A Glimpse From The Life Of ‛Aa'isha (may Allah be pleased with her)

‛Aa'isha (may Allah be pleased with her), the wife of the Prophet (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and the Mother of the Believers, was known for her profound religious knowledge and her ability to deliver forceful and effective sermons. ‛Aa'isha (may Allah be pleased with her) memorised the Qur'an by heart and narrated thousands of Hadeeths from the the Prophet (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

Abu Musa Al-Ash‛ari (may Allah be pleased with him) said, "Whenever we, the companions of the Prophet (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) had some difficulty concerning a Hadeeth, we would ask ‛Aa'isha (may Allah be pleased with her) who would invariably give some explanation and solve our difficulty."

‛Aa'isha (may Allah be pleased with her) was supremely eloquent, as Aḥnaf said, "I heard the sermons of Abu Bakr, ‛Umar, ‛Uthmaan and ‛Ali (may Allah be pleased with them all). I heard many powerful sermons of great scholars. But I heard none more splendid and more beautiful than what I heard from ‛Aa'isha (may Allah be pleased with her).


‛Aa'isha (may Allah be pleased with her) was known for her extremely generosity. When there was nothing in the house to cook for days and weeks and the household of the Prophet (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) lived on dates and water, she never grieved or complained. Her nephew, Urwah bin Zubayr (may Allah be pleased with him), says, "Mu‘aawiya ibn Abu Sufyaan (may Allah be pleased with them both) sent her one hundred thousand dirhams. By Allah, she distributed them all among the poor and the needy before the evening came. In the evening her slave girl said to her, 'Had you saved one dirham, we could have bought some meat for the evening meal.' ‛Aa'isha (may Allah be pleased with her) replied, "Oh, why didn't you tell me we had nothing in the house to eat?"

Another account of this story is slightly different and is narrated by Umm Zer, the slave-girl of '‛Aa'isha (may Allah be pleased with them both) "‘Abdullah ibn Zubayr (may Allah be pleased with them both) sent the money in two bags containing one hundred thousand dirhams. ‛Aa'isha (may Allah be pleased with her) asked for a platter, emptied the bags and began distributing the money.' ‛Aa'isha (may Allah be pleased with her) was fasting that day, so before sunset she asked the slave-girl to bring her something to break her fast. The slave-girl said, "Had you saved a dirham, you could have bought some mutton. ‛Aa'isha (may Allah be pleased with her), 'Don't rebuke me now, if you had told me there was nothing to eat in the house, I would surely have bought something to eat."

Zarkashi (may Allah have mercy on him) in his book Al-ljabah recounts that ‛Aa'isha (may Allah be pleased with her) had forty qualities, far more than any other wife of the Prophet (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Except for ‛Aa'isha (may Allah be pleased with her), all his other wives ‛Aa'isha (may Allah be pleased with them all) were either widows or divorcees whom he married either to cultivate or promote close relations with other tribes or to teach and instruct the Ummah. The Prophet (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) spent the last few days of his life in ‛Aa'isha (may Allah be pleased with her) chamber. He (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) died there in her arms.