Ruqayyah bint Muhammad

Biography

Born in Mecca around 601 or 602 CE, Ruqayyah was the fourth child and the second daughter of Muhammad and Khadija, a wealthy merchant woman.

She was married before August 610 to her cousin, Utbah ibn Abu Lahab, but the marriage was never consummated. Ruqayyah became a Muslim when her mother did. When Muhammad began to preach openly in 613, the Quraysh reminded Muhammad that they had "relieved him of his care for his daughters" and decided to return them so that he would have to support them at his own expense. They told Utbah that they would give him "the daughter of Aban ibn Sa'id ibn Al-As or the daughter of Sa'id ibn Al-As" if he divorced Ruqayyah. After Muhammad warned Abū Lahab that he would go to Hell, Abu Lahab said he would never speak to his son again unless he divorced Ruqayyah, which Utbah accordingly did.

By 615 Ruqayyah was married to a prominent Muslim, Uthman ibn Affan. She accompanied him on the first Migration to Abyssinia, where she suffered a miscarriage. They returned to Abyssinia in 616, and there Ruqayyah gave birth to a son, Abdullah, in 619. Abdullah died when he was six years old in Medina. She had no further children.

Uthman and Ruqayyah were among those who returned to Mecca in 619. Uthman emigrated to Medina in 622, and Ruqayyah followed him later.

Ruqayyah was said to be extremely beautiful. When Usama ibn Zayd was sent on an errand to their house, he found himself staring at her and at Uthman in turns. Muhammad asked Usama, "Have you ever seen a more handsome couple than those two?" and he agreed that he had not.

Ruqayyah fell ill in March 624. Uthman was excused from his military duties in order to nurse her. She died later in the month, on the day when Zayd ibn Harithah returned to Medina with news of their victory at the Battle of Badr. When Muhammad returned to Medina after the battle, the family went to grieve at her grave. The women wept noisily, and Umar hit them with his whip; but Muhammad said: "Let them weep, Umar; but beware of the braying of Satan."

Shia View

Several prominent Shia accounts, like that of medieval Shiite cleric Muhammad Baqir Majlisi, claim that Ruqayyah was beaten to death by Uthman. Most Shia accounts don't consider Ruqayyah to have been a biological daughter of Muhammad; they consider Fatimah as his only biological daughter.