Umm ʿUbays ( ar, أُمُّ عُبَيْسٍ) or Umm ʿUmays was a
companion of the Islamic prophet
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...
.
She was a slave 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 city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow v ...
who became an early convert to
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...
. After 614 she was tortured in an attempt to force her to renounce her faith.
Abu Bakr
Abu Bakr Abdallah ibn Uthman Abi Quhafa (; – 23 August 634) was the senior companion and was, through his daughter Aisha, a father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as well as the first caliph of Islam. He is known with the honor ...
bought and
manumitted
Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing enslaved people by their enslavers. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that t ...
her. It was in response to the purchase of these slaves that Abu Bakr's
father
A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...
protested: "I see that you are freeing weak slaves. Why don’t you free powerful men who could defend you and protect you?" Abu Bakr replied, "I am only trying to do what I am attempting for God’s sake."
Umm Ubays had a sister,
Harithah bint al-Muammil
Zunairah al-Rumiya ( ar, زنيرة الرومية, ''Zaneerah the Roman'') (other transliterations include Zaneera, Zannirah, Zanira or in some sources Zinra or Zinnirah) was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. She was among the slave ...
.
It is sometimes asserted that Umm Ubays was the daughter of
Al-Nahdiah
Al-Nahdiah (النهضة) was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Other transliterations include Nadia, An-Nahdiyah or Al Nahdiah ( ar, النهدية). This name indicates her tribe (Nahd); her personal name seems to have been Hakima. ...
. This is apparently due to the ambiguous wording of Ibn Saad. However, Ibn Ishaq makes it clear that Umm Ubays and Al-Nahdiah's daughter were two different people, both of whom were purchased and manumitted by Abu Bakr.
[Ibn Ishaq/Guillaume p. 144.]
See also
*
List of non-Arab Sahaba
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*
Sunni view of the Sahaba
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a dis ...
References
External links
*http://www.witness-pioneer.org/vil/Articles/companion/02_abu_bakr.htm
*https://web.archive.org/web/20050421200507/http://www.islamic-paths.org/Home/English/Muhammad/Book/Millennium_Biography/Chapter_030.htm
*http://www.witness-pioneer.org/vil/Books/HT_wims/chapter_1.htm
*http://www.muslimaccess.com/sunnah/seerah/10a.htm
Women companions of the Prophet
Non-Arab companions of the Prophet
Arabian slaves and freedmen
{{islam-bio-stub