Aminah bint Wahb | Women around the messenger

The womb of Aminah bint Wahb was certainly the noblest and the most honourable of all the wombs. It was in a womb that the noble fetus (of Allah's Messenger) settled.

This seed has been moving from the loins of men, generation after generation until Allah in His Divine wisdom decreed that it passed to 'Abdullah ibn 'Abdul-Muttalib, the youthful Qurayshi who excelled his contemporaries in greatness and beauty and in whose eyes the light of Prophethood was shining.

It was Abdullah who was ransomed from slaughtering after his father had vowed to sacrifice him and had sought to fulfil his vow. He was the most precious person the Arabs have ever known.

This event took place, so that the Divine choice might be actualised and firmly rooted in the history of mankind, bearing witness to Allah's absolute Will. There is no change in His Words and there is no who can prevent for what He has decreed. 

“Allah chose Adam, Nooh [Noah], the family of Ibraheem [Abraham] and the family of Imran above humankind and jinns. They were descendants one of another. Allah is the All-Hearer, All-Knower.” (Quran 3:33-34)

Abdullah went out with his father Abdul-MunaIib after he had been ransomed with the sacrifice and he had increased in light. A woman from Bani Asad ibn 'Abdul 'Uzza then met him beside the Ka 'bah and told him after she had looked into his face that was illuminating with the light of prophethood,

"You will be given the like of the camels that were sacrificed for your ransom if you can cohabit with me now." 

But Abdullah replied that it was better to die than to commit unlawful acts and that a noble man preserves his honour and religion. 

Abdul-Muttalib finally chose Aminah bint Wahb, of the Zuhr clan, as a wife for his son 'Abdullah. Aminah was then the best Qurayshi woman in lineage and status. 

A fortune-teller from TibaIah, Fatimah bint Murr al-Khath'amiyah had also seen Abdullah. This woman was one of the most beautiful Arab women and she was chaste. She saw the light of prophethood in the face of Abdullah. She then offered herself in marriage to him. But he rejected the offer. 

The news of a Prophet that would come out from the children of lsmaeel, was spreading all over the Arabian peninsula. This news was based on what the people of the Scripture narrated and from what is recorded in their Torah implicitly and explicitly, as well as from what the fortune-tellers and astrologers were saying.

The circumstances that surrounded Abdullah ibn Abdul-Muttalib concerning his early life, youth, his excellent and brilliant upbringing, his chastity, his high moral conduct and the light with which he was known, had made some women and girls wish to find favour with him and they viewed to become his wife. But as Allah would have it, it was Aminah that became the wife of 'Abdullah. 

Aminah's womb was sooner to bear the noble foetus of the Prophet; the womb carried out the duty that was meant for it…and the destiny remained in the hand of Allah Who dispose of it as He likes. 

When Aminah was a few months pregnant, Abdullah undertook a journey to Syria. When he was coming back, he fell ill and stayed with his maternal uncles from the tribe of Bani Najjar in Yathrib where they nursed him and took care of him. 

However, Abdullah died in that illness, and his young wife was left a widow. Aminah was greatly saddened with the death of her beloved husband who stayed with her after their marriage only for few months. She wept bitterly and wailed severely.