Who are the Mothers of the Believers?
The standard count in the sources is eleven wives: Khadija bint Khuwaylid, Sawda bint Zamʿa, Aisha bint Abi Bakr, Hafsa bint Umar, Zaynab bint Khuzayma, Umm Salama (Hind bint Abi Umayya), Zaynab bint Jahsh, Juwayriyya bint al-Harith, Umm Habiba (Ramla bint Abi Sufyan), Safiyya bint Huyayy, and Maymuna bint al-Harith. Details of the count and order vary slightly between sources, and every one of them is named in Ibn Hajar’s Iṣāba.
ٱلنَّبِيُّ أَوۡلَىٰ بِٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ مِنۡ أَنفُسِهِمۡۖ وَأَزۡوَٰجُهُۥٓ أُمَّهَٰتُهُمۡۗ وَأُوْلُواْ ٱلۡأَرۡحَامِ بَعۡضُهُمۡ أَوۡلَىٰ بِبَعۡضٖ فِي كِتَٰبِ ٱللَّهِ مِنَ ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ وَٱلۡمُهَٰجِرِينَ إِلَّآ أَن تَفۡعَلُوٓاْ إِلَىٰٓ أَوۡلِيَآئِكُم مَّعۡرُوفٗاۚ كَانَ ذَٰلِكَ فِي ٱلۡكِتَٰبِ مَسۡطُورٗاПророк ближе к верующим, чем они сами, а его супруги — их матери. А кровные родственники ближе друг к другу согласно Писанию Аллаха, чем [остальные] верующие и мухаджиры, если только вы не сделаете своим близким добра. Это было начертано в Писании.
So marriage to them is forbidden to every believer until the Day of Judgement — “nor ever to exchange them for other wives” (Al-Ahzab 53) — and their station does not lapse with their deaths: it is a legislative motherhood addressed through prayer and following, not lineage.
Khadija bint Khuwaylid: the first to believe
A merchant of Quraysh’s nobility, managing her own capital, she hired Muhammad ﷺ for her trade before prophethood and then married him, remaining his wife for twenty-five years until her death. When revelation first descended and he returned trembling from Mount Hira, she was the first to believe him and steady him: a wife who became the Prophet’s ﷺ first refuge, his financial support, and his reassurance in the most anxious hours of history.
كلا، واللهِ لا يُخزيكِ اللهُ أبدًا، إنك لتصلِ الرحمَ، وتحمِلُ الكَلَّ، وتكسبُ المعدومَ، وتُقري الضيفَ، وتعينُ على نوائبِ الحق.Never — by Allah, Allah will never disgrace you: you keep the ties of kinship, bear the burden of the weak, earn for the destitute, honour the guest, and help against the calamities of truth.
بشِّرْ خديجةَ ببيتٍ في الجنةِ من قصبٍ، لا صَخَبَ فيه ولا نصَب.Give Khadija glad tidings of a house in Paradise of hollowed pearl, in it no clamour and no toil.
All of the Prophet’s ﷺ children were born from her: al-Qasim and Abdullah (al-Tayyib), Zaynab, Ruqayya, Umm Kulthum and Fatima — all four daughters were hers. She died in Mecca three years before the Hijra, in the “Year of Sorrow”, and her absence remained felt — the Prophet ﷺ would still speak of her with loyalty years after her death.
Aisha bint Abi Bakr: teacher of the nation
She narrated some 2,210 hadiths (Ibn Hajar, Iṣāba), and for about forty-eight years after the Prophet’s ﷺ death the Companions questioned her: law and prohibition, genealogy, poetry, medicine and the arithmetic of inheritance. Leading scholars said: “Aisha is the most learned of people” (Iṣāba). She raised the generation of Companions and Successors until she became teacher to the greatest hadith masters, such as Urwa ibn al-Zubayr and ʿAmra bint Abd al-Rahman.
يا عائشةُ، إنَّ اللهَ رفيقٌ يُحبُّ الرفقَ في الأمرِ كله.O Aisha, Allah is gentle and loves gentleness in all matters.
And a full surah descended declaring her innocent of the slander (An-Nur 11–26) — an explicit Quranic vindication that made attacking a woman’s honour among the gravest of sins, and made her story a lesson in judicial discipline: hasty verdicts and fabricated reports are to be suspended until the truth clears.
Umm Salama, Hind bint Abi Umayya: the consulted mind
Among the first emigrants, she narrated some 378 hadiths (Iṣāba) and was known for intellect and resolve, to the point that the Prophet ﷺ consulted her on public matters. At Hudaybiyya, when the Companions balked at the treaty’s terms, the Prophet ﷺ took her advice; she counselled a decisive action without public display, her counsel was carried out, and the treaty was concluded (al-Bukhari 2731) — her consultation became a turning point in the Sira.
Hafsa and Zaynab bint Jahsh: keeper of the mushaf, keeper of the lesson
Hafsa bint Umar: a scholar of the Quran and a writer; the first mushaf compiled in Abu Bakr’s era was kept in her trust, and people came to copy from it (Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt; al-Tabari’s History) — the lettered woman was the trustee of the nation’s first written document.
Zaynab bint Jahsh: Allah married her to the Prophet ﷺ to nullify the pre-Islamic custom of adoption and make an everlasting Quranic lesson: an adopted son is not barred from what a blood son is barred from. Aisha described her as modest and devout, working with her own hands and giving charity from her earnings (al-Bukhari 5362, from Anas).
وَإِذۡ تَقُولُ لِلَّذِيٓ أَنۡعَمَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيۡهِ وَأَنۡعَمۡتَ عَلَيۡهِ أَمۡسِكۡ عَلَيۡكَ زَوۡجَكَ وَٱتَّقِ ٱللَّهَ وَتُخۡفِي فِي نَفۡسِكَ مَا ٱللَّهُ مُبۡدِيهِ وَتَخۡشَى ٱلنَّاسَ وَٱللَّهُ أَحَقُّ أَن تَخۡشَىٰهُۖ فَلَمَّا قَضَىٰ زَيۡدٞ مِّنۡهَا وَطَرٗا زَوَّجۡنَٰكَهَا لِكَيۡ لَا يَكُونَ عَلَى ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ حَرَجٞ فِيٓ أَزۡوَٰجِ أَدۡعِيَآئِهِمۡ إِذَا قَضَوۡاْ مِنۡهُنَّ وَطَرٗاۚ وَكَانَ أَمۡرُ ٱللَّهِ مَفۡعُولٗاВот ты говорил тому, кого облагодетельствовал Аллах и кого облагодетельствовал ты: «Удержи при себе свою жену и бойся Аллаха!» И ты скрывал в душе то, что Аллах сделает явным, и боялся людей, хотя Аллах более достоин того, чтобы ты Его боялся. Когда же Зайд утратил к ней всякую потребность, Мы женили тебя на ней, дабы верующие не испытывали стеснения в отношении жён своих приёмных сыновей, когда те утратят к ним всякую потребность. И веление Аллаха непременно свершится.
Fatima, the Prophet’s ﷺ daughter: leader of the women of Paradise
The youngest of the Prophet’s ﷺ daughters and the most resembling him; when asked about her he said: “Fatima is a part of me” (al-Bukhari 3624). In the mubahala she was counted among “our women” (Aal Imran 61): when the Christian delegation came for mutual imprecation, he ﷺ went out carrying al-Hasan and al-Husayn, walking with Ali and Fatima — al-Bukhari records the account in his tafsir of Aal Imran.
فَمَنۡ حَآجَّكَ فِيهِ مِنۢ بَعۡدِ مَا جَآءَكَ مِنَ ٱلۡعِلۡمِ فَقُلۡ تَعَالَوۡاْ نَدۡعُ أَبۡنَآءَنَا وَأَبۡنَآءَكُمۡ وَنِسَآءَنَا وَنِسَآءَكُمۡ وَأَنفُسَنَا وَأَنفُسَكُمۡ ثُمَّ نَبۡتَهِلۡ فَنَجۡعَل لَّعۡنَتَ ٱللَّهِ عَلَى ٱلۡكَٰذِبِينَЕсли кто станет спорить с тобой о нём после того, как к тебе пришло знание, — скажи: «Придите, мы позовём наших сыновей и ваших сыновей, и наших женщин и ваших женщин, и нас самих и вас самих, затем взмолимся и призовём проклятие Аллаха на лжецов».
And in al-Bukhari (3432) she is among the “leader of the women of Paradise” after Maryam — her standing in narration is established: she transmitted from her father hadiths that the greatest hadith scholars included in their works.
The Prophet’s ﷺ four daughters
Zaynab the eldest, Ruqayya, Umm Kulthum and Fatima — all daughters of Khadija. They married leading Companions (Uthman married Ruqayya and then Umm Kulthum, earning the name “Dhu al-Nurayn” — possessor of two lights); Ruqayya and Umm Kulthum died in the Prophet’s ﷺ lifetime, and Fatima survived him by months. Islam made no preference between raising daughters and sons, and condemned pre-Islamic society’s resentment of a newborn girl:
وَإِذَا بُشِّرَ أَحَدُهُم بِٱلۡأُنثَىٰ ظَلَّ وَجۡهُهُۥ مُسۡوَدّٗا وَهُوَ كَظِيمٞКогда же кого-либо из них извещают о [рождении] девочки, лицо его чернеет, и он подавлен.
So under Islam, a daughter became a blessing whose care is rewarded: “Whoever is tried with any of these daughters and treats them well, they will be a shield for him from the Fire” (al-Bukhari 1418) — the hadith cited in this section’s main page.
Частые вопросы
Why did the Prophet ﷺ marry more than four wives?
The legislation was specific to him ﷺ and no one else (Al-Ahzab 50). He did not marry for youth or pleasure: his first marriage was to Khadija in his twenty-fifth year, and he took no other wife until after her death; he married widows and women of standing to weave alliances between tribes and cities, and to shelter households left without protectors (Sawda, Juwayriyya, Umm Habiba). And every home became a school — from them came more than three thousand hadiths.
Is a woman’s narration in religion accepted?
Yes — the Prophetic era settled the matter: Aisha narrated some 2,210 hadiths, Umm Salama 378, and Hafsa was trustee of the mushaf; the greatest hadith scholars, al-Bukhari and Muslim, included the female Companions’ narrations in their two authentic collections. For hadith critics, the conditions of narration are integrity and precision — not gender.
What does “Mother of the Believers” mean practically?
A legislative motherhood: marriage to them is forbidden to every believer until the Day of Judgement (Al-Ahzab 53); the nation joins them through prayer, kindness, and following what they transmitted of the religion — and their homes became the first schools of tafsir and fiqh after the Prophet’s ﷺ death.
Did the Companions differ on which of the Prophet’s ﷺ wives was most virtuous?
Texts establish the virtues of Khadija and Aisha in particular, and the biographical works record the virtues of the rest. We state virtues as established and do not stage comparisons between them — Allah called every one of them “Mother of the Believers” and promised them a great reward.
Коран: QuranEnc. Переводы хадисов: HadeethEnc. Источник указан у каждого пункта. Нашли ошибку? Сообщите нам.