Umm Ayman

ProfileUmm Ayman

Umm Ayman (may Allah be pleased with her) was named Barakah, and is known by a name taken from her son Ayman. According to the early biographies, she was an Abyssinian slave of the Prophet's ﷺ father, Abdullah, and came to the Prophet ﷺ by inheritance. According to the early biographies, she cared for him as a small child, and after Amina died at al-Abwa on the way back from Madinah, she took him back to Makkah and looked after him in his grandfather's house. According to the early biographies, he freed her after he married Khadijah, and she married Ubayd ibn Zayd of the Khazraj, and had a son, Ayman, who was killed at Hunayn. According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ used to call her his mother after his mother, and said that she was what was left of his family. According to the early biographies, she was among the first to accept Islam.

According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever wished to marry a woman of Paradise should marry Umm Ayman, and Zayd ibn Harithah married her, and she bore Usamah, whom the Prophet ﷺ loved and called the beloved son of the beloved. According to the early biographies, she migrated to Madinah when she was old, and on the road she had no water, and was close to death of thirst, when a bucket let down from the sky on a rope came to her, and she drank, and never felt thirsty again, and used to fast on the hottest days.

Anas told that some of the Ansar used to give the Prophet ﷺ date palms, and when the Prophet ﷺ had given some of them to Umm Ayman, and Anas's people told him to ask for them back, she put her garment round his neck and said that, by the One besides whom there is no god, the Prophet ﷺ would not give them back, since he had given them to her. The Prophet ﷺ told her to return them and that he would give her so much in exchange, but she kept refusing until he gave her ten times as many (Sahih al-Bukhari). Umm Ayman told that she sifted flour and made a loaf for the Prophet ﷺ, and he told her to fold it onto itself and knead it (Sunan Ibn Majah, graded hasan). Ibn Abbas told that when the Prophet's ﷺ young daughter's child was dying, he took it to his chest, and it died in front of him. Umm Ayman wept, and he asked her whether she wept while the Messenger of Allah was with her. She said, why should she not weep when he wept. He said that he was not weeping, but that it was compassion, and that the believer is well in every state, even as his soul is taken from his body, and he praises Allah (Sunan an-Nasa'i, graded hasan).

Anas told that after the Prophet's ﷺ death, Abu Bakr said to Umar that they should visit Umm Ayman, as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to visit her. When they came, she wept. They asked why she wept, since what was with Allah was better for His Messenger ﷺ. She said that she knew that, but that she wept because revelation had stopped coming from the heavens. She moved them to tears, and they wept with her (Sahih Muslim; Sunan Ibn Majah, graded sahih).

According to the early biographies, she went out with the army in the campaigns, and gave water to the wounded, and bandaged them, and was at Uhud. According to the early biographies, she outlived the Prophet ﷺ, and also Zayd, who was killed at Mu'tah, and her son Ayman, and lived through the time of Abu Bakr and into the time of Umar or Uthman.

WatchA lecture about Umm Ayman

Meet them inWhere they appear in the seerah

SourcesSources for this profile