Maymuna bint al-Harith was a Companion and the last woman Prophet Muhammad ﷺ married. Born around 590 CE into Banū Hilāl, she was known earlier as Barra before her name was changed to Maymuna. She was the sister of Umm al-Faḍl Lubāba, making her the maternal aunt of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, and she was also a maternal aunt of Khālid ibn al-Walīd. Her marriage to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ took place in 7 AH during the period of ʿUmrat al-Qaḍāʾ, with the consummation at Sarif on the Mecca–Medina route. Canonical reports preserve a well-known disagreement over whether the marriage contract was concluded while the Prophet was in ihram: Ibn ʿAbbās reported that it was, while Maymuna herself and Abū Rāfiʿ reported that he was not in ihram. Maymuna transmitted numerous hadiths on ritual purity, night prayer, charity, food law and pilgrimage. The strongest specialist chronology places her death in 51 AH / 671 CE at Sarif, where she was buried; several later dates are also transmitted but are less consistent with the chronology preserved by earlier reports.
590 — ?
Names and variants
Maymuna bint al-Harith· canonicalMaymuna bint al-Harith· canonicalميمونة بنت الحارث· canonicalBarra bint al-Harith· birth nameبرة بنت الحارث· birth nameMaymuna bint al-Harith ibn Hazn· variantميمونة بنت الحارث بن حزن· variantMaymuna al-Hilaliyya· variantal-Hilaliyya· nisbaالهلالية· nisbaUmm al-Muʾminin· laqabأم المؤمنين· laqabMeymûne bint Hâris· transliterationMaymunah bint al-Harith· transliterationMaimuna bint al-Harith· transliterationMaimunah bint al-Harith· transliteration
Maymuna bint al-Harith
Maymuna bint al-Harith was a Companion and the last woman Prophet Muhammad ﷺ married. Her biography is especially important for the marriage at Sarif, the differing reports about ihram, and a substantial hadith legacy on worship, purity, charity and household law.
Her canonical name is Maymuna bint al-Harith. Classical sources also preserve fuller lineage forms connecting her to al-Harith ibn Hazn and Banū Hilāl.
Maymuna belonged to Banū Hilāl, a branch of ʿĀmir ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa. This tribal background is central to the wider family and political connections surrounding her marriage.
Through Umm al-Faḍl, Maymuna was the maternal aunt of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās. Many of the most detailed canonical reports from her household are transmitted through him.
Sources: [1] Ibn Abbas identifies Maymuna as his maternal aunt, [4] Biographical treatment, [5] Biographical treatment, [6] Biographical treatment, [7] Biographical treatment, [8] Biographical treatment, [9] Biographical treatment, [10] Biographical treatment, [11] Biographical treatment
Maternal aunt of Khālid ibn al-Walīd
Through another sister, Lubāba al-Ṣughrā, Maymuna was also a maternal aunt of Khālid ibn al-Walīd.
Sources: [3] Maymuna identified as maternal aunt of Khalid and Ibn Abbas, [4] Biographical treatment, [5] Biographical treatment, [6] Biographical treatment, [7] Biographical treatment, [8] Biographical treatment, [9] Biographical treatment, [10] Biographical treatment, [11] Biographical treatment
Approximate birth around 590
The TDV specialist biography places her birth around 590 CE. This is an approximate reconstruction rather than a precisely recorded year.
Biographical sources report earlier marriages before she married Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The details belong to the pre-marriage phase of her life and are transmitted with less uniformity than the later canonical material.
The marriage belongs to the period of ʿUmrat al-Qaḍāʾ in 7 AH, when Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the Muslims entered Mecca to perform the compensatory pilgrimage.
Biographical reports connect al-ʿAbbās with arranging the marriage, reflecting Maymuna’s close family ties to his household through her sister Umm al-Faḍl.
Canonical hadith preserves a genuine disagreement over whether the marriage contract was concluded while Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was in ihram.
Sources: [4] Biographical treatment, [5] Biographical treatment, [6] Biographical treatment, [7] Biographical treatment, [8] Biographical treatment, [9] Biographical treatment, [10] Biographical treatment, [11] Biographical treatment, [32] Ibn Abbas: marriage in ihram, [35] Abu Rafi: marriage while halal, [36] Ibn Abbas: marriage while muhrim, [40] Maymuna: marriage outside ihram at Sarif, [41] Ibn Abbas: marriage in ihram, [56] Said ibn al-Musayyib disputes Ibn Abbas interpretation
Ibn ʿAbbās: the Prophet was in ihram
Ibn ʿAbbās transmitted that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ married Maymuna while in the sacred state of ihram. This version appears in Bukhari and several Sunan collections.
Her reports describe washing the hands, cleansing the private parts, washing or rubbing the hand, performing ablution, pouring water over the head and body, then washing the feet.
Maymuna transmitted reports showing that menstruation did not make ordinary proximity or shared domestic space impure, while specific ritual rules remained in place.
Bukhari reports that when people disputed whether Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was fasting on the day of ʿArafah, Maymuna sent him milk and he drank it in public view.
Canonical reports place the well-known mastigure episode in Maymuna’s house, with Khālid ibn al-Walīd present. The Prophet declined it as unfamiliar food rather than declaring it forbidden.
Maymuna transmitted the ruling that when a mouse fell into solid clarified butter, the mouse and the affected portion were removed and the rest could be used.
A report linked to Maymuna’s freed servant preserves the ruling that although carrion meat is forbidden to eat, its hide could be made useful after proper treatment.
Maymuna transmitted a report in which Jibrīl did not enter a house because of a dog, forming part of the canonical material on dogs and images in domestic space.
A report transmitted from Maymuna preserves the teaching that one prayer in the Prophet’s mosque is better than a thousand prayers elsewhere, except the Sacred Mosque.
Maymuna transmitted directly from Prophet Muhammad ﷺ across ritual purity, prayer, pilgrimage, food, charity and household practice.
Sources: [4] Biographical treatment, [5] Biographical treatment, [6] Biographical treatment, [7] Biographical treatment, [8] Biographical treatment, [9] Biographical treatment, [10] Biographical treatment, [11] Biographical treatment, [12] Direct food-law report, [13] Direct report on ghusl, [20] Direct report on Arafah, [40] Direct marriage report
A substantial hadith corpus
Compared with several other Mothers of the Believers, Maymuna left a substantial body of transmitted material, much of it preserved through Ibn ʿAbbās and household transmitters.
Bukhari preserves Ibn ʿAbbās attending her funeral at Sarif and instructing the bearers to handle the bier gently because she was a wife of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
Sources: [4] Biographical treatment, [5] Biographical treatment, [6] Biographical treatment, [7] Biographical treatment, [8] Biographical treatment, [9] Biographical treatment, [10] Biographical treatment, [11] Biographical treatment, [26] Ibn Abbas at funeral
Legacy in ritual purity
Maymuna’s detailed household observations became core evidence in later discussions of ghusl, menstruation, ablution and physical proximity within the home.
Maymuna bint al-Harith is remembered not only as the last wife Prophet Muhammad ﷺ married, but also as a major household transmitter whose reports preserve fine-grained details of worship, purity, charity and family life.
Canonical hadith preserves conflicting reports about whether Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was in ihram when the marriage contract with Maymuna was concluded.
Sources: [4] Biographical treatment, [5] Biographical treatment, [6] Biographical treatment, [7] Biographical treatment, [8] Biographical treatment, [9] Biographical treatment, [10] Biographical treatment, [11] Biographical treatment, [32] Ibn Abbas: marriage in ihram, [35] Abu Rafi: marriage while halal, [36] Ibn Abbas: marriage while muhrim, [40] Maymuna: marriage outside ihram, [41] Ibn Abbas: marriage in ihram, [56] Ibn al-Musayyib disputes the muhrim interpretation
established
Ibn ʿAbbās transmitted that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ married Maymuna while in the sacred state of ihram.
Sahih al-Bukhari reports that Maymuna sent milk to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ on the day of ʿArafah and that he drank it publicly, resolving doubt over whether he was fasting.
Canonical reports from Maymuna’s household preserve Prophet Muhammad ﷺ declining mastigure because it was unfamiliar to him while explicitly stating that it was not forbidden.
Maymuna transmitted detailed canonical descriptions of the ritual bath after major impurity, shared bathing water and household interaction during menstruation. These reports became foundational evidence in later discussions of purification.
religious · established
A detailed record of the Prophet’s night worship
Through Ibn ʿAbbās staying in her home, Maymuna’s household preserved unusually detailed reports of the Prophet’s night prayer, ablution, recitation of the final verses of Āl ʿImrān and placement of a follower on his right.
religious · established
A canonical example linking charity and kinship
When Maymuna freed a slave-girl, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ told her that giving the servant to her maternal relatives would have brought greater reward. The report became a concise example of combining charity with maintaining kinship.
social · established
A household source for food and material-law rulings
Reports from Maymuna’s household preserve rulings on mastigure meat, a mouse falling into clarified butter and the use of the hide of a dead sheep. These became part of the legal evidence on food and material purity.
scholarly · established
A substantial transmission legacy through Ibn ʿAbbās
Maymuna’s kinship with Ibn ʿAbbās helped preserve a broad body of Prophetic household practice. Her transmitted material spans prayer, purification, pilgrimage, charity, food law and domestic life.
scholarly · established
Sources
[1]
Sahih al-Bukhari 117
Sunnah.com
[2]
Sahih al-Bukhari 1198
Sunnah.com
[3]
Sahih al-Bukhari 5391
Islam Academy Hadith Corpus
[4]
Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ
al-Dhahabī · Classical biographical source
[5]
Al-Iṣāba fī tamyīz al-ṣaḥāba
Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalānī · Classical companion biographical source
[6]
Usd al-ghāba fī maʿrifat al-ṣaḥāba
Ibn al-Athir · Classical companion biographical source