Sumayyah bint Khayyat

ISLAM: The First Martyr (please read description)

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• published: 27 Feb 2008
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Three years after the revelation began, God commanded the Prophet to proclaim Islam openly and to bring His revelation to the public. The following verses were revealed: "Warn, O Muhammad, your nearest relatives. Extend your gentle protection to all those believers who follow in your footsteps and obey you. As for those who disobey, proclaim your repudiation of their doings.... Proclaim what you are commanded and turn away from the associationists." [Qur'an, 26:214-216; 15-94.] Once, on encountering Muhammad on the road, Abu Jahl insulted him and abused his new religion. Muhammad did not answer him and walked away. Hamzah, Muhammad's uncle and brother-in-nursing, still followed the religion of Quraysh tribe and was very strong and fear inspiring. He was an addicted hunter who would circumambulate the Ka'bah every time he returned from a hunting trip and before he entered his home. As he entered the city on the day that Abu Jahl insulted Muhammad and learned of what had happened to his nephew, he became furious, and went straight to the Ka'bah. Upon entering the Mosque, he did not greet anyone as he used to do. Rather, he went straight to Abu Jahl and hit him very hard with his bow. Some members of Banu Makhzum rose to the help of Abu Jahl, but Abu Jahl pushed them aside. He acknowledged that he had insulted Muhammad and then decided that the dispute had better be cut short rather than allowed to spread. Hamzah then declared his conversion to Islam, took the oath of allegiance to Muhammad and promised to sacrifice everything for the sake of God. Muhammad made public cause of his revelations, Quraysh tribe knew no peace, and the tranquility of earlier days vanished. Instigated by the Quraysh, every clan and tribe began to attack its Muslim members to dissuade them from their faith. This abuse was all in addition to the terrible vituperation and vile calumnies the unbelievers directed against the Muslims on every occasion and in every quarter. Such persecution continued for a long time, but it only confirmed the Muslims in their faith and challenged. One woman is known to have been tortured to death because of her attachment to Islam and her refusal to return to the old faith. This woman is Sumayyah bint Khayyat, the mother of Ammaar ibn Yaasir. She was the seventh person to enter Islam. She refused to leave Islam. She was tortured by Abu Jahl who stabbed her in her private parts, and she died. She was the first martyr in Islam.