2 of 2 · c. 6–7 AH · 628 CE · Abyssinia
Umm Habibah — Ramlah bint Abi Sufyan رضي الله عنها
A Marriage Across the Sea
News of her situation reached the Prophet ﷺ in Madinah, and he sent to the Negus, the king of Abyssinia, asking for her hand. The marriage was contracted there, in Abyssinia, with the Prophet ﷺ far away. The Negus himself paid her dowry on the Prophet's ﷺ behalf, and then sent her to Madinah with Shurahbil ibn Hasanah (Sunan Abi Dawud 2107).
So the woman who had been left with nothing was honoured from two directions at once: by a Christian king who had sheltered the Muslims, and by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who would not let her loyalty go unanswered. Her daughter Habibah grew up in the Prophet's ﷺ household.
There was a quiet irony in it. Her father, Abu Sufyan, was at that time still leading Quraysh against the Prophet ﷺ — and his own daughter had become the Prophet's wife and a Mother of the Believers.
Umm Habibah's patience was answered with honour, and from a direction she could not have planned.
When you have been patient through loss, how have you seen Allah's answer arrive?
- Sunan Abi Dawud 2107 Graded by Al-Albani: Sahih · Muhammad Muhyi Al-Din Abdul Hamid: Sahih · Zubair Ali Zai: DaifSahih
- Sunan al-Nasa'i, Kitab al-NikahGrade not recorded here
- Sahih Muslim 2501Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabaqat al-KubraHistorical report
- Ibn al-Qayyim, Jala' al-AfhamHistorical report
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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