In the recension preserved by Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim (1) we read: ʿUqbah ibn Mukram narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Mūsā transmitted to us; ʿUlaylah bint al-Kumayt al-ʿAtakiyyah (2) related: my mother (3) told me, on the authority of Amatullāh, the Prophet’s servant, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ took Safiyyah captive on the day of Qurayẓah and al-Naḍīr, then set her free and made her bridal gift be Razīnah, the mother of Amatullāh.

This report is exceedingly rare.

Among the female servants was Ummaymah. Ibn al-Athīr (4) states that she was a freedwoman of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and her ḥadith was transmitted by the scholars of Syria. Jubayr ibn Nufayr reported from her that she used to pour water for the Prophet’s ablution. One day a man came to him and said, “Advise me.” He replied:

“Do not ascribe any partner to Allah, even if you are cut to pieces or burned in fire; do not deliberately omit the prayer, for whoever intentionally abandons it has forfeited the covenant of Allah and the covenant of His Messenger; do not drink an intoxicant (5), for it is the root of every sin; and do not disobey your parents, even if they order you to forgo your family and your worldly possessions (6).” (7)

Among them also was Barakah (8)—better known as Umm Ayman and the mother of Usāmah ibn Zayd ibn Ḥārithah. She is Barakah bint Thaʿlabah ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥiṣn (9) ibn Mālik ibn Salamah ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Nuʿmān, an Abyssinian woman. Her teknonym Umm Ayman prevailed, for Ayman was her son by her first husband, ʿUbayd ibn Zayd al-Ḥabashī. After his death she married Zayd ibn Ḥārithah and bore him Usāmah ibn Zayd. She was also called Umm al-Ẓibāʾ, performed both migrations, and nursed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ together with his mother Āminah bint Wahb. According to al-Wāqidī (10) she was among those whom the Prophet ﷺ inherited from his father; others said he inherited her from his mother, while a third view holds that she belonged to Khadījah’s sister, who then gifted her to the Prophet ﷺ. She embraced Islam early, migrated, and lived on after the Prophet ﷺ.

We have already mentioned that Abū Bakr and ʿUmar ﵄ visited her after the Prophet’s death and found her weeping. They said to her, “Do you not know that what is with Allah is better for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?” She replied, “Indeed; but I weep because Revelation has ceased to descend from heaven.” Whereupon they, too, wept with her.