Ahmad said this before learning (1) his age. Several historians, including Ibn Saʿd and others, have stated how old he was.”

It has also been said that the person who married her to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was her paternal cousin, Umar ibn al-Khattāb, and the hadith reads: “Rise, Umar, and marry me to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him” (2). Umar’s lineage and that of Umm Salamah converge at Kaʿb: he was Umar ibn al-Khattāb ibn Nufayl ibn Abd al-Uzzā ibn Riyāh ibn Abd Allāh ibn Qurt ibn Razāh ibn Adī ibn Kaʿb, while Umm Salamah was the daughter of Abū Umayyah ibn al-Mughīrah ibn Abd Allāh ibn Umar ibn Makhzūm ibn Yaqazah ibn Murrah ibn Kaʿb. Her son Umar bore the same name as him. She therefore said (3), “Rise, Umar, and marry me to the Messenger of Allah.” Some narrators assumed that she meant her son, so they narrated it by meaning, saying, “She said to her son!” They overlooked the fact that he could not do so (4) because of his young age.

A similar error was made by some jurists when relating this hadith: “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, ‘Rise, young boy, and marry your mother.’” Abū al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzī said (5), “We do not know of this wording in this hadith.” He said, “If it is established, he may have said it in jest to the young child, who was then three years old, because (6)