Umm Kulthum bint Uqbah

ProfileUmm Kulthum bint Uqbah

Umm Kulthum (may Allah be pleased with her) was the daughter of Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'ayt of the Banu Umayyah. She should not be confused with the Prophet's ﷺ daughter of the same name, nor with Umm Kulthum bint Ali. Her father was one of the cruelest of the enemies of the Prophet ﷺ. Abdullah ibn Mas'ud told that the Prophet ﷺ was praying beside the Kaaba, and some of Quraysh were sitting nearby, and one said, "Who will bring the dung and blood and entrails of the camels of such a family, and wait until he prostrates and put it between his shoulders?" The most wretched of them, Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'ayt, went and did it. The Prophet ﷺ stayed in prostration, and they laughed until they fell on one another. A passer-by went to Fatimah, then a young girl, and she came running and took it off him, and cursed Quraysh (Sahih al-Bukhari). When he had finished, the Prophet ﷺ prayed against a number of them, and Ibn Mas'ud said that he saw those he had named lying dead in a well at Badr (Sahih al-Bukhari). According to the early biographies, Uqbah was one of the two captives of Badr who were put to death afterwards.

According to the early biographies, her mother was Arwa bint Kurayz, who was also the mother of Uthman ibn Affan, so that she was his half-sister. Her brothers al-Walid, who was later a governor under Uthman, and Ammarah, were not yet Muslims at the time of her story, but both accepted Islam later.

Marwan and al-Miswar told that when Suhayl ibn Amr agreed to the treaty of Hudaybiyyah, he stipulated that the Prophet ﷺ would return to Quraysh anyone who came to him from their side, even a Muslim, and the Prophet ﷺ returned Abu Jandal. During that period some believing women came as emigrants, among them Umm Kulthum bint Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'ayt, who was a young woman then. Her relatives came to the Prophet ﷺ and asked him to return her, and he did not return her, because Allah had revealed the verse telling the believers that when believing women come as emigrants, they must be examined, and that if they are found to be believers, they must not be sent back to the unbelievers (Sahih al-Bukhari; Surah al-Mumtahanah, 60:10). According to the early biographies, she was the first woman to make the migration alone, unmarried, and without anyone from her family. Her brothers al-Walid and Ammarah came and said that the treaty required him to send her back, and she answered that she was not like the men, that they knew what would be done to her, and that they had not meant a woman like her when they made the condition. Muslim says that she was among the first emigrants who pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ (Sahih Muslim).

According to the early biographies, she married Zayd ibn Harithah, and had two children by him, and he was killed as a martyr. Az-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam then married her, and she had a daughter by him, and they divorced. Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf married her next, and some accounts say that the Prophet ﷺ himself spoke for him. They had several children. After his death, Amr ibn al-As married her, and she died a month later, in the caliphate of her brother Uthman.

Her son Humayd ibn Abd ar-Rahman narrated from her, and so did others. She told that she heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say that a man who makes peace between people, by saying something good or conveying something good, is not a liar (Sahih al-Bukhari; Sahih Muslim; Jami at-Tirmidhi, graded sahih). In the narration of Abu Dawud, graded sahih by al-Albani, she told that she did not hear him permit anything that people say falsely, except in three matters, and the Prophet ﷺ said he did not count as a liar a man who puts things right between people, and a man who says something in war, and a husband who says something to his wife and a wife who says something to her husband.

According to the early biographies, Uthman led her funeral prayer and buried her, and was seen standing at her grave for a long time, praying for her. Her father had thrown filth on the back of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ as he prayed, and she left his house, alone, to come to him.

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