Safiyah Bint Abd Al-Muttalib (May Allah be pleased with him)

Safiyah was the aunt of the Prophet and loved him very much. It was Safiyah who killed a Jew who was spying around their castle during the Battle of the Trenches. She was a very brave and fearless woman and the Prophet had great regard for her. When the Muslim force suffered defeat by the mistake of the archers in the Battle of Uhud, and there was some confusion in the Muslim camp, Safiyah left Madinah with a spear in her hand and aroused a sense of shame and honour among those who were returning from the battlefield and said with anger, "You have left leaving the Messenger of Allah (on the battlefield)." When the Prophet saw Safiyah coming to the battlefront, he asked her brave son Zubair, "Let Safiyah not see the dead body of her brother Hamza." When she came to know of it, she said that she knew her brother's dead body had been mutilated. By Allah! she did not like that but she would patiently bear it. According to Hafiz Ibn Hajar, she recited funeral lament (marthiya) at the martyrdom of Hamza.

 

The Prophet had, in his childhood, received training and rearing in the same house with Safiyah. She therefore had an unusual affection for the Prophet and the Prophet had also a very close relationship with her. She wrote a very sorrowful funeral oration at the death of the Prophet. In one oration, she said, "O eye, shed abundant tears" at the death of Allah's Messenger.

 

O Allah's Messenger, You were our hope Today every mourner should weep for him Alas! Had Allah kept our master among us, how fortunate we would have been, but the Command of Allah is not to be again said.

 

The historians have stated that Safiyah was a very intelligent, thoughtful, brave and patient woman and possessed a distinctive position in respect of her genealogy, words and deeds.