1 of 2 · The Makkan years and the Hijrah · Makkah to Madinah
Umm Kulthum bint Muhammad رضي الله عنها
Left Behind in Makkah
Like her sister Ruqayyah, Umm Kulthum accepted Islam at its beginning, and the biographers report that she too had been promised to a son of Abu Lahab, 'Utaybah, who was made to give her up when the Qur'an condemned his father.
She lived through the boycott of the Prophet's clan in the valley of Abu Talib and the death of her mother Khadijah. When the Prophet ﷺ emigrated to Madinah, she and Fatimah stayed behind in Makkah for a time, until he sent Zayd ibn Harithah and Abu Rafi' to bring the family to him.
Umm Kulthum's faith was tested quietly — by waiting, by grief and by being left behind — and it held.
How do you keep faith in a season when you are simply waiting?
- Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabaqat al-KubraHistorical report
- Ibn 'Abd al-Barr, al-Isti'abHistorical report
- Ibn Hajar, al-Isabah fi Tamyiz al-SahabahHistorical report
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