Biography of Asma bint Abi Bakr

Ali said: "You left us nothing; and had you said other than what you said, I would have detested you."

She said: "You are, of three chosen men, the most despicable."

Ibn Uyayna: from Isma'il, from Qays, who said:

Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, said: "You have lied: the woman who burns herself, at the death of her husband, has given you the lie, and not one of them remained steadfast, except Asma bint Umays."

I say: Asma has reports in the Four Sunan.

Those who narrated from her: her son Abd Allah ibn Ja'far; her sister's son Abd Allah ibn Shaddad; Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib; Urwa; al-Sha'bi; al-Qasim ibn Muhammad; and others.

She lived after Ali.

No. 52: Asma bint Abi Bakr, Abd Allah ibn Abi Quhafa Uthman, al-Timiyya, may Allah be pleased with her.

Mother of Abd Allah, Qurayshi, Timiyya, Meccan then Medinan.

Mother of the caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, sister of the Mother of the Believers Aisha, and the last of the emigrant women to die.

She narrated several hadiths.

She lived a long life.

She is known as Dhat al-Nitaqayn, the one of the two belts.

Her mother is Qutayla bint Abd al-Uzza al-Amiriyya.

Those who narrated from her: her two sons Abd Allah and Urwa; her grandson Abd Allah ibn Urwa; her grandson Abbad ibn Abd Allah; Ibn Abbas; Abu Waqid al-Laythi; Safiyya bint Shayba; Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir; Wahb ibn Kaysan; Abu Nawfal Mu'awiya ibn Abi Aqrab; al-Muttalib ibn Abd Allah ibn Hantab; Fatima bint al-Mundhir ibn al-Zubayr; her freedman Abd Allah ibn Kaysan; Ibn Abi Mulayka; and her governess Nafila, Abbad ibn Hamza ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr; and many others.

She was older than Aisha by ten years and more.

She emigrated while pregnant with Abd Allah.

It is said: not one of her teeth fell out.

She was present at Yarmuk with her husband al-Zubayr.

She, her father, her grandfather and her son ibn al-Zubayr: all four were Companions.

Ahmad ibn Hibat Allah informed us; al-Mu'ayyad al-Tusi informed him; Abu Abd Allah al-Farawi informed us; Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi informed us; Ibn Amrawayh informed us; Ibrahim ibn Sufyan informed us; Muslim narrated to us; Dawud ibn Amr narrated to us; Nafi ibn Umar narrated to us, from Ibn Abi Mulayka, who said:

Her hadiths and her reports

Asma bint Abi Bakr said: the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said: "I shall be at the basin, watching for those of you who come to me."

Shu'ba: from Muslim al-Qurri, who said:

We entered upon the mother of ibn al-Zubayr, and she was a woman of great stature, blind, and we asked her about the mut'ah of the hajj.

She said: "The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, had granted dispensation for it."

Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi al-Zinad said: Asma was older than Aisha by ten years.

Hisham ibn Urwa: from his father and from Fatima bint al-Mundhir, from Asma, who said:

I prepared the meal of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, in the house of my father, as he was about to emigrate; and I found nothing to tie his meal nor his water-skin.

I said to my father: "I find only my belt."

He said: "Cut it in two and tie with them."

He said: it is for that that she was named Dhat al-Nitaqayn, the one of the two belts.

Ibn Ishaq: Yahya ibn Abbad narrated to me, from his father, from Asma, who said:

When the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, set out from Mecca, my father Abu Bakr carried with him all his wealth, five or six thousand; my grandfather Abu Quhafa came to me, having become blind, and said: "This one has afflicted you by his wealth and his person."

I said: "No, he has left us abundant wealth."

I took stones, placed them in the niche of the house, covered them with a garment, then took his hand, laid it upon the garment and said: "This is what he has left us."

He said: "Since he has left you this, very well."

Ibn Ishaq: I was narrated, from Asma, who said:

Abu Jahl came with a group; I went out to them and they said: "Where is your father?"

I said: "By Allah, I do not know where he is."

Abu Jahl raised his hand and struck my cheek so hard that my earring fell off, then they went away.

Three days passed, during which I did not know where the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, had gone; then a man of the jinn who hear came, raised his voice over Mecca and said:

May Allah, the Lord of the people, reward with the best of rewards
Two companions who said: "O you two of the tent of Umm Ma'abd [...]"

Ibn Abi Mulayka said: Asma suffered from headaches; she would place her hand on her head and say: "By my sin; and what Allah forgives is greater."

Urwa narrated from her; she said:

Her marriage to al-Zubayr

Al-Zubayr married me while he possessed nothing but his horse; I would feed it, carry fodder to it, pound nabaq pods for its trough, fetch water, knead dough;

and I would carry date stones from the land of al-Zubayr that the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, had allotted him, on my head, and it lay at two thirds of a farsakh.

One day I came, the stones on my head, and I met the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, with a group; he called me and said: "Ikh! Ikh!", so that I might ride behind him; I felt shy, and I remembered al-Zubayr and his jealousy.

She said: so he passed on.

When I returned, I told al-Zubayr, who said: "By Allah, your carrying those stones was harder upon me than seeing you ride with him!"

She said: until later Abu Bakr sent me a servant to look after the horse; it was as if he had set me free.

And from ibn al-Zubayr, who said: this verse came down concerning Asma; her mother, called Qutayla, came to her with gifts, and she refused to accept them until she had asked the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him.

Then came down: "Allah does not forbid you from being kind to those who have not fought you on account of religion..." (Surah al-Mumtahanah, verse 8).

And in the Sahih: Asma said: "Messenger of Allah! My mother has come, she is desirous; shall I keep ties with her?"

He said: "Yes, keep ties with your mother."

Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Urwa: from Hisham: Urwa said:

Al-Zubayr struck Asma; she called for help from her son Abd Allah; he came running; when he saw him, he said: "Your mother is divorced if you enter."

He said: "You would make my mother a stake of your oath!"

He burst in and delivered her.

He said: she then divorced him.

Hammad ibn Salama: from Hisham ibn Urwa: al-Zubayr divorced Asma, and took Urwa, who was then small.

Usama ibn Zayd: from Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir, who said:

The virtues of Asma bint Abi Bakr

Asma bint Abi Bakr was generous with her person.

Hisham ibn Urwa: from al-Qasim ibn Muhammad: I heard ibn al-Zubayr say:

"I never saw a woman more generous than Aisha and Asma; their generosity differed: Aisha would gather one thing with another, and when it had gathered she would set it in its place; as for Asma, she kept nothing back for the morrow."

Mus'ab ibn Sa'd said: Umar allotted to the emigrant women a thousand each; among them: Umm Abd and Asma.

Hisham ibn Urwa: from Fatima bint al-Mundhir: whenever Asma fell ill, she would free every slave she owned.

Al-Waqidi said: Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib was among the people most devout concerning dreams; he had taken that from Asma bint Abi Bakr, and she had taken it from her father.

Ma'n ibn Isa: Shu'ayb ibn Talha narrated to us, from his father:

Asma said to her son: "O my son, live nobly, die nobly, and let not the people take you captive."

Hisham ibn Urwa said: night robberies multiplied in Medina; Asma then took a dagger, in the time of Sa'id ibn al-As, which she would place under her head.

The death of Asma bint Abi Bakr

Urwa said: my brother and I, before he was killed, spent ten nights with our mother, who was ill.

Abd Allah said: "How do you find yourself?"

She said: "Ill."

He said: "In death there is relief."

She said: "Perhaps you desire my death; do not do so."

She laughed and said: "By Allah, I do not desire to die until one of your two outcomes comes to pass: either you are killed and I await it with you in hope of reward; or you prevail and my eyes are refreshed by you. Beware of being submitted to arbitration without obtaining it, and of bearing it as death is borne."

He said: my brother meant that he be killed, and that grieved her.

She was a hundred years old.

Ibn Uyayna: Abu al-Muhayyat narrated to us, from his mother, who said:

When al-Hajjaj killed ibn al-Zubayr, he entered upon Asma and said to her: "O mother! The commander of the believers has commended me to you; do you have a need?"

She said: "I am not your mother; rather I am the mother of the one crucified atop the Thaniyya. I have no need; but I shall narrate to you:

I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, say: "Out of Thaqif will come a liar and a destroyer."

As for the liar, we have seen him, meaning al-Mukhtar; as for the destroyer, it is you."

He said to her: "Destroyer of the hypocrites!"

Ahmad ibn Yunus: Abu al-Muhayyat Yahya ibn Ya'la al-Timi narrated to us, from his father, who said:

I entered Mecca three days after the killing of ibn al-Zubayr, while he was crucified; his mother came, an old woman, tall and blind, and said to al-Hajjaj: "Is it not time for the rider to dismount?"

He said: "The hypocrite."

She said: "By Allah, he was no hypocrite; he fasted, stood in prayer by night, and was kind."

He said: "Go away, old woman, you ramble."

She said: "No, by Allah, I do not ramble, since I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, say: "Out of Thaqif will come a liar and a destroyer", the hadith."

Ibn Uyayna: from Mansur ibn Safiyya, from his mother, who said:

Ibn Umar was told: Asma is in a corner of the mosque, at the moment when ibn al-Zubayr was crucified; he inclined toward her and said:

"These bodies are nothing; the souls are with Allah. Fear Allah and be patient."

She said: "What holds me back, when the head of Yahya ibn Zakariyya was brought to a prostitute among the prostitutes of the Children of Israel?"

Ayyub: from Ibn Abi Mulayka, who said:

I entered upon Asma after ibn al-Zubayr had been slain, and she said:

"I have been informed that this one has crucified Abd Allah. O Allah, do not let me die before he is brought to me, that I may embalm him and shroud him."

He was then brought to her; she embalmed him with her own hand and shrouded him after her sight had gone.

And by another route, from Ibn Abi Mulayka: she prayed over him; and she did not live more than a week before dying.

Sharik: from al-Rukayn ibn Rabi', who said:

I entered upon Asma bint Abi Bakr, grown very old, praying, while a woman was saying to her: "Stand, sit, do", because of old age.

Ibn Sa'd said: she died some nights after her son; his killing took place on the seventeenth of Jumada al-ula, in the year seventy-three.