His children

There is no disagreement: all his children are of Khadija bint Khouwaylid, save Ibrahim, born of Maria the Copt. The eldest was al-Qasim, then Zaynab, then Abdallah, then Oum Koulthoum, then Fatima, then Rouqayya. Al-Qasim, the first of his children to die, died at Mecca, then Abdallah died: and al-’As ibn Wa’il cried out: his line is cut, he is cut off! Allah then revealed: "surely it is you who have received al-Kawthar; pray to your Lord and sacrifice: your hater is the one cut off from all posterity." Other enumerations give the order: Zaynab, Rouqayya, al-Qasim, then at-Tahir, al-Mouttahir, at-Tayyib and al-Mouttayyab, then Oum Koulthoum, then Fatima, the youngest and dearest; Khadija gave her children out to a nurse, but none nursed Fatima but herself. It is said at-Tayyib is at-Tahir, and that he is Abdallah; and again that at-Tayyib and al-Mouttayyab were born of one womb, at-Tahir and al-Mouttahir of another. Various lifespans are related for al-Qasim: seven nights (a faulty version), seventeen months, two years; Qatada says he lived till he walked.

Zaynab, the eldest daughter, married Abou al-’As ibn ar-Rabi’, bearing Ali and Oumama, the one the Messenger of Allah carried in prayer: when he bowed he set her down, when he rose he took her up, perhaps after her mother’s death in year eight, as a little child. After Fatima’s death, Ali ibn Abi Talib married her in turn. Zaynab died in year eight: leaving Mecca, a man pushed her, she fell upon a rock and lost her child, and remained ailing till her death: she was held to have died a martyr. Rouqayya had first married her cousin Outba ibn Abi Lahab, as Oum Koulthoum had married Otayba: both were repudiated before consummation, out of hatred for the Messenger of Allah at the sura of the Blazing Flame.

Othman ibn ’Affan married Rouqayya and emigrated with her to Abyssinia, said to be the first; then to Medina, where she bore him Abdallah, who lived six years and died of a cock that pecked his eyes: on him he first took his kunya. She died on the day of Badr, while Othman, kept by her at the Messenger of Allah’s command, kept her bed; Zayd ibn Haritha, bearer of the news of victory, found them finishing her grave. The Prophet married Othman to her sister Oum Koulthoum: hence he was called Dhou l-Nourayn, possessor of the two lights; and he said: "had I a third, I would give her to Othman," or even: "had I ten." Oum Koulthoum died with him in Chab’an of year nine, bearing him no child.

Fatima married her cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib in Safar of year two; she bore al-Hasan and al-Houssayn, it is said Mouhassin also, then Oum Koulthoum and Zaynab. Oumar ibn al-Khattab later married Oum Koulthoum daughter of Ali and Fatima, paying her forty thousand dirhams in honour of her kinship to the Messenger of Allah; she bore him Zayd, and after Oumar’s martyrdom she married ’Awn ibn Ja’far, then Mouhammad ibn Ja’far, then Abdallah ibn Ja’far, with whom she died. Fatima died six months after the Messenger of Allah, the best-established view from Aïcha in the Sahih; az-Zouhri says three months, Abou az-Zoubayr two, Amr ibn Dinar eight. As for Ibrahim, born of Maria at Dhoul-Hijja of year eight: Jibril had come to announce: "peace upon you, Abou Ibrahim; Allah has given you a boy of your concubine Maria, and commanded you to name him Ibrahim." He died, by the best-related version, at eighteen months, on Tuesday the tenth of Rabi’ al-Awwal of year eleven, among the Banou Mazin, in the house of Oum Bourda bint al-Moundhir; by others at sixteen months.

The Prophet took him: "wrap him not in his shroud till I have seen him"; he bent over him and wept, his cheeks and sides trembling, and said: "the eye weeps, the heart grieves, and we say only what pleases the Lord; and of you, O Ibrahim, we are grieved." The Prophet washed him and shrouded him, went out and the people went out with him; Ali laid him in the grave beside the house of Mouhammad ibn Zayd, descended, levelled the earth, then sprinkled water; the Messenger of Allah put his hand into the grave: "by Allah, he is indeed a prophet, son of a prophet." Bara relates he prayed over him, and Ibn Abi Awfa heard four takbir. And he had said: "bury him at al-Baqi’: he has in Paradise a nursemaid who will complete his weaning"; "had Ibrahim lived he would have been a truthful prophet, but your prophet is the last of the prophets." The sun eclipsed on the day of his death, and the Messenger of Allah mounted the pulpit: "the sun and the moon are two signs of Allah: they do not eclipse for the death of anyone nor for his birth."