Umm Waraqa bint Abdullah

Umm Waraqa bint Abdullah ibn al-Harith al-Ansariyya; she is also called Umm Waraqa bint Nawfal, traced to her higher grandfather ¹.

Abu Dawud narrates her hadith from Wak'i from al-Walid ibn Abdullah ibn Jumay': when the Prophet campaigned at Badr she said to him: "give me leave to go out with you to nurse your sick — perhaps God will grant me martyrdom" — he said: "stay in your house, for God will grant you martyrdom" — and she was called "the Martyr" ¹. In Ibn al-Sakan's account: "Umm Waraqa, sit in your house, for God will bring martyrdom to you in your house" ¹.

She had read the Qur'an, and asked the Prophet's leave to keep a muezzin in her house, and he gave her leave ¹. The Messenger of God used to visit her in her house and assigned her a muezzin to call for her ¹.

She had arranged freedom after her death for a servant boy and girl of hers; they rose on her at night and smothered her in a quilted garment until she died, then fled. Umar rose in the morning and said: "by God, I did not hear my aunt Umm Waraqa's recitation last night" — he entered the house and saw nothing; then entered the room and there she was, wrapped in a quilt in a corner of the house. He said: "God and His messenger spoke true" — then mounted the minbar, told the news, ordered them fetched, and they confessed to killing her; he ordered them crucified — the first crucified at Medina ¹.

Ibn Hajar notes that al-Walid's grandmother is said to be named Layla; that there is an intermediary between her and Umm Waraqa in Ibn al-Sakan's account; and an intermediary likewise between Abd al-Rahman ibn Khallad and Umm Waraqa in another route ¹.