Aminah bint Wahb

Mother of Prophet Muhammad, who bore the future messenger of Islam and raised him as a widow for his first six years before dying at Abwa and leaving him doubly orphaned. From the noble Banu Zuhra clan of Quraysh, Aminah married Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib around 569 CE, uniting two distinguished Meccan families, but became a widow while pregnant when Abdullah died during a trade journey. During her pregnancy she experienced prophetic visions—light emanating from her womb illuminating Syrian palaces, voices instructing her to name her son “Muhammad”—foretelling his destiny though she would never witness it. She gave birth to Muhammad in Mecca around 570 CE (the Year of the Elephant), sent him to the Bedouin wet nurse Halimah al-Sa’diyah following Arabian custom, and was reunited with him around age five for only one year together. In 577 CE she journeyed to Yathrib with six-year-old Muhammad to visit Abdullah’s grave and her Banu Najjar relatives, but fell ill on the return journey and died at Abwa, witnessed by her traumatized young son. Her death profoundly shaped Muhammad’s prophetic mission: the Quran’s question “Did He not find you an orphan and give you shelter?” (93:6) echoed throughout Islamic law’s protections for orphans and widows, and decades later the Prophet wept at her grave though denied permission to pray for her soul.