al-Shifāʾ bint ʿAbd Allāh

الشفاء بنت عبد الله

Umm Sulaymān

Al-Shifāʾ bint ʿAbd Allāh was an early Qurashī Companion from Banū ʿAdī, known in the sources for literacy, teaching and a form of healing ruqya associated with a skin condition called al-namla. Her given name is transmitted as Laylā, while al-Shifāʾ became the name by which she was best known. She accepted Islam in Mecca, endured the pressure faced by the early Muslims and migrated to Medina with her son Sulaymān. Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3887, graded sahih, preserves Prophet Muhammad ﷺ telling her to teach Ḥafṣa the ruqya for skin eruptions just as she had taught her writing. Classical and specialist biographies therefore present her as one of the relatively few literate women of early Mecca and as a teacher of Ḥafṣa bint ʿUmar. Later sources also report that ʿUmar consulted her and sometimes entrusted her with matters connected to the market of Medina; however, the report that she held formal market authority has a weak chain in one transmitted route and is best treated as reported rather than certain. She died in Medina during ʿUmar’s caliphate, around 20 AH / 641 CE.

? — 641

Names and variants

al-Shifāʾ bint ʿAbd Allāh· canonicalal-Shifāʾ bint ʿAbd Allāh· canonicalالشفاء بنت عبد الله· canonicalUmm Sulaymān· kunyaأم سليمان· kunyaLaylā bint ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Shams· birth nameليلى بنت عبد الله بن عبد شمس· birth nameal-Shifāʾ bint ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Shams· variantالشفاء بنت عبد الله بن عبد شمس· variantal-ʿAdawiyya· nisbaالعدوية· nisbaal-Qurashiyya· nisbaالقرشية· nisbaal-Shifāʾ· laqabالشفاء· laqabAl-Shifa bint Abd Allah· transliterationAl-Shifa bint Abd Allah· transliterationŞifâ bint Abdullah· transliteration

Al-Shifāʾ bint ʿAbd Allāh

Al-Shifāʾ bint ʿAbd Allāh was an early Qurashī Companion from Banū ʿAdī, remembered for literacy, teaching and a form of therapeutic ruqya. The strongest canonical report about her, Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3887, preserves Prophet Muhammad ﷺ telling her to teach Ḥafṣa the ruqya for a skin eruption just as she had taught her writing.

Sources: [1] Biographical or historical account, [2] Biographical or historical account, [3] Biographical or historical account, [4] Biographical or historical account, [6] Biographical or historical account, [7] Biographical or historical account, [8] Biographical or historical account, [10] Biographical or historical account

Names and identity

She is best known as al-Shifāʾ bint ʿAbd Allāh. Classical biography gives her kunya as Umm Sulaymān.

The given name Laylā

Specialist and classical biographical sources transmit Laylā as her personal name. Al-Shifāʾ became the designation by which she was much more widely remembered.

Why she was called al-Shifāʾ

The name al-Shifāʾ, “healing,” is connected in later biography with her knowledge of remedies and her service to people suffering from illness. This explanation is biographical rather than a direct statement in the canonical hadith corpus.

Quraysh and Banū ʿAdī

She belonged to Banū ʿAdī of Quraysh, the same broader clan as ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. Classical genealogy therefore preserves a kinship connection between them.

Born in Mecca

Biographical sources place al-Shifāʾ’s birth in Mecca. No securely established year of birth survives.

Reputation before Islam

Specialist biography describes her as already known before Islam for intelligence, good character and concern for others.

Literacy in the Meccan period

Al-Shifāʾ is remembered as one of the relatively few women in early Mecca who knew how to read and write. This skill later became central to her teaching role.

An early conversion

Classical and specialist biographies place her conversion in the early Meccan period, before the Hijra to Medina.

Pressure on the early Muslims

Specialist biography places her among the early Muslims who experienced the hostility directed against the first believers in Mecca.

Marriage to Abū Ḥathma ibn Ḥudhayfa

TDV reports that during the Meccan period she married Abū Ḥathma ibn Ḥudhayfa. Her best-known son, Sulaymān, was born from this marriage.

Her son Sulaymān

Sulaymān ibn Abī Ḥathma became part of the family transmission surrounding his mother. Later reports about al-Shifāʾ were also transmitted through his descendants.

Marriage to Marzūq

Specialist biography reports that she later married Marzūq, the brother of Abū Ḥathma.

Other children

The same biographical tradition mentions another son, known by the kunya Abū Ḥakīm, from her marriage to Marzūq, as well as a daughter.

Migration to Medina

Al-Shifāʾ is counted among the early women who migrated to Medina. She travelled there with her son Sulaymān.

Her house in Medina

Biographical sources report that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ allocated her a house in Medina, where she settled with Sulaymān.

Teaching women

Because she could read and write, al-Shifāʾ is reported to have taken part in teaching other women in Medina. Her best-attested named student is Ḥafṣa bint ʿUmar.

Teaching Ḥafṣa to write

Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3887 explicitly presupposes that al-Shifāʾ had taught Ḥafṣa writing. This makes her role as Ḥafṣa’s literacy teacher one of the strongest documented elements of her biography.

Ruqya for al-namla before Islam

Classical biography reports that before Islam al-Shifāʾ used a ruqya for an ailment called al-namla, generally described as a skin eruption.

Suspending the practice after conversion

Biographical reports state that she stopped using the pre-Islamic ruqya after accepting Islam until its wording was presented for approval.

Prophetic approval of the ruqya

Classical sources report that the wording of the ruqya was shown to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and accepted because it did not contain prohibited beliefs or practices.

Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3887

The strongest surviving canonical anchor is Abū Dāwūd 3887, graded sahih, in which Prophet Muhammad ﷺ tells al-Shifāʾ to teach Ḥafṣa the ruqya for skin eruptions as she had taught her writing.

Teaching Ḥafṣa the ruqya

The same report directly links al-Shifāʾ’s literacy instruction and therapeutic knowledge: she is asked to pass both forms of knowledge to Ḥafṣa.

Ruqya within religious limits

The broader biographical tradition presents the episode as an example of a pre-Islamic practice being retained only after scrutiny of its religious content. The strongest canonical wording confirms the instruction to teach the ruqya but does not itself reproduce a full legal theory of ruqya.

Visits by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

Biographical sources report that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ visited al-Shifāʾ and her family in Medina.

The resting place prepared for the Prophet

Classical biography states that she kept bedding in her house for Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to rest on during visits.

The later report about the preserved bedding

The same tradition says that her descendants preserved this bedding until it was later acquired during the Umayyad period. This detail belongs to family and biographical memory rather than canonical hadith.

Visits to the Prophet’s household

Her close relationship with Ḥafṣa and her kinship ties are reported to have brought her frequently into contact with the households of the wives of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

Transmission of reports

Al-Shifāʾ transmitted reports connected with Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and ʿUmar. The material preserved under her name is small but covers worship, healing and communal practice.

Approximately twelve reports

The specialist biography, following Ibn Ḥazm, states that about twelve reports are transmitted from al-Shifāʾ.

Themes in her transmitted material

The reports associated with her include teaching writing and ruqya, virtuous deeds, prayer for rain, pilgrimage, congregational prayer and women’s participation in the mosque.

Those who transmitted from her

Sources name her son Sulaymān, grandsons Abū Bakr and ʿUthmān ibn Sulaymān, Ḥafṣa, Abū Salama ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and her servant Abū Isḥāq among transmitters connected with her reports.

Kinship with ʿUmar

Al-Shifāʾ and ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb both belonged to Banū ʿAdī, and specialist biography explicitly notes their kinship.

ʿUmar’s consultation with her

Biographical sources describe ʿUmar as respecting al-Shifāʾ’s judgment, visiting her and consulting her on matters of concern. This is historical-biographical evidence rather than a canonical hadith claim.

ʿUmar’s visit concerning Sulaymān

Specialist biography cites a report in which ʿUmar visited al-Shifāʾ’s home after noticing that her son Sulaymān had not attended the dawn prayer in congregation and asked about the reason.

Concern for congregational prayer

Later reports also portray al-Shifāʾ as attentive to regular attendance at congregational prayer and as rebuking a family member who had missed it without what she considered sufficient reason.

Correcting a performance of asceticism

Ibn Saʿd preserves a report in which al-Shifāʾ challenged men who walked and spoke in an exaggeratedly subdued manner under the label of asceticism, contrasting them with ʿUmar’s energetic conduct.

A practical model of piety

The episode is remembered in biography as evidence that al-Shifāʾ associated piety with disciplined conduct rather than theatrical displays of weakness.

The report of responsibility in the Medina market

Later historical and administrative sources report that ʿUmar gave al-Shifāʾ responsibility for some matters connected with the Medina market, sometimes described as supervision of merchants.

Sources: [1] Biographical or historical account, [2] Biographical or historical account, [3] Biographical or historical account, [4] Biographical or historical account, [5] Market-related report and later administrative transmission, [6] Biographical or historical account, [7] Biographical or historical account, [8] Biographical or historical account, [9] Market-related report and later administrative transmission, [10] Biographical or historical account

Why the market appointment must be qualified

The claim of a formal market appointment is not established by a strong canonical chain. One transmitted route through Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim contains an unnamed narrator and Ibn Lahīʿa and is judged weak; some classical discussion also records disagreement about the report.

A cautious reading of the market tradition

The historically safest formulation is that sources report ʿUmar consulting al-Shifāʾ and assigning her some market-related responsibility, while the exact office, scope and formality of that authority remain uncertain.

Not established as a judge

The surviving evidence does not justify presenting al-Shifāʾ as a formally appointed judge. Claims that expand the market tradition into a judicial office go beyond what the strongest available evidence supports.

Interest in public affairs

Even without treating the market appointment as certain, biographical sources portray al-Shifāʾ as engaged with communal affairs and respected for judgment and experience.

The report on the title Amīr al-Muʾminīn

Al-Ṭabarānī transmits from al-Shifāʾ a report concerning how the title Amīr al-Muʾminīn came to be used for ʿUmar. This report is part of her remembered interest in public affairs.

Significance of her literacy

Her strongest historical importance begins with a simple but unusual fact for her setting: she could write and taught writing to others. Abū Dāwūd’s report provides direct canonical support for this teaching role.

Women teaching women in the first Muslim community

Al-Shifāʾ’s instruction of Ḥafṣa provides a concrete early example of women transmitting practical knowledge to other women in the first Muslim community.

Healing knowledge and religious scrutiny

Her ruqya tradition illustrates how practical healing knowledge could be examined for religious compatibility and then transmitted when judged acceptable.

Knowledge joined to service

Across the source layers, al-Shifāʾ is remembered less for a single public title than for a combination of literacy, teaching, healing knowledge, household service and participation in communal concerns.

Death during ʿUmar’s caliphate

Specialist biography states that al-Shifāʾ died in Medina during the caliphate of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb.

Around 20 AH / 641 CE

TDV gives her death approximately as 20 AH / 641 CE. The date should be treated as approximate rather than exact.

Death in Medina

The preferred biographical tradition places her death in Medina, the city to which she had migrated and where most of her later activity took place.

How later generations remembered her

Later Muslim biographies remembered al-Shifāʾ as an intelligent, capable and learned woman whose skills were used in education, healing and communal life.

Different layers of evidence

Her biography requires clear source separation. The writing-and-ruqya episode has a strong canonical anchor, while many household, social and administrative details come from classical biography and later historical compilations.

What is most securely established

The most securely established elements are her companionship, her relationship with Ḥafṣa, her literacy, her teaching of writing, her knowledge of the al-namla ruqya and the Prophetic instruction preserved in Abū Dāwūd 3887. The formal market-office claim is materially less secure.

Historical significance

Al-Shifāʾ’s importance lies in the intersection of literacy, women’s education, healing knowledge and participation in the social life of Medina. Her biography is also a useful case study in distinguishing strong hadith evidence from later administrative memory.

Teacher, healer and Companion

Al-Shifāʾ bint ʿAbd Allāh is best remembered as an early Companion whose literacy and practical knowledge benefited others. Canonical hadith strongly supports her role as Ḥafṣa’s teacher in writing and ruqya, while broader claims about formal public office should remain explicitly qualified.

Source-sensitive points

probable

Classical and specialist biographies transmit Laylā as al-Shifāʾ’s personal name, while al-Shifāʾ became the designation by which she was predominantly remembered.

Sources: [1] Biographical or historical assessment, [2] Biographical or historical assessment, [3] Biographical or historical assessment, [4] Biographical or historical assessment, [6] Biographical or historical assessment, [7] Biographical or historical assessment, [8] Biographical or historical assessment, [10] Biographical or historical assessment

established

Classical genealogy and specialist biography establish al-Shifāʾ as a Qurashī woman from Banū ʿAdī, the same broader clan as ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb.

reported

Specialist and classical biographies report that al-Shifāʾ accepted Islam during the early Meccan period before the Hijra.

reported

Biographical sources report that al-Shifāʾ was among the early women who migrated to Medina and that she settled there with her son Sulaymān.

established

Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3887 provides strong canonical evidence that al-Shifāʾ was literate and had taught writing.

established

Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3887 explicitly indicates that al-Shifāʾ had taught Ḥafṣa bint ʿUmar writing.

established

Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3887 establishes that al-Shifāʾ knew a ruqya for a skin eruption identified in the report as al-namla.

established

Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3887 preserves Prophet Muhammad ﷺ instructing al-Shifāʾ to teach Ḥafṣa the ruqya for al-namla just as she had taught her writing.

reported

Classical biographies report that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ visited al-Shifāʾ and her family in Medina and sometimes rested in her house.

reported

Classical sources report that material about and from al-Shifāʾ was transmitted through her son Sulaymān, his descendants and other members of the early Medinan scholarly network.

reported

The TDV specialist biography, following Ibn Ḥazm, states that approximately twelve reports are transmitted from al-Shifāʾ.

established

Specialist biography explicitly notes a kinship connection between al-Shifāʾ and ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb through Banū ʿAdī.

reported

Classical and specialist biographies report that ʿUmar respected al-Shifāʾ’s judgment, visited her and consulted her on matters of concern.

uncertain

Later historical sources report that ʿUmar entrusted al-Shifāʾ with some responsibility connected to the Medina market, but the exact scope of that responsibility is not securely established.

Sources: [1] Biographical or historical assessment, [2] Biographical or historical assessment, [3] Biographical or historical assessment, [4] Biographical or historical assessment, [5] Market-related tradition, [6] Biographical or historical assessment, [7] Biographical or historical assessment, [8] Biographical or historical assessment, [9] Market-related tradition, [10] Biographical or historical assessment

uncertain

The claim that al-Shifāʾ held a formal market-supervision office rests on disputed and weakly transmitted evidence; one route through Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim contains an unnamed narrator and Ibn Lahīʿa.

Sources: [1] Biographical or historical assessment, [2] Biographical or historical assessment, [3] Biographical or historical assessment, [4] Biographical or historical assessment, [5] Market-related tradition, [6] Biographical or historical assessment, [7] Biographical or historical assessment, [8] Biographical or historical assessment, [9] Market-related tradition, [10] Biographical or historical assessment

established

The surviving evidence does not establish that al-Shifāʾ was formally appointed as a judge; expanding the market tradition into a judicial appointment goes beyond the strongest available sources.

Sources: [1] Biographical or historical assessment, [2] Biographical or historical assessment, [3] Biographical or historical assessment, [4] Biographical or historical assessment, [5] Market-related tradition, [6] Biographical or historical assessment, [7] Biographical or historical assessment, [8] Biographical or historical assessment, [9] Market-related tradition, [10] Biographical or historical assessment

reported

Al-Ṭabarānī transmits from al-Shifāʾ a report concerning the early use of the title Amīr al-Muʾminīn for ʿUmar.

established

The canonical evidence that al-Shifāʾ taught Ḥafṣa writing and ruqya establishes a concrete early example of a woman teaching another woman in the first Muslim community.

probable

Specialist and classical biographies place al-Shifāʾ’s death in Medina during the caliphate of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb.

probable

TDV gives al-Shifāʾ’s death approximately as 20 AH / 641 CE; this chronology is approximate rather than exact.

Relationships

Muhammad ﷺ

companion · established

ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab

relative · established

Ḥafṣa bint ʿUmar

student · established

Contributions

Teaching writing to Ḥafṣa

Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3887 provides strong canonical evidence that al-Shifāʾ had taught Ḥafṣa bint ʿUmar writing. This makes her one of the clearest early examples of a woman transmitting literacy skills within the first Muslim community.

scholarly · established

Transmission of an approved healing ruqya

The same canonical report records Prophet Muhammad ﷺ instructing al-Shifāʾ to teach Ḥafṣa the ruqya for al-namla. Her healing knowledge is therefore not merely a later biographical attribution but has a direct canonical anchor.

religious · established

Participation in the learned social life of Medina

Classical sources portray al-Shifāʾ as connected with Ḥafṣa, the households of the Prophet’s wives, her own family transmitters and ʿUmar. Her biography illustrates how literacy, household teaching and religious transmission could overlap in early Medina.

social · established

Reported market-related public responsibility, with source caution

Later historical tradition says that ʿUmar entrusted al-Shifāʾ with some responsibility connected to the Medina market. Because the formal-office version depends on weak or disputed transmission, the contribution is recorded as a reported public role rather than an established appointment.

institutional · uncertain

A source-critical model for early Muslim women’s biography

Al-Shifāʾ’s life combines a strong canonical core—writing instruction and ruqya—with broader classical biographical material and a much less secure administrative tradition. Keeping those levels distinct preserves both her historical importance and the limits of the evidence.

scholarly · established

Sources

[1]
Al-Iṣāba fī tamyīz al-ṣaḥāba
Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalānī · Classical companion biographical source
[2]
Usd al-ghāba fī maʿrifat al-ṣaḥāba
Ibn al-Athir · Classical companion biographical source
[3]
al-Istīʿāb fī maʿrifat al-aṣḥāb
Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr · Classical biographical source
[4]
al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā
Ibn Saʿd · Classical biographical source
[5]
al-Āḥād wa-l-mathānī
Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim · Classical hadith-biographical source
[6]
Nasab Quraysh
Muṣʿab al-Zubayrī · Classical genealogical source
[7]
ŞİFÂ bint ABDULLAH
Aynur Uraler · TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi · 2010
[8]
al-Muʿjam al-kabīr
al-Ṭabarānī · Classical hadith-biographical source
[9]
al-Tarātīb al-idāriyya
ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Kattānī · Later administrative-historical compilation
[10]
Asmāʾ al-ṣaḥāba al-ruwāt
Ibn Ḥazm · Classical biographical source
[11]
Sunan Abi Dawud 3887
Islam Academy Hadith Corpus

Back