Utbah ibn Abi Lahab

Utbah ibn Abu Lahab (Arabic: عتبة بن أبي لهب‎) was a first cousin and companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Biography

Born in Mecca, Utbah was the eldest son of Abu Lahab ibn Abdul-Muttalib and Umm Jamil bint Harb.[1] For several years his family lived next door to Muhammad and Khadija.[2]

Although never consummated and lasting less than three years, Utbah was legally married to his eight year old cousin Ruqayyah, the fourth child and second daughter of Muhammad, sometime prior to August 610 AD.[3][4]

After Muhammad recited sura 111, "Perish the hands of Abu Lahab,"[5] Abu Lahab wanted to cut ties with him. When Muhammad "openly preached to the Quraysh and showed them hostility," other Quraysh sympathised with Abu Lahab's desire not to keep Muhammad's daughters at his own expense. They told Utbah that if he divorced Ruqayyah, they would give him any woman he liked;[6] and his father also told him that if he did not divorce her, he would never speak to him again.[7] Utbah replied that he would like either the daughter or the granddaughter of Sa'id ibn Al-As ibn Umayya.[8] The Quraysh agreed, and so he divorced Ruqayyah. She was by then about twelve, and the marriage had not been consummated.[9]

Upon the Conquest of Mecca in January 630, Utbah and his brother Muattib withdrew to the edge of Mecca with the other polytheists. Muhammad asked his uncle al-Abbas to bring them to him. They were brought, and at Muhammad's invitation, they converted to Islam and took the oath of allegiance. Al-Abbas remarked that Muhammad's face was "reflecting joy" at their conversion. Utbah joined the Islamic army and fought at Hunayn. He was among those who did not abandon Muhammad in the battle.[10]

However, when the rest of the Hashim clan emigrated to Medina, Utbah and his brother Muattib remained in Mecca.[11]

Utbah had a slave named Abd al-Wahid ibn Ayman, whom his sons sold after his death.[12]

References
  1. Muhammad ibn Saad. Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir. Translated by Haq, S. M. (1967). Ibn Sa'd's Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir Volume I Parts I & II, p. 100. Delhi: Kitab Bhavan.
  2. Ibn Saad/Haq vol. 1 p. 232.
  3. Alla, Ibn Ishaq (1955). The Life of Muhammad or Sirat Rasul Allah. Translated by Guillaume, A. Oxford University Press. p. 314. ISBN 0196360331.
  4. Muhammad ibn Saad. Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir vol. 8. Translated by Bewley, A. (1995). The Women of Madina, p. 24. London: Ta-Ha Publishers.
  5. Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 p. 24.
  6. Ibn Ishaq/Guillaume p. 314.
  7. Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 p. 25.
  8. Ibn Ishaq/Guillaume p. 314.
  9. Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 p. 25.
  10. Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari. Tarikh al-Rasul wa'l-Muluk. Translated by Landau-Tasseron, E. (1998). Volume 39: Biographies of the Prophet's Companions and Their Successors, p. 64. Albany: State University of New York Press.
  11. Tabari/Landau-Tasseron p. 64.
  12. Bukhari 3:46:739.
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