The nurses of Prophet Muhammad: Umm Ayman and Thouwayba

Umm Ayman the faithful, and Thouwayba before Halima

Umm Ayman, named Baraka, used to care for him: he inherited her from his father (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). When he grew up, he freed her and married her to his freed slave Zayd ibn Haritha; she bore Usama ibn Zayd. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was also nursed, along with his mother, by Thouwayba, the freed slave of his uncle Abu Lahab, before Halima as-Sa’diya.

Umm Habiba’s hadith: “she is my sister through nursing”

al-Bukhari and Mouslim related in their two Sahihs, from az-Zuhri, from Urwa ibn az-Zubayr, from Zaynab bint Umm Salama, from Umm Habiba bint Abi Soufyan, who said: “O Messenger of Allah, marry my sister, the daughter of Abi Soufyan”; and in Mouslim’s version: ’Azza bint Abi Soufyan. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Do you wish that?” She replied: “Yes: I would not be alone for you, and I love whoever shares with me in the good of my sister.” The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “That is not lawful for me.” She said: “We are told that you intend to marry the daughter of Umm Salama”; in one version: Durra bint Abi Salama. He said: “The daughter of Umm Salama? Were she not my stepdaughter in my care, she would not be lawful for me: she is my sister through nursing, Thouwayba nursed me and Abu Salama. So do not present to me your daughters nor your sisters.”

Abu Lahab’s dream: the reward of the emancipation

Urwa said: Thouwayba, the freed slave of Abu Lahab, was freed by him and nursed the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). When Abu Lahab died, one of his people saw him in a dream in a dreadful form and asked him: “What have you met?” Abu Lahab replied: “I met no good after you, except that I was given drink in this spot for freeing Thouwayba,” and he pointed to the space between the thumb and the index finger.

as-Suhayli and others mentioned that the one who saw him in the dream was his brother al-Abbas, and that this took place a year after Abu Lahab’s death, which occurred after the battle of Badr. It is also said that Abu Lahab’s punishment is lightened on Mondays: when Thouwayba brought him the good news of the birth of his brother’s son, Muhammad ibn Abdallah, he freed her on the spot, and he was rewarded for that.