Sayyidah Umm Kulthūm (R)

The Blessed Daughter of Rasūlullāh (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam)

• Sayyidah Umm Kulthūm (R) was elder than her sister Sayyidah Fātimah (R) and was the third daughter of Rasūlullāh (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam). (al-Istī’āb, al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah)

• Sayyidah Umm Kulthūm (R) was born when Nabī g was in his late thirties. (ibid)
• She was named Umm Kulthūm, which is not a name but an agnomen in Arabic. (Dhakhā’ir al-’Uqbā)
• Kulthūm in Arabic means: A person with clear and plumped cheeks; which is indicative towards her beauty.
• Like her sisters, she professed Islam upon the hands of Rasūlullāh (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) with her mother Sayyidah Khadījah (R). (Ṭabaqāt Ibn Sa’d).
• Nabī (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) married her to ‘Utaybah, the second son of Abū Lahab, but upon the command of his father he divorced her before consummation. (Siyar A’lām al-Nubalā’, Usd al-Ghābah)
• After the emigration of Rasūlullāh (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam), she and Sayyidah Fātimah (R) migrated alongside the other relatives of Rasūlullāh g to Madīnah. (Ṭabaqāt Ibn Sa’d, al-Iṣābah)
• Sayyidinā ‘Umar (R) had offered his daughter Sayyidah Hafsah (R) to ‘Uthmān (R), but he refused. Upon his refusal ‘Umar complained to Nabī g who remarked, “He will marry someone better than her,” i.e. Umm Kulthūm. (al-Iṣābah)
• Thus after the demise of Sayyidah Ruqayyah (R), Allah ordered Rasūlullāh (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) to wed Sayyidah Umm Kulthūm to Sayyidinā ‘Uthmān (R). (Sunan Ibn Mājah)
• The nikāḥ was solemnised in Rabī’ al-Awwal and the reception took place three months later in Jumād al-Ākhirah in 3 A.H. (al-Istī’āb, Usd al-Ghābah)
• Thus Sayyidinā ‘Uthmān became the only man in history to have ever married two daughters of a nabī. (Usd al-Ghābah)
• Sayyidinā ‘Uthmān (R) and Sayyidah Umm Kulthūm (R) were married for six years. (Tabaqāt Ibn Sa’d)
• Sayyidinā Anas (R), the servant of Nabī (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam), said, “I once saw Umm Kulthūm wearing a striped silken garment.” (Sahīh al-Bukhārī)
• She passed away in the month of Sha’bān in 9 A.H, and her age was approximately twenty five when she passed away. (Tabaqāt Ibn Sa’d, al-Isābah)
• Sayyidah Safīyyah, the aunt of Nabī (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam), Asmā’ bint ‘Umays—the wife of Abū Bakr, and Umm ‘Aṭīyah—an Ansārī woman, bathed and shrouded her. (Usd al-Ghābah, Tabaqāt Ibn Sa’d)
• Rasūlullāh (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) had instructed them to bathe her three, five, or more times. (al-Istī’āb, Usd al-Ghābah)
• He had also given his loin cloth to them and ordered them to include it in her winding sheet. (Usd al-Ghābah)
• Rasūlullāh (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) himself performed her funeral prayer. (Tabaqāt Ibn Sa’d)
• Sayyidinā Anas (R) reports that before her burial, Rasūlullāh (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) was seen weeping at her grave. (Tabaqāt Ibn Sa’d, al-Isābah)
• Sayyidinā ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib, FaDl ibn ‘Abbās, Usāmah ibn Zayd, and Abū TalHah al-Ansārī (R) descended into her grave for her burial. (Usd al-Ghābah, Tabaqāt Ibn Sa’d)