Safiyyah bint Abdul-Muttalib

ProfileSafiyyah bint Abdul-Muttalib

Safiyyah (may Allah be pleased with her) was the daughter of Abd al-Muttalib, the Prophet's ﷺ grandfather, and the sister of Hamzah. According to the early biographies, she was close in age to the Prophet ﷺ, and to Hamzah. According to the early biographies, she first married al-Harith ibn Harb, the brother of Abu Sufyan, and after his death she married al-Awwam ibn Khuwaylid, the brother of Khadijah, and bore az-Zubayr, and she did not marry again after al-Awwam died. According to the early biographies, she raised az-Zubayr alone, and trained him hard, so that he would grow up strong and not be overlooked as an orphan, and when his uncle Nawfal said that she treated him as one who hated him, she answered in verse that she was only making him fit to lead armies.

According to the early biographies, she accepted Islam, and migrated to Madinah. When the verse came down telling the Prophet ﷺ to warn his nearest kinsmen, he stood up and called on the people of Quraysh, and the sons of Abd Manaf, and Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, and told Safiyyah, the aunt of the Messenger of Allah, that he could not avail her at all against Allah. He told Fatimah to ask him for whatever she wished from his wealth, but that he could not avail her against Allah (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim).

Az-Zubayr told that on the day of Uhud, a woman came running, and when she was about to reach where the slain lay, the Prophet ﷺ did not want her to see them, and said, "The woman, the woman!" Az-Zubayr thought it was his mother, and ran to her and caught her before she reached them. She struck him on the chest, and she was a strong woman, and told him to keep away. He said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was urging her not to go. She stopped, and took out two cloths that she had brought, and said that she had brought them for her brother Hamzah, since she had heard that he had been killed, and told them to shroud him in them. They saw that beside Hamzah lay an Ansari who had been killed in the same way, and did not think it right to shroud Hamzah in two and leave the Ansari with none, so they divided the cloths between them, and drew lots for which each would get (Musnad Ahmad; the chain is hasan).

According to the early biographies, she stood by his body until late in the evening, saying that to Allah we belong and to Him we return, and asking Allah to forgive him and give her the reward of her loss.

According to the early biographies, at the Trench the women and children were put in a fort, and a man of the Jewish clan of Qurayzah came round it to see whether any men were left in it. She took a tent pole, and waited behind the door, and struck him and killed him. According to the early biographies, she then threw his head down to the Jews outside, who thought that there were men in the fort, and went away.

A descendant of az-Zubayr told that in the year of Khaybar, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ gave az-Zubayr four shares, one for himself, one for the relatives of his mother Safiyyah bint Abd al-Muttalib, and two for his horse (Sunan an-Nasa'i, graded sahih).

According to the early biographies, she is known for verses of lament that she is said to have recited for the Prophet ﷺ after his death, and she died in Madinah in the caliphate of Umar, and was buried in al-Baqi.

WatchA lecture about Safiyyah bint Abdul-Muttalib

Meet them inWhere they appear in the seerah

SourcesSources for this profile