Mariya al-Qibtiyyah

ProfileMariya al-Qibtiyyah

Mariya al-Qibtiyyah (may Allah be pleased with her) was a Copt of Egypt, the daughter of Shamun. According to the early biographies, she and her sister Sirin came from a village in Upper Egypt, and were servants of standing in the household of al-Muqawqis, the ruler of Egypt, whom historians identify with Cyrus, the Byzantine patriarch and governor of Alexandria. According to the early biographies, in about the seventh year after the Hijrah the Prophet ﷺ sent Hatib ibn Abi Balta'ah to him with a letter inviting him to Islam. He did not accept Islam, but he did not tear up the letter or mock the messenger. According to the early biographies, he replied that he knew a prophet was still to come, and had thought he would come from Syria, and that he honoured the messenger, and he sent two slave girls of standing among the Copts, with garments, a mule for the Prophet ﷺ to ride, and a servant.

According to the early biographies, Hatib offered Islam to the two women on the road, and they accepted it before they reached Madinah. According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ gave Mariya a house with a garden in the upper part of Madinah, on its outskirts, and visited her there, and gave her sister Sirin to Hassan ibn Thabit. Mariya is not counted among the Mothers of the Believers. Scholars have long described her as the Prophet's ﷺ umm walad, the mother of his child, though a few writers count her among his wives.

Anas told that a man was accused concerning the Prophet's ﷺ slave woman, and the Prophet ﷺ told Ali to go and strike the man's neck. Ali found him in a well, cooling himself, and told him to come out, and took his hand and brought him out, and saw that his male organ had been cut off. Ali held back, and told the Prophet ﷺ that the man did not have it (Sahih Muslim). According to the early biographies, the woman was Mariya, and the man was Ma'bur, the Copt who had come with her from Egypt.

Anas told that the Prophet ﷺ said that a child had been born to him that night, and that he had named him after his father Ibrahim, and sent him to Umm Saif, the wife of a blacksmith called Abu Saif (Sahih Muslim). According to the early biographies, he was born in the eighth year after the Hijrah, and Salma, the wife of Abu Rafi, attended the birth. Anas also told that he had never seen anyone kinder to his family than the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Ibrahim was sent to the outskirts of Madinah to be nursed, and the Prophet ﷺ used to go there, and the Companions went with him. He would enter the house, which was full of smoke because the foster father was a blacksmith, and take the child and kiss him, and come back (Sahih Muslim).

Anas told that they went with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to Abu Saif the blacksmith, the husband of Ibrahim's nurse. The Prophet ﷺ took Ibrahim and kissed him and smelled him. Later they entered Abu Saif's house when Ibrahim was breathing his last, and the eyes of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ began to shed tears. Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf said, "Even you, O Messenger of Allah?" He said, "O Ibn Awf, this is mercy," and wept more, and said, "The eyes shed tears and the heart grieves, and we say only what pleases our Lord. O Ibrahim, we are grieved by your parting" (Sahih al-Bukhari; Sahih Muslim). He also said that Ibrahim was his son and died while still nursing, and that he had two nurses who would complete his nursing in Paradise (Sahih Muslim). According to the early biographies, Ibrahim was about a year and a half old, and was buried in al-Baqi.

Al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah told that the sun eclipsed in the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the day Ibrahim died, and the people said it had eclipsed because of his death. The Prophet ﷺ said that the sun and the moon do not eclipse for the death or the birth of anyone, and that when they saw it they should pray and call upon Allah (Sahih al-Bukhari; Sahih Muslim).

Abu Dharr told that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said they would soon conquer Egypt, a land where the qirat is spoken of, and that when they did, they should treat its people well, for they had a tie of blood and marriage with them (Sahih Muslim). Scholars explain this as the tie through Hajar, the mother of Ismail, and through Mariya.

According to the early biographies, she lived quietly after the Prophet's ﷺ death, and died about three and a half years later, in the time of Umar. According to the early biographies, he gathered the people himself to pray over her, and she was buried in al-Baqi.

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