be to Allah, the Sovereign, the All-Holy, the Source of Peace. I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, and that he is the one of whom Jesus, peace be upon him, gave glad tidings.
Khālid ibn Saʿīd then rose, delivered a brief address, concluded the marriage on her behalf, and received a dowry of four hundred dinars. After that the Negus ordered food to be brought, and they all ate.
She said, “When the money reached me I set aside fifty dinars for al-Burhah, but she refused. She produced a small casket containing everything I had given her, returned it to me, and said, ‘The king has bound me by oath not to take anything from you. I have submitted to Allah, and my only request is that you convey my salutations to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.’
“Then, from the king’s womenfolk, there came to me a gift of aloeswood, ambergris, and a large quantity of scented ointment (1).”
It is said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ consummated the marriage with her in the sixth year after the Hijrah. Khalīfah, however, maintains that he entered upon her in the seventh year.
Aṣḥama, in Arabic, means “gift.”
When he passed away, the Prophet ﷺ said to the people, “A brother of yours has died in the land of Abyssinia.” He led them out to the open plain, arranged them in rows, and performed the funeral prayer for him (2). Some scholars report that this took place in the month of Rajab, in the ninth year after the Hijrah.
- Muʿādh ibn Jabal ibn ʿAmr ibn Aws al-Anṣārī * (ʿ)
son of ʿĀʾidh ibn ʿAdiyy ibn Kaʿb ibn ʿAmr ibn Udayy ibn Saʿd ibn