At a glance
The Mothers of the Believers- Dates
- Married the Prophet ﷺ c. 3 AH
- Who
- Daughter of Umar, one of the few women of Makkah who could read and write
- Stages
- Building Madinah
ProfileHafsah bint Umar
Hafsah (may Allah be pleased with her) was the daughter of Umar. She was married first to Khunays ibn Hudhafah, one of the early Muslims, who migrated to Madinah and died there after fighting for the faith. Umar, worried for his daughter, offered her hand to others before the Prophet ﷺ himself married her around 3 AH.
She was one of the few women of her time who could read and write, and that skill gave her a special place in the story of the Quran. After the Quran was gathered in book form during the caliphate of Abu Bakr, the pages were kept by Umar, and after his death they passed to Hafsah, who kept them safe. Years later, when Uthman set out to make standard copies for the cities of the growing Muslim world, he asked to borrow her pages, and she gave them. He returned them to her afterward.
She is also remembered for her devotion in prayer and for narrating hadith. Because her father was Umar, she was close both to the Prophet ﷺ and to the early caliphs.
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