Description
Her full name was Hind bint Abi Umayyah Al-Makhzumiyyah - but history knows her as Umm Salamah, Mother of the Believers. And hers is one of the most moving and instructive stories in all of Islamic history: a woman who lost everything, asked Allah for what seemed impossible, and received more than she could have imagined.Umm Salamah: The Patient and Wise One by Manarah Publishing is part of the Noble Women's Stories Series - a collection of biographies of the remarkable women who shaped Islamic history, written to inspire and educate the next generation of Muslim readers.Umm Salamah was among the earliest converts to Islam. She and her first husband, Abu Salamah, endured the persecution of the early Muslims in Makkah, made the first Hijrah to Abyssinia, and then faced an agonizing separation when the Quraysh prevented her from traveling to Madinah with her husband and young son. For over a year - some accounts say longer - she sat in Makkah, weeping daily, separated from both the man she loved and the child she had borne him.Her patience in that time became legendary. And when the separation finally ended and she was reunited with her husband and son and made Hijrah to Madinah, she understood something about Allah's promise that no ease of life could have taught her.When Abu Salamah died of wounds sustained at Uhud, Umm Salamah turned again to Allah - and is said to have prayed the Du'a he taught her: "O Allah, reward me in my affliction and replace it with something better." No one, she felt, could replace Abu Salamah. And then the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) himself proposed to her.The book also highlights her exceptional qualities beyond patient endurance - she was one of the most learned of all the Mothers of the Believers, narrating over 300 Hadith. And her wisdom in advising the Prophet (peace be upon him) at Hudaybiyyah - where her counsel helped resolve a crisis among the Companions - became one of the most celebrated moments of feminine wisdom in Islamic history.Umm Salamah: The Patient and Wise One explores the lessons her life offers every young Muslim reader: that Allah's replacement for what we lose is always better than what we grieve; that wisdom and knowledge are as important as patience; and that the greatest women in history were not great despite their trials - they were great through them.
