The Women of the Community

The story of these years is not only of men. The women of the believers were woven through every part of the community's life, and the Prophet ﷺ raised their standing in ways that startled his society. The Qur'an addressed them directly, again and again: the believing men and the believing women, for them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward.

They were scholars and teachers. Aisha (ra), still young, was becoming the keenest mind of the community; she would transmit over two thousand hadith and the senior Companions would come to her with their hardest questions. Umm Salamah (ra) gave the Prophet ﷺ the counsel that saved the day at Hudaybiyyah, as we will see. Hafsah (ra) would be entrusted with the first complete written collection of the Qur'an.

They were defenders and nurses. At Uhud, Nusaybah bint Ka'b (ra) fought with sword and shield around the Prophet ﷺ and took thirteen wounds; he said that day he did not turn left or right without seeing her fighting for him. Women carried water to the fighters and tended the injured behind the lines. Rufaydah al-Aslamiyyah (ra) ran what was, in effect, the community's first field hospital, a tent in the mosque's courtyard.

And they had a voice that revelation itself answered. When a woman, Khawlah bint Tha'labah (ra), came pleading about her husband's wrong against her, and the matter seemed beyond remedy, the opening of Surah al-Mujadilah came down: Allah has heard the words of she who disputes with you concerning her husband and complains to Allah. Aisha (ra) marvelled: praise be to Allah, whose hearing encompasses all things; I could hear some of what she said and miss some, and Allah heard it all from above the seven heavens. In a world that buried daughters, the Lord of the worlds revealed verses in answer to one wronged woman's complaint.