Abdullah ibn Abi Umayyah

ProfileAbdullah ibn Abi Umayyah

Abdullah ibn Abi Umayyah (may Allah be pleased with him) was the son of Abu Umayyah ibn al-Mughirah, of the clan of Makhzum, whom the early biographies call Zad ar-Rakb, the one who provided for travellers on their journeys. According to the early biographies, his mother was Atikah, the aunt of the Prophet ﷺ, which made him the Prophet's ﷺ cousin, and his full sister was Umm Salamah, who later married the Prophet ﷺ.

According to the early biographies, he was one of the harshest mockers of the Prophet ﷺ in Makkah. According to the commentators, the verses in Surah al-Isra, in which the unbelievers say they will not believe until a spring bursts out of the earth, or he climbs a ladder to the sky, were said of him and others. According to the early biographies, he said to the Prophet ﷺ that he would not believe even if he climbed a ladder to the sky and came back with four angels to bear witness for him.

Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib told, from his father, that when the death of Abu Talib was near, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came to him and found Abu Jahl and Abdullah ibn Abi Umayyah with him. The Prophet ﷺ told his uncle to say that there is no god but Allah, a word with which he would argue for him before Allah. Abu Jahl and Abdullah ibn Abi Umayyah asked Abu Talib whether he would leave the religion of Abd al-Muttalib. The Prophet ﷺ kept on asking him, and they kept on repeating their words, until Abu Talib's last words were that he was on the religion of Abd al-Muttalib, and he refused to say there is no god but Allah (Sahih al-Bukhari; Sahih Muslim).

According to the early biographies, when the Prophet ﷺ marched on Makkah, Abdullah came out to meet him with Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith, and the Prophet ﷺ would not see them, saying that his cousin had insulted him and his brother-in-law had said to him in Makkah what the Qur'an recorded. According to the early biographies, Umm Salamah spoke to him for them, and said that his cousin and his brother-in-law should not be the most wretched of people because of him. According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ then let them in, and Abdullah accepted Islam. According to the early biographies, he went out with the Prophet ﷺ to Hunayn and to Ta'if.

Umm Salamah told that the Prophet ﷺ came to her while an effeminate man was sitting with her, and he heard the man saying to her brother Abdullah ibn Abi Umayyah that if Allah gave him Ta'if the next day, he should take the daughter of Ghaylan. The Prophet ﷺ said that such men should not enter upon them. Hisham added that the Prophet ﷺ was besieging Ta'if at the time (Sahih al-Bukhari).

According to the early biographies, an arrow struck him at the siege of Ta'if, and he died of it as a martyr. According to the early biographies, his son Abdullah was raised in the house of Umm Salamah, and narrated from her, and married Zaynab bint Abi Salamah, and from them came a family of scholars in Madinah.

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