Abū ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (1), citing ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Jurjānī, says: “Afterward her marriage was taken up by his brother, ʿUbaydah ibn al-Ḥārith ibn al-Muṭṭalib ibn ʿAbd Manāf.”

Ibn al-Athīr states in al-Ghābah (2): “It is also said that she had been the wife of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jahsh, who was killed at Uḥud, leaving her a widow.”

Abū ʿUmar adds: “There is no disagreement that she died during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. It is further reported that she remained with him only two or three months before she passed away—may Allah be pleased with her.”

Al-Wāqidī (3) relates: “In Shawwāl of this very year the Messenger of Allah ﷺ married Umm Salamah, daughter of Abī Umayyah.”

I (the author) say: Before him she had been the wife of the father of her children, Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Asad, who, as mentioned earlier, fought at Badr and Uḥud. He was wounded at Uḥud and treated the wound for a month until it healed. Later he joined an expedition, from which he returned with some sheep and valuable spoils. After staying seventeen days, his wound reopened and he died three days before the end of Jumādā al-Ūlā of this year. When her waiting period was over in Shawwāl, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ personally proposed to her and sent ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb to her several times. She remembered, however, that she was a very jealous woman, and that she had small children who would occupy her and whose maintenance would require means for which she would have to work.

He ﷺ said, “As for the children, their provision is upon Allah and His Messenger—not upon you. As for jealousy, I shall pray to Allah to remove it.” She consented.

Her last words to ʿUmar were, “Rise and marry the Prophet ﷺ,” meaning that she had accepted and given permission. Some scholars misunderstood, thinking she was speaking to her son ʿUmar ibn Abī Salamah, who at that time was too young to conduct a marriage contract. I have compiled a separate treatise clarifying the correct view—praise and gratitude belong to Allah—that the one who served as her guardian was her son Salamah ibn Abī Salamah, her eldest child. This was permissible because his father was her cousin; thus a son may act as guardian for his mother when the cause of guardianship comes through some avenue other than mere filiation, by consensus. The same applies if he is her freedman or the judge. As for pure filiation alone, al-Shāfiʿī holds that it does not confer the right of guardianship in marriage, whereas the other three—Abū Ḥanīfah, Mālik, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal—hold otherwise, may Allah have mercy on them. A fuller discussion belongs elsewhere, namely in the “Book of Marriage” of al-Aḥkām al-Kabīr, if Allah wills.

Imām Aḥmad (4) said: Yūnus narrated to us; al-Layth—that is, Ibn Saʿd—narrated to us, from Yazīd ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Usāmah ibn al-Hād, from ʿAmr ibn Abī ʿAmr, from al-Muṭṭalib, from Umm Salamah, who said: One day Abū Salamah came to me from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, “I have just heard a saying from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that delighted me.” He said: “No Muslim is afflicted by a calamity and then, upon being stricken, declares, ‘Indeed we belong to Allah and to Him we return. O Allah, reward me for my calamity and replace it for me with something better,’ without Allah granting him that.” She said—