INSPIRATION FOR WOMEN: ASMA BINT ABU BAKR (RA)

Authentic Islam as seen by a woman: Asma, r.a., the daughter of Abu Bakr, r,a.

 “And their Lord has accepted of them, and answered them: ‘Never will I allow to be lost the work of any of you, be ye male or female: You are one body …” [The Qur’an 3:195]

• Islam is a way of life for all people. It is not restricted to some one category. It is for young and old, Arab and non-Arab, men and women.
• Asma, r.a., the daughter of Abu Bakr, r.a., encompasses in her life extremely important aspects of Islam as seen by a woman.
• A THOUGHTFUL AND SPIRITUAL CHILD
• When she was a child, she embraced Islam, right in the beginning of the Prophet’s mission [pbuh]. So it’s not correct to count only Khadija, Zayd, Ali and Abu Bakr [Allah be pleased with them] as the first Muslims. Islam does not disregard serious minded children. Ali, r.a., was only 12 when he accepted Islam. Asma, r.a., was even younger, perhaps. 7 or 8. Very intelligent and involved. So, let’s bring up our children to be serious.
• In his efforts to leave Makka for Madinah, the Prophet, pbuh, with Abu Bakr, r.a., Muhammad, pbuh, took refuge in a cave known as Thaur, going south of Makka. Thus the kuffar were deceived because they thought he would go north to get to Madinah. Deceive the oppressors.
• MOUNTAIN CLIMBING TO AID THE PROPHET PBUH IN HIJRAH
• There was no food or water for the two most blessed people in Islam hiding in the cave. Asma, r.a., brought them the food and water. She had to walk several miles in the desert, then climb a mountain, then slide down over rocks into the cave. To save the water from spilling and the food from falling into the sand, she tore her waistband into two. With one piece she tied up the mouth of the water skin, and with the other she tied up the food. Hence her nickname zaat-un-nataqain [the owner of the two waist bands].
• PHYSICALLY FIT
• She had to be extremely strong, able to walk for miles in the hot sand and climb into the mountain cave. Also, she was fearless knowing that the oppressors had set a bounty of a 100 camels on Muhammad, pbuh [which would be about $100 million today]. Her life was in danger for saving him.
• Asma, r.a., did the hijrah to Madina and took the oath of allegiance [ baiyah] to Muhammad, pbuh.
• She was married to Zubair, r.a.,and gave birth to eight children, 5 boys and 3 girls. Zubair, r.a., was one of the great mujahid sahaba of the Prophet, pbuh.
• AN INSPIRATION TO ALL WORKING WOMEN (MOTHERS)
• Even married, she was a working woman and went out several miles each day to collect dates to bring them back for her husband to take to the market. Thus Islam endorses working women.
• HEYA AND MODESTY WHILE WORKING
• Once she was walking home with a big pile of goods on her head when the Prophet, pbuh, saw her. He made his camel sit down and invited her to sit behind him. There was a group of men with him, so out of HAYA [modesty and shyness], she refused and walked back home alone. Later, her husband was sad that she carried such a burden. She said, she knew Zubair, r.a., was a man of honor and would not have liked her to be with a crowd of men. He replied that she should have accepted the ride and that it is a sin to refuse the Prophet’s invitation.
• Asma’s son Abdullah, was the first child born in the Islamic community after the hijrah. The Prophet, pbuh, loved the baby so much that he kissed him and put his saliva in the baby’s mouth.
• RAISING A GOOD SON:
• Asma, r.a., prepared Abdullah, r.a., to be a great scholar and a great mujahid.
• The khilafate Rashida [the rightly guided caliphate] ended and was followed by Kingship. The tragedy of Kerbala occurred when the grandson of the Prophet, pbuh, was martyred by the tribal army of the king.
• Most of our scholars do not notice that Asma’s son, Abdullah, fought the same dynasty as Hussain, r.a., did and defeated it. He set up an Islamic caliphate and scholars consider it the continuation of the righrly guided caliphate. He was extremely pious and brave and was well guided by the sublime Asma,r.a,
• As more and more wealth came into the Muslim domain, more and more corruption arose. Thus Abdullah, r.a., who was not corrupt lost followers while the tyrant in Syria became stronger.
• Finally a stage came when Abdullah, r.a., was left alone. He was faced with the same choice as Hussain, r.a.,: Accept the king’s corrupt power or go down fighting for Islam. Abdullah, r.a., chose to go down fighting.
• He went to say farewell to his mother, Asma, r.a., who was now 80 plus years old. When she embraced him, she felt the armor under his shirt. She told him: There is no need for this. You are not fighting for the world. You are fighting for shahadat. He took off the armor and fought for a very long time till he was brought down by missiles [arrows] fired by the Ummayeds.
• He was martyred in the Ka’aba, a much holier place than Kerbala. Isn’t it a shame that our sectarians cry over Hussain, r.a., but ignore Abdullah, r.a., when both were fighting the same enemy?
• After Abdullah, r.a., was killed, the king ordered his men to bring Asma, r.a., to his presence even if she had to be dragged by her hair. She refused to go and quoted a hadith that evil would arise from the tribe of the king. The historians do not divulge what happened to her after that. The hadith she quoted is in Sahih Muslim. She passed way soon after her son, in the year 73 after hijrah.
• Dear brothers, tell your mothers, daughters, wives, sisters, aunts, grandmothers the story of Asma.RA
• [Hadith narratives about Asma, r.a., are scattered in the books of authentic Hadith but they were collected by a great scholar, Muhammad ibn Sa’ad, in his monumental work known as the Tabaqat in the year 230 after the hijrah.]

Excerpt from a Jumma Khutbah given by  Dr. Kaukab Siddique in Masjid Jamaat a-Muslimeen in Baltimore. 

Some points are mentioned here:

A great muslim woman daee……passes away

Courtesy: http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=97956

INNA LIL LAHI WA INNA ELAYE RAJAEOON…..

Obituary: October 31 
Maryam Jameelah passes away: Awesome Spiritual Power. Great Critic of Western Powers. 

She will live forever in the hearts of those who love Islam. She converted from Judaism to Islam, did the hijra from New York to Lahore, Pakistan, and, as a student of Maulana Maudoodi, she issued book after book with devastating criticism of western writers and the entire western way of life.

Her correspondence with Maulana Maudoodi is worth reading. She also wrote about her life in Pakistan, living like a house wife with daily chores and problems to overcome but also a genius whose pen is so strong that it can change a person’s view point.

She took to strict purdah, became a second wife to her Pakistani husband, whom she lovingly called “my Khan sahib,” and gave birth to his children. It’s amazing how she could do so much which was conventional and so much which was revolutionary.

I visited her in her home in Lahore and could not but be impressed by her humility. May Allah accept her sacrifices and give her a place in Jannat al-Firdous. 
[Please reflect on Maryam Jameelah’s letter to her parents in New York, thanks to Salim Mansur Khalid via Iqra.] 

AN OPEN LETTER TO HER PARENTS

By Maryam Jameelah

[Maryam Jameelah, a well-known convert from Judaism to Islam wrote an open letter to her parents.]

Dear Mother and Father,

I have now been living in Pakistan for more than twenty years during which time you have acquired an entire additional family of loved-ones there, adding much to your happiness. You have reached a ripe age, thank God, living longer in good health than I had ever expected. You have read all my books and Islamic literature I have sent you with a broad and open mind. Therefore you need no introduction to the subject I wish to discuss with you now and nothing I have to say will seem strange and new to you.

I wonder if you realize fully how very fortunate you are. So long as you can keep in reasonable health and are able to take care of yourselves, you can continue to enjoy a pleasant life.

But do you ever think of the tragic faith of those hundreds of thousands of other older Americans, the victims of chronic illness and infirmities, who crowd to over-flowing hospitals and nursing homes (which are really charnel houses), the old-age homes and the senile wards of mental institutions? And do you ever think of those still greater numbers of older people who are widowed and live their lonely lives confined to their dingy rooms in constant fear of muggings, physical attacks and robberies by juvenile delinquents who prey on the old and infirm with no remorse or fear of punishment?

The maltreatment of older people is a direct result of the collapse of the home and extended family. Does your elder sister – my aunt Rosalyn, a great-grandmother lovingly sheltered in a close and adoring family and a happy home, ever think how lucky she is and how few of her advanced age in America are left like her?

You must know that society in which you were brought up and have lived all your life is in a state of rapid disintegration on the brink of collapse.

Actually the decline in our civilization was evident as far back as World War I but at that time few people except some intellectuals and artists were aware of what was happening. But since the end of World War II and especially during the last two decades, the rot has reached such a stage of advanced decay that nobody can any longer ignore it.

The moral anarchy in the absence of any respected, fixed standards of behavior and conduct, the obsession with perverted sex over the entertainment media, the mistreatment of older people, the divorce rate which has climbed so high that among the new generation, an enduring, happy marriage is becoming rare, child abuse, the destruction of the natural environment, the prodigious waste of scarce and valuable resources, the epidemic of veneral diseases and mental disorders, drug addiction, alcoholism, suicides as leading cause of death, crime, vandalism, corruption in the government and contempt for the law in general – all of this has a cause.

The cause of this is the failure of secularism and materialism and the absence of absolute, transcendental theological and moral values. Deed does in the final analysis depend upon creed because if the intention is wrong, the work always suffers.

No doubt that it may bore you to read this. You will protest that if you are not theologians, philosophers or sociologists, then why bother about such “deep” matters when they do not seem to be of any direct concern to you? After all, you are happy and content living just as you are.

You only wish to enjoy life right now, live entirely in the present and accept each day as it comes.

If life is a journey, is it not foolhardy only to be concerned with pleasant and comfortable accommodations along the way and never to think about the journey’s end? Why were we born? What is the meaning and purpose of life, why must we die and what will happen to each of us after death?

Father you have told me more than once that you cannot accept any traditional religion because you are convinced that theology conflicts with modern science. Science and technology have indeed given us much information about the physical world, provided us with abundant comforts and conveniences, increased efficiency and discovered remedies for many diseases that used to be fatal. But science does not and cannot tell us about the meaning of life and death.

Science tells us “how” but it never answers the question “why”?. Can science ever tell us what is right and what is wrong? What is good and what is evil? What is beautiful and what is ugly? And to whom are we accountable for what we do? Religion does.

Today America is in many ways a repetition of ancient Rome in the terminal stages of her decline and fall. Thinking people know that secularism has failed to be a sound foundation of our social order. They are anxiously searching in other directions for a solution to the crisis but do not know yet where to find it. This is not of concern only to a few sociologists. The disease of national disintegration directly affects you and me and each one of us.

During its most critical period, ancient Rome adopted Christianity as its salvation and henceforth the Church dominated Europe for more than a thousand years. This put an end to many of the worst social and moral evils of decadent Rome and greatly raised the moral and spiritual standards of the people. Unfortunately during the formative period of its history, the Church compromised with paganism and secularism, adopting an elaborate priesthood and incomprehensive theology which could not resist the impact of the renaissance, the revival of the natural sciences and the radical secularism of the French Revolution.

While Christians in Europe and America have deserted their faith wholesale leaving the churches almost empty, the missionaries continue to represent the vanguard of western imperialism and exploitation in Asia and Africa.

After Christianity, the Jews comprise the second largest religious group in America who dominate politically, and economically, as well exercising considerable control over the media. But Judaism has always been parochial and tribal, seldom welcoming converts. It is not and has never been a universal faith.

The Zionist movement which resulted in the establishment of the state of Israel, is the secular expression of Jewish nationalism and tribalism. The dreadful atrocities committed by the Israelis in occupied Palestine, the unprovoked aggression in Lebanon and adjacent areas and attempted genocide of the Palestine Arabs, depriving them of all human and political rights, is the logical result of this same narrow parochial outlook.

This is the reason why even the most orthodox of the rabbis refuse to believe that Israel can do any wrong and uncritically support everything she does. These glaring moral and spiritual defects automatically disqualify Judaism as the faith of the future.

The Muslims comprise the third and fastest growing faith in America today. No longer is Islam confined to remote regions of the deserts and jungles of Asia and Africa. No longer is Islam foreign to the American scene. There are more than three million Muslims in America today and their numbers are increasing fast.

There are thousands of students from all Muslim countries studying in American universities, and well-educated, highly-trained Muslims are busily at work in all professions.

In the last two decades, hundreds of native-born American converts have swelled their ranks. At first most of the converts were black people who found in Islam, dignity, honor, self-respect and racial brotherhood as did Malcolm-X, but in recent years more and more white converts of European origin, searching for guidance in all the affairs of their formally chaotic lives, have also embraced Islam, making many sacrifices and enduring much hardships to do so.

Few of them are fortunate as I am to have loving parent like you. Most of them suffer severe frictions with their non-Muslim parents and relatives.

Today churches and synagogues are almost deserted but the newly-built mosques and Islamic centers, springing up in every important American city and town, are attracting rapidly growing numbers. Most of the new Muslims in America are young, intelligent and well-educated. What attracts so many young Americans to Islam?

Americans today, both young and old, are desperately searching for guidance. They know from bitter experience that the personal freedom and opportunities they as Americans enjoy are meaningless and self-destructive without reliable guidance, direction and purpose. Secularism and materialism are powerless to provide any positive or constructive moral values for Americans either individually or collectively.

That is why after Christianity and Judaism have failed them, more and more people in America today are turning towards Islam. In Islam as new Muslims, they find a sane, healthy, clean and honest life. And for Muslims, everything does not come to an end at death. They look forward to an Eternity of bliss, peace and perfect happiness (in the Hereafter).

This Guidance found in the Holy Qur’an and the recorded words and deeds of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, is not only for foreign races in some far-away corner of the East, centuries ago. Here are to be found the solutions to all economic, social, moral and political problems which face us right here in the West today.

Furthermore, Islam is not cold, remote and impersonal. Muslims have complete faith in a very personal God who not only created, sustains and rules the universe but also loves and deeply cares about the fate of each of us. The Holy Qur’an tells us that God is nearer to everyone of us than our jugular veins!

Since the Holy Qur’an is divine revelation, it cannot and will never be changed. Because it is perfect, it cannot be improved, revised or reformed. Since Muhammad, upon whom be peace, is the final Prophet, his guidance can never be superseded by any other. The Qur’an and Sunnah are addressed to all peoples, in every country of the West as well as the East. Since it is relevant for all times, in all places, it can never become obsolete or out-of-date.

You are both of very advanced age and there is so little time left. Yet it is not too late if you act now. If your decision is positive, your ties with your loved ones in Pakistan will not only be by blood but also in faith. You cannot only love them in this world but be all together with us forever in eternity.

If your decision is negative, I am very much afraid that your happy, comfortable and pleasant life will very shortly come to an end. As soon as the inevitable occurs, it is too late for remorse and regrets. The punishment will be terrible from which there is no refuge and no escape.

It is as your daughter who loves you and hopes to the end that you will be spared this fate. But the decision rests entirely with you. You have complete freedom to accept or reject: Your future depends upon the choice you make now.

All my love and best wishes.

Your devoted daughter,
Sd/-

(Maryam Jameelah). [Written in 1986]

Is it time to recognize the “muslim” Rosa Parks?

December 1, 1955. That was the day when an unknown seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger beginning the Civil Rights Movement

 Rosa Parks: Symbol of Peaceful Resistance to Segregation & Racism.

Great Islamic Women who refused to go to the “back of the bus” Should be recognized

An African-American family I know stood for six hours in line for a final view of Rosa Parks before her burial. A simple, peaceful act of non-compliance with an oppressive law made this seemingly ordinary woman famous. The symbolism of her gesture [or non-gesture] caught the public imagination.

Rosa Parks was a kindly, soft-spoken woman but she knew what was right and was willing to stand [sit] for it. She refused to give up her seat in the bus to a White man and would not go to the back of the bus where the “law” said she belonged.

Segregation is a thing of the past but institutional racism refuses to go away. In spite of laws to the contrary, most American cities are unofficially segregated, with Black areas and White areas, blurred increasingly by Hispanic and Asiatic areas. Even churches remain Black and {largely} White churches.

There are no signs saying, “Whites only” but the “class” component of racism persists, and the aftermath of Katrina brought out the reality of institutional racism.

Within this American imbroglio, the power of Islam is emerging, slowly but surely. American women are saying a clear NO to the power of Madison Avenue, Hollywood and even Wall Street. I spoke at a mosque in Philadelphia and tried to explain the misunderstandings, which are prevalent in America about Afghanistan.

At this a woman got up and said: Bush should stop attacking the Taliban for making Afghan women wear the burqa. We are wearing it right here in Philadelphia.

Sure enough, she was wearing a head to foot covering but it did not stop her from being eloquent.

Eid prayers in Philadelphia and other big cities bring out the power of Islam in America. If Bush and Wolfowitz were to see the serried ranks of Muslim women in full hijab on these occasions, they would probably have nightmares about an end to their efforts to “liberate” women.

The history of Islam is replete with examples of women who stood up to power because they had faith in Allah and loved the messenger of Allah, Muhammad, peace be on him.

It’s not strange that the first person to advise and encourage Muhammad, pbuh, about the authenticity of his mission was his wife Khadija, r.a., who put her entire capital at his disposal. Here are a few salient examples we should recognize and honor:

• Summayya, the first martyr of Islam. She was a slave woman but was liberated by Islam. [“Free the slave,” says The Qur’an, chapter 90.] When she refused to ‘go to the back of the bus,’ her slave master tortured her to death.
• Fatima, the sister of ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, defied him for the sake of Islam. He was a big, strong man. He beat her but his heart softened when he saw her bleeding. He accepted Islam, r.a., and sought Allah’s forgiveness. His life was transformed by her.
• ‘Ayesha, the daughter of Abu Bakr, r.a., married the messenger of Allah at a very young age. Poet and genealogist, educated by the Prophet himself, she became teacher, leader, Hadith-transmitter, Qur’an-commentator. She led men at the battle of Jamal. Her oratory had no equal.
• Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad, pbuh, known for her great piety and wit, stood by him on the field of battle and at Uhud became the first Muslim physician. She, as the mother of Imam Hasan and Imam Hussain, is the symbol of sublime motherhood in Islam.
• Umm Ammara shielded Muhammad, pbuh, at Uhud with her own body against the attacking oppressors when most of his male defenders had fled. She is known as a great warrior who participated in Islam’s classical battles even after the Prophet, pbuh, passed away.
• Umm Waraqah was Hafiz of the Qur’an and led men and women in prayer as ordered by the Prophet, pbuh. [See Hadith in Sunan of Abu Dawud.]
• Ghazala, in the era after the Caliphate of the Rashideen, defied the power of the kings, sword in hand. Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi has chronicled her exploits when she went to the main mosque in kufa [controlled by the King] and prayed two rakats and recited the longest chapters of the Qur’an in them. The historian attacks her as a “Kharijite.”
• Nafisa [daughter of Hasan bin Zayd bin Hasan, r.a, son of Ali, r.a] great teacher and leader. Imam Shafi’ii was her devotee and student. She LED the JANAZA prayers of Imam Shafi’I. [There was a series of prayers for him that day.] Ibn Hajar Asqalani has listed 150 visionary aspects of her life. Ibn Khallikan described her as one of the Awliyya Allah.

In our own times, Chechen, Palestinian, Iraqi, Sudanese, Nigerian, Somali, Kashmiri, Pakistani, Afghan, African-American women devoted to the message of the Qur’an and the example of the Messenger, pbuh, have made great sacrifices to fight oppression, exploitation and imperialism/Zionism/occupation.

It’s about time we recognized our “Rosa Parks.”

WHEN TO ARRIVE FOR JUMMA SALAH?

Courtesy: https://marisacat.wordpress.com/2007/09/19/well-what-do-we-expect/

Here is what Prophet Muhammad pbuh said:

22) Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said,

“When it is a friday, the angels stand at the gate of the mosque and keep on writing the names of the persons coming to the mosque in succession according to their arrivals. The example of the one who enters the mosque in the earliest hour is that of one offering a camel (in sacrifice). The one coming next is like one offering a cow and then a ram and then a chicken and then an egg respectively. When the Imam comes out (for Jumua prayer) they (i.e. angels) fold their papers and listen to the Khutba.”

(Sahih Bukhari Book #13, Hadith #51)

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN ISLAM?

courtesy: In india , hyderabad children in hijab learn martial arts http://muslimswearingthings.tumblr.com/page/37

The role of women in Islam beyond a wife and mother is a mystery to most Muslims.

The diversity of the roles that Muslim women played in supporting, and actively spreading the message of Islam is truly unique in the history of women’s movements.

Nowhere have women from any faith, country, and socioeconomic and racial background consistently made such a mark on history as Muslim women have in the time of the Prophet pbuh.

We as Muslims follow, and do as the Prophet did. Muslim women revere and copy what the wives of the Prophet did as well as follow the Sahabiat and the Tabaeen women.

The role of women in the Islamic movement led by Muhammad Mustafa, pbuh is a living example for all Muslim women to follow, from the most fragile (physically) to the most intelligent and or strong.

 Large segments of the Qur’an were revealed with reference to Islamic women.

Let’s look at the key moments in the mission of Muhammad, pbuh which illustrate the multifaceted roles that Muslim women had in impacting society:

1. The revelation of the Qur’an in the cave of Hira. The Prophet, pbuh, went to his wife, Khadija, r.a. Not only did she comfort him, she advised him and supported him. For the rest of her life, she placed her funds and resources at his disposal especially when the unbelievers blocked him at every step.

2. Would people be willing to sacrifice their lives for Islam? The answer came from Sumayya, r.a., the slave woman who was the first martyr of Islam. This was in Makka before Jihad became mandatory. She defied the slave master though she was poor and helpless.

3. During the Hijra, central to Islamic history, Asma, r.a. climbed the mountain every day and brought food to the Prophet, pbuh, while he was concealed in the cave of Thawr, at great risk to her own life and dignity. She brought up her son Abdullah [ibn Zubair] as one of the greatest opponents of kingship. She herself defied the Umayyad tyrant.

4.One of the closest companions of Muhammad, pbuh, was his youthful wife Aisha, r.a., who did more for the rights of women than any other woman in history.

Chapter 24 of the Qur’an is about her and condemns male attitudes towards women.

• Through her the Prophet, pbuh, undermined the Jewish bigotry against menstruating women.
•  Tayammum, which makes prayer possible when water is not available was revealed with reference to an incident related to Aisha, r.a. [Chapter 4 verse 43].
•  Later she led an army including prominent Islamic leaders to punish the murderers of Usman, r.a. Aisha, r.a., was a woman leading men!

5. At the battle of Uhud, a woman, Umm Ummarah, r.a., saved the Prophet’s (pbuh) life when he had been left almost alone by men who were being attacked by Khalid [at that time not a Muslim]. She took part in many battles and was honored by the first Caliph, Abu Bakr, r.a.

6. At the treaty of Hudaibiya, the Muslims were stunned by what seemed an unequal agreement. The Prophet  (pbuh) was advised by Umm Salama, r.a., and he accepted her advice, which completely changed the situation.

7.  Umm Waraqah, r.a., memorized the Qur’an and led women in congregational prayers in the Prophet’s mosque, again demonstrating that the Qur’an is not the monopoly of men.

8. The Prophet, pbuh, died in the arms of Aisha, r.a., and she bore witness that he did not appoint anyone to be the ruler of the Muslims after him. Thus the great majority of Muslims on the basis of one woman’s witness rejected the concept of hereditary rule.

Most people do not realize that the powerful Persian and Roman empires with huge military forces collapsed in front of small Islamic armies commanded by Abu Bakr, Umar and Usman, Allah be pleased with them.

These empires were based on slavery and the subjugation of women. Their people knew that Islam would liberate them; hence they did not have the heart to fight the Islamics.

Historical review of the multifaceted roles of Muslim women becomes mandatory for the understanding of the Quran and Hadith as a large part of it has to do with women and their relationship to society and men.

It is a great disservice to the female gender to restrict their  growth and development in the Deen of Islam to wife and mother only.

The roles of the Sahabiat and the women of Islam are a lighted torch for all Muslim women to follow and for all others to seek guidance from.

 

INTERESTED IN READING ABOUT THE PROPHET PBUH FEMALE COMPANIONS?

PLEASE CLICK HERE…………..

AND HERE………..

Courtesy: http://muslimswearingthings.tumblr.com/page/37

SYRIAN WOMAN HADITH SCHOLAR: Bå’ i Khåtun bint Ali ad-Dimishqiyyah

Forecourt of the Ummayad Mosque in Damascus, 1890: Courtesy : http://gustav-bauernfeind.blogspot.com

Bå’ i Khåtun bint Ali ad-Dimishqiyyah: (775/1374-864/1461)

She was a  lady hadith scholar from Syria who lived in Damascus and studied with Abu Bakr Al Mizzi and other scholars.

She had a large number of ijåzas (PhD equivalent Degrees) from Hadith Scholars both men and women.

Al Azhar Mosque 972: Courtesy: http://islamic-arts.org/

She gave lectures in Syria and then in Cairo

She was a leader among her people and a woman of excellent character.

Excerpt from: Muslim Women, a Biographical Dictionary by Aisha Bewley