Umme Jamil أروى بنت حرب | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Died | Mecca, Hijaz |
| Other names | Arwā bint Ḥarb |
| Known for | Enemy and Paternal-aunt ofMuhammad |
| Spouse | Abu Lahab |
| Children | |
| Parent | Harb ibn Umayya (father) |
| Relatives |
|
| Family | Banu Umayya (clan) |
Arwā bint Ḥarb (Arabic:أروى بنت حرب), better known asUmme Jamīl (Arabic:أم جميل), was an aunt of theIslamic prophetMuhammad who is mentioned in theQuran.[1] She wasAbu Lahab's wife andAbu Sufyan's sister. Arwa is usually remembered for opposing Islam and Muhammad, and also for a poem.
She was the daughter of Harb ibnUmayya, a chief ofMecca. She was a sister ofAbu Sufyan and one of the leading women of theQuraysh.[2][3]
She marriedAbū Lahab, a paternal uncle of Muhammad. They had at least six children:Utbah,[4][5]Utaybah,[6][7] Muattab,[6] Durrah (Fakhita), 'Uzzā and Khālida.[8] It is not clear whether she was also the mother of Abu Lahab's son Durrah.[citation needed]
Umm Jamil supported her husband in his opposition to Muhammad's preaching.[3] When Muhammad promisedParadise to the believers, Abu Lahab blew on his hands and said, "May you perish. I can see nothing in you of the things that Muhammad says." Muhammad therefore declared a revelation fromGod about them.[9]
Destroyed were the hands of Abu Lahab, and he lay utterly doomed.
His wealth did not avail him nor his acquisitions.
Surely, He will be cast into a flaming fire
Along with his wife, that carrier of slanderous tales.
upon her neck shall be a rope of palm-fibre.[10]
The occasion for this revelation is disputed.Ibn Sa'd andIbn Kathir state that it was in 613 CE, when Muhammad summoned the Quraysh toMount Safa for his first public warning that they must heed God's message. Abu Lahab interrupted: "May you perish! Did you assemble us for this? You should die!" and Muhammad responded with the prophecy.[11][12][3]Ibn Ishaq implies that it occurred in 616, when Abu Lahab left theHashim clan and refused to protect Muhammad.[13][14]
Ibn Ishaq says that Umm Jamil was called "the carrier of firewood" because she carried thorns and cast them in Muhammad's way where he would be passing;[15] however, he also states that the Quraysh did not resort to this form of harassment until after the death ofAbu Talib in 620.[16] Ibn Kathir also offers the alternative theory that "carrier of firewood" does not refer to a past event but to Umm Jamil's future destiny of willingly stoking the fires that would punish her husband inHell.[3]
When Umm Jamil bint Harb heard that Muhammad had been prophesying about her and her husband, she went to theKaaba, where Muhammad was sitting withAbu Bakr, carrying a stonepestle. She did not notice Muhammad, so she asked Abu Bakr after him, "for I have been told that he is satirising me. If I had found him, I would have smashed his mouth with this stone." Then she produced a poem of her own:
We reject the reprobate,
His words we repudiate,
His religion we loathe and hate.
She departed, still not having noticed Muhammad.[17]
