telling her that the Antichrist (al-Dajjāl) had come out. So she hid in a small room in which they used to light the fire, and the two of them burst into laughter.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came and said,

“What is the matter with you two?”

They told him what they had done with Sawdah. He went to her and she asked, “O Messenger of Allah, has the Antichrist appeared?”

He replied, “No—but it is as though he had already come forth.”

She then emerged and began brushing the spiders’ eggs from her clothes.

Ibn al-Athīr also mentions Khalīsa (1), the freedwoman of Salmān al-Fārisī (may Allah be pleased with him). He says she is referred to in the story of Salmān’s acceptance of Islam, her manumitting him, and the compensation the Prophet ﷺ gave her by planting three hundred date-palms for her. I have cited that under her separate entry.

Among them was Khawlah (2), a servant of the Prophet ﷺ, as Ibn al-Athīr states.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Nuʿaym transmitted her report through Ḥafṣ ibn Saʿīd al-Qurashī, from his mother, from her mother Khawlah, who served the Prophet ﷺ. He relates a ḥadīth that revelation was delayed because a puppy died beneath his bed, without their realizing it; when they removed it, revelation descended and the words of the Almighty were revealed:

“By the morning brightness, and by the night when it falls still” (al-Duḥā 93:1-2).

This report is singular in its chain, and the well-known reason for the sūrah’s revelation is otherwise—Allah knows best.

Among them was Razīnah (3). Ibn ʿAsākir says: What is correct is that she belonged to Ṣafiyyah bint Ḥuyayy and that she served the Prophet ﷺ.

I add: It has already been mentioned in the entry of her daughter, ‘Amatullāh, that the Prophet ﷺ gave Ṣafiyyah bint Ḥuyayy her mother Razīnah as her bridal gift; on that view her original ownership traced back to him ﷺ.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Yaʿlā said: Abū Saʿīd al-Jushamī narrated to us; ʿUlaylah bint al-Kumayt said: I heard my mother Umaynah say that Amatullāh bint Razīnah told her—on the authority of her mother Razīnah (4), the freedwoman of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ captured Ṣafiyyah on the day of Qurayẓah and al-Naḍīr when Allah granted him victory. He brought her, leading her along as a captive. When she saw the women she declared, “I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah and that you are the Messenger of Allah.” He released her while her arm was still in his hand, set her free, then proposed to her, married her, and made Razīnah her bridal gift.

Such is the wording of this report, and it is sounder than what preceded from Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim; but the truth is that the Prophet ﷺ selected Ṣafiyyah from the spoils of Khaybar, emancipated her, and made her emancipation her dowry. Mentioning the event as taking place on the day of Qurayẓah and al-Naḍīr is a confusion, for the two battles were two years apart—Allah knows best.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī said in Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah (5): Ibn ʿAbdān informed us, Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṣaffār reported to us, ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan al-Sukkarī narrated to us, ʿUbayd-Allāh ibn ʿUmar al-Qawārīrī narrated to us, and ʿUlaylah bint al-Kumayt al-ʿAtakiyyah related