Atiqa bint Zayd: The Wife of Martyrs

Desert

Atikah bint Zayd bint Amr ibn Nufail was one of the most beautiful  women of Quraysh. She was a poet who is notable for having married Muslim men who died as martyrs. 

She was the daughter of Zayd ibn Amr, who was a poet and a member of the Adi clan of the Quraysh in Mecca. Her mother was Safiya bint al-Hadrami (Umm Kurz) and Sa'id ibn Zayd was her brother from another mother (Fatima bint Ba'aja bin Umayyah bin Khuwailid). 

Sa’id ibn Zayd was among the ten people who were promised Paradise by Muhammad (SAW) and it was he who guided Atiqa to Islam.

Atiqa was still a child when Muhammad declared his Prophet hood. Her first husband was her cousin, Zayd ibn Khattab, the elder brother of Umar ibn Khattab. It was in his company that Atiqa joined the general migration to Medina. They later divorced.

Her second husband was Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr, the son of Abu Bakr Siddiq. It was said that Abdullah respected Atiqa's judgment more than his own and that he spent so much time with her that he was too busy to fight in the Islamic army. 

Abu Bakr punished his son by ordering him to divorce her. Abdullah did as he was told but was grief-stricken. 

Abdullah was lying in the sun reciting: "I swear by Allah that I will never forget you as long as the sun rises, and as long as the ring-necked dove coos. I cannot imagine one such as me divorcing one like her, nor one like her being divorced without any reason. She is chaste, religious, and noble. She has a balanced personality and a logical mind." After hearing this, Abu Bakr advised his son to take her back before her waiting period expired.

When Muhammad (SAW) passed away in 10 A. H., Atiqa composed an elegy for him.

His camels have been lonely since evening

he used to ride them and he was their adornment.

I have been weeping for the Chief since evening-and tears are flowing in succession.

Thy wives are still lying in swoons

because of grief that grows greater moment by moment

they turned pale like a javelin-that becomes useless and changes its colour

they are remedying chronic sorrow

but the pain reacts on the heart

they beat their fine faces with their palms

for that is what happens at times like this.

He was excellent and the chosen Chief.

Their religion was united on truth.

How can I live longer than the Messenger

who died at his appointed hour?

Abdullah settled a large amount of property on Atiqa on condition that she would not remarry after his death. He died in Medina of an old battle-wound originally incurred at the Siege of Ta'if. Atiqa refused several suitors in the following months. 

Umar bin Khattab who was Atiqa's cousin told her that she had been wrong to renounce her right to remarry. After Umar became Caliph, he married Atiqa. 

When Aisha learned that Atiqa had broken her vow of celibacy, she sent her a message to return the property given to her by Abdullah, Atiqa’s late husband. 

Umar told Atiqa to return the land and he settled an equivalent sum of money on her, which she distributed in alms to expiate the breaking of her vow to Abdullah. 

From her marriage to Umar, Atiqa gave birth to a son named Iyad.

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Atiqa used to ask Umar's permission to attend public prayers at the Masjid. Umar preferred his wives to remain at home and expressed his displeasure with silence. Atiqa told him that she was not going to stop asking permission, and that she would go to the Masjid unless he specifically forbade her. He remained silent, presumably because he could not forbid something that Muhammad (SAW) had permitted, and so Atiqa continued to attend. 

Once, Abu Musa Al Ash’ari who was the governor of Basra at the time gave a carpet to Atiqa as a gift. When Umar saw it, he became furious and scolded Atiqa. He then summoned Abu Musa Al Ash’ari and asked him, "What made you give something to my wives?" Umar hit his head with it, saying, "Take it! We have no need of it!"

Atiqa was present at the Masjid when Umar was brutally attacked there on 23^rd Dhul Hijja 23 A. H. She composed elegies for him when he passed away.
Eye! let thy tears and weeping be abundant and weary not

over the noble chief. Death hath afflicted me in the fall of a horseman

Distinguished in the day of battle ...

Compassionate to those closest, tough against his enemies

someone to trust in times of bad fortune and answering

whenever he gave his word, his deeds did not belie his word
swift to good deeds, and not with a frown.

After Umar's death, Atiqa married Zubayr ibn Awwam. Due to intense jealousy, Zubayr tried to discourage Atiqa from going to the Masjid. She retorted: "Are you so jealous that you want me to forsake a place where I have prayed with the Prophet, Abu Bakr and Umar?" 

Since he did not dare forbid her outright to attend, he found an indirect way to deter her. He lay in wait for her when she was on her way to Isha prayers and hit her rump in the dark. 

Later, when Zubayr asked why she had not attended prayers that night, she complained, "People have become wicked." 

In one version of this tradition, Zubayr confessed that he had been the man who hit her. She decided thenceforth to pray at home. 

When Zubayr was martyred in the Battle of the Camel, Atiqa also composed an elegy for him:

If he could have been awakened, he would have been found 

not shaking with a quivering heart or hand.

You will be lucky to find anyone like him

among those who remain, who come and go ...

If you have killed a Muslim, then you must suffer the penalty for murder.

Some sources say Atiqa also married Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr (another son of Abu Bakr Siddiq), who was killed in Egypt but it is not unanimously accepted. 

At this point, she decided that she would never marry anyone else after Zubayr; for fear that he too would be martyred. 

She once said, "If I were to marry all the inhabitants of the earth, they would all be killed." 


She was given the affectionate name "Zawjah Ash-Shuhada" (the wife of the martyrs).

It was at this point that people began to say: "Let a man who wants to be a martyr marry Atiqa bint Zayd!" 

Ali ibn Abu Talib himself proposed to her, but she told him, "I would not want you to die, O cousin of the Prophet."

Atiqa's fifth husband was Ali's own son, Hussein, who must have been some twenty years younger than she was. However, Atiqa passed away before him. 

Hussein ibn Ali himself was martyred in the battle of Karbala in 61 A. H. Her first husband, Zayd ibn Khattab, was martyred in the battle of Yamama in 10 A. H. 

Atiqa bint Zayd, the wife of martyrs, passed away in Medina in 51 A. H. of natural cause. She is believed to have been in her late 50s. 

May Allah be pleased with her.

LESSONS

• Care For Widows: Muslims paid special attention to the welfare of widows, whenever a woman lost her husband, there were always people waiting to take care of her.
• No Superstitious Accusations: In many cultures, a woman who gets widowed up to two times is not likely to ever have a suitor come her way again. She is either called a witch or a cursed person. Islam is not on that page.
• Desire For Martyrdom: Despite the number of times Atiqa got widowed, the knowledge that all her previous husbands died as martyrs encouraged Muslim men to keep coming for her hand in marriage.
• Breaking UnIslamic Vows: To vow never to marry again to honour a dead person cannot be called ‘Islamic’. Atiqa realized this and broke the vow she made to Abdullah. However, she made expiation for it.
• Avoiding Corruption: Receiving gifts by virtue of being close to a person in power could open the doors of corruption. Umar ibn Khattab saw and understood this and he reprimanded Atiqa for receiving a gift from a government official.
• Respect For The Prophet (SAW): Atiqa’s husbands, Umar and Zubayr, were not comfortable with Atiqa going to the Masjid. This was due to her intense beauty. However, they could not tell her directly because they knew it would stand against the permission granted by the Prophet (SAW).
• Age Of Spouses: There is nothing wrong in a woman marrying a man much younger than she is, even if she had already attained puberty before he was born. Love and piety is what matters.