A lady of noble descent whose ancestry reaches up to the noble Prophet Haroon (Peace be upon him), a lady of great beauty, glamour and piety; she is Safiyyah Bint Huyayy (May Allah Be pleased with her), Mother of the Believers, and daughter of the Jewish leader

, Huayayy Bin Akhtab.

She was taken as a prisoner of war in the battle of Khaibar, the Prophet (Peace and Blessings Be upon Him) married her and her Mahr was her liberty.

A very beautiful incident that occurred in her life was that once when the Prophet Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon Him) was helping Safiyyah (May Allah Be pleased with her) to mount the camel, he knelt on the floor so that she could climb up, since she didn’t want to put her foot on the noble thigh of our great Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon Him) she instead placed her knee and mounted the camel whilst returning back to Madinah.

This shows her extreme reverence, respect and fondness for our Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon Him).

Safiyyah (May Allah be pleased with her) was an extremely patient, loving and kind hearted woman, another incidents that really moves one is when Safiyyah’s (May Allah be pleased with her) slave girl told tales about her to the Caliph telling that she would observe the Saturday Sabbath of the Jews despite converting to Islam and would also keep good terms with the Jews. When questioned by the caliph, Safiyyah (May Allah Be Pleased with Her) explained that once she had been enlightened about the sanctity of Friday, she had stopped giving importance to Saturday. As far as her terms with Jews were concerned, they were her relatives and she was following the dictates of Allah and His Messenger (Peace and Blessings Be upon Him) to maintain good relations with kindred.

On discovering that it was her slave girl who was responsible she asked her about it.

However, when her slave girl accepted that and replied that she had been incited by the Satan, Safiyyah (May Allah be pleased with her) freed her; as Allah says

“…Who repress anger, and who pardon men; verily, Allah loves the good doers…” (3:134)

What a beautiful lesson to learn dear friends, how quickly do we lose our temper and here is our Umm-ul-mumineen, a quintessence of righteousness and patience. This incident nonetheless indicates her forbearance (May Allah be pleased with her).

In her life we find a lady of great protocol, benevolence, wisdom, farsightedness and kindness.

Thus was Safiyyah, wife of a Prophet (Muhammad) (Peace and Blessings Be upon Him), daughter of a Prophet (Haroon) and a niece of a Prophet (Musa, peace be upon them).

Bint Hasan

Writer, AAT