I say: Khalīfah, Abū ʿUbaydah Maʿmar ibn al-Muthannā, and Ibn al-Barqī likewise held that the Prophet’s ﷺ marriage to Umm Ḥabībah occurred in year six, while others placed it in year seven.
Al-Bayhaqī said: Ibn Isḥāq maintained that the Prophet ﷺ married Umm Ḥabībah before Umm Salamah—and, Al-Bayhaqī adds, this is the view that appears stronger.
I say: We have already noted that his ﷺ marriage to Umm Salamah took place toward the end of year four. As for Umm Ḥabībah, the date might have been earlier or later, yet assigning it to the period after the Battle of the Trench seems more likely, because ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ is reported to have seen ʿAmr ibn Umayyah with the Negus in connection with her case. Allah knows best.
Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn al-Athīr relates in al-Ghābah (1), on the authority of Qatādah, that when Umm Ḥabībah migrated from Abyssinia to Madinah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ proposed to her and married her. He also cites a second opinion that the marriage took place after her father embraced Islam, following the Conquest. Those who hold this latter view adduce as proof what Muslim (2) transmits through the chain of ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAmmār al-Yamāmī (3), from Abū Zumayl Samāk ibn al-Walīd, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that Abū Sufyān said:
“O Messenger of Allah, grant me three things.”
He replied, “Yes.”
He said, “Make me commander so that I may fight the unbelievers just as I fought the Muslims.”
He replied, “Yes.”
He said, “And appoint Muʿāwiyah as your scribe.”
He replied, “Yes.”
He said, “And I have with me the most beautiful and noble woman among the Arabs—Umm Ḥabībah bint Abī Sufyān—so let me marry her to you …” and he mentioned the ḥadīth in full.
Ibn al-Athīr comments: This ḥadīth is one of those for which Muslim has been criticized, because when Abū Sufyān came to renew the treaty before the Conquest he entered his daughter Umm Ḥabībah’s quarters and she folded up the Prophet’s ﷺ bedding away from him. He said, “By Allah, I do not know whether you distanced me from it or it from me.” She replied, “This is the bedding of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and you are a polytheist.” He retorted, “By Allah, you have fared badly since my departure, my daughter.”
Ibn Ḥazm declared this ḥadīth fabricated by ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAffār, though his claim has not been accepted. Others suggested that Abū Sufyān wished to renew the marriage contract because it had been concluded without his permission and this rankled him; others, that he thought his daughter’s marriage had been annulled by his conversion. All these explanations are weak. The sounder view is that he intended to offer the Prophet ﷺ his other daughter, ʿIzzah, seeking thereby a mark of honor, and enlisted her sister Umm Ḥabībah’s help, as related in the two Ṣaḥīḥs (4). The narrator merely erred in naming Umm Ḥabībah, and we have devoted a separate treatise to the issue.
Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām states that Umm Ḥabībah died in the year 44 AH (5).