Saudat bint Zamʿah (RA)
Saudah bint Zamʿah ibn Qays (RA) was one of the wives of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ and among the earliest women to embrace Islam in Makkah. She belonged to the Quraysh tribe through the clan of ʿĀmir ibn Luʾayy. Saudah (RA) accepted Islam during the early phase of the Prophet’s mission together with her husband al-Sakrān ibn ʿAmr (RA). Because of the persecution faced by the early Muslims, the couple participated in the migration to Abyssinia (al-Ḥabashah), making her among the first Muslim women to undertake migration for the sake of faith. After returning to Makkah, her husband passed away, leaving her widowed.
Following the death of Khadījah bint Khuwaylid (RA), the Prophet ﷺ married Saudah (RA) in approximately the tenth year of Prophethood, before the Hijrah to Madīnah. The marriage occurred during a period of grief and difficulty for the Prophet ﷺ and provided support and stability within his household. Saudah (RA) was known for her simplicity, generosity, humour, and deep devotion to the Prophet ﷺ. Reports in the ḥadīth literature portray her as a woman of strong character and sincere piety. She later offered her allotted time with the Prophet ﷺ to ʿĀʾishah (RA), seeking thereby the continued honour of remaining among the Mothers of the Believers (Ummahāt al-Muʾminīn).
Saudah bint Zamʿah (RA) transmitted several aḥādīth and remained a respected figure within the early Muslim community after the Prophet’s ﷺ death. She lived through the caliphates of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar (RA) and is reported to have died during the caliphate of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (RA). In sīrah and biographical literature, Saudah (RA) is remembered for her loyalty, humility, and sacrifices during the formative years of Islam. Her life reflects the experiences of the earliest Muslim women who endured persecution, migration, and hardship while contributing to the establishment of the Muslim community.
## References
1 Qurʾān 33:32–33, 37, 50. 2 Ṣafī al-Raḥmān Mubārakpūrī, al-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm (Urdu) (Lahore: Maktabah al-Salafiyyah, 1995), 634–44. 3 Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār and Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Hishām, Sīrat Ibn Hishām, Urdu trans. Syed Yāsīn ʿAlī Ḥusnī Niẓāmī (Lahore: Idārah Islāmiyāt, 1994), 2:419–24. 4 Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī, trans. Syed Muḥammad Ibrāhīm and Ḥabīb al-Raḥmān Ṣiddīqī (Karachi: Nafīs Academy, 1990), 2:377–81. 5 Shiblī Nuʿmānī and Syed Sulaimān Nadwī, Sīrat al-Nabī (Lahore: Maktabah Khalīl, 1990), 1:485–94. 6 Fida Hussain, Wives of the Prophet (Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1983). 7 Muḥammad Ilyās Ghumman, Ummahāt al-Muʾminīn [Arabic] (Sargodhā: Maktabah-i Ahl al-Sunnat wa al-Jamāʿah, 2019).