Early Life and Marriage Umm Salamah (RA), whose name was Hind bint Abī Umayyah ibn al-Mughīrah al-Makhzūmiyyah, was among the earliest Muslim women. She came from the noble Makhzūm tribe of Quraysh and was married to Abū Salamah ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbd al-Asad (RA), a cousin of the Prophet ﷺ and one of the earliest converts to Islam. Together, they embraced…

Salman al-Farsi (رضي الله عنه), whose original name was Rūzbeh ibn Būdakhshān, was born in the city of Jay (near Isfahan) in Persia (modern-day Iran). His father was a wealthy landowner and fire-worshipper, devoted to the Zoroastrian religion. Salmān himself narrated: “I was a Persian man, from among the people of Isfahan. My father loved me dearly, and he kept…

Zayd ibn Thabit (RA) was born in Madinah eleven years before the Hijrah (around 611 CE). He belonged to the tribe of Banū al-Najjār, relatives of the Prophet’s maternal family. When the Prophet ﷺ migrated to Madinah, Zayd was still a young boy of around 11 years old, yet his intelligence and eagerness to learn made him stand out. His…

Saʿd ibn Mālik ibn Wahib, better known as Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqās (رضي الله عنه), was born in Makkah around 595 CE into the noble Banū Zuhrah clan of Quraysh — the same tribe as Āminah bint Wahb, the mother of the Prophet ﷺ. This made him a distant relative of the Prophet ﷺ. Historical and biographical sources inform us…

Among the earliest believers who embraced Islam in Makkah was Sumayya bint al-Khayyat (RA), remembered in history as the first martyr of Islam. She was the wife of Yasir ibn Amir (RA) and the mother of Ammar ibn Yasir (RA), both of whom also accepted Islam in the earliest days. Though she lived as a slave woman of humble means,…