Hafsa, may Allah be pleased with her, was the daughter
of Sayyiduna Umar ibn al Khattab. She had been married to someone else,
but was widowed when she as still very young, only eighteen. Umar asked
both Abu Bakr and Uthman ibn Affan, one after another, if they would
like to marry her, but they both declined because they knew that the
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) had expressed an
interest in marrying her. When Umar (may Allah be pleased with him)
went to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to
complain about their behavior, the Prophet smiled, and said, "Hafsa
will marry one better than Uthman and Uthman will marry one better than
Hafsa." Umar was startled and then realized that it was the Prophet was
asking for her hand in marriage. HE was overcome with delight. They
were married just after the battle of Badr, when Hafsa was about twenty
years old and the Prophet as fifty-six. By this marriage, the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) strengthened the ties
between two of his closest Companions, the two who would become the
first two rightly guided khalifs after his death. He was now married to
the daughter of Abu Bakr, A'isha and to the daughter of Umar, Hafsa.
Two of the other closest Companions of the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) who would become the third
and fourth Rightly guided Khalifs were also connected to the Prophet
through marriage. Uthman ibn Affan (may Allah be pleased with him)
married Ruqayya, then daughter of the Prophet, in Mecca, and then,
after her death in Medina, soon after the battle of Badr, he had
married Umm Khulthum, also the daughter of the Prophet. It was because
he married two of the daughters of the Prophet (peace and blessings of
Allah be upon him) that Uthman was given the title of Dhun Nurayn,
which means 'the possessor of two lights'. And Ali ibn Abi Talib (may
Allah be pleased with him) had married Fatima, the youngest daughter of
the Prophet, shortly before the Prophet had married A'isha.
Hafsa, like A'isha with whom she became close friends,
was never at a loss for words, and was not afraid to argue with the
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) who was content to
allow her to say what she thought. One day, while speaking to Hafsa's
mother Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said, "I think I shall so
and so." Whereupon his wife replied, "But it would be better if you did
such and such." "Are you arguing with me, woman?" said Umar who was a
fierce man who did not expect his wives to talk back at him. "Why not?"
she answered. "Your daughter keeps arguing with the Messenger of Allah
until she upsets him for the whole day." Umar (may Allah be pleased
with him) immediately put on his cloak and went directly to his
daughter's house. "Is it true that you argue with the Messenger of
Allah?" he asked. "Indeed I do." She replied. Umar was just about to
chastise her for what he considered were bad manners, when the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) came into the room and would
not allow him to even touch her. So Umar went round to visit Umm
Salama, to whom Umar was related in order to try and influence Hafsa's
behavior through her.
"I wonder at you, Ibn Khattab," she said, after she had
listened to him. "You have interfered in everything. Will you now
interfere between the Messenger of Allah and his wives?" Sayiduna Umar
when relating this incident, continued, "And she kept after me until
she mad me give up much of what I thought proper." Some sources say
that the Prophet divorced Hafsa with a single divorce and that Umar was
heart broken when this happened and began to throw dust on his head.
Then the Prophet took her back after Jibril had
descended and said to him. "Take Hafsa back. She fasts and prays and
she will be your wife in the Garden." Like A'isha, Hafsa memorized the
entire Qur'an by heart. The written copy of the Qur'an which was
recorded by Zayd ibn Thabit on Abu Bakr's instructions, and which was
then given to Umar for safekeeping, was then given by Umar to Hafsa to
look after. When Uthman eventually became the khalif, he instructed
several written copies of the Qur'an to be made so that they could be
sent to the main centers of the now rapidly expanding Muslim empire,
and it was the copy in Hafsa's keeping that was used, after it had been
meticulously checked for its accuracy by referring to all the other
written records of the Qur'an and to all the Muslims who knew the
Qur'an by heart.
Hafsa lived with the Prophet in Medina for eight years,
may Allah bless him and grant him peace and lived on for another thirty
four years after his death, witnessing with joy the victories and
expansion of Islam under her father's guidance, and with sorrow the
troubles that beset the Muslim community after the murder of Uthman.
She died in 47 AH at the age of sixty-three. May Allah be pleased with
her.