Wives of the Prophet (S)

The Qur'an calls them Mothers of the Believers, which is a title given to no one else. They were also the only people who saw the Prophet ﷺ at home — and almost everything we know about his private worship, his manner with his family and his conduct when no one else was watching reaches us through them.

The Eleven

1. Khadijah bint Khuwailid — the first to believe, and his only wife for twenty-five years
2. 'A'ishah bint Abu Bakr — among the greatest jurists and narrators of the first generation
3. Sawdah bint Zam'ah
4. Umm Habeebah bint Abu Sufyan — who accepted Islam while her father still led the opposition
5. Umm Salamah — whose counsel at Hudaybiyah resolved a crisis
6. Juwairiyah bint Al-Harith — whose marriage freed a hundred families from captivity
7. Hafsah bint 'Umar bin Al-Khattab — keeper of the written Qur'an
8. Zainab bint Khuzaimah — called the mother of the poor
9. Safiyyah bint Huyay
10. Zainab bint Jahsh
11. Maimoonah bint Al-Harith

رضي الله عنهن أجمعين

Why Read Them Together

Taken one at a time these are biographies. Taken as a set they answer a question people ask constantly and rarely investigate: why the Prophet ﷺ married as he did.

The pattern becomes visible on the page. A widow with children nobody else would take. The daughter of an enemy leader. A captive whose marriage led her whole tribe to be released. A scholar who would go on teaching the Ummah for fifty years after his death. These were not interchangeable arrangements, and the differences between them carry the explanation.

Who It Is For

Muslim women looking for models with substance behind them. Anyone answering questions about the Prophet's ﷺ marriages who would rather answer from the record. Islamic schools and sisters' study circles. Families reading together.

Related Reading

• Q&A on the Mothers of the Believers — the same eleven in question-and-answer form
• Great Women of Islam — the wider circle of women in the first generation
• Men & Women around the Messenger — 100 Companions, men and women together