Ruqayya bint Muhammad ﷺ

Ruqayya was born in Mecca before the prophetic mission. Ibn Abd al-Barr preserves a report placing her birth when the Prophet was about 33 years old, but an exact calendar year is not securely established. The dominant classical biographical tradition identifies her as a daughter of Muhammad and Khadija, while preserving disagreement over her order among the daughters.

Before the mission, she was contracted to Utba ibn Abi Lahab, but the marriage was not consummated. After the public proclamation of Islam and the revelation of Surat al-Masad, Abu Lahab compelled his son to end the arrangement. Ibn Sa'd and Ibn Hajar report that Ruqayya accepted Islam with her mother and pledged allegiance with the Muslim women.

She later married Uthman ibn Affan. When pressure on the Muslims in Mecca intensified, the couple joined the early migration to Abyssinia, and Ibn Sa'd associates them with both Abyssinian migrations. The journey required leaving home and social security in order to protect religious conviction.

Early sources report a miscarriage and then a son named Abd Allah, from whom Uthman took the kunya Abu Abd Allah. Abd Allah survived his mother and died young in 4 AH; reports give his age as about 2 or 6. After returning from Abyssinia, Ruqayya also joined the migration to Medina.

In 2 AH, as the Muslims prepared for Badr, she became seriously ill. Sahih al-Bukhari and Jami al-Tirmidhi report that the Prophet ordered Uthman to remain in Medina to nurse her and granted him the reward and share of a participant in Badr.

Her death occurred in Ramadan 2 AH, during the Badr campaign, commonly corresponding to March 624 CE. Reports say that Zayd ibn Haritha reached Medina with news of victory while her burial was taking place or had just been completed. This sequence does not establish 17 Ramadan as her exact death date with complete uniformity. Because the Prophet was at Badr, historians have explained some reports placing him at the funeral as referring to another daughter or to a later visit to her grave.

Ruqayya was buried in al-Baqi, and Medinan topographical tradition places her grave near Uthman ibn Maz'un. Some later Imami writers described her as a daughter of Hala bint Khuwaylid or a girl raised in the Prophet's household. Other Imami compilations preserve reports naming Ruqayya among the daughters born to Khadija, in agreement with the dominant classical biographical tradition. Her life remains an example of faith, two migrations, family duty, and sacrifice, while the later parentage disagreement should remain clearly attributed.