In the name of Allah , Most Gracious, Most Merciful
The First Lady Commando
Lady Asma Bint Abu Bakr
By Amani Aboul Fadl Farag
…She was the daughter of Abu Bakr, the Prophet’s intimate Companion, and the sister of Aishah, the Prophet’s most beloved wife. Since she was very young, she and her sister grew up listening to the verses of the Quran being recited in their house, which attracted her to decide to embrace Islam.
She witnessed the difficult birth of the new faith as she was reported to be, despite the dangers, the eighteenth amongst the men and women of Makkah to adopt the religion of Islam. This was a decision that she always interpreted into amazing actions that could be considered, even by today’s standards, beyond her age and gender.
She had married Al-Zubair ibn Al-Awwam, the Prophet’s cousin, a short time before the great event of Hijrah (Muslims’ emigration from Makkah at the time of the Prophet) took place.
The First Lady Commando
While she was in the last months of pregnancy, her husband was ordered to emigrate to Madinah with other believers. He left her behind with the ladies of both the Prophet’s and Abu Bakr’s families waiting for their turn to leave.
Shortly after that, it was the turn of the Prophet and his best friend Abu Bakr to emigrate from Makkah to Madinah. It was a dangerous journey as the two of them were all by themselves, unprotected and feverishly chased by Makkah’s pagans, who raced to catch them to win a reward.
The Prophet and Abu Bakr had to hide in a frightful cave on top of a high rocky mountain for a few days till the chasers lost hope in finding them. At that time, it was Asma’s daily job to sneak away at night and undertake a perilous journey to that cave in order to carry to them the provisions, under the stress of being arrested by the chasers.
She willingly climbed the mountain in her last months of pregnancy. I saw that mountain during my pilgrimage, it was so high that it made me dizzy when I saw it, so I can’t imagine what it would have been like for Asma to climb it.
Winning the Title
In order to be able to carry both food and water, her father recommended that she split her belt into two halves, and to carry the food with one part of the belt and the water with the other.
On seeing her in this condition of late pregnancy, walking a long distance and climbing up the mountain with a heavy load on her back and having her belt torn up, the Prophet pitied her, and gave her the glad tiding of Paradise saying, “May God substitute those two belts of yours by two others in Paradise” …
Since this incident, she was called “Asma, the lady of the two belts”.
…Principles Before Motherhood
After the end of the era of the Four Rightly-Guided Caliphs ([1]), Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan reigned. Before his death, he entitled his son, Yazeed, to succeed him …
… Abdullah, Asma’s eldest son, was amongst those who challenged dictatorship and proposed himself as a nominee for the people to elect, which they did with a great majority.
…After the death of Yazeed, his son decided to restore his reign, so he sent a huge army to Abdullah, headed by Al-Hajjaj, who was appointed by Muawiya to fight Abdullah, So He laid siege to the army of Abdullah.
Al-Hajjaj guaranteed safety for Abdullah and his followers if they would surrender. Under the heavy pressure of the long siege, hunger, and fear, many of Abdullah’s supporters surrendered.
He went to his mother, Asma, to ask her opinion, but the by-then blind woman, who was almost one hundred years old, and wholly dependant on him, gave a wonderful example of courage in the face of tyranny.
She didn’t hesitate for one second to elevate her ideals over her instinctive motherhood, she said to him firmly:
You are the only one to know your intentions. If you know you are in the right, then go ahead. If you know you want a worldly gain, then you are immoral. But if you know you are in the right, but you feel weak, then you have to understand that this is not how free men act.
Then he confessed to her his fear of having his body mutilated after they killed him, she answered him saying, “Does it really hurt the goat to take its skin off after it is slain?”
…Abdullah was killed and his dead body was crucified headless for a whole month, until it decomposed.
Asma had the courage to stand in the face of the tyrant, insulting him, and ordering him to release her son’s corpse until he submitted.
She took the body, washed it, prayed, and buried it. After one week — some sources say ten days — she died.
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