Amina bint Wahb: Mother of the Prophet

Amina bint Wahb ibn Abd Manaf al-Zuhriyya (Arabic: آمنة بنت وهب) was the mother of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. A woman of the Banu Zuhrah, chosen as a bride for Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib on the strength of her family's standing among the Quraysh, she was widowed either shortly before or a few months after her son's birth, raised him in Mecca for the first six years of his life, and died at al-Abwa, on the road between Mecca and Medina, while returning from a visit to her late husband's kin.

The early sources say relatively little of Amina beyond her marriage, the birth of her son, and her death, and this article does not extend beyond what they establish. Muhammad's birth itself, and the reports surrounding it, are treated fully in the benchmark article on the Prophet; this article addresses Amina's own part in the sira without duplicating that account at length.

Family and Marriage

The Sealed Nectar identifies Amina's father as the chief of the Banu Zuhrah, a clan of the Quraysh, and states that Abd al-Muttalib selected her as a wife for his son Abdullah in recognition of the eminence of her lineage. The marriage was contracted in Mecca. Beyond this, the sources consulted for this article give no further detail of her early life or of the marriage itself.

Widowhood and the Birth of Muhammad

Abdullah died on a journey away from Mecca — the sources differ on whether this occurred shortly before Muhammad's birth or a few months after it, a disagreement addressed in the article on Abdullah. Amina was left to raise her son largely alone, with the support of the household and, in due course, of Abd al-Muttalib.

Ibn Sa'd's report, preserved in The Sealed Nectar, transmits words attributed to Amina describing what she experienced around the time of the birth: that a light came from her that illuminated the palaces of Syria. This report belongs to a body of birth-narratives examined in full in the benchmark article on the Prophet, which sets out their transmission and how they are to be read; it is noted here only as testimony attributed to Amina herself, not narrated afresh.

Following the custom of the Meccan elite, the infant Muhammad was sent within days to be nursed among the Bedouin of the Banu Sa'd, in the care of Halima bint Abi Dhu'ayb al-Sa'diyya, and did not return to Amina's household until he was weaned some years later.

The Journey to Medina and Her Death

When Muhammad was about six years old, Amina took him north to Medina. Ibn Kathir's narration, transmitted from Ibn Ishaq, gives the purpose of the journey as a visit to her late husband's kin, the Banu Adi ibn al-Najjar, among whom Abdullah had died and been buried. She travelled in the company of Umm Ayman, the freedwoman who had served the household since Abdullah's death and who had cared for Muhammad from his infancy.

On the return journey, at a place called al-Abwa, roughly midway between Mecca and Medina, Amina fell ill and died. She was buried at al-Abwa, and Umm Ayman brought the six-year-old Muhammad back to Mecca, where he passed into the care of his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib. The Qur'an addresses the fact of his double orphaning directly: "Did He not find you an orphan and give [you] refuge?" (Quran 93:6).

The Prophet's Visit to Her Grave

A report transmitted from Abu Hurayrah and recorded in Sahih Muslim concerns the Prophet's own later visit to his mother's grave. The Prophet is reported to have said: "I asked my Lord for permission to pray for forgiveness for my mother, but He did not give me permission. And I asked Him for permission to visit her grave, and He gave me permission." A second narration of the same chapter adds that the Prophet visited the grave, wept, and caused those around him to weep as well, repeating the same statement about having sought and been refused permission to ask forgiveness for her, while being granted permission to visit.

This report is transmitted here exactly as it stands in the collection, without extending it into a conclusion the hadith itself does not state. What the Prophet asked for, and what he was and was not given permission to do, is what the report records; nothing further is asserted here about it.

A separate matter, distinct from this report and worth keeping clearly apart from it, is a tradition claiming that God restored the Prophet's parents to life so that they could believe in him. Ibn Kathir, commenting on this tradition elsewhere in his work, states plainly that its chain contains unknown narrators, calls it "a highly unreliable tradition," and notes that it contradicts what is established in the authenticated collections. It is recorded here only to note that it is rejected, and specifically that it should not be confused with the authenticated report of the Prophet's visit to the grave described above.

Legacy

Amina bint Wahb is remembered in the Islamic tradition as the mother who carried, bore, and for six years raised the Prophet of Islam, and whose own life the sources record only in outline: a marriage contracted for her family's standing, a widowhood that came very early, a son sent away for nursing in the custom of the time and returned to her for a few years, and a death on the road partway through a family visit. The Prophet's later visit to her grave, and his grief there, are the clearest window the sources give onto what she meant to him.

References and Further Reading

Primary Islamic Sources

• Quran, Surah ad-Duha (93:6) — "Did He not find you an orphan and give [you] refuge?"
• Sahih Muslim, Book of Funerals, Hadith 976 (2258-2259 Darussalam numbering) — the Prophet's report of seeking and being refused permission to pray for his mother's forgiveness, and being granted permission to visit her grave
• Ibn Ishaq, as transmitted by Ibn Kathir — the journey to Medina and Amina's death at al-Abwa

Classical Islamic Sources

• Ibn Kathir, Ismail ibn Umar. Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya [English translation]. [Compiled c. 1373 CE]
• Ibn Hisham, recension of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah
• Ibn Sa'd, Muhammad. Al-Tabaqat al-Kubra. [Compiled c. 845 CE]
• Al-Tabari, Muhammad ibn Jarir. Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk. [Completed c. 915 CE]

Academic and Scholarly Sources

• Al-Mubarakpuri, Safi-ur-Rahman. The Sealed Nectar (Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum). Riyadh: Darussalam, 1996.
• Watt, W. Montgomery. Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961.
• Guillaume, Alfred, trans. The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955.

Further Reading

• Lings, Martin. Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources. Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1983.
• Haykal, Muhammad Husayn. The Life of Muhammad. Translated by Isma'il Razi al-Faruqi. Indianapolis: North American Trust Publications, 1976.