Ḥabiba bint Jaḥsh (
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
: حبيبة بنت جحش) was a female
companion of
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
.
Biography
Her father was
Jahsh ibn Riyab
Jahsh ibn Riyab ( ar, جحش بن رئاب), was a companion of Muhammad.
Originally from the Asad ibn Khuzayma tribe, he settled in Mecca and formed an alliance with Harb ibn Umayya, chief of the leading clan of the Quraysh tribe. He married U ...
, an immigrant from the
Asad ibn Khuzayma tribe who had settled in
Mecca
Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...
under the protection of
Harb ibn Umayya
Ḥarb ibn Umayya ibn ʿAbd Shams ( ar, حرب بن أمية بن عبد شمس) was the father of Abu Sufyan and Arwa and the son of Umayya ibn Abd Shams. Harb is credited in the Islamic tradition as the first among the Quraysh to write in Arabic ...
. Her mother was
Umayma bint Abd al-Muttalib
}
Umayma bint ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ( ar, أميمة بنت عبد المطلب) was a paternal aunt of Muhammad.
Biography
She was born in Mecca, the daughter of Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim and Fatima bint Amr al-Makhzumiya.
She married Jahsh i ...
, a member of the
Hashim
Hashim ( ar, هاشم) is a common male Arabic given name.
Hashim may also refer to:
*Hashim Amir Ali
*Hashim (poet)
*Hashim Amla
*Hashim Thaçi
*Hashim Khan
* Hashim Qureshi
* Mir Hashim Ali Khan
*Hashim al-Atassi
*Hashim ibn Abd Manaf
*Hashim ib ...
clan of the
Quraysh
The Quraysh ( ar, قُرَيْشٌ) were a grouping of Arab clans that historically inhabited and controlled the city of Mecca and its Kaaba. The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born into the Hashim clan of the tribe. Despite this, many of the Qur ...
tribe and a sister of Muhammad's father. Hence Habiba and her five siblings were the first cousins of Muhammad.
Habiba was an early convert to
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
. She married
Abdur Rahman bin Awf
Abdul (also transliterated as Abdal, Abdel, Abdil, Abdol, Abdool, or Abdoul; ar, عبد ال, ) is the most frequent transliteration of the combination of the Arabic word '' Abd'' (, meaning "Servant") and the definite prefix '' al / el'' (, mea ...
, but was childless. Habiba was among those who accompanied her brother
Abdullah
Abdullah may refer to:
* Abdullah (name), a list of people with the given name or surname
* Abdullah, Kargı, Turkey, a village
* ''Abdullah'' (film), a 1980 Bollywood film directed by Sanjay Khan
* '' Abdullah: The Final Witness'', a 2015 Pakis ...
on the ''
Hijra
Hijra, Hijrah, Hegira, Hejira, Hijrat or Hijri may refer to:
Islam
* Hijrah (often written as ''Hejira'' in older texts), the migration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE
* Migration to Abyssinia or First Hegira, of Muhammad's followers ...
'' to
Medina
Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the Holiest sites in Islam, second-holiest city in Islam, ...
.
Habiba suffered from a gynaecological disorder and had constant bleeding for seven years. She consulted Muhammad about how to become ritually clean, and he advised her: "This is a vein. It is not
menstruation
Menstruation (also known as a period, among other colloquial terms) is the regular discharge of blood and mucosal tissue from the inner lining of the uterus through the vagina. The menstrual cycle is characterized by the rise and fall of hor ...
. Remain away (from prayer) equal (to the length of time) that your menstruation holds you back. After this, bathe yourself and pray." Habiba went to the house of her sister
Zaynab (Muhammad's wife) and bathed in Zaynab's tub "till the redness of the blood came over the water" and the tub was "full of blood". The narrators believed that Muhammad had meant that Habiba should take the
ritual bath
Ritual purification is the ritual prescribed by a religion by which a person is considered to be free of ''uncleanliness'', especially prior to the worship of a deity, and ritual purity is a state of ritual cleanliness. Ritual purification may ...
once a month like other women. However, of her own accord, Habiba thereafter took the bath before every prayer, apparently five times a day.
In 628 Muhammad granted Habiba 30 of dates and grain from the revenues of
Khaybar
KhaybarOther standardized Arabic transliterations: / . Anglicized pronunciation: , . ( ar, خَيْبَر, ) is an oasis situated some north of the city of Medina in the Medina Province of Saudi Arabia. Prior to the rise of Islam in the 7t ...
.
Note
Habiba was known interchangeably as ''Umm Habib'': both are feminine forms of the name ''Habib'' ("beloved"). The Mesopotamian historian
Muhammad ibn Saad referred to a tradition in which Habiba was confused with her sister
Hamna, i.e., it was believed that ''Umm Habib'' was the ''kunya'' of Hamna. Ibn Saad asserts that this is not so: they were two people.
[Bewley/Saad vol. 8 p. 171.]
References
{{reflist
Companions of the Prophet