Died 672 AD Children Iyaad ibn 'Umar | ||
Similar Hafsa bint Umar, Zayd ibn al‑Khattab, Abdullah ibn Umar | ||
Atiqa bint Zayd was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a wife of Umar the second Caliph. She was a poet who is notable for having married men who died as shahids.
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Early life
She was the daughter of Zayd ibn Amr, a member of the Adi clan of the Quraysh in Mecca, and of Umm Kurz Safiya bint al-Hadrami. Sa'id ibn Zayd was her brother. Their father was murdered in 605.
Atiqa was probably still a child when Muhammad declared himself to be a prophet in 610. Sa'id was among the early converts, and Atiqa became a Muslim too.
First marriage
Her first husband was her cousin, Zayd ibn al-Khattab, who was much older than herself. He was also a Muslim, and it was presumably in his company that Atiqa joined the general emigration to Medina in 622.
This marriage apparently ended in divorce, for Atiqa had already remarried by the time of Zayd's death at the Battle of Yamama in December 632.
Married life
Her second husband was Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr. It was said that Abdullah respected Atiqa's judgment more than his own and that he spent so much time with her that he was too busy to fight in the Islamic army.
Divorce
Abu Bakr punished his son by ordering him to divorce her. However, Al-Baladhuri says that the reason Abu Bakr ordered the divorce was because Atiqa was barren. Abdullah did as he was told but was grief-stricken. He wrote poetry for her:
In the end Abdullah was allowed to take Atiqa back before her waiting period was completed.
Death of Muhammad
When Muhammad died in 632, Atiqa composed an elegy for him.
Death of Abdullah
Abdullah settled a large amount of property on Atiqa on condition that she would not remarry after his death. He died in Medina in January 633 from an old battle-wound originally incurred at the Siege of Ta'if. Atiqa composed an elegy for him.
She refused several suitors in the following months.
Courtship
A story in Ibn Saad's biography of Umar, the future second Caliph and Atiqa's first cousin, says that he told her that she had been wrong to renounce her right to remarry, "denying yourself what God has permitted." He proposed to her, and she refused him. So Umar told her guardian, "Marry her to me," and the guardian did so. Umar then entered her house to consummate the marriage. As he left her, he said, "Bother! I say 'bother' to her!" He did not visit her house again until she sent a servant with a message saying she accepted him as her husband.
The broken vow
After Umar became Caliph, when Aisha learned that Atiqa had broken her vow of celibacy, she sent her a message:
Return our property to us!" When Ali also recited this poem to them, Umar told Atiqa to return the land. He settled an equivalent sum of money on her, which she distributed in alms to expiate the breaking of her vow to Abdullah.
Married life
From her marriage to Umar, Atiqa gave birth to a son named Iyad.
One story of their married life tells how the Governor of Basra gave Atiqa a carpet. When Umar saw it, he picked it up and "hit her on the head with it until her head shook". Then he summoned the Governor and asked him, "What made you give something to my wives?" He hit his head with it, saying, "Take it! We have no need of it!"
Atiqa used to ask Umar's permission to attend public prayers at the mosque. Umar preferred his wives to remain at home and expressed his displeasure with silence. Atiqa told him that she was not going to stop asking permission, and that she would go to the mosque unless he specifically forbade her. He remained silent, presumably because he could not forbid something that Muhammad had permitted, and so Atiqa continued to attend.
Death of Umar
She was present at the Mosque when Umar was assassinated there in November 644. She composed elegies for him.
Courtship
After Umar's death, Atiqa married Zubayr ibn al-Awam. She made it a condition of their marriage contract that he would not beat her, that he would continue to permit her to visit the mosque at will and that he would not withhold "any of her rights".
Married life
Zubayr regretted permitting her to attend public prayers and tried to discourage her. She retorted: "Are you so jealous that you want me to forsake a place where I have prayed with the Prophet, Abu Bakr and Umar?" Since he did not dare forbid her outright to attend, he found an indirect way to deter her. He lay in wait for her when she was on her way to night prayers and slapped her rump in the dark. (An alternative tradition says that Zubayr instructed another man to deliver the slap.) She exclaimed: "Why? May God cut off your hand!" Later, when Zubayr asked why she had not attended prayers that night, she complained, "People have become wicked." (In one version of this tradition, Zubayr confessed that he had been the man who slapped her.) She decided thenceforth to pray at home.
Death of Zubayr
Zubayr was killed at the Battle of the Camel in December 656. Atiqa also composed an elegy for him.
It was at this point that people began to say: "Let a man who wants to be a shahid marry Atiqa bint Zayd!" Ali himself proposed to her, but she told him, "I would not want you to die, O cousin of the Prophet."
Fifth marriage
Atiqa's fifth husband was Ali's own son, Husayn, who must have been some twenty years younger than herself. He was also reckoned a shahid because he was killed at the Battle of Karbala in October 680; however, Atiqa apparently predeceased him.
Death
Atiqa died in 672.