Umm Ayman Barakah bint Tha’labah رضي الله عنها hailed from Abyssinia. Some reports claimed that she was taken as a slave from the army of Abraha that had attacked the Ka’bah. It is reported that she was 13 years old at the time. Allah Knows Best. She was the slave of Abdullah and after his death, was inherited by the Prophet ﷺ. After the death of Aminah, she was the primary caretaker of the Prophet ﷺ who would say, “Umm Ayman is my mother after my mother”. The Prophet ﷺ often referred to Umm Ayman as “Ya Umma!” She was the first person to carry him as a baby and of the firsts to accept Islam. He freed her when he came of age and she voluntarily chose to stay with him to serve him.
Narrating about the Prophet’s ﷺ birth, Imam Ibn Hajar رحمه الله writes, “Among the signs of his prophecy that appeared at his birth (saw) and after his birth was what At-Tabarani narrated from Uthman bin Abi al-Aas At-Thaqafi, from his mother, that she went to Aminah, the mother of the Prophet (ﷺ) and she related that when she (Aminah) was in labour, “I was looking at the stars getting closer to me to the point that I thought they would fall on me; and when she gave birth, a light came out of her that lit the whole house.” [Fath al-Bari] This would have been witnessed by Umm Ayman as well as she was present at the brith.
It is reported that she migrated to Abyssinia with Ruqayyah رضي الله عنها and then to Madinah. [Munasarat as-Sahabah al-Afriqah] She migrated to Madinah on foot without any means of transport. She would be nearly 70 years of age at this point. During the migration, she arrived at the Munsaraf (a place that is close to the area of Badr) near al-Rawha (on the pathway between Makkah and Madinah). She was extremely thirsty and had no water with her and to top it all, she was fasting. The thirst became unbearable for her, and she was about to die of thirst. As soon as the sun set and it was time to open her fast, she heard a noise from above her head and when she looked up, she saw a water-skin filled with water hanging above her head. She could not see the top of the rope holding the water skin or bucket. She drank from the water until she was satiated. This miraculously granted water not only quenched her thirst for that day, it extinguished her thirst for the remainder of her life. She used to say, “Thirst never gripped me thereafter.” After this incident, she would fast on an extremely scorching day and walk in the heat so that she could experience thirst, but she would not. [al-Isabah and Tabaqat al-Kubra]
At the insistence of the Prophet ﷺ, she finally agreed to get married after he himself married Khadijah رضي الله عنها. She was married to a man from Yathrib named Ubayd bin Zayd al-Khazraji who died before Islam. Her son, Ayman participated in the battles of the Prophet ﷺ and was martyred protecting the Prophet ﷺ in the Battle of Hunayn. She would later get married to Zayd bin Haritha and give birth to Usamah bin Zayd. The Prophet ﷺ had said, “Should one of you desire to marry a woman from the people of Jannah, let him marry Umm Ayman.” [Tabaqat al-Kubra] The age difference between them was a minimum 20-25 years. When they had Usamah, he was born inside the house of the Prophet ﷺ. He grew up nurtured in this blessed house and in the company of Hassan and Hussayn رضي الله عنهم.
Zayd eventually divorced Umm Ayman. He also married the daughters of Uqbah bin Abi Mu’ayt and Abu Lahab. These men were two of the worst enemies of Islam, yet their daughters accepted Islam. He also married the daughter of Az-Zubayr and then Zaynab bint Jahsh.
Usamah رضي الله عنه was dearly beloved to the Prophet ﷺ such that he was famously known among the sahaba as, the beloved, son of the beloved. The sahaba used to ask Usamah to take forth their requests to the Prophet ﷺ. He is one of the three who accompanied the Prophet ﷺ when he entered the Ka'bah.
Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه narrated, “When a young (grand) daughter of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was dying, the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) picked her up and held her to his chest, then he put his hand on her, and she died in front of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). Umm Ayman wept and the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, ‘Oh Umm Ayman, do you weep while the Messenger of Allah is with you?’ She said, ‘Why shouldn’t I weep when the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) is weeping.” So the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, ‘Verily, I am not weeping. Rather it is compassion.’ Then the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, ‘The believer is fine whatever the situation; even when his soul is being pulled from his body and he praises Allah, the Mighty and Sublime’” [Nasai]
The Prophet ﷺ would often visit her and ask, “Ya Ummi! Are you well?” and she would reply, “I am well, O Messenger of Allah so long as Islam is,” referring to him. In the later years of Madinah, the Prophet ﷺ would say, “She is the remnant of my household.” [al-Isabah]
Anas رضي الله عنه reported that after the death of Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه said to Umar رضي الله عنه, “Let us visit Umm Ayman as Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) used to visit her.” When we came to her, she was weeping. They (Abu Bakr and Umar) said to her, “What makes you weep? What is with Allah is better for the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ).” She said, “I weep not because I do not know of the fact that what is with Allah is better for the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), but I weep because the revelation which came from the Heaven has ceased to come. This moved both of them to tears and they began to weep along with her.” [Muslim]
She lived with the Prophet ﷺ and cared for him from his birth until his demise. She passed away twenty days after the martyrdom of Umar bin al-Khattab and was buried in Madinah. Imam Ibn Asakir رحمه الله mentions that she was buried in line with the grave of the Prophet ﷺ in al-Baqi’.
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