Khunais ibn Hudhafah

ProfileKhunais ibn Hudhafah

Khunais ibn Hudhafah (may Allah be pleased with him) was of the clan of Sahm of Quraysh. According to the early biographies, he was a young man when he accepted Islam, among the first twenty or so, before the Prophet ﷺ entered the house of al-Arqam. According to the early biographies, he brought his younger brothers Abdullah and Qais with him into Islam, and went with other men of his clan to Abyssinia. According to the early biographies, he came back to Makkah after that migration, and was given protection there.

According to the early biographies, he married Hafsah, the daughter of Umar, in Makkah, and when Umar migrated to Madinah, Khunais and Hafsah went with him. According to the early biographies, in Madinah they stayed at Quba with Rifa'ah ibn Abd al-Mundhir, and the Prophet ﷺ joined Khunais in brotherhood with Abu Abs ibn Jabr of the Ansar.

Umar told that when his daughter Hafsah lost her husband Khunais ibn Hudhafah as-Sahmi, one of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who had fought at Badr and died in Madinah, he offered her in marriage to Uthman ibn Affan, who asked for time and then said that he did not think he would marry for now, and then to Abu Bakr, who kept silent. Umar was angrier with Abu Bakr than with Uthman. A few days later the Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked for her hand, and Umar married her to him. Abu Bakr then told him that nothing had stopped him from answering except that he knew the Prophet ﷺ had mentioned her, and he would not give away the secret of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, but had the Prophet ﷺ left her, he would have accepted (Sahih al-Bukhari).

According to the early biographies, Khunais was wounded in the fighting, at Badr or at Uhud (the sources differ), and died of the wound in Madinah, and was buried in al-Baqi. According to the early biographies, he and Hafsah had no children.

WatchA lecture about Khunais ibn Hudhafah

Meet them inWhere they appear in the seerah

SourcesSources for this profile