The Firsts (Sahaba Stories) | The Forerunners of Islam
94 / 152
44
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khawla Bint Hakim & Uthman Ibn Madhun: The Righteous Couple | The Firsts
52
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Al-Shifa bint Abdullah (ra): The Healer and Scholar | The Firsts Shorts
58
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Shurahbil Ibn Hasana (ra): The Scribe and Commander | The Firsts Shorts
125
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khalid ibn al-Walid (ra): The Legendary Military General | The Firsts
126
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Amr ibn al-As (ra): His Wicked Father and “Better” Brother | The Firsts
146
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid (ra): From False Prophet to Shaheed | The Firsts
147
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Zayd ibn al-Khattab (ra): The Quiet Brother of Omar (ra) | The Firsts
Umm Waraqa bint Abdullah (ra): The Martyred Hafidha | The Firsts
Dr. Omar Suleiman talks about a woman who excelled in every way. Umm Waraqa bint Abdullah (ra) memorized the Quran and sought martyrdom even in her home.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. And all of this will of course be a build up inshallah to once we get back to our full episodes bidnallahi ta'ala and we will go to the life of A'ishah, radhiallahu ta'ala anha, our mother A'ishah in detail bidnallahi ta'ala. Now the biographies that have been chosen for the next five episodes inshallah ta'ala, there is a connection between them. They often feed into the next story. But there is one particular question that as we covered the qurra, the reciters around the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, that came up a few times particularly from the sisters. Were there any female hafidhat? Were there any women that memorized the Qur'an alongside those luminaries that we mentioned that preserved the Qur'an? And to preface that answer you have to start off with the fact that literacy as a whole, literacy as a whole was not common to the Arabs. So if literacy rates were poor as a whole, then naturally you are going to find that the literacy rates for women would be less than men in that society. So there weren't many people that could read or write at the time. They were few and those that could read and write ended up becoming scribes of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and from the women that number would even be much less of people that could read and write at the time. But there is one particular woman who was known to have gathered the Qur'an, to have memorized the Qur'an and to have been proficient in its memorization and its recitation. And her name is Umm Waraka bint Abdullah ibn al-Harith. Umm Waraka bint Abdullah ibn al-Harith radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha. Now her story is that she was a very wealthy woman, a very noble woman from Al-Khazraj in Medina and
she basically was the sought after woman at the time when Islam came to Al-Medina. And subhanAllah when she embraced the da'wah of Mus'ab ibn Umair radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu before the coming of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, she had unique circumstances that allowed her to excel in immediately memorizing the Qur'an. For one, she was one of the few literate women that existed in Al-Medina, one of the few literate people period but she also was someone who was literate. The second thing is that she inherited a huge amount of wealth. So she wasn't someone that had to worry about her wealth or her day to day and she wasn't someone that was involved in the politics of Al-Medina prior to the coming of Islam. So she wasn't involved in Bu'ath, she wasn't involved in any of the wars that took place. So she really had the opportunity to immediately dedicate herself exclusively to the Qur'an, exclusively to the da'wah of Mus'ab ibn Umair which of course was the da'wah of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. Now when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam came to Medina, she was one of those who dedicated herself amongst the mothers of the believers and amongst some of the female scholars at the time with particular proficiency in the recitation of the Qur'an and there is something that surrounds her of a controversy of sorts which is that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam told her to lead the people of her household in prayer. So when you have the controversy and when I say controversy it's not a controversy within the tradition, it's a controversy obviously a modern controversy that those that try to suggest, the people that try to suggest that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam had allowed for a woman to lead a mixed congregation of men and women, men and women used the narration of Um Waraqa radiallahu ta'ala anha that when she came
to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and she memorized the Qur'an and she was literate and she clearly became scholarly and distinguished pretty early on, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam commanded her to lead her home in prayer. The problem is that there is no indication, it's such an ambiguous narration to use for something so extreme in terms of overturning the consensus in that regard to say that Um Waraqa radiallahu anha's narration justifies that. The only thing we have is that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam commanded her to lead the folk in her home, that could have been children, that could have been servants because again she was a very wealthy woman at the time, it could have meant many things, it could have meant unique circumstances but what we do know is that she was someone who was a distinguished reciter of the Qur'an and she used to teach the women of Medina the Qur'an and she used to recite the Qur'an amongst the most proficient of the reciters. Now subhanallah the next several biographies we're going to cover, all of them have significant twists and turns. These stories are not all rosy in the sense that there is a lot of difficulty these people encountered. Um Waraqa came to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and asked the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam something very specific and this is the spirit of the ansar of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. She came to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam at the time of Badr, when the battle of Badr is taking place and she says to Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasalam, Ya Rasulullah, i'dhin li fil ghazwi maak, O Messenger of Allah let me go out and battle with you, let me be a part of the battle with you and she said, Umaridu mardaakum, and even if it's just there to treat the sick amongst you but I want to be there in the battlefield with you. Now when she says I want to be there in the battlefield
with you, she says something very specific, she says la'allallaha an yarzuqani shahada, I want Allah to grant me shahada, martyrdom. The ansar, the spirit of the ansar was wanting to be there with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam in his most difficult moments. Remember the story of the man that came to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and said to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam as he was going out in the battle and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam asked him what are you here for, he said li udra wibisah minha huna, to be struck with an arrow right here, I'm going to be with you and I'm going to be struck with an arrow right here. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said ustuq illaha yastuq, be truthful with Allah and Allah will be truthful with you. So Umaridu mardaakum says to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam pretty explicitly, I want to be a martyr, I want to be out there and I want to be a martyr with you. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam responds to her and says qarri fee baytik fa inna allaha ta'ala yarzuquk shahada, stay in your home and trust me that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is going to bestow upon you shahada. Fa kana tu samma ash shahida, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam told her that you are actually going to be a martyr, but not in the battlefield, but you will be a shahida. So she actually had the nickname in the time of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam amongst the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and his companions as ash shahida, as the martyr. So imagine walking amongst the companions and everyone knows you're going to be martyred. How? Allahu alam. But your nickname is ash shahida. So she goes on and she kind of occupies this position as being the female teacher of the Quran, the greatest authority from the women of the Quran in Medina, teaching the Quran, reciting the Quran. She's a hafidah of the Quran. There are students of the Quran going to her and reciting to her to be corrected. She also becomes famous
for her Siyam and for her Qiyam, for her fasting and for her prayer at night. So she used to pray at night and people would go by her home and they could hear her recitation at night. All of this is very significant for the reason of how she eventually will pass away. It will be a long time. So Umarqa radiyallahu ta'ala anha goes on and she maintains the status in the time of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiyallahu anhu. And she maintains the status in the time of Umar radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. And her home is a wealthy home and her home is a home of ilm, where people go and study with her. And she aged significantly. So she became a very old woman in the time of Umar bin al-Khattab radiyallahu anhu, which suggests that she was elderly when Islam came. So she's in her 60s or 70s in the time of Umar bin al-Khattab radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. And Umar radiyallahu ta'ala anhu would do his night patrols. Right? And Umar radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, he says in the morning one day, he says, He said, I didn't hear her qira'ah last night. SubhanAllah, like that's how much you could depend upon walking by this woman's home and hearing her recitation of the Quran. That I didn't hear the qira'ah of my aunt. And this was obviously an honorific title that he was giving to her last night. And the Prophet ﷺ used to visit her, al-Shaheedah, and people used to say, let's go visit al-Shaheedah Umaraka, let's go visit the martyr Umaraka. So Umar radiyallahu ta'ala anhu went to check on her home. And essentially what had happened to Umaraka radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, this scholar of the Quran, this teacher of the Quran, is that because she was so wealthy, she had a male and female servant that plotted against
her and basically martyred her and took all of her wealth. So Umar radiyallahu ta'ala anhu went to her home and found that she had been killed by two servants who basically stole all of the wealth. And subhanAllah, obviously as I said there are twists and turns in this. This is the hafidah of the female companions of the Prophet ﷺ. And she was murdered in her home. SubhanAllah. And the Prophet ﷺ told her she would be a shaheedah. And Umar radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, when he saw her in the state, he said, sadaqa rasool Allah ﷺ ahina kana yaqool, intaliqu bina nazoor al-shaheedah. SubhanAllah. He said that Rasool Allah ﷺ was truthful when he used to say, let's go visit the martyr. Let's go visit a shaheedah. So subhanAllah, she's known as the hafidah of the female companions of the Prophet ﷺ. And she also, the circumstances under which her martyrdom took place, her shahadah took place was very unique. Umar radiyallahu ta'ala anhu himself personally found the two that murdered her and they were executed for murdering her. So she had this reputation of being the martyred hafidah. Basically the shaheedah and hafidah amongst the companions radiyallahu ta'ala anhu.
Welcome back!
Bookmark content
Download resources easily
Manage your donations
Track your spiritual growth
1 items
1 items
1 items
25 items
50 items
9 items
