Umm Salama: Counsel at Hudaybiyyah

Umm Salama, born Hind bint Abi Umayyah ibn al-Mughirah, was a wife of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and one of the Mothers of the Believers. She belonged to the clan of Makhzum, among the most powerful in Quraysh, and she is the only one of the Prophet's wives to have migrated both to Abyssinia and to Medina.

She is remembered above all for a single intervention. At the conclusion of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, when the Companions were reluctant to comply with terms they found humiliating, it was her counsel that resolved the impasse. The episode is preserved in Sahih al-Bukhari.

Family and First Marriage

Her father, Abu Umayyah ibn al-Mughirah, was known by the epithet Zad al-Rakib, the traveller's provision, in reference to his practice of provisioning those who travelled with him. The Makhzum were among the leading clans of Mecca and among the most hostile to the Prophet's message.

The early sources record nothing substantial of her childhood, and none is supplied here.

Great Women of Islam gives her mother as Atikah bint Amir ibn Rabi'ah, of Khuzaymah, and adds a detail about her father that bears on her own character: those who travelled with Abu Umayyah needed carry no provisions, since he treated them as his guests and bore the cost — the practice behind his epithet. It observes that she carried the same disposition into her own household, and was known for kindness to her neighbours.

She married her cousin Abdullah ibn Abd al-Asad, known by his kunya Abu Salama. His standing in the early community was considerable, and Great Women of Islam sets it out: he was a son of the Prophet's paternal aunt Barrah bint Abd al-Muttalib, he was the Prophet's foster brother through suckling, and he was the eleventh person to enter Islam. Both he and Umm Salama accepted Islam in the earliest years of the mission, and in doing so placed themselves in opposition to their own clan. Great Women of Islam names Walid ibn al-Mughirah of Makhzum among those who made trouble for them once they had.

Migration to Abyssinia

As persecution in Mecca intensified, the Prophet directed a group of Muslims to seek refuge in Abyssinia, the Christian kingdom across the Red Sea. Umm Salama and Abu Salama were among them. This was the first migration in Islamic history, some years before the Hijra to Medina.

The size of that first party is worth stating, because it shows how early she was. Great Women of Islam gives it as sixteen people — twelve men and four women — and Umm Salama was one of the four, alongside Ruqayyah bint Muhammad, Sahlah bint Suhayl and Layla bint Abi Hathmah. Among the men were Uthman ibn Affan, Abu Hudhayfah ibn Utbah, al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, Mus'ab ibn Umayr, Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf and Abdullah ibn Mas'ud. They found two trading vessels at the shore and sailed. A second and much larger party followed, of eighty-three men and nineteen women, Ja'far ibn Abi Talib among them.

Umm Salama's own account, as Great Women of Islam relays it, is that life in Abyssinia was peaceful and free of religious persecution, and that the ruler, the Najashi, treated the migrants well. Her four children were born there in the order Zaynab, Salama, Umar and Durrah — and from her eldest son came the kunya by which she is known, as her husband's came from the same child.

What drew them home was a report that proved false. News reached Abyssinia that Umar ibn al-Khattab had accepted Islam and that the persecution at Mecca had ended, and on the strength of it they set out, Uthman ibn Affan and his family among them. On arrival they found matters worse than when they had left. Great Women of Islam identifies what lay behind the rumour: the Quraysh had heard the Prophet reciting the Qur'an and had prostrated involuntarily along with him at one verse, and the account of that incident had grown in the telling into a report that Quraysh had accepted Islam.

The hostility of the Quraysh had not abated, and the wider episode is treated in the article on the Meccan period. They had resolved to return to Abyssinia when the Prophet directed the Muslims to Medina instead, the pledge at Aqabah having been given and the Ansar having undertaken to receive them.

The Separation and the Journey to Medina

The account of Umm Salama's migration to Medina is preserved in the Sirah of Ibn Ishaq, in the recension of Ibn Hisham, and it is among the more detailed narratives the early sources give of any woman of the period.

When Abu Salama set out for Medina with his wife and child, men of her own clan of Makhzum intervened and refused to allow her to leave with him. They took her back. Abu Salama's clan, the Banu Abd al-Asad, then demanded the child, and in the struggle between the two families over him the boy's arm was injured. The child went with his father's people, and Umm Salama was left in Mecca separated from both husband and son.

The separation lasted about a year. Ibn Ishaq's account describes her going out daily to al-Abtah, on the edge of the city, and weeping there. Eventually a man of her clan spoke on her behalf and the Makhzum permitted her to leave; Abu Salama's family then returned her son to her.

She set out for Medina with the child and no companion. On the way she met Uthman ibn Talha of the clan of Abd al-Dar, who was not then a Muslim. Learning where she was going, he escorted her the length of the journey, leading her camel and withdrawing to a distance when they halted, and brought her to Medina before turning back without accepting anything for it. Umm Salama's own testimony, transmitted in the same account, was that she had never met a more honourable man.

Marriage to the Prophet

The death of Abu Salama

Abu Salama was wounded at the Battle of Uhud in 3 AH. Great Women of Islam names Abu Usamah al-Jushami as the man who drove a spear into his side, and describes a wound treated for a month that closed on the surface while continuing to fester beneath.

The expedition he led afterwards is worth setting out, because the command itself was a mark of standing. Two months after Uhud the Prophet learned that Banu Asad were preparing to attack, and appointed Abu Salama to command the force sent against them — this with men of the standing of Abu Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah and Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas available. The instruction was to reach the territory of Banu Asad, make camp, and strike before they could. With a hundred and fifty men he did so, and the engagement was won. Great Women of Islam places the army's return to Medina at twenty-nine days later, on 8 Safar of 4 AH. Abu Salama had fought with the wound in his side, and it had reopened.

He died at Medina shortly after. The Prophet came to him as he was dying, took his hand and prayed for him. Abu Salama's own prayer, in the account Great Women of Islam gives, was that God grant his family a protector and provider such as he had been, and grant Umm Salama a husband who would bring her neither grief nor hardship. When he died the Prophet closed his eyes with his own hands.

A report transmitted from Umm Salama and preserved in Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Jana'iz, records the supplication the Prophet taught for one afflicted by loss: that God reward the afflicted for the affliction and give a better replacement in its place. Umm Salama's own comment, in the same report, was that she said this and asked herself who could be better than Abu Salama. The report is graded sahih.

The proposal

She was not short of offers. Great Women of Islam records that when her waiting period was complete Abu Bakr sent a proposal and she declined it, that Umar ibn al-Khattab then proposed and she declined that too, and that the Prophet proposed after them.

To him she put three difficulties, and his answers to each are recorded. She said she was quick-tempered, and feared that she might be short with the Messenger of God and so forfeit the reward of her good deeds; he said that he would pray for her, and that God willing her temper would settle. She said she was no longer young; he answered that he was older than she was. She said she had many children; he answered that her children were precisely why he had proposed — he wished to be their guardian and to carry that responsibility with her. Great Women of Islam records that this last answer was what decided her. The biographical literature elsewhere frames the first of her three concerns as jealousy rather than temper; the substance of the exchange is the same in both.

The marriage took place in Shawwal of 4 AH, and her children entered the household with her. Both prayers — her husband's for her, and her own for a better future — were understood in the tradition to have been answered in it.

One report indicates her position among the wives. Aisha related that the Prophet used to visit each of them in turn after the afternoon prayer, asking after them and whether they needed anything, and that he would begin at Umm Salama's apartment, she being the eldest of them, and end at Aisha's.

Hudaybiyyah

In 6 AH the Prophet travelled toward Mecca with a large body of Muslims intending to perform the pilgrimage. The Quraysh barred their entry, and after negotiation the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah was concluded. Its terms required the Muslims to turn back without performing the pilgrimage that year, and included provisions many of the Companions found difficult to accept.

The report in Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Shurut, records what followed. The Prophet instructed the Companions to slaughter their sacrificial animals and shave their heads, marking the end of the state of pilgrim consecration. They did not respond. He repeated the instruction; still no one moved. The disappointment in the camp was such that the command went unobeyed.

He then went to Umm Salama and told her what had happened. Her counsel was that he should go out himself, say nothing further to anyone, slaughter his own animal and call his barber to shave him. He did so. When the Companions saw it, they rose and did the same, and some began shaving one another so vigorously that it seemed they might come to harm.

The report is graded sahih. The episode is significant for two reasons. It is a documented instance of the Prophet acting on the counsel of one of his wives in a matter of communal consequence. And the reasoning behind the advice is practical and precise: not further instruction, but example.

Episodes Attested in Her House

Two further episodes involving Umm Salama are preserved in the collections with named chains, and both bear on questions wider than her own biography.

The first concerns the revelation of a Qur'anic verse. A report transmitted from Umm Salama and preserved in Jami' at-Tirmidhi records that she remarked to the Prophet that she had not heard God mention women in connection with the emigration, as the men had been mentioned. The verse then revealed was Surah Al Imran 3:195, in which God affirms that He will not let the work of any worker among them be lost, "whether male or female" (Quran 3:195). The report is graded hasan. Whatever the precise sequence, the tradition connects a woman's question with the occasion of a verse that states the equal standing of men and women before God in the reward for their deeds.

The second is the tradition known as the hadith of the cloak. Reports preserved in Jami' at-Tirmidhi place the event in Umm Salama's house: when the verse of purification was revealed — "God only wishes to remove impurity from you, O people of the household, and to purify you with a thorough purification" (Quran 33:33) — the Prophet gathered Fatimah, Ali, Hasan and Husayn beneath a cloak and prayed for them. In the version narrated from Umm Salama's stepson, Umar ibn Abi Salama, she asked whether she too was included, and was answered that she was in her place and upon good; a second version, narrated from Umm Salama herself, records the same exchange. Tirmidhi grades the first sahih and the second hasan. The reports are cited here for what they establish directly — that the event occurred in Umm Salama's house and that she is among its narrators. The wider question of the precise scope of the "people of the household" (ahl al-bayt) is a matter of long exegetical and theological discussion beyond the biography of Umm Salama, and is not resolved here.

Transmission of Hadith

Umm Salama transmitted a substantial body of hadith, and the classical counts place her among the more prolific women transmitters after Aisha. Her reports appear across the canonical collections and concern matters of worship, of household practice, and of the circumstances of particular events.

Her transmissions entered the legal literature. One example, preserved in Sunan Abi Dawud and graded sahih, records a woman asking her about the hem of a long garment that trails over unclean ground; Umm Salama reported the Prophet's ruling that the clean ground the garment subsequently passes over purifies it. The report is cited in the juristic discussion of the purity of clothing.

She lived long after the Prophet's death and was consulted on religious questions during that period.

Later Life and Death

Umm Salama lived through the caliphates of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali, and into the Umayyad period. She was the last of the Prophet's wives to die.

The sources differ on the year of her death, placing it between 59 and 62 AH, and no figure is asserted here. She was buried in al-Baqi cemetery in Medina.

Assessment

What is established

Umm Salama belonged to the Makhzum clan and married her cousin Abu Salama, with whom she accepted Islam early and migrated to Abyssinia. She was detained by her own clan when she attempted to follow her husband to Medina, separated from her son, and reached Medina about a year later under the escort of Uthman ibn Talha. Abu Salama was wounded at Uhud and died in 4 AH, and she married the Prophet in the same year. Her counsel at Hudaybiyyah resolved the impasse over compliance with the treaty, as recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari. The hadith of the cloak, in which the verse of purification (33:33) was revealed and the Prophet gathered Fatimah, Ali, Hasan and Husayn, is placed by the collections in her house, and she is among its named narrators. She transmitted a substantial body of hadith, some of which entered the legal literature, and she was the last of the Prophet's wives to die.

What is not established

Her birth year, and therefore her age at any point in her life. Her childhood and education, including any claim that she was literate. Which of her children was born in Abyssinia. Her feelings during the separation beyond what Ibn Ishaq's account records. Her relationships with the other wives. Her later view of Uthman ibn Talha's acceptance of Islam. The year of her death.

These are omitted. The material that remains includes one of the best documented episodes of counsel in the Prophet's biography, and a migration narrative of unusual detail for a woman of the period.

References and Further Reading

Primary Islamic Sources

• Qur'an, Surah al-Ahzab 33:6 — the wives of the Prophet in the position of mothers to the believers
• Qur'an, Surah al-Ahzab 33:33 — the verse of purification, revealed in connection with the hadith of the cloak in Umm Salama's house
• Qur'an, Surah Al Imran 3:195 — the reward of the worker "whether male or female," connected in tradition with Umm Salama's question
• Qur'an, Surah al-Fath 48 — revealed in connection with the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah and its outcome
• Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Shurut (Book of Conditions) — the report of the Companions' hesitation at Hudaybiyyah and Umm Salama's counsel; graded sahih
• Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Jana'iz (Book of Funerals) — the supplication taught at the death of Abu Salama, transmitted from Umm Salama; graded sahih
• Jami' at-Tirmidhi 3023 — Umm Salama's question and the occasion of Qur'an 3:195; graded hasan
• Jami' at-Tirmidhi 3205 (graded sahih) and 3871 (graded hasan) — the hadith of the cloak in her house, with her question and the reply
• Sunan Abi Dawud 383 — Umm Salama's transmission on the purity of a trailing garment; graded sahih

Classical Islamic Sources

• Ibn Hisham. Al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah, recension of the Sirah of Ibn Ishaq. Edited by Mustafa al-Saqqa et al. Cairo: Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi, 1955. — the detention at Mecca, the separation from her son, and the journey to Medina with Uthman ibn Talha
• Ibn Sa'd, Muhammad. Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kubra. Vol. 8, the women. Edited by Eduard Sachau. Leiden: Brill, 1904–1940. [Compiled c. 845 CE] — the principal early biography, including the proposal of marriage
• Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani. Fath al-Bari bi-Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari. Cairo: al-Matba'ah al-Salafiyyah — commentary on the Hudaybiyyah report
• Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani. Al-Isabah fi Tamyiz al-Sahabah. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, 1995. [Compiled c. 1449 CE]
• Al-Dhahabi, Shams al-Din. Siyar A'lam al-Nubala'. Beirut: Mu'assasat al-Risalah, 1981–1988. [Compiled c. 1348 CE]
• Ibn Abd al-Barr, Yusuf. Al-Isti'ab fi Ma'rifat al-Ashab. Cairo: Nahdat Misr, 1960. [Compiled c. 1070 CE]

Academic and Scholarly Sources

• Great Women of Islam, the chapter on Umm Salamah bint Abu Umayyah — the source for the biographical detail added to this article: her mother's name and her father's practice of provisioning his fellow travellers; Abu Salama's descent from Barrah bint Abd al-Muttalib, his foster-brotherhood with the Prophet, and his place as the eleventh person to accept Islam; the composition of the first migration to Abyssinia and the named members of both parties; the birth order of her four children there; the false report of Umar's conversion that brought the migrants back and the incident behind it; Abu Usamah al-Jushami's spear wound at Uhud; Abu Salama's command against Banu Asad and the return on 8 Safar 4 AH; his dying prayer; the proposals from Abu Bakr and Umar that she declined; her three difficulties and the Prophet's answers; the marriage in Shawwal 4 AH; and Aisha's report on the order of the afternoon visits

Further Reading

• The following lie outside the project's approved source base and nothing above rests on them; they are named for the reader: Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources; W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at Medina, on the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah and its terms; Asma Sayeed, Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam; and Wim Raven, "Some Early Islamic Texts on the Negus of Abyssinia"
• Bewley, Aisha, trans. The Women of Madina (from Ibn Sa'd's Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kubra). London: Ta-Ha Publishers, 1995.
• Nadwi, Mohammad Akram. Al-Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars in Islam. Oxford: Interface Publications, 2007.
• Encyclopaedia of Islam, 3rd edition. Leiden: Brill — entry on Umm Salama