Sayyida Juwayriya
Mother of the believers Juwarriya bint al-Harith ibn Dirar
(may Allah be pleased with her)
Juweryriya’s (may Allah be pleased with her) Family
Father: al-Harith ibn Dirar
Tribe: Banu Mustaliq.
Juwayriyya (may Allah be pleased with her) was born in the year 607, 15 years before the migration.[i]
During the battle of Muraisse’ with Banu Mustaliq, in the fifth year of the Hijra, the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) married Juwayriyya bint al-Harith ibn Abi Dirar, (former name Barra). The reason behind his marriage to her was for the purpose of drawing her father closer to the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) as he was the chief of the tribe and also raising her position. Juwayriyya (may Allah be pleased with her) was from the captives of Banu Mustaliq and had fallen in the hands of one of the Ansar. She was the daughter of the leader of Banu Mustaliq, so she wanted to free herself from her master to whom she had become a slave-girl. Her master increased the ransom money knowing that she was the daughter of the leader of Banu Mustaliq. So her father approached the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) with the ransom required to free her, which he did. Then after believing in the Message of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) he became a Muslim and he took his daughter Juwayriyya to the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and she too embraced Islam, so the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) asked her father for her hand. He married her to the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) himself so the Messenger of Allah’s (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) marriage to her was in fact a marriage to the daughter of a leader of a tribe which he had dominated. His objective was to win the friendship of its leader through marrying his daughter.
The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was 57 and Juweriyya (may Allah be pleased with her) was 20.[ii]
He wanted to weld the quarrelling tribal and clannish division into one Muslim Ummah as brethren in faith. For instance, his wife Juweyriyya belonged to the Banu Mustaliq clan which was very powerful. The entire clan was a bitter enemy of Islam from the start. They were in the forefront of every opposition party and never consented to enter into any agreement. At last they were suppressed by military action. But when the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) married Juwayriyya, the Muslims released all their prisoners saying that they could not keep the Messenger of Allah’s (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) relatives in captive and it was due to this marriage that the whole clan accepted Islam and became peaceful and obedient to the laws of the new Islamic state.
She has narrated 7 traditions from the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) from which two are in the Sahih collection of Imam Bukhari and two are in the Sahih of Imam Muslim and the rest in other books of Hadith. ‘Abd-Allah bin ‘Umar, ‘Ubaidullah bin Sabaa’ and his nephew Tufail, have all narrated ahadith from her.[iii]
She passed away at the age of 65 in 50 AH and is buried in Jannatul-Baqi in Madinah. The governor of the city, Marwaan, performed her funeral prayer.[iv]
[i] Azwaj-e-Mutaharat, p. 85
[ii] Madarij-un-Nabuwah; Vol: 1; Page: 825
[iii] Zarqani, Vol3, Pg. 255 & Madaarij, Vol. 2, Pg. 481
[iv] ibid