Umm Waraqah bint Abdullah

ProfileUmm Waraqah bint Abdullah

Umm Waraqah (may Allah be pleased with her) was an Ansari woman of Madinah, known in the sources as the daughter of Abdullah ibn al-Harith, and in one report as the daughter of Nawfal. According to the early biographies, she was wealthy, literate, a woman who had not been drawn into the wars of Madinah, and she learned the Quran from Mus'ab ibn Umayr's teaching before the Prophet ﷺ arrived, so that she was among the few in Madinah who knew the whole Quran by heart. She taught the Quran to the women of Madinah, and prayed at night, and people passing her house could hear her recitation. According to the early biographies, she was old by the time of Umar.

When the Prophet ﷺ went out to Badr, she asked him to let her come with him to tend the sick, hoping that Allah might grant her martyrdom. He told her to stay in her house, because Allah would give her martyrdom. After that she was called the martyr. The Prophet ﷺ visited her at home, and she asked his permission to have a muezzin in her house, and he allowed it. He appointed a muezzin for her, who was an old man, and told her to lead the people of her house in prayer (Sunan Abi Dawud, graded hasan). The report does not say who they were, and scholars have understood it in different ways. The people of her household could have been women, children or her servants.

She had made her slave and slave-girl free after her death. One night they strangled her with a cloth and ran away. The next day, Umar asked the people to bring in anyone who had seen them, and when they were found, he ordered them to be crucified. This was the first crucifixion in Madinah (Sunan Abi Dawud, graded hasan). According to the early biographies, Umar, who used to listen for her recitation when he patrolled at night, noticed that he had not heard it, and went to her house and found her dead. He said that the Prophet ﷺ was truthful when he used to say that they should go and visit the martyr.

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