Married From Above the Seven Heavens

Zaynab bint Jaḥsh was a very righteous woman. In fact, among the wives of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), she held a very important status with him. ʿĀʾishah says: none of the wives of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) used to rival me in my status with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) except Zaynab. And the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said about her, asraʿukunna laḥāqan bī aṭwalukunna yadan: the quickest of you to follow me after my death will be the one of you with the longest arm. So ʿĀʾishah used to say: we, the wives of the Messenger of Allah, would measure our arms to see who had the longest arm. But they did not understand what the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) meant. What he meant by the longest arm is not literal: it means the one who gives out ṣadaqah the most. And that was Zaynab bint Jaḥsh, and she was the one who died soonest among the wives of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) after he passed away (Muslim 2452).

ʿĀʾishah said about her: I have never seen a woman better than her in her religion, more fearful of Allah than her, more truthful in her speech, more attentive to family ties than her; I have never seen a woman who gave more ṣadaqah than her, and she would give herself totally to the deed she was doing, by which she sought to draw near to Allah. The only thing with her was that she had a temper, but she would very soon come back to her normal state. May Allah be pleased with her.

This marriage of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) to Zaynab has been a point of controversy with the kuffār. They have tried to use it as a point of attack against the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). And it is interesting to see that there are two particular marriages the kuffār speak about the most: the marriage to ʿĀʾishah, because of her young age, and the marriage to Zaynab, because they surrounded it with many tales and legends. And it is interesting to see that these are the two particular marriages that were commanded by Allah (swt). Zaynab bint Jaḥsh would say to the other wives of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): you were married off by your families, while I was married by Allah from above the seven heavens — because Allah (swt) says in the Qurʾān, zawwajnākahā, "We married her to you" (33:37). So when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was married to ʿĀʾishah, there was no ʿaqd or anything; he just walked into her room, because the marriage was performed by Allah (swt);^*** and with ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her), it happened because he had seen her in a dream, and we know that the dreams of the prophets are waḥy. That is the marriage of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) to Zaynab.

Also in this period, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) married Umm Ḥabībah bint Abī Sufyān, the daughter of Abū Sufyān. She was in al-Ḥabashah at the time, with the Muhājirūn in Abyssinia. Her husband, ʿUbaydullāh ibn Jaḥsh — subḥān Allāh, he was one of the Muhājirūn, but he had a change of heart. He was deceived by Shayṭān; he became a murtadd and became a Christian, and he used to make fun of the Muslims and say: you are looking with your eyes half-open, while I have seen the light — referring to Christianity. He died a murtadd. After he passed away, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) sent ʿAmr ibn Umayyah al-Ḍamrī to al-Najāshī to marry him to Umm Ḥabībah bint Abī Sufyān, and the marriage was performed. The walī of Umm Ḥabībah was her cousin Khālid ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ, and the representative of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) in performing the contract was al-Najāshī. By this, Umm Ḥabībah became Umm al-Muʾminīn, and Muʿāwiyah became the maternal uncle of the believers, because he is her brother. May Allah be pleased with him and with her, and may Allah be pleased with all the Companions, and may Allah send peace and blessings upon our master Muḥammad and upon his family and Companions.