Early Sunni sources preserve a report from the final illness of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him. While speaking with Aisha about property and inheritance, he referred to her brothers and sisters. When Aisha asked who the other sister was besides Asma, Abu Bakr replied that he thought the unborn child carried by Bint Kharija was a girl. An early recension of Malik’s Muwatta says that a girl was later born, and al-Lalaka’i identifies her as Umm Kulthum and treats the fulfilled judgment as a karamah.
Early Sunni sources preserve a report from the final illness of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him. He was speaking with his daughter Aisha about property that he had previously given her. Because she had not taken possession of that gift, he explained that it would now pass with the rest of his estate to his heirs. In the course of that conversation, he referred to her brothers and sisters.
Aisha then asked about the wording. She knew her sister Asma, so she asked who the other sister was. Abu Bakr answered by referring to the unborn child carried by Bint Kharija. His statement was not phrased as a claim of revelation or independent knowledge of the unseen. The wording preserved in Malik’s Muwatta expresses his judgment that he thought the child would be a girl.
The later fulfillment is part of how the report was remembered. A recension of the Muwatta transmitted by Muhammad al-Shaybani adds that a girl was in fact born. Al-Lalaka’i identifies Bint Kharija as Habiba bint Kharija and says that after Abu Bakr’s death she gave birth to Umm Kulthum. The sequence is therefore simple: Abu Bakr makes the judgment before the birth, and a daughter is subsequently born.
Classical scholars also commented on the nature of the statement. Al-Lalaka’i explicitly includes the event among the karamat of the Companions and says that Abu Bakr’s judgment proved correct. Ibn Abd al-Barr describes the statement as a powerful supposition or judgment, so strong that it resembled certainty. This language preserves the extraordinary character of the fulfillment without changing the report into Prophetic revelation.
The account is therefore best told with the same boundaries preserved by its sources. Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him, expressed a strong pre-birth judgment that the child carried by Bint Kharija was a girl; later reports identify the daughter as Umm Kulthum. The story may be presented as a companion karamah, but not as a claim that Abu Bakr possessed independent knowledge of the unseen or used a medical method to determine the child’s sex.
Aisha then asked about the wording. She knew her sister Asma, so she asked who the other sister was. Abu Bakr answered by referring to the unborn child carried by Bint Kharija. His statement was not phrased as a claim of revelation or independent knowledge of the unseen. The wording preserved in Malik’s Muwatta expresses his judgment that he thought the child would be a girl.
The later fulfillment is part of how the report was remembered. A recension of the Muwatta transmitted by Muhammad al-Shaybani adds that a girl was in fact born. Al-Lalaka’i identifies Bint Kharija as Habiba bint Kharija and says that after Abu Bakr’s death she gave birth to Umm Kulthum. The sequence is therefore simple: Abu Bakr makes the judgment before the birth, and a daughter is subsequently born.
Classical scholars also commented on the nature of the statement. Al-Lalaka’i explicitly includes the event among the karamat of the Companions and says that Abu Bakr’s judgment proved correct. Ibn Abd al-Barr describes the statement as a powerful supposition or judgment, so strong that it resembled certainty. This language preserves the extraordinary character of the fulfillment without changing the report into Prophetic revelation.
The account is therefore best told with the same boundaries preserved by its sources. Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him, expressed a strong pre-birth judgment that the child carried by Bint Kharija was a girl; later reports identify the daughter as Umm Kulthum. The story may be presented as a companion karamah, but not as a claim that Abu Bakr possessed independent knowledge of the unseen or used a medical method to determine the child’s sex.
Conclusion
The story closes with the birth of a daughter, identified in classical sources as Umm Kulthum, after Abu Bakr al-Siddiq had said before the birth that he thought the child would be a girl.
Sources
Malik, al-Muwatta, Bab ma la yajuzu min al-nihal, report 2783 in Zayed edition / 1373 Harf numbering
Malik, al-Muwatta, same report
Malik, al-Muwatta, same report: ذو بطن بنت خارجة أراها جارية
Malik, al-Muwatta, Islamweb numbering 1474
Malik from Ibn Shihab from Urwa from Aisha
Shuayb al-Arnaut, Takhrij Sharh al-Sunna 2204: isnaduhu sahih
al-Bayhaqi, al-Sunan al-Kubra 12070
Malik, al-Muwatta, recension of Muhammad al-Shaybani, report 806: فولدت جارية
al-Lalaka’i, Sharh Usul I‘tiqad Ahl al-Sunna, section on Abu Bakr, report 63
al-Lalaka’i, same passage after report 63
Ibn Abd al-Barr, al-Istidhkar, commentary on the Muwatta report
al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-Kamal, entry Umm Kulthum bint Abi Bakr
al-Lalaka’i, report 63 and author comment
Islamweb lexical note summarizing Arabic usage of أراها as أظنها
CAND-0104 Task 1 evidence synthesis