Zaynab bint Khuzayma

Zaynab bint Khuzaymah (Arabic: ‫)زﯾﻨﺐ ﺑﻨﺖ ﺧﺰﯾﻤﺔ‬, also known

Zaynab bint Khuzaymah
as Umm al-Masakin, "Mother of the Poor",[1] born 595[2]) was
one of the wives of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. As a result Died Hejaz
of her early death, less is known about her than any of his other Known for Wife of the Islamic
wives. Her children were Muawiya, Awn, Munqidh, Ibrahim, prophet, Muhammad
Harith, Rabta, Khadija, Sukhayla, , Amina, Safiya. All of these
children were fathered with her previous husband, Ubayda ibn Spouse(s) Muhammad
al-Harith.[3][4]

Contents
Life
Marriage to Muhammad
Death
References

Life
Typically described as being in her late 20s, although occasionally said to be 48,[5] she was described
as "beautiful".[6] She was known for her "compassion and pity" for the poor.[6][7][8][9]

Zaynab was first married to Tufail bin Harith, who either divorced her[10] or died shortly afterward.[5]
Zaynab then married her first husband's brother, Ubaydah ibn al-Harith.[10] In 624, her husband
died of wounds received in the Battle of Badr, and she began to live in poverty.[10] Ibn Kathir, in his
14th century Sira, referred to Zaynab's first husband as being Husayn bin al-Harith, and her third
marriage to Abdullah ibn Jahsh, who was killed at the Battle of Uhud.[11]

There are conflicting reports as to whether she was shunned and sought marriage, or whether she
turned down many offers of marriage.[10][12] Some even suggest she had a third husband, who also
died.[5]

Marriage to Muhammad
The following year shortly after his marriage to Hafsa bint Umar,[13][14] Muhammad approached her
with a mahar of either 400 dirhams or 12 ounces of gold, and offered to marry her.[10][15] There has
been debate about how the marriage was proposed, in Ibn Kalbi's al-Isaba, he claimed that
Muhammad proposed to her directly - while Ibn Hisham wrote that her uncle, Quobaisa bin Arm al-
Hilali had arranged the marriage proposal.[4]

It was said the marriage, which took place during the month of Ramadan,[4] was meant to assure his
followers that their deaths in battle would not mean their families would starve and be neglected.[6]
She was the first of his wives to come from outside the Quraysh tribe.[5][16] At one point, a poor man
came to her house to beg for some flour, and she gave him the last of her own, and went without food
that night. Muhammad was moved by her compassion, and told his other wives about it and preached
that "if you have faith in Allah...he would provide for your sustenance, even as he doeth for the birds,
who leave their nest hungry in the morning, but return full at night".[10]

Death
She died less than two years later, the only one of Muhammad's
wives to die before him, other than his first wife Khadijah.[6] It
has been suggested she died during the month of Rabi' al-thani,
four years after the Hijra.[4]

She was buried in Jannat al-Baqi, carried into her grave by

Muhammad.[3][10]

After her death, her household in Muhammad's circle remained

empty for a notable period of time, before his sixth wife, Umm Jannat al-Baqi cemetery, where
Salama was moved in, and noted "He married me and moved me Zaynab is buried.
to the chamber of Zaynab bint Khuzayma, the Mother of the
Poor".[17]

References
1. Lings, Martin, "Muhammad: his life based on the earliest sources", 1983. p. 201.
2. Awde, Nicholas. "Women in Islam", 2000. p. 10
3. Khaled, Amr. The Mothers of the Believers: Zaynab Bint Khuzayma (http://www.daralislaamlive.co
m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=146)
4. Rasoulallah.net, Lady Zainab bint Khozaima (http://www.rasoulallah.net/subject_en.asp?hit=1&pa
rent_id=778&sub_id=251)
5. Prophet Muhammad for All, Hadrat Zainab (http://www.prophetmuhammadforall.org/webfiles/dow
nloads/wives/HZainab.pdf)
6. Wessels, Antonie. "A Modern Arabic Biography of Muhammad", p. 107
7. Ibn Hisham, The Life of the Prophet (https://web.archive.org/web/20040625103910/http://www.hr
aic.org/hadith/ibn_ishaq.html#The%20earliest%20biography%20of%20Muhammad,%20by%20ib
n%20Ishaq), Book IV. c. 833.
8. Kloppenborg, Ria. "Female stereotypes in religious traditions", p. 89
9. Marriage to Daughter-in-law (http://www.muhammadanism.org/Muhammad/Muhammad_Married_
DaughterIL.htm)
10. Ahmed, M. Mukkaram. "Encyclopaedia of Islam", 2005. p. 141
11. Ibn Kathir, The Life of the Prophet Muhammad, p. 419
12. Hatimy, Said Abdullah Saif. "Woman in Islam", 1979. p. 105
13. Isaba, Isti'ab, Jamhara, 262 and Tabari III, 179
14. Sharma, KM. Denver Journal of International Law and Policy, "What's In a Name?", 1997.
15. Muslim World League Journal, 1998
16. Bodley, Ronald V. "The Messenger: The Wives of Mohammed", 1946.
17. Ibn Hisham I, 345. II, 294. Tabari III, 177. Nasab Quraysh, 316

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