Zaynab bint Jahsh

Zaynab bint Jahsh al-Asadiyya, "the Mother of the Believers, wife of the Prophet"; her mother Umayma, the Prophet's aunt, and her brother Abdullah ¹. Abu Umar relates that her name was Barra, and the Prophet named her Zaynab when she entered on him ².

The Prophet married her in year 3 AH — or it is said year 5 — and the verse of the hijab descended on her account; before him she had been with his client Zayd ibn Haritha ¹.

Ibn Hajar adds, in the report of her wedding, from Ibn Sa'd by way of al-Waqidi in a mursal chain: the Prophet was speaking at A'isha's when a covering came over him; then he was relieved, smiling, saying "who will go to Zaynab and give her the tidings?" — and he recited the verse. A'isha says that when she heard it, everything near and far stirred her at what had reached her of Zaynab's beauty, and that Zaynab "boasts over us with this" — that God married her from heaven ¹. Ibn Hajar says the account has a weak chain from Ibn Abbas that Zaynab prostrated when she was told ².

This entry presents Ibn Hajar's account alone from an early Sunni source; contemporary scholars' readings and the rest of the attributed views will be added in a later batch per docs/scope.md.

A'isha describes Zaynab in the affair of the Ifk with the finest description — that God shielded her by piety — and says: she it was who rivalled me among the Prophet's wives, and she would boast over the Prophet's wives that she was his cousin and that God had married her to him while their own guardians married them ¹. She said to the Messenger of God: "I am not like any of your wives — there is no woman among your wives but her father or brother or family married her to you except me; God married me to you from heaven" ². Umm Salama relates that she was "devout, fasting, standing in night prayer, a craftswoman who gave all of it in charity to the poor" ².

In the two Sahihs, from A'isha: the Prophet said: "the quickest of you to catch up with me is the longest of you in arm" — she said: they would measure which of them had the longest arm, and the longest-armed of us was Zaynab, for she worked with her hands and gave charity ². A'isha says that when Zaynab died they knew the Prophet had meant length of arm in charity ².

Al-Waqidi said she died in 20 AH ². Al-Tabarani relates from Abd al-Rahman ibn Abza that he prayed over Zaynab with Umar — she was the first of the Prophet's wives to die after him ². In Ibn Sa'd's account from al-Qasim ibn Muhammad, she said when death came to her: "I have prepared my shroud, and Umar will send me a shroud — give one of the two in charity" ². A'isha says: "she is gone, virtuous and devoted, the refuge of orphans and widows" ².