ZS13:AK10 Ummu Salamah rha

Umm Salama Hind binti Abi Umayya radiallhhu anha (rha) had been among the first people to embrace Islam in the early days of the Muslim community in Makkah. They had suffered at the hands of the Kufr Quraish who had tried to force them to abandon their new faith. Her first husband, Abdullah ibn Abdul Asad ra, was badly wounded during the battle of Uhud. At first his wound appeared to respond well to treatment, but then his wounds re opened after an expedition against the Banu Abdul Asad, and after that they refused to heal and he remained bedridden. Once while Umm Salama rha was nursing him, he said to her, “I once heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that whenever a calamity afflicts anyone he should say what Allah has commanded him to say: ‘Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un!’ ‘Surely we come from Allah and surely to Him we return!’ and then he should say, ‘O Lord, reward me for my affliction and give me something better than it in return, which only You, the Exalted the Mighty, can give.’”Abu Salama ra remained sick in bed for several days. One morning Prophet Muhammad saw (peace be upon him) came to see him. The visit was longer than usual, and while the Prophet was still at his bedside, Abu Salama ra died.
All the Muslims in Medina were aware of Umm Salama’s situation, and when her idda period of four months and ten days were over, Abu Bakr proposed marriage to her, but she refused. Then Umar asked her to marry him, but again she refused. Then Prophet Muhammad saw (peace be upon him) himself asked for her hand in marriage. “O Messenger of Allah,” Umm Salama rha replied, “I have three main characteristics: I am a woman who is extremely jealous and I am afraid that you will see something in me that will make you angry and cause Allah to punish me; I am a woman who is already advanced in age; and I am a woman who has many children.”
“As for your jealousy,” answered the Prophet saw (peace be upon him), “I pray to Allah the Almighty to take it away from you. As for your age, I am older than you. As for your many children, they belong to Allah and His Messenger.”
The Prophet’s answered eased her heart, and so they were married in Shawal, 4 AH. Allah swt has answered her prayer and gave her better than Abu Salama. From that day on, Umm Salama was not only the mother of Salama, but also became the ‘Mother of the Believers’ ‘Umm al Muminin’.Umm Salama was not the only wife to have been widowed as a result of the battle of Uhud, and thanks to this marriage, many of the Companions followed Prophet Muhammad saw’s (peace be upon him) example, marrying widows and thereby bringing them and their children into the circle of their families, instead of leaving them to struggle on their own.

Umm Salama rha was married to Prophet Muhammad saw (peace be upon him) for seven years until his death in 10 AH. She continued to live for a long time, outliving all the other wives of the Prophet, may Allah be pleased with them, until she died in 61 AH, at the age of eighty four, may Allah be pleased with her.