- Tribe
- Banu Hilal ibn Amir (not Quraysh)
- Married
- About 3-4 AH (c. 625-626 CE); some place her marriage before Hafsah's
- Before this marriage
- A widow whose husband had been killed in battle; reports differ on his name
- Children with the Prophet ﷺ
- None
- Died
- A few months after the marriage, about 4 AH (c. 626 CE); reports differ
- Buried
- Al-Baqi', Madinah
Little of her life appears in the hadith collections, so what is known comes from the sirah books, and we limit ourselves here to what they agree on and mark where they differ. Zaynab bint Khuzaymah belonged to the Banu Hilal ibn Amir. She was renowned for feeding the poor and was called Umm al-Masakin, 'the mother of the poor', even before Islam according to the sirah books.
Her husband, who had been killed in one of the early battles, left her a widow. The sirah books differ on who he was: some name Ubaydah ibn al-Harith, killed at Badr, and others name Abdullah ibn Jahsh, killed at Uhud. The Prophet ﷺ married her in Madinah, in about 3 or 4 AH; scholars also differ on whether this marriage came before or after his marriage to Hafsah.
She lived with the Prophet ﷺ only a short time, from two or three months to about eight months in the different reports, and died during his lifetime. She was the second of his wives to die, after Khadijah, and he prayed over her and she was buried in al-Baqi'. Her place among the Mothers of the Believers rests on the Quran's description of his wives (Quran 33:6).
- Sirah books (early history)
- Quran 33:6 (Al-Ahzab)