Alone in Abyssinia

Ramlah was the daughter of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, a chief of Quraysh who for twenty years would lead its resistance to Islam. Yet she accepted Islam early, with her husband 'Ubaydullah ibn Jahsh — the brother of Zaynab bint Jahsh — and when persecution grew, they emigrated together to Abyssinia. There she gave birth to a daughter, Habibah, and became known as Umm Habibah, "the mother of Habibah".

Then, far from home, her husband left Islam and became a Christian, and he died in that state. Umm Habibah was left a widow in a foreign land with a small child. Her father was at war with the religion she had chosen, so she could not go back to him; her husband had abandoned that religion; and the Prophet ﷺ was far away in Madinah.

She held on to her faith. Of all the hardships the early Muslim women bore, few were as lonely as hers.