Zainab bint Muhammad

'Zainab bint Muhammad (Arabic: ‎'زينب بنت محمد‎‎) was the eldest daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his first wife Khadijah. She was born in the fifth year of his marriage to Khadijah, when he was thirty. She died in 8 AH.

Contents

Marriage & children

Zainab was married to her maternal cousin Abu al-Aas ibn al-Rabiah. She became the mother of two children: Ali and Umamah. Ali died during the lifetime of Muhammad. This same Ali was reported to have been the person who sat with Muhammad on the camel's back at the time of his triumphant entry into Mecca. Umamah, who as a little girl rode on her grandfather Muhammad's back as he prostrated in salat, lived long after his death. Ali 'ibn Abi Talib married Umamah on the death of Fatimah, his first wife.

After Al-Hijra

When Muhammad abandoned Mecca for Medina, his daughter Zaynab could not bear to leave her non-Muslim husband Abu al-'Aas, and was not required to do so until years later under other circumstances. Muhammad did not automatically divorce them.[1]

One source states:

At one time there were three girls living in the household of Khadija. Their names were Zainab, Ruqayya and Umm Kulthoom. Zainab, the eldest of the three, was married to one Abul-'As ibn er-Rabi' of Makkah. This man fought against the Prophet in the battle of Badr, and was captured by the Muslims. To ransom his freedom, his wife sent to the Prophet, a necklace which at one time had belonged to Khadija, and she had given it to her as a present on her marriage. Abul-'As was set free; he returned to Makkah, and sent Zainab to Medina as he had promised to do. Zainab, however, died soon after her arrival in Medina. Later, Abul-'As also went to Medina, accepted Islam, and lived with the Muslims. [2]

Daughters of Muhammad and Khadijah

Main article: Genealogy of Khadijah's daughters

The daughters attributed to Muhammad are;

  1. Zainab bint Muhammad, married to her maternal cousin Abu al-Aas ibn al-Rabee before al-Hijra
  2. Ruqayyah bint Muhammad, was first married to Utbah ibn Abu Lahab & then to Uthman ibn Affan
  3. Umm Kulthum bint Muhammad, was first married to Utaybah bin Abu Lahab & then to Uthman ibn Affan after the death of her sister Ruqayyah
  4. Fatimah bint Muhammad, was married to Ali ibn Abi Talib

According to some Shia Muslim sources she only had one daughter, Fatimah. The others either belonged to her sister[3] or were orphaned girls raised by her[4]. Possibly, all of them were Khadijah's but only Fatimah was born to Muhammad. Sunni Muslims however do not contest the parentage of her daughters. They affirm what the Qur'an states, "O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers..."[5].

The famous Sunni scholar Yusuf ibn abd al-Barr says: "His children born of Khadīja are four daughters; there is no difference of opinion about that".[6]

Marriage rules

Based on certain narrations, also found in Sunnī[7] sources, Muhammad said that daughters of his household could only marry those who were from Banū Hāshim.[7].

But, if it is assumed that Zainab, Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum were daughters of Muhammed and Khadijah, this argument does not seem to be correct since:

See also

References

  1. ^ Marriage to a 'past': Parents should not reject a proporal without a good reasons - and being a revert with a past is not an acceptable one
  2. ^ Restatement of History of Islam (Restatement of History of Islam, by Sayed Ali Asgher Razwy, CE 570 to 661 : Uthman, the Third Khalifa of the Muslims: Uthman's Marriages)
  3. ^ Again, it is also not agreed that these two were the real daughters of Muhammad, because there is one group which denies them to be his real daughters, and regards them as being the daughters of Khadijah's sister Halah, or the daughters of her own previous husband. Thus, Abu'l-Qasim al-Kufi writes: "When the Messenger of Allah married Khadijah, then some time thereafter Halah died leaving two daughters, one named Zaynab and the other named Ruqayyah and both of them were brought up by the Prophet and Khadijah and they maintained them, and it was the custom before Islam that a child was assigned to whoever brought him up." (al-lstighathah, p. 69) Ibn Hisham has written about the issues of Hadrat Khadijah as follows: "Before marriage with Muhammad she was married to Abi Halah ibn Malik. She delivered for him Hind ibn Abi Halah and Zaynab bint Abi Halah. Before marriage with Abi Halah she was married to `Utayyiq ibn `Abid ibn `Abdillah ibn `Amr ibn Makhzum and she delivered for him `Abdullah and a daughter." (as-Sirah an-nabawiyyah, vol. 4, p. 293) This shows that of Hadrat Khadijah had two daughters before being married to Muhammad and according to all appearance they would be called his daughters and those to whom they were married would be called his sons-in-law, but the position of this relationship would be the same as if those girls were his daughters. (Commentary to Nahj al-Balagah [1])
  4. ^ Al-Tijani in his The Shi'ah are (the real) Ahl al-Sunnah on Al-Islam.org note 274
  5. ^ Quran 33:59
  6. ^ al-Istī`āb fī Ma`rifat al-Aşĥāb (Yusuf ibn abd al-Barr, The Comprehensive Compilation of the Names of the Prophet's Companions) vol.1 pp.50
  7. ^ a b * al-Haythami, Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ibn Hajar (1965). al-Sawa`iq al-muhriqah. Maktabat al-Qahirah. p. 160. 
    * Ibn Qutayba, Abd Allah ibn Muslim (1960). Kitab al-Ma'arif. s.n. p. 70. 
  8. ^ Al-Mubarakphuri, Safi-ur-Rahman. Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum (The Sealed Nectar). Riyadh: Dar-us-Salam Publications, 1996

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