those Jews to whom I am related by kinship." She asked her slavegirl
what had possessed her to carries lie to Umar and the girl replied,
"Shaytan!" Safiyya said, "Go, you are free."
Safiyya was with the Prophet for nearly four years, She
was only twenty-one when the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him) died, and lived as a widow for the next thirty-nine years,
dying in 50 AH, at the age of sixty (may Allah be pleased with her).
Maymuna bint al-Harith, (may Allah be pleased with her),
married the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him) in 7 AH, when the Prophet was sixty years old and she was thirty
six years old. Maymuna's sister, Umm al-Fadl Lubaba, was the mother of
Abdullah ibn Abbas, the son of one of the uncles of the Prophet and the
one of the wisest of his Companions. Umm al-Fadl was one of the
earliest Companions of the Prophet. Once Abu Lahab, the enemy of Allah
and the Messenger of Allah, entered the house of his brother, al-Abbas,
and proceeded to attack Abbas client, Abu Rafi, because he had embraced
Islam. Abu Lahab knocked him to the ground and knelt on him, continuing
to beat him. Umm al Fadl grabbed a post that was there and cracked it
across Abu Lahab's head, saying, "Will you victimize him because his
master is absent?" He treated in shame and died a week later.
Zaynab bint Khuzayma, Umm al Muminin, was also her
half-sister. Her other sisters included Asma bint Umays, the wife of
Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, who later married Abu Bakr, and Salma bint Umays,
the wife of Hamza, the "Lion of Allah". Her full sisters were Lubaba,
Asma and Izza. Maymuna was thus one of the 'Ahlul- Bayt' , 'the people
of the House', not only by virtue of being a wife of the Prophet, (peace
and blessings of Allah be upon him) but also because she was related
to him. Zayd bin Arqam related that the Messenger of Allah (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him) said, "I implore you by Allah! The
People of my House!" three times. Zayd was asked who were the People of
the House, and he said, "The family of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the family of
Jafar ibn Abi Talib, the family Aqil ibn Abi Talib, and the family of
Al Abbas ibn Abdal Muttalib."
Maymuna or Barra as she was then called, yearned to
marry the Prophet. She went to her sister, Umm al Fadl to talk to her
about that and she, in turn, spoke to her husband, al-Abbas. Al-Abbas
immediately went to the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him) with Maymuna's offer of marriage to him and her proposal was
accepted. When the good news reached her, she was on a camel, and she
immediately got off the camel and said, "The camel and what is on it is
for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)."
They were married in the month of Shawwal in 7 AH just after the
Muslims of Medina were permitted to visit Mecca under the terms of the
treaty of Hudaybiyya to perform umra. Allah Almighty sent the following
ayat about this:
Any believing woman who dedicates herself to the
Prophet if the Prophet wishes to wed her, that is only for thee and not
for the believers. (Quran 33:50)
The Prophet gave her the name, Maymuna, meaning
"blessed", and Maymuna lived with the Prophet for just over three years,
until his death. She was obviously very good natured and got on well
with everyone, and no quarrel or disagreement with any of the Prophet's
other wives has been related about her. 'A'isha said about her, "Among
us, she had the most fear of Allah and did the most to maintain ties of
kinship." It was in her room that the Prophet first began to feel the
effects of what became his final illness and asked the permission of his
wives to stay in A'isha's room while it lasted.
After the Prophet's death, (peace and blessings of
Allah be upon him) Maymuna continued to live in Medina for another forty
years, dying at the age of eighty, in 51 AH, (may Allah be pleased with
her), being the last of the Prophet's wives to die. She asked to be
buried where had married the Prophet at Saraf and her request was
carried out. It is related that at the funeral of Maymuna, Ibn Abbas
said, "This is the wife of Allah's Messenger, (peace and blessings of
Allah be upon him) so when you lift her bier, do not shake her or
disturb her, but be gentle." It is also related by Ibn Abbas that he
once stayed the night as a guest of Maymuna, who was his aunt, and the
Prophet, (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) They slept on
their blanket lengthways and he slept at the end, crossways. After they
had all slept for awhile, the Prophet rose in the middle of the night
to pray the tahajjud prayer, and Ibn Abbas joined him.
They both did wudu, and he prayed eleven rakats with the
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Then they both
went back to sleep again until dawn. Bilal called the adhan, and the
Prophet did another two short rakats, before going into the mosque to
lead the Dawn Prayer.
Ibn Abbas said that one of the dua'ahs that the Prophet
made during this night was : "O Allah, place light in my heart, light in
my tongue, light in my hearing, light on my sight, light behind me,
light in front of me, light on my right, light on my left, light above
me and light below me; place light in my sinew, in my flesh, in my
blood, in my hair and in my skin; place light in my soul and make light
abundant for me; make me light and grant me light."
It is commonly agreed that it was after the Prophet had
married Maymuna, giving him now nine wives (A'isha, Sawda, Hafsa, Umm
Salama, Zainab bint Jahsh, Juwayriyya, Umm Habiba, Safiyya and Maymuna),
that the following ayat was revealed:
It is not lawful for you (O Muhammad, to marry
more) women after this, nor to exchange them for other wives, even
though their beauty is pleasing to you, except those whom your right
hand possesses (as maid servants); and Allah is always watching over
everything. (Quran 33:52)
After this, the Prophet (peace and blessings of
Allah be upon him) did not marry again. When however, the Christian
ruler, or Muqawqis, of Egypt, sent him two Christian slave girls 0 who
were sisters as a gift (in response to the Prophet's letter inviting him
to embrace Islam), along with a fine robe and some medicine the
Prophet, accepted one of the slave girls, Maria, into his household; he
gave her sister Serene, to a man whom he wished to honor, namely Hassan
ibn Thabit; he accepted the robe; and he returned the medicine with the
message, "My Sunna is my medicine!" This occurred in 7 AH, when the
Prophet wassixty years old and Maria was twenty years old.
Maria al-Qibtiyya (may Allah be pleased
with her) is said to have married the Prophet (peace and blessings of
Allah be upon him) and certainly everyone gave her the same title of
respect as the Prophet's wives, 'Umm al Muminin' 'Mother of the
Believers'. Maria was born in upper Egypt of a Coptic father and Greek
mother and moved to the court of the Muqawqis when she was still very
young. She arrived in Medina to join the Prophet's household just after
the Prophet returned from the treaty with Quraish which was contracted
at al-Hudaybiyya. Maria gave birth to a healthy son in 9 AH, the same
year that his daughter Zaynab died, and the Prophet named his new son
Ibrahim, after the ancestor of both the Jews and the Christians, the
Prophet from whom all the Prophets who came after him were descended.
Unfortunately, when he was only eighteen months old, Ibrahim became
seriously ill and died. Even though he knew that his small son would go
to the Garden, the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him) could not help shedding some tears. When some of his
Companions asked him why he was weeping, he replied, "It is my
humanness."
As Ibrahim's body was being buried, the sun was eclipsed
and it grew dark and gloomy. Some people thought this was connected
with Ibrahim's death, but the Prophet soon clarified this. "The sun and
the moon are two of Allah's signs," he said, "they are not eclipsed
because of anyone's birth or death. When you see these signs, make
haste to remember Allah in prayer." Although the kafirun used to mock
the Prophet Muhammad because he had no sons, and say that he was 'cut
off' , Allah made it clear in the following surah that the station of
the Prophet Muhammad was far above that of any other man;
In the name of Allah, The Merciful, the
Compassionate: Surely We have given you AL Khawthar, so pray to your
Lord and offer sacrifice. Surely he who mocks you is the one cut off.
(Quran 108:1-3)
Muhammad is not the father of any man among you, but
he is the Messenger of Allah and the Seal of the Prophets, and Allah has
knowledge of all things. (Quran 33:40)
Maria was honored and respected by the Prophet and
his family and Companions. She spent three years of her life with the
Prophet, until his death, and died five years later in 16 AH, (may Allah
be pleased with her) For the last five years of her life, she remained a
recluse and almost never went out except to visit the grave of the
Prophet or her son's grave. After her death, Umar ibn al Khattab led
the prayer over her and she was buried in al Baqi.
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