Abū Bakr ibn Abī Khaythamah said: She died one year before Muʿāwiyah, and Muʿāwiyah passed away in Rajab of the year 60 AH.

His ﷺ marriage to Zaynab bint Jaḥsh (1)—the daughter of Ummaymah bint ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the Prophet’s paternal aunt—took place after she had previously been the wife of his freedman Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, may Allah be pleased with him.

Qatādah, al-Wāqidī and a number of the Medinan scholars maintain that he ﷺ married her in the fifth year, some adding that it occurred in Dhū al-Qaʿdah. Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī says the marriage was concluded after the campaign against Banū Qurayẓah. Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ, Abū ʿUbaydah Maʿmar ibn al-Muthannā and Ibn Mundah date it to the third year. The first opinion is the better known and is adopted by Ibn Jarīr and many other historians.

Several Qurʾānic exegetes, jurists, and historians have cited—concerning the reason for this marriage—a report recorded by Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal in his Musnad (2). We have deliberately refrained from quoting it, lest someone unfamiliar with its context take it amiss.

Allah, Exalted be He, says:
“When you said to the one upon whom Allah had bestowed favor and you likewise had favored, ‘Keep your wife and fear Allah,’ while you were concealing within yourself what Allah was about to reveal. You feared the people, although Allah has a greater right that you fear Him. So when Zayd had ended his relationship with her, We gave her to you in marriage, so that there would be no restriction upon the believers regarding the wives of their adopted sons once they have ended their relationship with them. And the command of Allah is ever fulfilled. There is no blame upon the Prophet concerning what Allah has ordained for him. Such is the practice of Allah with those who passed before, and the command of Allah is a decree determined.” (al-Aḥzāb 33:37–38)

We have discussed this matter at length in the Tafsīr (3), and that should suffice.

The one “whom Allah had favored” here is Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, the Messenger of Allah’s freedman. Allah favored him with Islam, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ favored him by emancipating him and marrying him to his cousin Zaynab bint Jaḥsh.

Muqātil ibn Ḥayyān relates that her dowry consisted of ten dinars, sixty dirhams, a veil, a cloak, a coat of mail, fifty mudd of grain, and ten mudd of dates. She remained with him for about a year, or a little more, after which discord arose between them, and her husband came to complain to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The Prophet kept telling him, “Fear Allah and keep your wife.”

Allah then said: “And you were concealing within yourself what Allah was about to reveal …”