Maria the Copt (Mariyah Al-Qibtiyyah): Difference between revisions

Mariyah Al-Qibtiyah was one of the concubines/sex slaves of the prophet Muhammad. Although she is considered an "umm al-mu'minin" أم ألمؤمنين she was never actually the wife of the prophet. According to the [[sira]] she was sent to Muhammad as a gift from the Christians of Egypt. According to the [[hadith]] and the [[sirah]] her beauty and Muhammad's lust for her incited the jealousy of Muhammad's wives, in particular Hafsa and [[Aisha]]. The jealousy they had of her and Muhammad's response was actually the [[Asbab An-Nuzul|cause]] of the "revelation" of some Qur'an verses according to the tradition. Although she converted to Islam and bore the prophet a son who later died, she remained a slave of the prophet until he died. The traditional sources compare her concubinage to that of Hajar to Ibrahim, based upon the fact that, according to the tradition, the closest person to Muhammad was the prophet Ibrahim. According to classical Islamic sources, had her son Ibrahim lived, he too would have been a prophet.