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Maimunah bint al-Harith, (may Allah be pleased with her),
married the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in 7
AH, when the Prophet was sixty years old and she was thirty six years old.
Maimunah's sister, Umm al-Fadl Lubaba, was the mother of Abdullah ibn Abbas,
the son of one of the uncles of the Prophet and the one of the wisest of his
Companions.
Umm al-Fadl was one of the earliest Companions of the Prophet. Once Abu
Lahab, the enemy of Allah and the Messenger of Allah, entered the house of
his brother, al-Abbas, and proceeded to attack Abbas client, Abu Rafi,
because he had embraced Islam. Abu Lahab knocked him to the ground and knelt
on him, continuing to beat him. Umm al Fadl grabbed a post that was there
and cracked it across Abu Lahab's head, saying, "Will you victimize him
because his master is absent?" He treated in shame and died a week later.
Zainab bint Khuzayma, Umm al Muminin, was also her half-sister. Her other
sisters included Asma bint Umays, the wife of Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, who
later married Abu Bakr, and Salmah bint Umays, the wife of Hamza, the "Lion
of Allah". Her full sisters were Lubaba, Asmah and Izza. Maimunah was thus
one of the 'Ahlul- Bayt' , 'the people of the House', not only by virtue of
being a wife of the Prophet, (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) but
also because she was related to him. Zayd bin Arqam related that the
Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, "I
implore you by Allah! The People of my House!" three times. Zayd was asked
who were the People of the House, and he said, "The family of Ali ibn Abi
Talib, the family of Jafar ibn Abi Talib, the family Aqil ibn Abi Talib, and
the family of Al Abbas ibn Abdal Muttalib."
Maimunah or Barra as she was then called, yearned to marry the Prophet. She
went to her sister, Umm al Fadl to talk to her about that and she, in turn,
spoke to her husband, al-Abbas. Al-Abbas immediately went to the Messenger
(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) with Maimunah's offer of marriage
to him and her proposal was accepted. When the good news reached her, she
was on a camel, and she immediately got off the camel and said, "The camel
and what is on it is for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of
Allah be upon him)." They were married in the month of Shawwal in 7 AH just
after the Muslims of Medina were permitted to visit Mecca under the terms of
the treaty of Hudaybiyya to perform umra. Allah Almighty sent the following
ayat about this:
Any believing woman who dedicates herself to the Prophet if the Prophet
wishes to wed her, that is only for thee and not for the believers. (Quran
33:50)
The Prophet gave her the name, Maimunah, meaning "blessed", and Maimunah
lived with the Prophet for just over three years, until his death. She was
obviously very good natured and got on well with everyone, and no quarrel or
disagreement with any of the Prophet's other wives has been related about
her. 'A'isha said about her, "Among us, she had the most fear of Allah and
did the most to maintain ties of kinship." It was in her room that the
Prophet first began to feel the effects of what became his final illness and
asked the permission of his wives to stay in A'isha's room while it lasted.
After the Prophet's death, (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)
Maimunah continued to live in Medina for another forty years, dying at the
age of eighty, in 51 AH, (may Allah be pleased with her), being the last of
the Prophet's wives to die. She asked to be buried where had married the
Prophet at Saraf and her request was carried out. It is related that at the
funeral of Maimunah, Ibn Abbas said, "This is the wife of Allah's Messenger,
(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) so when you lift her bier, do not
shake her or disturb her, but be gentle." It is also related by Ibn Abbas
that he once stayed the night as a guest of Maimunah, who was his aunt, and
the Prophet, (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) They slept on their
blanket lengthways and he slept at the end, crossways. After they had all
slept for awhile, the Prophet rose in the middle of the night to pray the
tahajjud prayer, and Ibn Abbas joined him.
They both did wudu, and he prayed eleven rakats with the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him). Then they both went back to sleep again
until dawn. Bilal called the adhan, and the Prophet did another two short
rakats, before going into the mosque to lead the Dawn Prayer.
Ibn Abbas said that one of the dua'ahs that the Prophet made during this
night was : "O Allah, place light in my heart, light in my tongue, light in
my hearing, light on my sight, light behind me, light in front of me, light
on my right, light on my left, light above me and light below me; place
light in my sinew, in my flesh, in my blood, in my hair and in my skin;
place light in my soul and make light abundant for me; make me light and
grant me light."
It is commonly agreed that it was after the Prophet had married Maimunah,
giving him now nine wives (A'isha, Sawdah, Hafsah, Umm Salamah, Zainab bint
Jahsh, Juwayriyyah, Umm Habibah, Safiyyah and Maimunah), that the following
ayat was revealed:
It is not lawful for you (O Muhammad, to marry more) women after this, nor
to exchange them for other wives, even though their beauty is pleasing to
you, except those whom your right hand possesses (as maid servants); and
Allah is always watching over everything. (Quran 33:52)
After this, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) did not
marry again. When however, the Christian ruler, or Muqawqis, of Egypt, sent
him two Christian slave girls 0 who were sisters as a gift (in response to
the Prophet's letter inviting him to embrace Islam), along with a fine robe
and some medicine the Prophet, accepted one of the slave girls, Maria, into
his household; he gave her sister Serene, to a man whom he wished to honor,
namely Hassan ibn Thabit; he accepted the robe; and he returned the medicine
with the message, "My Sunna is my medicine!" This occurred in 7 AH, when the
Prophet was sixty years old and Maria was twenty years old.
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