Khawla bint Tha'laba

Khawla bint Thalaba, a Companion from the Ansar, wife of Aws ibn al-Samit, and the woman in whose case the first verses of Surat al-Mujadila were revealed. ¹, ².

Aws ibn al-Samit married her; he was one of her paternal cousins, and the two lived for a time in the best of conditions. Then Aws and Khawla became Muslims together. Khawla was of good understanding, and she used to visit the house of Aisha. ³

Aws once grew very angry, and they quarrelled, and he said to her: "You are to me like the back of my mother", a phrase which in the pre-Islamic period meant divorce. Then they both regretted it, and Aws said: "The right is with you, Khawla; I see only that you have become forbidden to me." She answered that he had not spoken of divorce, and asked him to put the question to the Prophet. He was too shy to ask him himself, so she went to the Prophet. ⁴, ⁵

Khawla went to the Prophet and complained of his state and hers, saying that she sought only good, and the revelation came down with the ruling. ⁶ Ibn al-Athir relates the same report from Yusuf ibn Abdallah ibn Salam, in which Khawla says that the verses were revealed about her and her husband, that she refused him when he wanted to approach her, and that the Prophet said to her: "O Khuwayla, your cousin is an old man, so fear God regarding him." ⁷

Ibn al-Athir relates that the Prophet commanded Aws to free a slave; if he could not find one, to fast two consecutive months; and if he could not, to feed sixty poor people. Khawla said that he could not find anything to free and that he was an old man who could not fast. The Prophet said that he would help him with a basket of dates. She said she would help him with another basket, and he said she had done well, and ordered her to give it in charity on his behalf. ⁷

Ibn al-Athir relates that Umar ibn al-Khattab passed an old woman and began talking with her, and she talked with him. A man said to him that he had held the people back on account of this old woman. Umar said: "She is the one whose complaint God heard from above the seven heavens; it is Khawla bint Thalaba, and if she had stood until night, I would not have left her except for prayer." ⁸

• The book Nisa' Hawl al-Rasul is used here for events and references, and has not been rewritten.
• What the report says about Aisha at the time of the revelation is taken from the book, and has not yet been checked against the two Sahihs.
• Her date of birth and death are not given in the pages read.
• Her lineage is disputed: Ibn al-Athir gives one lineage, Thalaba ibn Malik ibn Thalaba ibn Asram ibn Fahr ibn Thalaba ibn Ghanm ibn Awf; elsewhere he gives a lineage linked to the Banu Malik ibn al-Dakhshum; and Nisa' Hawl al-Rasul says she was of the Banu Amr ibn Awf. We have not chosen between the reports here.
• Other names given for her are "Khuwayla", "Jamila" and "Khawla daughter of Dulayj"; Ibn al-Athir says the first is the most correct and that the last two are not established.
• Some reports attribute the account of the zihar to "Khawla daughter of al-Samit", and Ibn al-Athir takes her to be the same woman; we have not settled that here.

The Sheikh tells of the woman who complained to the Prophet about her husband, and says that the surah named after pleading was revealed; he says God heard what the Prophet did not hear, and that the woman spoke to the Prophet from the threshold (needs_source). ^{9 10 11} the surah of the Pleading (Al-Mujadila), in which the ruling was revealed