She then said, “Mother, bring me my new clothes (1).” She put them on and added, “Mother, spread my bed for me in the middle of the house.” I did so, and she lay down, facing the qiblah and placing her hand beneath her cheek. She went on, “Mother, my soul is to be taken now; I have purified myself, so let no one uncover me.” She passed away right there. She [Salmā] said, “ʿAlī came, and I informed him.” This report is exceedingly rare (2).
Among them was Sīrīn (3)—some say Shīrīn (4)—the sister of Māriyah the Copt and the maternal aunt of Ibrāhīm—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. As noted earlier, al-Muqawqis, the ruler of Alexandria, whose name was Jurayj ibn Minā, had sent the two sisters as gifts together with a young man named Māyūr and a mule said to have been called al-Duldul. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ gave Sīrīn to Ḥassān ibn Thābit, and she bore him his son ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥassān.
Included among them was ʿUnqūdah Umm Ṣubayḥ (6), the Abyssinian bondwoman of ʿĀʾishah. Her original name was ʿInabah, but the Messenger of Allah ﷺ renamed her ʿUnqūdah, as related by Abū Nuʿaym; it is also said that her name was Ghufayrah.
Furwah, the Prophet’s wet-nurse ﷺ (7)—that is, his foster mother—said: “The Messenger of Allah told me, ‘When you retire to your bed, recite “Say: O disbelievers” (Q. 109); it is a protection against polytheism.’” Abū Aḥmad al-ʿAskarī mentioned this, and Ibn al-Athīr cited it in al-Ghābah.
As for Fidḍah the Nubian (8), Ibn al-Athīr states in al-Ghābah that she was the freedwoman of Fāṭimah, the daughter of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He then quotes, through a weak chain, a report from Maḥbūb ibn Ḥumayd al-Baṣrī, from al-Qāsim ibn Bahrām, from Layth, from Mujāhid, from Ibn ʿAbbās regarding the verse: “And they give food, for the love of Him, to the poor, the orphan, and the captive” (al-Insān 8). Its purport is that al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn fell ill, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ visited them, as did the Arabs at large. They said to ʿAlī, “Why not make a vow?” ʿAlī replied, “If they recover, I shall fast three days for Allah.” Fāṭimah said the same, and Fidḍah did likewise. Allah restored them to health, and they fasted. ʿAlī then borrowed three ṣāʿs of barley from Shamʿūn the Khaybarī. That night they prepared one ṣāʿ of it, and when the meal was set before them for supper, a beggar stood at the door and said, “Feed a poor man; may Allah feed you from the tables of Paradise.” ʿAlī ordered that the food be given to him, and they went to bed hungry. On the second night they prepared the next ṣāʿ, and when it was put before them, an orphan appeared and said, “Feed an orphan.” They gave him the food and again went hungry. When