At what age and with whom did the daughters of the Prophet marry?

Dear Brother / Sister,

There is no clear information about at what age the daughters of the Prophet (pbuh) married but the general information is as follows:

The Prophet (pbuh) had two boys and four girls from Hz. Khadija. His first child Qasim died at the age of two and Abdullah also died at a very young age. It is stated that his son Abdullah was also called Tayyib and Tahir.

In addition, the Prophet had another son called Ibrahim in Madinah from the Egyptian Mariya. There is a disagreement about the order of the birth of his daughters but they generally regarded to have been born in the following order: Zaynab, Ruqiyya, Umm Kulthum and Fatima.

Zaynab: Hz. Zaynab was the second child and oldest daughter of the Prophet (pbuh). It is reported that she was born when the Prophet was 30 years old. The Prophet married Zaynab off to Abul As bin Rabi, who was the son of Hz. Khadija’s maternal aunt, acting upon the request of Hz. Khadija. Hz. Zaynab had two children called Ali and Umama from this marriage

Hz. Zaynab became a Muslim together with her mother when Muhammad (pbuh) became a prophet. Her husband Abul-As did not become a believer at that time but he continued living with his wife, who became a Muslim. Their marriage continued like that up to the Battle of Badr.  

When the Prophet (pbuh) migrated to Madinah, he wanted to take his family and his daughter Zaynab with him but his husband did not want to leave her. Abul-As was captivated during the Battle of Badr, in which he fought in the ranks of the polytheists. Zaynab sent some goods along with her necklace, which her mother had given her when she got married, as ransom for her husband. The Prophet released Abul-As but he returned the necklace. However, he made Abul-As promise to send Zaynab and her children to Madinah. Abul-As kept his promise made Zaynab and her children set off for Madinah.

Zaynab, who was pregnant then, was attacked by Habbar b. Aswad, who had not become a Muslim yet, in a place called Dhu-Tuwa near Makkah. She fell off the camel and had a miscarriage. The illness he got during this incident worsened and caused her death in the eighth year of the Migration. She returned to Makkah after that incident.

Meanwhile, the Prophet sent Zayd bin Haritha and a Companion from Ansar to Makkah to take the Valley of Yajaj, 10 km away from Masjid al-Haram a month after the Battle of Badr to fetch Zaynab. Zaynab went to Madinah with her children accompanied by them and started to live with the Prophet.

On the other hand, Abul As went to Syria with a caravan belonging to the polytheists in the 6^th year of the Migration; while returning from Syria, he confronted an Islamic military unit in the place called Is and was taken to Madinah by them. He became a Muslim there. The Prophet (pbuh) married Zaynab off to her husband again.

A short while after her second marriage with Abul As, Zaynab died in the 8^th year of the Migration. Her son Ali died after the conquest of Makkah. Her daughter Umama married Hz. Ali after the death of Hz. Fatima. After Hz. Ali was martyred, she married Mughira b. Nawfal; she died when she was married with him. It is said that Umama had a son called Yahya from Mughira.

As it will be seen soon, Zaynab’s lineage did not continue just like her other two sisters Ruqiyya and Umm Kulthum.

Ruqiyya: It is stated that she was born when her father was 33 years old. Ruqiyya married Abu Lahab's son Utba and her sister Umm Kulthum married Abu Lahab's other son Utayba. Almost all reliable resources agree unanimously that those two daughters of the Prophet (pbuh) did not enter the nuptial chamber with Abu Lahab's sons. Abu Lahab and his wife forced their children to divorce the daughters of the Prophet when the chapter of Tabbat, which criticized their attitude against Islam, was sent down and when Ruqiyya and Umm Kulthum became Muslims. Finally, they were both divorced.  

After that, the Prophet married Ruqiyya off to Hz. Uthman. Ruqiyya took part in the migration to Abyssinia with her husband. Then, she returned to Makkah and then migrated to Madinah; she started to live there. Ruqiyya got ill during the preparations for the Battle of Badr in the 2^nd year of the Migration. The Prophet did not take Hz. Uthman with him to the expedition; he left Uthman in Madinah to look after his wife. However, Hz. Ruqiyya died when the Prophet was in the expedition. Her son from Hz. Uthman called Abdullah died when he was two or six years old.

Umm Kulthum: Since she was younger than Ruqiyya, she must have been born when her father was 34 years old. As it is mentioned above, she married Abu Lahab's son Utayba. When Utayba’s parents forced him, he divorced Umm Kulthum. She lived with her father until the Migration. She migrated to Madinah with her sister Fatima and the other members of the family of the Prophet. She married Hz. Uthman after the death of Ruqiyya in the 3^rd year of the Migration. She died in the 9^th year of the Migration.

Umm Kulthum did not have any children. When she died, the Prophet said, "If I had one more daughter (in some narrations, ten daughters), I would marry her (them) off to Hz. Uthman."

Fatıma: She is the youngest daughter of the Prophet (pbuh). Although there is a disagreement about the date of her birth, it is generally accepted that she was born in 609 or 605, the former being more acceptable. There is little information about her childhood and youth in the resources. One of the incidents that happened to her is as follows: One day, when the Prophet was in prostration while praying next to the Kaaba, the polytheists put the internal organs of a sheep on his back. The Prophet could not raise his head from prostration. Meanwhile, Fatima came and removed the things from her father’s back and shouted at the polytheists.

Hz. Fatima migrated to Madinah with a group that included her sister Umm Kulthum and Hz Abu Bakr's family after the migration of her father. After a while, Hz. Ali asked her hand in marriage from her father. The Prophet married Fatima off to Hz. Ali after asking her daughter in the 2^nd year of the Migration.

Hz. Fatma gave birth to her first child Hasan one year after her marriage, and her second child Husayn a year after that. In the following years, her daughters Umm Kulthum and Zaynab and his son Muhsin (or Muhassin) were born. However, Muhsin passed away when he was very young.

One of the things that Fatima is famous for in Islamic culture is her services in the fields of health and social assistance. As a matter of fact, he carried water and food to the warriors during the battle of Uhud, treated the wounded soldiers and cleaned the blood on his father's face.

She became very sorry for the death of the Prophet (pbuh) and passed away about six months after that.

The Prophet's lineage continued through the children of Fatima.

References:

- Hz. Muhammed ve Evrensel Mesajı. 
- TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi.

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