In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The Mawaddah Association is pleased
to present to you
"Portraits from the Lives of the Female Companions"
by Dr. Abd al-Rahman Ra'fat al-Basha,
may Allah have mercy on him.
Umm Salamah,
may Allah be pleased with her.
Umm Salamah—
and what can make you know who Umm Salamah was!
As for her father, he was one of the prominent chieftains of Makhzum,
and one of the most famously generous men among the Arabs,
so much so that he was called
"Zad al-Rakib" (The Provisioner of the Traveler),
because no travelers needed to carry provisions
whenever they headed for his dwellings
or traveled in his company.
As for her husband, he was Abdullah ibn Abd al-Asad,
one of the first ten foremost pioneers in embracing Islam,
for no one accepted Islam before him except Abu Bakr al-Siddiq
and a small group numbering fewer than the fingers on two hands.
Her name was Hind,
but she was known by the agnomen (kunya) of Umm Salamah,
and that kunya eventually prevailed as her name.
Umm Salamah accepted Islam alongside her husband,
thus becoming among the foremost pioneering women in Islam as well.
No sooner had the news of the conversion of Umm Salamah and her husband spread
than Quraysh erupted in violent fury,
pouring down upon them such torment and persecution
as would shake solid rocks.
Yet the couple did not weaken, nor waver, nor hesitate.
When the persecution grew intensely severe against them,
and the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, granted permission
to his Companions to emigrate to Abyssinia,
they were at the forefront of the emigrants.
Umm Salamah and her husband departed to the land of exile,
leaving behind in Makkah her palatial home,
her towering honor, and her noble lineage,
seeking the reward for all of that with Allah alone,
deeming it insignificant for the sake of His pleasure.
Despite the protection Umm Salamah and her companions received from the Negus—
may Allah brighten his face in Paradise—
the yearning for Makkah, the site of revelation,
and the longing for the Messenger of Allah, the source of guidance,
tore deeply at her heart and the heart of her husband.
Then successive reports reached the emigrants in the land of Abyssinia
that the Muslims in Makkah had grown in number,
and that the conversions of Hamzah ibn Abd al-Muttalib
and Umar ibn al-Khattab had strengthened their ranks
and curbed some of Quraysh's harm against them.
Thereupon, a group among them resolved to return to Makkah,
driven by yearning and summoned by nostalgia,
and Umm Salamah and her husband were among the foremost returnees.
But the returnees soon discovered
that the reports conveyed to them had been exaggerated,
and that the surge the Muslims experienced after the conversions of Hamzah and Umar
had been met by Quraysh with an even fiercer assault.
The polytheists devised new ways to torture and terrorize the Muslims,
inflicting upon them a ferocity they had never experienced before.
At that point, the Messenger, peace be upon him, granted permission
to his Companions to emigrate to Medina.
Umm Salamah and her husband resolved to be among the first to emigrate,
fleeing to safeguard their faith and escaping the persecution of Quraysh.
But the emigration of Umm Salamah and her husband was not as easy and smooth as they had imagined;
rather, it was arduous and bitter,
leaving in its wake a tragedy beside which every other tragedy pales.
Let us leave the floor to Umm Salamah to recount for us the story of her tragedy,
for her experience of it was more intense and profound,
and her depiction of it is more precise and eloquent.
Umm Salamah said: "When Abu Salamah resolved to set out for Medina,
he prepared a camel for me and helped me mount it,
placed our young son, Salamah, in my lap,
and set off leading the camel, turning his back on everything else.
Before we could depart from Makkah, men from my clan, Banu Makhzum, spotted us.
They confronted us and said to Abu Salamah:
'If you have overpowered us concerning yourself, what about this woman of yours?
She is our daughter; why should we allow you to take her from us and journey with her through the land?'
Then they pounced on him and tore me away from his grasp.
When the clan of my husband, Banu Abd al-Asad, saw them
seizing me and my child, they became exceedingly enraged,
and said: 'No, by Allah! We will not leave the child with your woman,
after you have violently torn her away from our kinsman!
He is our son, and we have a greater right to him.'
They then began pulling and tugging at my child Salamah between them before my very eyes,
until they dislocated his arm and took him away.
In mere moments, I found myself shattered, all alone and abandoned:
my husband had headed toward Medina, fleeing to preserve his faith and life,
my child was snatched from my arms by Banu Abd al-Asad, injured and crippled,
while I was held captive by my clan, Banu Makhzum,
who kept me confined with them.
Thus, within a single hour, a rift was torn between me, my husband, and my son.
From that day on, I would go out every morning to al-Abtah,
sitting in the very place that had witnessed my tragedy,
recalling the moments when I was torn apart from my child and my husband,
and I would remain weeping until nightfall descended upon me.
I continued in this state for a year, or nearly a year,
until a man from among my cousins passed by me, took pity on my condition, and felt compassion for me.
He said to my clansmen: 'Will you not let this poor woman go?
You have separated her from her husband and from her child!'
He kept appealing to them, softening their hearts and eliciting their sympathy, until they said to me:
'Join your husband if you wish.'
But how could I join my husband in Medina
while leaving my child, the piece of my heart, in Makkah with Banu Abd al-Asad?
How could my burning grief subside or the tears in my eyes dry
while I was in the land of emigration
and my little boy remained in Makkah, knowing nothing of his fate?
Then some people saw the deep sorrow and anguish I was enduring,
and their hearts softened toward my plight.
They spoke to Banu Abd al-Asad on my behalf
and pleaded with them for my sake, so they returned my son Salamah to me.
I did not want to linger in Makkah until I could find someone to travel with,
for I feared that something unexpected might happen
that would prevent me from reaching my husband.
Therefore, I hastened, prepared my camel,
placed my son in my lap,
and set out heading toward Medina,
seeking my husband,
with not a single soul among Allah's creation accompanying me.
No sooner had I reached al-Tan'im than I met Uthman ibn Talhah.
He asked: 'Where are you heading, O daughter of Zad al-Rakib?'
I replied: 'I want to reach my husband in Medina.'
He asked: 'Is there no one with you?'
I said: 'No, by Allah,
none except Allah, and then this son of mine.'
He said: 'By Allah, I will never leave you unattended.'
Then he took hold of my camel's halter
and set off swiftly leading me.
By Allah, I have never accompanied any Arab man
more noble or honorable than him.
Whenever he reached a halting place, he would make my camel kneel,
then step back away from me.
Once I had dismounted from its back
and settled safely upon the ground,
he would approach the camel, unload its saddle,
lead it to a tree, and tether it there.
Then he would retreat from me toward another tree
and lie down to rest in its shade.
When the time to resume the journey came,
he would go to my camel,
saddle it, and bring it over to me.
Then he would step back from me and say:
'Mount.'
Once I had mounted and settled firmly upon the camel,
he would come forward, take its halter, and lead it.
He continued to do the same every single day
until we reached Medina.
When he looked upon the village of Quba'
belonging to Banu Amr ibn Awf,
he said: 'Your husband is in this village,
so enter it with the blessing of Allah.'
Then he departed, heading back to Makkah.
Thus the scattered family was reunited
after a long separation;
Umm Salamah's eyes were comforted by her husband,
and Abu Salamah rejoiced in his wife and child.
Thereafter, events began
unfolding rapidly in the blink of an eye:
there was Badr,
witnessed by Abu Salamah, returning from it with the Muslims
having achieved a decisive victory;
and there was Uhud,
plunging into its thickest fray after Badr,
fighting therein with the utmost valor and nobility.
Yet he emerged from it
having sustained a severe wound.
He continued to treat it
until it appeared to him to have healed,
but the wound had only closed over an underlying infection;
before long, it broke open anew,
confining Abu Salamah to his bed.
While Abu Salamah was nursing his wound,
he said to his wife:
'O Umm Salamah,
I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
say: "No person is afflicted with a calamity
and then utters the Istirja' (declaring that to Allah we belong and to Him we return) and says:
'O Allah, with You I seek the reward for this calamity of mine;
O Allah, compensate me with something better than it,'
except that Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, grants him that."'
Abu Salamah remained on his sickbed for several days.
One morning,
the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, came to him
to visit him in his illness.
Hardly had he finished his visit
and stepped past the door of his house
when Abu Salamah passed away.
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, closed
the eyes of his companion with his two noble hands,
raised his gaze to the heaven, and said:
'O Allah, forgive Abu Salamah,
raise his rank among those brought near,
appoint a successor for those he leaves behind among the survivors,
forgive us and him, O Lord of the worlds,
make his grave spacious for him,
and illuminate it for him.'
As for Umm Salamah,
she remembered what Abu Salamah had narrated to her
from the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
So she said,
"O Allah, with You I seek reward for this calamity of mine,"
but she could not bring herself to say,
"O Allah, replace him for me with someone better than him."
For she wondered,
"Who could possibly be better than Abu Salamah?"
Yet, before long, she completed the supplication.
The Muslims grieved over Umm Salamah's misfortune
as they had never grieved for anyone's misfortune before,
and called her "the widow of the Arabs,"
as she had no family in Medina
except for little children like fledgling sandgrouse chicks.
Both the Emigrants and the Ansar felt
their shared duty toward Umm Salamah.
No sooner had her mourning period for Abu Salamah ended
than Abu Bakr al-Siddiq approached her,
proposing marriage to her for himself,
but she declined his proposal.
Then Umar Ibn al-Khattab approached her,
and she turned him down just as she had turned down his companion.
Then the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, approached her,
and she said to him,
"O Messenger of Allah, I have three traits:
I am a fiercely jealous woman,
and I fear you might see something in me that displeases you,
causing Allah to punish me for it;
I am an advanced woman in age;
and I am a woman with dependent children."
So the Prophet, peace be upon him, said,
"I will pray to Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, to take jealousy away from you;
as for the age you mentioned,
I have been affected by the same age as you;
and as for the children you mentioned,
your children are my children."
Then the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, married
Umm Salamah,
so Allah answered her supplication
and granted her someone far better than Abu Salamah.
Hind al-Makhzumiyyah was no longer just the mother of Salamah alone;
rather, she became the Mother of all the Believers.
May Allah brighten the face of Umm Salamah in Paradise,
and may He be pleased with her and make her pleased—
Umm Salamah,
may Allah be pleased with her.