Ummul Momineen Hazrat Umme Habeeba Ramlah | سیرت حضرت ام حبیبہ رملہ بنت ابی سفیان

Umm Habibah Ramlah bint Abi Sufyan

Waraqah bin Nawfal, 'Uthman bin Huwayrith bin Asad, Zayd bin 'Amr bin Nafil and 'Ubaydullah bin Jahash were four friends who were disheartened by idol worship in Arabia. They used to get together and discuss this. One night they came to a decision to search the pure religion of Ibrahim which was the straight path of righteousness. After meeting they moved in different directions to find the pure religion of the Prophet Ibrahim.

Waraqah bin Nawfal gave up idol worship, stopped eating flesh of animals sacrificed in idols' names and knew Torah and Injil by heart.

His cousin Khadijah had taken Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) to him on the occasion of the first revelation in the cave of Hira. Waraqah told her that it was the same Angel in the cave who delivered Messages from Allah to earlier Prophets, and that Muhammad must be the chosen Last Messenger, whose coming was foretold in both the Torah and the Injil. He would soon be elevated to that great position, and the whole nation would turn against him and he would be forced to flee his motherland. He passed away before Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) openly declared himself the Last Prophet of Allah.

'Uthman bin Huwayrith bin Asad, traveled to Syria, and worked as a missionary for Christianity. He became a close friend of the Roman Emperor Caesar and was elevated to the papal position.

Zayd bin 'Amr bin Nafil stopped worshipping idols. He gave up eating dead animals and drinking their blood. He hated eating the flesh of the animals sacrificed and often talked of the pure religion of the Prophet Ibrahim (peace and blessings be upon him). He too died before the proclamation of Muhammad as the Messenger of Allah.

'Ubaydullah bin Jahash fell into doubts between truth and falsehood. He married the beautiful, intelligent and well-educated daughter of the Qurayshi chieftain, Abu Sufyan Sakhr bin Harb.

It was around this time that Makkah was shaken by the news that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was rejecting all the idols. He invited people to worship Allah and proclaimed he was His Last Prophet and Messenger. The Wise daughter of Abu Sufyan, Ramlah, accepted Islam and so did her husband. His two brothers 'Abdullah bin Jahash and Abu Ahmad bin Jahash had also become Muslims. Her sisters, Zaynab hint Jahash and Hamnah bin Jahash too entered Islam. The former had joined the select group of the Mother of the Believers. The whole family was fortunate to have obeyed the call to Islam, but while in Abyssinia 'Ubaydullah had the misfortune to reject Islam after having accepted it.

Abu Sufyan Sakhr bin Harb was a chieftain of the Quraysh, who led the disbelievers in many of their wars against the Muslims. Besides his daughter Ramlah, he had two sons, Yazid and Mu'awiyah. Ramlah accepted Islam when the Muslims were facing a lot of opposition and were being cruelly persecuted. Abu Sufyan was a very powerful man, but he was helpless in the matter of his daughter Ramlah. She was a helpless frail girl, but he could not stop her from accepting Islam, when she openly declared herself a Muslim.

Meanwhile, after surveying the situation the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) decided that the staunch supporters of Islam had taken enough of the oppression from the Quraysh. They would have to migrate, and he ordered them to leave for Abyssinia, where the ruler was known for his kindness and hospitality to refugees from tyrannical rule.

Ramlah bint Abu Sufyan and her husband were among the second group of migrants who left for Abyssinia. There Ramlah gave birth to a girl, Habibah so Ramlah was now known as Umm Habibah. The days passed swiftly for her as she kept busy seeing to the upbringing of her little daughter; and any free time was spent in prayer and meditation.
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