Umm Kulthūm bint Muḥammad (Arabic: أم كلثوم بنت محمد) (c. 603–630) was the third daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad by his first wife Khadija bint Khuwaylid.
Conversion to Islam
She was born in Mecca, probably the fifth of their six children.[1]: 10 She was legally married before August 610 to Utaybah ibn Abi Lahab, but the marriage was never consummated.[1]: 26 [2]: 163 She was still living with her parents when Muhammad was declared a prophet by God, and Umm Kulthum became a Muslim soon after her mother did.[1]: 26
After Muhammad warned Abu Lahab of hellfire in 613, Abu Lahab told Utaybah that he would never speak to him again unless he divorced Umm Kulthum, so he did.[1]: 26 Her maternal brother, Hind ibn Abi Hala, asked Muhammad, "Why did you separate Umm Kulthum from Utaybah?" Muhammad replied, "Allah did not allow me to marry her to a person who is not going to Paradise."[3]
Muhammad left Mecca in September 622. Before long Zayd ibn Haritha brought instructions to Umm Kulthum and her sister Fatima to join their father in Medina.[2]: 171–172 Their uncle Al-Abbas put them on a camel; but as they were setting off, Huwayrith ibn Nuqaydh goaded the animal so that it threw them to the ground.[4]: 773 However, Umm Kulthum and Fatima arrived safely in Medina.[1]: 26 [2]: 163 Muhammad remembered the assault and, when he conquered Mecca in 630, he sentenced Huwayrith to death.[5]: 551
Second marriage
After the death of her sister Ruqayya left Uthman a widower, he married Umm Kulthum. The marriage was legally contracted in August/September 624,[6]: 128 [2]: 163 but they did not live together until December. The marriage was childless.[1]: 26 [2]: 163
Death
Umm Kulthum died in November/December 630.[1]: 26 [2]: 11, 163 Her father tearfully conducted her funeral prayers; then Ali, Usama ibn Zayd and Abu Talha laid her into the grave .[1]: 27 [2]: 11–12, 163 Muhammad said, "If I had ten daughters, I would marry them all to Uthman."[1]: 26 Uthman was known as Dhu al-Nurayn ("the possessor of the two lights") because it was believed that no other man had ever been married to two daughters of a prophet.[7]: 369
^ abcdefghiMuhammad ibn Saad. Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir vol. 8. Translated by Bewley, A. (1995). The Women of Madina. London: Ta-Ha Publishers.
^ abcdefgMuhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari. Tarikh al-Rusul wa'l-Muluk. Translated by Landau-Tasseron, E. (1998). Volume 39: Biographies of the Prophet's Companions and Their Successors. Albany: State University of New York Press.
^Abdulmalik ibn Hisham. Notes to Ibn Hisham's Life of Muhammad. Translated by Guillaume, A. (1955). The Life of Muhammad. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
^Muhammad ibn Ishaq. The Life of Muhammad. Guillaume, A. (1955). The Life of Muhammad. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
^Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari. Tarikh al-Rusul wa'l-Muluk. Translated by Poonawala, I. K. (1990). Volume 9: The Last Years of the Prophet. Albany: State University of New York Press.
^Ismail ibn Umar ibn Kathir. Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya. Translated by Le Gassick, T. (1998). The Life of the Prophet Muhammad, vol. 2. Reading, U.K.: Garnet Publishing.
