Ubayd-Allah ibn Jahsh
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Ubayd-Allah ibn Jahsh (Arabic: عبيدالله بن جحش) was the brother of Zaynab bint Jahsh. He is one of the four monotheistic hanifs mentioned by Ibn Ishaq. The others being Waraqah ibn Nawfal, Uthman ibn Huwarith and Zayd ibn Umar.
He was married to Ramlah bint Abu Sufyan (who was also known as Umm Habiba Ramla). They had a daughter named Habibah bint Ubayd-Allah.
He and his wife became Muslims and, in order to escape from the Meccan persecution, they emigrated to Abyssinia, where the Christian king gave sanctuary to the Muslims. There Ubayd-Allah eventually converted to Christianity and testified his new faith to the other Muslim refugees. Ibn Ishaq relates:
"`Ubaydullah went on searching until Islam came; then he migrated with the Muslims to Abyssinia taking with him his wife who was a Muslim, Umm Habiba, d. Abu Sufyan. When he arrived there he adopted Christianity, parted from Islam, and died a Christian in Abyssinia. Muhammad bin Jafar al-Zubayr told me that when he had become a Christian `Ubaydullah as he passed the prophet's companions who were there used to say: ‘We see clearly, but your eyes are only half open,’ i.e. ‘We see, but you are only trying to see and cannot see yet.’ After his death the apostle married his widow Umm Habiba."
Due to his conversion, he was divorced from his wife. He stopped following the Islamic prohibition of drinking alcohol, and eventually died in Abyssinia.
Later on Muhammad married his former wife, and later on his sister, Zaynab bint Jahsh.
[edit] References
- Guillaume, A. --The Life of Muhammad, Oxford University Press, 1955, reprinted in 2003. ISBN 0-19-636033-1
