The Firsts (Sahaba Stories) | The Forerunners of Islam
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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
Zaynab Bint Khuzayma (ra): The Mother of the Poor | The Firsts Shorts
Zaynab Bint Khuzayma (ra) was the only other wife of the Prophet ﷺ to be buried by his hands. She was known by most by a beautiful trait: her charity.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Salamualikoum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, dear brothers and sisters. Welcome back to the first shorts, where we are talking about some of the companions of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, about whom we don't have much information, but we have a lot to learn from. And today we are with our mother, Zainab bint Khuzaimah radiAllahu ta'ala anha. And I want to emphasize that she is our mother. She is one of the mothers of the believers. And when you have a mother of the believers, when you have one of these wives of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, you want to learn as much as you possibly can about them. Now, Zainab bint Khuzaimah radiAllahu anha, often mixed up with Zainab bint Jahsh radiAllahu anha, who as I said, we will have a longer episode about inshallah ta'ala because there's far more extensive biographical details about her. She's probably the wife of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, about whom we know the least. And there's so much to talk about in terms of the lessons that we get from how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala planned for her to be married to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. But there isn't much that we know about her. However, here's what we do know about her inshallah ta'ala. And we'll talk about how she ends up in the house of the Messenger salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Zainab is a name that some of the scholars, they mentioned here, it comes from obviously, you'll find a beautiful flower, but Zinatul Ab, it's the jewel of the father. It is a woman who embodies certain characteristics of beauty as well. And she is a woman radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha that is only spoken of in the best of ways. She's from a tribe, from a Najd known as Banu Hilal, that is her father, Khuzayma. But as far as her sisters are concerned from her mother's side, if you go back to the episode about Lubaba, Umm al-Fadr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha, then she is one of al-akhawat al-mu'minat, who the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned, the believing
sisters. So her mother is Hind bint Auf. And so what does that mean? She is a half sister to Maymuna bint al-Harith radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha, who would be the last person the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam would marry. So Zainab bint Khuzayma and Maymuna bint al-Harith had the same mother, they were half sisters, and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam would be married to them both, but not at the same time. Also, she is the sister of Salma bint Umays. So Salma bint Umays radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha is the sister of Hamza radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha, I'm sorry, the wife of Hamza radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. So again, Salma bint Umays, Maymuna bint al-Harith, Asma bint Umays, who was the widow of Ja'far radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, married to Ja'far, Abu Bakr and Ali, may Allah be pleased with them all. Umm al-Fadl, Lubaba bint al-Harith, who was the wife of al-Abbas and the mother of al-Fadl, Abdullah bin Abbas, Ubaidullah bin Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them all. Lubaba as-Sughra, who's the mother of Khalid radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, and this is just scratching the surface, subhanAllah. So all of them are sisters from one mother, which is just remarkable. Now, when it comes to Zainab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha, Zainab bint Khuzaimah, she was married to several people before the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. So her first marriage was to a man by the name of Tufail ibn al-Harith ibn Abdul Muttalib. Tufail ibn al-Harith ibn Abdul Muttalib, who's a cousin of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. At some point, he divorced her. Okay, so Tufail is her first husband. After he divorced her, at some point she was then married to his brother, who is a believer, a great companion, Ubaidah ibn al-Harith radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. And we will talk about Ubaidah ibn al-Harith radiyaAllahu anhu before we complete this series of the shorts. So her first husband was Tufail, her second husband, the great companion, the brother of Tufail, Ubaidah ibn al-Harith radiyaAllahu ta'ala
anhu, who died in the Battle of Badr, or right after the Battle of Badr. Then after Ubaidah, she was married to Abdullah ibn Jahsh radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, the cousin of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, the great companion that we spoke about, you know, just a couple of episodes ago. And the brother of Zaynab ibn Jahsh, so I know this gets confusing. So Abdullah ibn Jahsh was married to Zaynab ibn Khuzaimah, and his sister was Zaynab ibn Jahsh, who would also be married to the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam at some point. So she is the widow of Abdullah ibn Jahsh radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, obviously after the Battle of Uhud. Now there's something that that actually caught my attention only this time around, and I've lectured about her before, which is subhanAllah that Hamza radiyaAllahu anhu and Abdullah ibn Jahsh radiyaAllahu anhu were buried in the same grave as we spoke about with Uhud. And the widows of Hamza radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu and Abdullah ibn Jahsh radiyaAllahu anhu were sisters. Okay, so Salma bint Umais, who's the widow of Hamza is the sister of Zaynab bint Khuzaimah, who is the widow of Abdullah ibn Jahsh, may Allah be pleased with them all. So after the Battle of Uhud, you know, there is this renewed energy and spirit of marrying the widows. Okay, and this shows in the Quran, some of the revelation of the Quran, and certainly the actions of the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam and what the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam was encouraging his companions to do, to step up and to marry the widows of Uhud or some of the orphans of Uhud that would become famous later on. Zaynab radiyaAllahu anha has been married three times already. And the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam sees her and he proposes to her alaihi salatu wasalam in the month of Ramadan, four years after hijrah. Okay, so she
is married to the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam in the month of Ramadan, four years after hijrah. This was shortly after the marriage to Hafsa radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha. So the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam approached her and the mahr was 400 dirhams again, and that was a marriage that was solidified in Ramadan. And what we have at that point is that she moves into the hijrat, she moves into the home with the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam, and she will only get to spend a few months with him alaihi salatu wasalam. There are a few things to mention here. Her nickname is Ummul Masakin, the mother of the poor. And this nickname of Ummul Masakin is not something that only happened in Islam. And remember the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam said that people are like precious stones, the best of you in the days of ignorance are the best of you in Islam, if you have understanding. So she was a woman that was known as the mother of the poor, Ummul Masakin, before Islam. Islam only obviously cemented that and made it an even more established part of her personality, right? Because now she has the incentive of pleasing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and seeking the hereafter as well. So they said that Zainab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha, there would never be any food that would stay in her home past the day. You know, any extra food that she had would go and she would often sleep hungry, because she would give away whatever was in her home. And this was true in Mecca. And this is true in Medina. And this is true with the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam. And subhanAllah, we have, you know, one incident that's narrated where Rasulullah salAllahu alaihi wasalam was touched by her generosity. And, you know, giving away everything that they had in the home that night. And you can imagine if Rasulullah salAllahu alaihi wasalam, of course, is known as being more generous than the blowing wind in Ramadan. You know, as Abdullah ibn Abbas radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhuma says, the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam
was always generous. But when Ramadan came, hina yalqaahu Jibreel, when Jibreel alaihi salam would meet him, then he was more generous alaihi salatu wasalam than a blowing wind. So I think to myself, what would it have been like in the house of Rasulullah salAllahu alaihi wasalam and Zainab bint Khuzaimah radiyaAllahu anha in Ramadan? Okay, imagine the charity and the generosity that was coming out of that home. And subhanAllah, qadrAllah wa ma sha fa'al, by the decree of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, she died just three months after being married to the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam. Three months, subhanAllah, where she got to be with the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam. One of those months being Ramadan, when they got married. And the only thing that we know of her is her generosity. Umm al-masakin, the mother of the poor, passed away. The ulama mention a few things here. Number one, this is the only other wife that the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam would bury with his own two hands in his lifetime alaihi salatu wasalam. So after Khadija radiyaAllahu anha, this is the only one that the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam himself will bury, which obviously is, you know, a unique form of pain, and obviously a unique blessing for her. Number two, she is the only one of the, or she's the first of the wives of the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam, in the row of the wives of Rasulullah salAllahu alaihi wasalam in al-baqir, in the graveyard in al-Madinah, in janat al-baqir. The wives of the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam are lined up. She is the first one to be there. And then the wives of the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam would pass away, and they would all be buried in that spot, except for Maymunah radiyaAllahu anha afterwards, who would not pass away there. So all of the wives of the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam, with the exception of Khadija and Maymunah, may Allah be pleased with them, are buried there in al-baqir, and Zaynab was the first one in that row. After she passed away, Umm Salama radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha, she was the next wife that the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam
married, and she said that he married me, and I moved into the home of Umm al-Masakin, Zaynab bint Khuzaymah radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha. And one of the greatest lessons that we take from this, by the way, something that one of my teachers mentioned, subhanAllah, the hadith of the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam, that nothing extends a person's lifespan like charity. Okay, so the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam mentioned that giving charity, in one narration he mentioned, silatur rahim, establishing good ties amongst relatives, family. One narration he mentioned, dua, extends a person's lifespan, and gives a person a greater share of their time on earth, so that they could increase their share in the hereafter. SubhanAllah, Zaynab bint Khuzaymah only got three months of her life with the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam, and it may be that her being Umm al-Masakin, her spending on the poor, and her being known for that, was a means by which her lifespan was increased. In any case, obviously that is with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and we don't know the answer to that, except to say that, look at the barakah that came in her life, as a result of her spending, the blessing that came in her life, as a result of her spending for the sake of Allah, surely that was something that the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam saw, and an honor that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wished to bestow upon her, and we see that today, our mother Zaynab radiAllahu ta'ala anha bint Khuzaymah, though we don't have much information about her, we want to know everything we can about our mother, and we pray for her, we make dua for her, and we love her, and we pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be with her, and we pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to inculcate in our own lives, that habit of spending upon the poor, what does it take in this day and age, to be the father of the poor, or to be the mother of the poor, or to be the brother or sister of the poor, so think of it in that way, when the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam used to ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, for Hub al-Masakin, that Allah bestow him the love of the poor,
what an honorable woman, that she was named the mother of the poor radiAllahu ta'ala anha, wa an azwajal nabi salAllahu alaihi wasalam, ajma'in, may Allah be pleased with her and all of the wives of the Prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam, jazakallahu khayran inshAllah ta'ala, we'll see you next time, salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh
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