At a glance
Companions- Dates
- Died in the Prophet's ﷺ lifetime (the year is not recorded)
- Who
- A black woman who swept the Prophet's ﷺ mosque, whose death the people did not report, and over whose grave the Prophet ﷺ prayed
- Stages
- Building Madinah
ProfileUmm Mahjan
Umm Mahjan (may Allah be pleased with her) is known by that name in later books. Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim do not name her, and tell only of a black woman, or a black youth, who used to sweep the mosque. According to the early biographies, the name is Umm Mahjan, and nothing is recorded of her family or her tribe.
Aisha told that there was a black slave-girl of an Arab tribe, whom they freed, but she stayed with them. She told Aisha that one of their girls came out wearing a red leather scarf decorated with precious stones, and it fell from her, or she put it down. A kite passed over it, took it for a piece of meat, and flew off with it. The people searched for it and could not find it, and accused her of taking it, and treated her harshly and searched her. She said that, while she stood there, the kite passed over them again and dropped the scarf in front of them, and she told them that this was what they had accused her of, and she was innocent. Aisha said that she then came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and accepted Islam. She had a tent, or a small room with a low roof, in the mosque, and she used to come and talk with Aisha, and each time she sat with her, she said in verse that the day of the scarf was one of the wonders of our Lord, who had saved her from the town of the disbelievers. Aisha asked her about it, and she told her the whole story (Sahih al-Bukhari).
Abu Hurayrah told that a black woman, or a youth, used to sweep the mosque, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ missed her and asked about her. The people said that she had died. He asked why they had not told him, and it was as if they had thought her a small matter. He said, "Show me her grave." They showed him, and he prayed over her, and said, "These graves are full of darkness for those in them, and Allah lights them for them by my prayer over them" (Sahih Muslim, Sahih al-Bukhari). According to the early biographies, the sweeper of the mosque and the freed slave-girl whom Aisha knew are the same woman, since both lived in or by the mosque and the first account tells how she came to Islam, though the reports do not say so themselves.
WatchA lecture about Umm Mahjan
Meet them inWhere they appear in the seerah
SourcesSources for this profile
The books, lectures and maps behind this page are listed on our Sources page.