At a glance
Companions- Dates
- Lived to the caliphate of Umar (the year is not certain)
- Who
- Woman of Madinah who fought at Uhud and later at Yamamah
- Stages
- Building Madinah
ProfileNusaybah bint Ka'b
Nusaybah (may Allah be pleased with her), known as Umm Umarah, was of the clan of Najjar in Madinah. She and her first husband, and later her second husband, her brothers and her children, all accepted Islam early. According to the early biographies, she and one other woman went from Madinah with the seventy or so men to the second pledge of Aqabah, and she took the pledge with the Prophet ﷺ in Makkah.
According to the early biographies, she came to the battle of Uhud with water and bandages to help the wounded. When the Muslims were scattered, she dropped her bucket, took a sword and shield from a man who was running away, and fought near the Prophet ﷺ, with her husband and two sons beside her. Her son Abdullah was wounded, and she bound his wound and told him to get up and fight on. The Prophet ﷺ pointed out the man who had struck him, and she struck that man down. Ibn Qami'ah gave her a deep wound on the shoulder that took a year to heal. The Prophet ﷺ said that wherever he looked that day, to the right or the left, he saw her fighting for him. When he saw her and her family, he said that they would be his companions in Paradise, and she answered that after that she did not mind what happened to her. According to the early biographies, she also fought at Hudaybiyyah, Hunayn and later at Yamamah against Musaylimah, where she lost a hand. Her son Habib, whom the Prophet ﷺ had sent to Musaylimah with a message, was killed by him.
She came to the Prophet ﷺ and said that she did not see women being mentioned in the Quran as men were. The verse beginning with the Muslim men and the Muslim women was then revealed (Sunan at-Tirmidhi, graded hasan). She also reported that the Prophet ﷺ once came to her house and food was brought, and when she said that she was fasting, he said that the angels send blessings on a fasting person while others eat in front of him (Sunan at-Tirmidhi, graded hasan).
WatchA lecture about Nusaybah bint Ka'b
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