of Allah, by Allah, he has uttered the word you asked of him.’ The Prophet ﷺ replied, ‘I did not hear it.’

Its chain of transmission is weak, for it contains an unknown narrator. Moreover, al-ʿAbbās was still a polytheist at that time; consequently, even if the report were sound, the Prophet ﷺ did not accept his testimony and said to him, ‘I did not hear it.’ We have already noted that after al-ʿAbbās embraced Islam he said, ‘Messenger of Allah, have you benefited Abū Ṭālib in any way? He used to protect you and become angry on your behalf.’ Had al-ʿAbbās known that his brother Abū Ṭālib had embraced Islam, he would not have spoken thus, nor would he have kept silent when the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘He is in a shallow part of the Fire.’ Instead, he would have declared, ‘I heard him say Lā ilāha illā Allāh.’ Yet the Rāfiḍah are a people given to fabrication.

Ibn Isḥāq said: Khadījah bint Khuwaylid and Abū Ṭālib died in the same year, and with their loss calamities came upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ one after another.

Khadījah was a truthful helper in the cause of Islam; he found repose in her.

Al-Wāqidī related that they left the Valley three years before the Hijrah, that both of them died that same year, and that Khadījah passed away thirty-five days before Abū Ṭālib.

Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim, however, said that her death occurred three days after Abū Ṭālib’s, and others have said the same.

She is Khadījah bint Khuwaylid ibn Asad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā ibn Quṣayy, of the clan of Asad.

Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār said: In the pre-Islamic era she was called al-Ṭāhirah (“the Pure”). Her mother was Fāṭimah bint Zāʾidah ibn al-Aṣamm al-ʿĀmiriyyah. Khadījah had previously been married to Abū Hālah ibn Zurārah al-Tamīmī—there is disagreement over Abū Hālah’s given name—after whose death ʿAtīq ibn ʿĀʾidh married her.