Documents of the Right Word

as-Siddîq. Upon the command of Allâhu ta’âlâ she was married to
our master, Rasûlullah, through nikâh (marriage contract as
prescribed by Islam) when she was six years old, and the wedding
ceremony was held in the first year of Hijrat, when she was nine.
She was praised and lauded (by Allâhu ta’âlâ) in Qur’ân al-kerîm.
She was learned, literary, very wise, and masterly skilled. She
reported more than a thousand hadîth-i-sherîfs. She was eighteen
years old when Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ passed
away. She passed away in Medîna in 57 (H.), when she was sixtyfive
years old. She was Abdullah bin Zubeyr’s maternal aunt]: the
As-hâb-i-kirâm would race for attaining Rasûlullah’s love; for
instance, they would bring him their presents when he was in
Âisha’s home. There were two groups of the (blessed) wives.
Hafsa, Safiyya, and Sawda were with Âisha. The second group
were Umm-i-Salama and others. This group sent Umm-i-Salama
to Rasûlullah with the request, “Please command your As-hâb
that anyone who would like to give you a present should take it to
the home of the wife you happen to be with!” Upon this,
Rasûlullah stated, “Do not hurt me about Âisha! Only when I was
with her did Jebrâil (Gabriel, the Archangel) ‘alaihis-salâm’ visit
me.” Sorry about what she had said, Umm-i-Salama made tawba
and begged for forgiveness. But the wives sent Fâtima ‘radiy-
Allâhu ta’âlâ anhunna’ with the same request. The (Prophet’s)
answer was: “O my daughter! Will you not love whom I love?”
When Fâtima answered, “Of course, I will,” Rasûlullah said,
“Then, love Âisha!” Âisha ‘radiy-Allâhu anhâ’ related, “Among
Rasûlullah’s wives, Hadîja [1]
‘radiy-Allâhu anhâ’ was the one I
envied most and wished I had been in her place, though I had
never seen her. For, dead as she was, he mentioned her name very
frequently. Whenever he killed a sheep and dealt out the meat, he
would make sure that a certain amount (of meat) be reserved and
would send it to Hadîja’s relatives. On one such occasion I said to
him, ‘Why do you mention Hadîja’s name so often as though
Allâhu ta’âlâ had given you no other women?’ He answered, ‘Yes,
I did have other women. Yet she was so good, so..., (He praised
[1] Hadîja-t-ul-kubrâ, Rasûlullah’s first blessed wife. Our Prophet did not
marry another woman as long as she lived. She was forty years old
when she married the Messenger of Allah, who was twenty-five then.
She passed away in Mekka, in the blessed month of Ramadân, three
years before the Hijrat (the Prophet’s migration to Medîna). It was
one year after her passing away that Allâhu ta’âlâ commanded His
beloved Messenger to “marry (hadrat) Âisha.”
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