Fortitude of Muslim Women

WOMEN FROM MUSLIM HISTORY kept his money. She covered the pile of rocks with a cloth and then placed her grandfather’s hand on it. Having gone blind in his old age, he was quickly taken in by this trick and thought the niche was full of dirhams. “It is a good thing that Abu Bakr has done. This will suffice for your necessities.” Asma’ then confessed that her father had not left them a single dirham and that it was only to comfort her grandfather that she conceived this idea. (Ibn Kathir, As-Sirah an-Nabawiyyah, Vol. 2, p. 236) Before the advent of Islam, Asma’s father had been one of the wealthiest merchants of Makkah, but when Asma’ emigrated to Madinah with her husband, Zubayr, they had to live in the harshest conditions. Bukhari has recorded Asma’s account of how her existence was eked out from day to day: “When I married Zubayr, he had neither wealth nor property. He had no servant; only one camel brought water and only one horse. I got the grass for the camel and crushed date stones to eat instead of grain. I had to fetch the water myself, and when the water bag burst, I would set it up myself. As well as managing the house, I had also to take care of the horse. This I found the most difficult of all. I did not know how to cook the bread properly, so whenever I had to make it, I would knead the flour and take it to the Ansar women in the neighbourhood. They were very sincere women and would cook my bread on their own. When Zubayr reached Madinah, the Prophet gave him a piece of land two miles from