28 – Zaynab, daughter of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the eldest of his daughters and one of the noble Emigrant ladies (1).

She was married, while her mother was still alive, to her cousin Abū al-ʿĀṣ. She bore him Umāmah, whom ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib later married after Fāṭimah, and she bore him ʿAlī ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ, about whom it is said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ seated him behind him on the Day of the Conquest. I think he died while still a child (2).

Ibn Saʿd reports that Abū al-ʿĀṣ wed Zaynab before the advent of prophethood (3), but this is unlikely.

Zaynab accepted Islam and emigrated six years before her husband embraced the faith.

It is related from ʿĀʾishah with a weak chain that Abū al-ʿĀṣ was present at Badr as a polytheist and was captured by ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jubayr al-Anṣārī. When the Meccans sent ransoms for their captives, his brother ʿAmr brought the ransom for Abū al-ʿĀṣ, and Zaynab sent with him a necklace of jazʿ Ẓafar (striped onyx) that Khadījah had placed on her at the time of her marriage, as payment for her husband’s release.

When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw the necklace he recognized it, was moved, and said, “If you consider it proper to release her prisoner for her, then do so.”

They replied, “Yes.”

He then took from Abū al-ʿĀṣ a pledge that he would send her to him, and he carried it out (4).