All the Prophet’s children, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, were born to her except Ibrāhīm, whose mother was Māriyah al-Qibtiyyah. He had four daughters: Zaynab, Fātimah, Ruqayyah, and Umm Kulthūm. The sounder view is that Ruqayyah was the second after Zaynab, followed by Umm Kulthūm and then Fātimah. There is no disagreement that Zaynab was the eldest. It is said that she was born in the thirtieth year after the Prophet’s birth, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and died in 8 AH. She embraced Islam and emigrated when her husband, Abū al-ʿĀsī, refused to embrace Islam. He later embraced Islam and emigrated.

ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān married Ruqayyah in Mecca, and she emigrated with him to Abyssinia. There she bore him a son whom he named ʿAbd Allāh, from whom he took his kunyah. She died on the day of the Battle of Badr. Because of her illness, ʿUthmān remained behind from Badr at the command of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, allotted him his share of the spoils, so he is counted among those who took part in Badr.

After her, he married Umm Kulthūm. She died while married to him, having borne him no children. Their marriage contract was concluded in Rabīʿ al-Awwal, and he consummated the marriage in Jumādā al-Ākhirah of the third year after the emigration. She died in the ninth year, and her father, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, led her funeral prayer. Ruqayyah had previously been married to ʿUtbah ibn Abī Lahab, and her sister Umm Kulthūm to ʿUtaybah ibn Abī Lahab. When the verse was revealed, “May the hands of Abū Lahab perish, and may he perish!” [al-Masad: 1], their father, Lahab, and their mother, the carrier of firewood, told them, “Separate from Muhammad’s two daughters.” Abū Lahab said, “I shall have nothing to do with your mother unless you separate from Muhammad’s two daughters.” So they separated from them.

ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib married Fātimah, the daughter of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and the foremost woman of all the worlds, after the Battle of Uhud. It is also said that he married her four and a half months after the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, consummated his marriage to ʿĀʾishah, and that he consummated his own marriage seven and a half months after marrying her. At the time of their marriage, she was fifteen years, five and a half months old, while ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with him, was twenty-one years and five months old. She bore him al-Hasan, al-Husayn, Umm Kulthūm, and Zaynab, and he did not