Prophetic Era

Chief of the Quraysh and custodian of Zamzam. Born at Yathrib as Shayba, he redug the lost well, ransomed his son Abdullah with a hundred camels after a vow of sacrifice, faced Abraha before the Year of the Elephant, and raised his orphaned grandson Muhammad.

The father of Prophet Muhammad and the youngest, best-loved son of Abd al-Muttalib. When his father's vow of sacrifice fell on him by lot he was ransomed with a hundred camels, raising the blood-price among the Arabs. He married Amina bint Wahb and died at Medina aged about twenty-five.

Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (c. 594–653 CE) was among the earliest converts to Islam, a close companion of the Prophet, and the scholar who carried the Quranic and legal tradition to Kufa. His teaching circle became the intellectual ancestor of the Hanafi school of law.

Abu Hudhayfa ibn Utba (d. 11 or 12 AH / 632 or 633 CE) was an early Companion of Prophet Muhammad, a son of the Meccan leader Utba ibn Rabi'a, an emigrant to Abyssinia and a veteran of Badr, who freed and adopted Salim and died commanding a wing of the Muslim army at Yamamah.

Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith, born al-Mughira, was a first cousin of Prophet Muhammad who opposed him in verse and in battle for two decades before converting on the eve of the conquest of Mecca, and who was one of the very few men who stood their ground beside the Prophet at Hunayn.

The Meccan chief who led Quraysh against the Muslims at Uhud and the Trench, whose caravan set off the Battle of Badr, and who was questioned about the Prophet by the emperor Heraclius at Jerusalem. He accepted Islam at the conquest of Mecca, when his house was declared a sanctuary.

Addas was a Christian slave from Nineveh, owned by one of the sons of Rabi'a of Mecca, who served grapes to Prophet Muhammad in an orchard outside Ta'if and recognised his prophethood from his knowledge of Jonah.

A wife of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), daughter of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, and the most prolific woman transmitter of hadith in Islam. The Prophet died in her apartment. She taught and issued legal rulings in Medina for more than four decades after him.

Amina bint Wahb al-Zuhriyya was the mother of Prophet Muhammad. Married to Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib and widowed almost at once, she bore her son at Mecca, saw him fostered among the Banu Sa'd and returned to her, and died at al-Abwa when he was six, leaving him twice orphaned.

Ammar ibn Yasir (c. 567-657 CE) was among the earliest converts to Islam and the most severely persecuted, son of Sumayyah bint Khayyat, the first martyr of Islam. He governed Kufa under Umar and was killed at Siffin in 657 fighting for Ali ibn Abi Talib.

Anas ibn Malik (c. 612-712 CE) attended the Prophet Muhammad's household for about ten years from the age of roughly ten, and became one of the most prolific narrators of hadith in Islam. He settled in Basra, taught a generation of scholars, and was the last Companion to die there.

Asma bint Abu Bakr (595-692 CE), daughter of Abu Bakr and sister of Aisha, earned the title 'Woman of Two Belts' for her crucial role in the Prophet's migration to Medina, demonstrating extraordinary courage and faith throughout her 100-year life.

A paternal aunt of Prophet Muhammad and full sister of his father Abdullah. The sira names her among the daughters who elegised Abd al-Muttalib, as mother of Zuhayr ibn Abi Umayya, whose kinship to Banu Hashim helped break the Meccan boycott, and as the woman whose vision preceded Badr.

The first major military victory of the Muslim community on March 13, 624 CE, where 313 Muslims defeated a much larger Meccan army. This decisive battle established the military credibility of the Islamic state and marked the beginning of Islamic expansion.

The Battle of Hunayn (630 CE) was fought a month after the conquest of Mecca between the Muslims and a coalition of the Hawazin and Thaqif tribes. A near-disastrous ambush was reversed into a decisive Muslim victory, followed by the siege of Ta'if and a generous distribution of captives and spoils.

The Battle of Khandaq (627 CE), also called the Battle of the Trench, was a twenty-seven-day siege of Medina by a coalition of some ten thousand Quraysh and allied tribes. On Salman al-Farsi's advice the Muslims dug a defensive trench, and the coalition withdrew without a decisive battle.

The Battle of Uhud (March 625 CE) was the second major engagement between Medina's Muslims and the Meccan Quraysh. After an early Muslim advantage, archers left their posts, enabling a Qurayshi cavalry attack that wounded the Prophet, killed Hamza, and ended in a strategic draw.

Bilal ibn Rabah (580-640 CE), the first muezzin of Islam and one of the most beloved companions of Prophet Muhammad, known for his beautiful voice, unwavering faith under torture, and his role in breaking racial barriers in early Islamic society.

The conquest of Mecca in 630 CE (8 AH) was the decisive event of the Prophetic era. After eight years of exile, Prophet Muhammad led ten thousand Muslims into the city, declared a general amnesty, purified the Kaaba of its idols, and transformed the Arabian political landscape.

The Constitution of Medina (622 CE) was a written agreement between Prophet Muhammad and the communities of Medina — Muslim emigrants, Muslim Medinan tribes, and several Jewish tribes — establishing mutual obligations, collective defense, and a framework for resolving disputes.

The youngest daughter of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and Khadijah, and the only one of his children to outlive him. She married Ali ibn Abi Talib and was the mother of Hasan and Husayn, through whom the Prophet's line of descent continues.

Hafsa bint Umar, daughter of Umar ibn al-Khattab and a wife of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), held the written compilation of the Qur'an made under Abu Bakr. Uthman borrowed it from her for the standardisation of the text. She was literate, transmitted hadith, and died in 45 AH.

A Bedouin woman of the Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr who came to Mecca in a famine year seeking an infant to nurse. She took the orphaned Muhammad only because no other woman would, raised him in the desert, and the foster-tie she made was invoked generations later when her tribe were captives at Hunayn.

Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib (d. 625 CE), paternal uncle and foster-brother of Prophet Muhammad, was among the strongest defenders of the early Muslim community in Mecca and was killed at the Battle of Uhud. His killer's own account of the day is preserved in Sahih al-Bukhari.

The Hijra (622 CE) was Prophet Muhammad's migration from Mecca to Medina, marking the Islamic calendar's beginning and establishing the first Islamic state. This pivotal event transformed Islam from a persecuted movement into a thriving autonomous community.

Ikrima ibn Abi Jahl (d. 13 AH / 634 CE) was the son of Abu Jahl and among the most determined Meccan opponents of Prophet Muhammad, condemned to death at the conquest of Mecca. Pardoned at his wife's plea, he accepted Islam, commanded armies in the Ridda Wars, and was killed fighting in Syria.

Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, Ali's full brother and the Prophet's cousin, led the Muslim emigrants who took refuge in Abyssinia, spoke on their behalf before the Negus, and was killed commanding the army at the Battle of Mu'tah after both his hands were severed holding its banner.

Juwayriyya bint al-Harith (c. 608-670 CE) was a wife of Prophet Muhammad whose marriage led to the liberation of her entire tribe, the Banu Mustaliq. Known for her beauty and profound devotion to dhikr, she is remembered as a great blessing to her people.

Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (d. 619 CE) was the first wife of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and the first person to believe in his prophethood. A woman of independent wealth in the Meccan caravan trade, she reassured him after the first revelation and took him to Waraqah ibn Nawfal.

Maymuna bint al-Harith was the last woman Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) married, during the compensatory pilgrimage of 7 AH. Sister of the wife of al-Abbas and maternal aunt of Abdullah ibn Abbas, she transmitted hadith on ritual purification and died at Sarif.

Nusaybah bint Ka'ab, known as Umm Ammara, was an Ansari woman of Medina who took the Second Pledge of Aqaba, fought in defence of the Prophet at Uhud, and lost a hand at Yamama. Three hadith are transmitted from her.

Qutham ibn Abbas was a son of the Prophet's uncle al-Abbas and served as governor of Mecca under Ali ibn Abi Talib. Little else about him is firmly established. The Shah-i-Zinda shrine at Samarkand grew around a tomb attributed to him, on the basis of a tradition scholarship treats as legendary.

A daughter of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and Khadijah. Released from a childhood betrothal to a son of Abu Lahab, she married Uthman ibn Affan and was the only one of the Prophet's daughters to migrate to Abyssinia. She died of smallpox as news of Badr reached Medina.

Safiyya bint Abd al-Muttalib, paternal aunt of Prophet Muhammad and mother of Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, killed an armed intruder at the fortress sheltering Medina's women during the Battle of Khandaq, and met the mutilation of her brother Hamza at Uhud with open grief and firm patience.

Safiyya bint Huyayy was a wife of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and one of the Mothers of the Believers. Born into the Banu Nadir, one of the Jewish tribes of Medina, she entered the Prophet's household after the reduction of Khaybar in 7 AH.

Salman al-Farsi was a Persian who left Zoroastrianism for Christianity, was sold into slavery on his way to Arabia, and became a Companion of Prophet Muhammad. His own first-person account of that search survives, and he is credited in the biographical sources with proposing the trench at Khandaq.

Sawda bint Zam'a was a wife of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and one of the Mothers of the Believers. An early Muslim who emigrated to Abyssinia, she married the Prophet after Khadijah's death. Sahih al-Bukhari records her giving her allotted day and night to Aisha.

Suhaib ibn Sinan al-Rumi, an early companion of Prophet Muhammad, sacrificed his entire fortune to emigrate from Mecca to Medina. The Prophet declared him 'the profit of the trade' and the Quran praised those who sell themselves seeking God's pleasure.

Sumayyah bint Khayyat was an early convert in Mecca and the mother of the companion Ammar ibn Yasir. Killed under torture by Abu Jahl for refusing to renounce Islam, she is remembered as the first person to die for the faith.

Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) had seven children according to the majority of early sources: three sons, al-Qasim, Abdullah and Ibrahim, who all died in childhood, and four daughters, Zaynab, Ruqayyah, Umm Kulthum and Fatimah. Only Fatimah survived him.

The Farewell Pilgrimage (Hajjat al-Wada) of 632 CE was the only Hajj Prophet Muhammad performed after the Hijra. Its rites, recorded in detail by his companions, became the model for Hajj in Islamic law, and his addresses at Arafat and Mina set out enduring obligations.

The Meccan Period (610-622 CE) encompasses the first thirteen years of Prophet Muhammad's mission, from the first revelation to the Hijra. This period saw the establishment of Islamic monotheism and the formation of the early Muslim community.

The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah (628 CE / 6 AH) was a ten-year truce between the Muslims of Medina and the Quraysh of Mecca. Though its terms seemed to favor the Quraysh and many companions opposed it, within two years it fueled the community's rapid growth and the near-bloodless entry into Mecca.

Ubayda ibn al-Harith (c. 561-624 CE) was a Companion of Prophet Muhammad from the Banu al-Muttalib, among the earliest Muslims of Mecca, commander of the expedition to Rabigh, and the first of the Prophet's kinsmen to be killed in battle, dying of a wound taken in single combat at Badr.

Umm Ayman, born Baraka, served three generations of the Prophet Muhammad household as nurse and freedwoman: she suckled the infant Prophet, accompanied his mother Amina to her death, cared for him as an orphan, and later married Zayd ibn Harithah.

Umm Habiba, born Ramla bint Abi Sufyan, was a wife of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and daughter of the Quraysh leader Abu Sufyan. She accepted Islam early, emigrated to Abyssinia, and her marriage to the Prophet was contracted there by proxy through the Negus.

A daughter of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and Khadijah. With Fatimah she cared for their parents through the boycott of Banu Hashim. After Ruqayyah's death she married Uthman ibn Affan, the source of his epithet Dhu al-Nurayn, and died at Medina in Sha'ban 9 AH.

Umm Salama, born Hind bint Abi Umayyah of the Makhzum clan, was a wife of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him). At Hudaybiyyah her counsel resolved the impasse when the Companions hesitated to comply with the treaty. She was the last of the Prophet's wives to die.

Waraqah ibn Nawfal, a Christian scholar of Mecca and cousin of Khadijah, identified the first revelation to Prophet Muhammad as the same that had come to Moses, and the Prophet later said he had seen him in Paradise, wearing white.

Zayd ibn Harithah (d. 8 AH / 629 CE) was enslaved as a boy, raised in the household of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and adopted by him, and known as Zayd ibn Muhammad until the Qur'an ended adoptive lineage. He is the only Companion named in the Qur'an, and died at Mu'tah.

Zaynab bint Jahsh (d. 20 AH) was a cousin and wife of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), and the only wife whose marriage is addressed directly in the Qur'an. Surah al-Ahzab treats the marriage together with the ruling that adoption does not create lineage.

Zaynab bint Khuzayma, known as Umm al-Masakin, the Mother of the Poor, was a wife of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) from the Banu Hilal. Married in Ramadan 3 AH, she died within months, and was the first of his wives buried at al-Baqi.

The eldest daughter of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and Khadijah. Her husband Abu al-As refused Qurayshi pressure to divorce her, and she stayed in Mecca after her sisters migrated. Her mother's necklace ransomed him after Badr; she reached Medina only after being attacked on the road.