The Prophet’s Prediction for Umm Sulaym’s Sister

By Sheikh Abd Al-Wahhab Al-Turayri

On Saturday mornings, the Prophet goes to Quba’, a satellite town of Madinah inhabited by the clan of Banu `Awf ibn al-Ḥarith.

When he arrives in Quba’, he offers the late morning prayer. The town’s inhabitants are there to meet him at the mosque and he greets them warmly.

He then goes to the home of a close relative of his who lives there. She is Umm Sulaym’s sister, Umm Haram bint Milhan, the wife of the illustrious Companion `Ubadah ibn al-Samit. This is where he takes his siesta on Saturdays.

She has a meal prepared for him, and while he eats she grooms his hair. Then he takes his rest. He wakes up laughing from a dream. Umm Haram asks him what made him laugh. He replies:

“People from my community were shown to me as part of a naval expedition sailing for Allah’s sake in the middle of the sea as if they were kings sitting on thrones.”

Umm Haram says:

“O Messenger of Allah, beseech Allah to make me one of them.”

He grants her request and supplicates. Then he rests his head and goes back to sleep. He wakes up laughing again. She asks:

“What made you laugh this time?”

He tells her he had the same dream. She asks:

“O Messenger of Allah, beseech Allah to make me one of them.”

He says:

“You will be at the forefront of them.”

During the reign of the Caliph Mu`awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, Umm Haram will travel by sea during an expedition in the Mediterranean. As she disembarks on land, her riding animal will throw her and she will die the death of a martyr.

Consider the tidings of martyrdom she receives from Allah’s Messenger on this Saturday morning, many years before her death.

Consider that the Prophet is in an obscure corner of the Arabian Peninsula, a region of scarcity and limited resources, but he foretells that his nation will become a naval power on the Mediterranean Sea, and they will be so mighty on the waves that they will have the demeanor of kings mounted on their thrones.

The Arabs of his day are strangers to the sea, as far as any people could be from possessing naval prowess. It is hard to decide which is more startling, the Prophet foretelling something that seems so far-fetched and implausible, or Umm Haram’s easy acceptance of it?

She does not express any incredulity. She does not ask him how such a fantastic thing could ever come to pass. She does not even ask him how far in the distant future it will take place. Instead she asks him:

“Beseech Allah to make me one of them.”

Source: OnIslam