Jaʿfar also laid claim to her. ʿAlī said, “I brought her; she is my cousin.” Jaʿfar said, “She is my cousin as well, and her maternal aunt is my wife.” Zayd said, “She is the daughter of my brother.” The Prophet ﷺ therefore awarded her to her aunt(1) and said, “The maternal aunt holds the place of the mother.” He then said to ʿAlī, “You are of me and I am of you”; to Jaʿfar, “You resemble me in form and character”; and to Zayd, “You are our brother and our freedman.” ʿAlī asked, “Will you not marry the daughter of Ḥamzah?” He replied, “She is the daughter of my foster-brother.” Al-Bukhārī alone transmits the report in this wording.

Al-Wāqidī(2) has also related the story of Ḥamzah’s daughter. He said: Ibn Abī Ḥabībah narrated to me, from Dāwūd ibn al-Ḥuṣayn, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that ʿUmārah, the daughter of Ḥamzah ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib—her mother being Salmā bint ʿUmays—was in Mecca. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib said to him, “Why should we leave our cousin an orphan among the idolaters?” The Prophet ﷺ did not forbid bringing her out, so ʿAlī brought her. Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, who was Ḥamzah’s executor and whom the Prophet ﷺ had made his brother when he paired off the Emigrants, said, “I have the stronger claim to her; she is my brother’s daughter.” When Jaʿfar heard this he said, “Her aunt is a mother, and I have the better claim to her, for her aunt, Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays, is in my household.” ʿAlī said, “Do you not see that you are disputing? She is my cousin; I rescued her from the midst of the idolaters. None of you has a closer connection to her than I.”

The Prophet ﷺ then said, “I shall judge between you. As for you, O Zayd, you are the ally of Allah and the ally of His Messenger; [as for you, O ʿAlī, you are my brother and my companion]; and as for you, O Jaʿfar, you resemble me in appearance and character. Jaʿfar, you have the strongest claim to her, for her aunt is under your roof. A woman may not be married together with her aunt, nor with her paternal aunt.” He therefore awarded her to Jaʿfar.

Al-Wāqidī continues: When she was given to Jaʿfar, he rose and began to hop around the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ asked, “What is this, O Jaʿfar?” He replied, “O Messenger of Allah, when the Negus was pleased with someone, he would rise and hop around him.” Jaʿfar then said to the Prophet ﷺ, “Marry her.” He replied, “She is the daughter of my brother through nursing.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ subsequently married her to Salamah ibn Abī Salamah, and the Prophet ﷺ would say, “Have I repaid Salamah?”

I say: Al-Wāqidī and others mention that it was he who gave the Prophet ﷺ in marriage to his own mother, Umm Salamah, for he was older than his brother ʿUmar ibn Abī Salamah. Allah knows best.

Ibn Isḥāq(3) said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ returned to Madinah in the month of Dhū al-Ḥijjah, and the idolaters performed the pilgrimage that year.

Ibn Hishām(4) said: In connection with this ʿumrah, as Abū ʿUbaydah related to me, Allah revealed His words: “Indeed Allah has fulfilled...”