Allah, and that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ married her while she was still in Abyssinia; the Negus himself gave her away, fixing a dowry of four thousand dirhams, and he sent her to Medina with Shurahbīl ibn Ḥasanah, with her entire trousseau paid for by the Negus. (1)

Ibn Luhayʿah, on the authority of al-Aswad from ʿUrwah, stated: It was ʿUthmān who acted as her guardian and married her to the Prophet in Abyssinia.

Ibn Saʿd relates: al-Wāqidī told us, ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr ibn Zuhayr narrated to us, from Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd, who said:

Umm Ḥabībah said, “I saw my husband ʿUbayd Allah in a dream, appearing in the ugliest and most disfigured form. Startled, I exclaimed, ‘By Allah, his condition has surely changed!’ When morning came he said, ‘I have examined the religions and found none better than Christianity. I once adhered to it, then I entered the religion of Muhammad, and now I have returned to it.’ I told him of my dream, but he paid it no heed and immersed himself in wine.

“Later I was shown someone calling out, ‘Mother of the Believers!’ I was frightened, and I interpreted it to mean that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would marry me.” She then recounted the rest of the story at length, but the report is objectionable. (2)

Husayn ibn Wāqid, through Yazīd al-Nahwī, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, said regarding the verse: “Indeed, Allah intends only to remove from you impurity, O People of the House…” [Al-Aḥzāb 33]: “It was revealed specifically about the wives of the Prophet ﷺ.” (3) Its chain of transmission is acceptable, and the flow of the verses supports this interpretation.