Asmaa bint Abu Bakr belonged to a differentiated Muslim family. Her dad, Abu Bakr, was a close ally of the Prophet and the first Khalifah after his death. Her half- sister, A'ishah, was a wife of the Prophet and one of the Ummahat al-Mu 'm ineen. Her married man, Zubayr ibn al- Awwam, was one of the exceptional individual aides of the Prophet. Her child, Abdullah ibn az-Zubayr, became well- renowned for his incorruptibility and his unswerving devotion to Truth.
Asmaa herself was one of the first individuals to accept Islam. Only about seventeen individuals encompassing both men and women became Muslims before her. She was subsequent granted the nickname Dhat an-Nitaqayn (the One with the Two Waistbands) because of an occurrence attached with the exodus of the Prophet and her dad from Makkah on the historic hijrah to Madinah.
Asmaa was one of the couple of individuals who knew of the Prophet's design to depart for Madinah. The utmost secrecy had to be sustained because of the Quraysh designs to killing the Prophet. On the evening of their exodus, Asmaa was the one who arranged a bag of nourishment and a water canister for their journey. She did not find any thing though with which to bind the containers and determined to use her waistband or nitaq. Abu Bakr proposed that she rip it into two. This she did and the Prophet commended her action. From then on she became renowned as "the One with the Two Waistbands".
When the last emigration from Makkah to Madinah took location shortly after the exodus of the Prophet, Asmaa was pregnant. She did not let her pregnancy or the outlook of a long and arduous excursion discourage her from leaving. As shortly as she come to Quba on the outskirts of Madinah, she provided birth to a child, Abdullah. The Muslims yelled AllaXu Akbar (God is the Greatest) and Laa ilaaha illa Allah (There is no God but Allah) in joyfulness and thanksgiving because this was the first progeny to be born to the muhajireen in Madinah.
Asmaa became renowned for her fine and noble features and for the keenness of her intelligence. She was an exceedingly bountiful person. Her child Abdullah one time said of her, "I have not glimpsed two women more bountiful than my auntie A'ishah and my mother Asmaa. But their generosity was conveyed in distinct ways. My auntie would build up one thing after another until she had accumulated what she sensed was adequate and then circulated it all to those in need. My mother, on the other hand, would not hold any thing even for the morrow."
Asmaa's occurrence of brain in tough attenuating components was remarkable. When her dad left Makkah, he took all his riches, amounting to some six 1000 dirhams, with him and did not depart any for his family. When Abu Bakr's dad, Abu Quhafah (he was still a mushrik) learned of his exodus he went to his dwelling and said to Asmaa:
"I realise that he has left you bereft of cash after he himself has left behind you."
"No, grandfather," answered Asmaa, "in detail he has left us much money." She took some pebbles and put them in a little recess in the partition where they utilised to put money. She chucked a piece of cloth over the heap and took the hand of her grandfather --he was blind--and said, "See how much cash he has left us".
Through this strategem, Asmaa liked to allay the doubts of the vintage man and to forestall him from giving them any thing of his own wealth. This was because she disapproved obtaining any aid from a mushrik even if it was her own grandfather.
She had a alike mind-set to her mother and was not inclined to compromise her respect and her faith. Her mother, Qutaylah, one time came to visit her in Madinah. She was not a Muslim and was separated from her dad in preIslamic times. Her mother conveyed her presents of raisins, clarified dairy disperse and qaraz (pods of a species of sant tree). Asmaa at the start denied to accept her into her dwelling or accept the gifts. She dispatched somebody to A'ishah to inquire the Prophet, calm be upon him, about her mind-set to her mother and he answered that she should absolutely accept her to her dwelling and accept the gifts. On this event, the next revelation came to the Prophet:
"God forbids you not, with consider to those who manage not battle you because of your belief neither propel you out of your dwellings, from considering caringly and fairly with them. God loves those who are just. God only forbids you with consider to those who battle you for your Faith, and propel you from your dwellings, and support other ones in going by car you out, from rotating to them (for companionship and protection). It is for example turn to them (in these circumstances) that manage wrong." (Surah al-Mumtahanah 60: 8-9).
For Asmaa and really for numerous other Muslims, life in Madinah was rather tough at first. Her married man was rather poor and his only foremost ownership to start with was a equine he had bought. Asmaa herself recounted these early days:
"I utilised to supply fodder for the equine, give it water and groom it. I would grind kernel and make dough but I could not ovenbake well. The women of the Ansar utilised to ovenbake for me. They were really good women. I utilised to convey the kernel on my head from az-Zubayr's contrive which the Prophet had assigned to him to cultivate. It was about three farsakh (about eight kilometres) from the town's centre. One day I was on the street bearing the kernel on my head when I contacted the Prophet and a assembly of Sahabah. He called out to me and halted his camel in order that I could travel behind him. I sensed humilitated to journey with the Prophet and furthermore recalled az-Zubayr's jealousy--he was the most envious of men. The Prophet appreciated that I was humilitated and travelled on."
Later, Asmaa associated to az-Zubayr precisely what had occurred and he said, "By God, that you should have to convey kernel is far more causing anguish to me than your travelling with (the Prophet)".
Asmaa conspicuously then was a individual of large sensitivity and devotion. She and her married man worked exceedingly hard simultaneously until their position of scarcity step-by-step changed. At times, although, az-Zubayr treated her harshly. Once she went to her dad and deplored to him about this. His answer to her was: "My female child, have sabr for if a woman has a righteous married man and he passes away and she does not wed after him, they will be conveyed simultaneously afresh in Paradise."
Az-Zubayr finally became one of the most rich men amidst the Sahabah but Asmaa did not permit this to corrupt her principles. Her child, al-Mundhir one time dispatched her an dignified dress from Iraq made of fine and exorbitant material. Asmaa by this time was blind. She sensed the material and said, "It's awful. Take it back to him".
Al-Mundhir was distressed and said, "Mother, it was not transparent."
"It may not be transparent," she retorted, "but it is too tight-fitting and displays the contours of the body." Al-Mundhir acquired another dress that contacted with her acceptance and she acknowledged it.
If the overhead occurrences and facets of Asmaa's life may effortlessly be disregarded, then her last gathering with her child, Abdullah, should stay one of the most unforgettable instants in early Muslim history. At that gathering she illustrated the keenness of her understanding, her resoluteness and the power of her faith. Abdullah was in the running for the Caliphate after the death of Yazid ibn Mu'awiyah. The Hijaz, Egypt, Iraq, Khurasan and much of Syria were favourable to him and accepted him as the Caliph. The Ummayyads although proceeded to challenge the Caliphate and to area a huge armed detachment under the order of Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ath-Thaqafi. Relentless assaults were battled between the two edges throughout which Abdullah ibn az-Zubayr brandished large actions of bravery and heroism. Many of his supporters although could not withstand the relentless damage of assault and step-by-step started to wasteland him. Finally he searched refuge in the Sacred Mosque at Makkah. It was then that he went to his mother, now an vintage unseeing woman, and said:
"Peace be on you, Mother, and the clemency and blessings of God."
"Unto you be calm, Abdullah," she replied. "What is it that adds you here at this hour while boulders from Hajjaj's catapults are raining down on your fighters in the Haram and agitating the dwellings of Makkah?" "I came to request your advice," he said.
"To request my advice?" she inquired in astonishment. "About what?"
"The persons have abandoned me out of worry of Hajjaj or being tempted by what he has to offer. Even my young children and my family have left me. There is only a little assembly of men with me now and although powerful and steadfast they are they can only oppose for an hour or two more. Messengers of the Banu Umayyah (the Umayyads) are now negotiating with me, proposing to give me anything wordly possessions I desire, should I lay down my arms and pledge allegiance to Abdul Malik ibn Marwan. What manage you think?"
Raising her voice, she replied:
"It's your activity, Abdullah, and you understand yourself better. If although you believe that you are right and that you are standing up for the Truth, then persevere and battle on as your companions who were slain under your flag had shown perseverance. If although you yearn the world, what a sad wretch you are. You would have decimated yourself and you would have decimated your men."
"But I will be slain today, there is no question about it."
"That is better for you than that you should submit yourself to Hajjaj voluntarily and that some minions of Banu Umayyah should play with your head."
"I manage not worry death. I am only aghast that they will mutilate me."
"There is not anything after death that man should be aghast of. Skinning does not origin any agony to the slaughtered sheep."
Abdullah's face beamed as he said:
"What a blessed mother! Blessed be your noble qualities! I have arrive to you at this hour to discover what I have heard. God understands that I have not dwindled or despaired. He is observer over me that I have not stood up for what I have out of love for this world and its enticements but only out of wrath for the sake of God. His restricts have been transgressed. Here am I, going to what is satisfying to you. So if I am slain, manage not grieve for me and commend me to God."
"I will grieve for you," said the aged but resolute Asmaa, "only if you are slain in a vain and unjust cause."
"Be guaranteed that your child has not sustained an unjust origin, neither pledged any detestable deed, neither finished any injustice to a Muslim or a Dhimmi and that there is not anything better in his view than the delight of God, the Mighty, the Great. I manage not state this to exonerate myself. God understands that I have only said it to make your heart firm and steadfast. "
"Praise be to God who has made you proceed as asserted by what He likes and according fo what I like. Come close to me, my child, that I may stink and seem your body for this might be the last gathering with you." Abdullah knelt before her. She hugged him and smothered his head, his face and his neck with kisses. Her hands started to compress his body when abruptly she removed them and asked:
"What is this you are wearing, Abdullah?"
"This is my armour plate."
"This, my child, ls not the dress of one who yearns martyrdom. Take it off. That will make your movements lighter and quicker. Wear rather than the sirwal (a long under garment) in order that if you are slain your 'awrah will not be exposed.
Abdullah took off his armour plate and put on the sirwal. As he left for the Haram to connect the battling he said:
"My mother, don't deprive me of your dada (prayer)."
Raising her hands to paradise, she prayed:
"O Lord, have clemency on his residing up for long hours and his blaring bawling in the darkness of the evening while persons dozed . . .
"O Lord, have clemency on his hunger and his desire on his excursions from Madinah and Makkah while he fasted . . .
"O Lord, bless his righteousness to his mother and his dad . . .
"O Lord, I commend him to Your origin and I am satisfied with anything You decree for him. And allocate me for his sake the pay of those who are persevering and who persevere."
By sunset, Abdullah was dead. Just over 10 days subsequent, his mother connected him. She was a century years old. Age had not made her infirm neither blunted the keenness of her mind.
Scanned from: "Companions of The Prophet", Vol.1, By: Abdul Wahid Hamid. |
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