Juwayriyya bint Harith, may Allah be pleased with her,
married the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)
in 5 AH, when the Prophet was fifty-eight years old and she was twenty,
not long after his marriage to Zaynab bint Jahsh, and as a result of
the Muslims ' successful campaign against the Banu Mustaliq who were
swiftly defeated after the Prophet's surprise attack. Among the
captives taken in this campaign was the beautiful Juwayriyya, the
daughter of al-Harith, who was the chief of the Banu Mustaliq. She was
afraid that once the Muslims realized who she was, they would demand an
exorbitant ransom for her safe release. After the Muslims had returned
to Medina with their booty and prisoners, she demanded to see the
Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) hoping that
he would help to prevent what she feared. Seeing how beautiful she was,
A'isha was not keen on her seeing the Prophet.
But she persisted, and eventually she was permitted to
see the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and was
taken to him while he was with A'isha. After she had finished speaking,
the Prophet thought for a moment, and then said, "Shall I tell you what
would be better than this?"
He then asked her to marry him, and she immediately
accepted. Although Juwayriyya was young and beautiful and of noble
lineage, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was
thinking of how to save her and all her tribe from an ignoble fate. By
marrying Juwayriyya, the Banu Mustaliq would be able to enter Islam
with honor, and with the humiliation of their recent defeat removed, so
that it would no longer be felt necessary by them to embark on a war of
vengeance that would have continued until one of the two parties had
been annihilated. As soon as the marriage was announced, all the booty
that had been taken from the Banu Mustaliq was returned, and all the
captives were set free, for they were now the in laws of the Prophet
Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Thus A'isha once
said of Juwayriyya, "I know of no woman who was more of a blessing to
her people than Juwayriyya bint al-Harith." After they were married,
the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) changed her name
was Barra to Juwayriyya.
It has been related by Juwayriyya that early one
morning the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) left
her room while she was doing the dawn prayer. He returned later that
morning and she was still sitting in the same place. "have you been
sitting in the same place since I left you?" he asked. "Yes," she
replied. Whereupon the Prophet said, "I recited four phrases three
times after I left you, and if these were to be weighed against what
you have been reciting since dawn, they would still outweigh them. They
are: 'Glory be to Allah and Praise be to Him as much as the number of
his creations, and His pleasure, and the weight of His Throne, and the
ink of His words.'" Which reminds us of the following ayat of the
Qur'an:
Say: 'If the sea were the ink for the words of My
Lord, truly the sea would be used up before the words of my Lord were
completed, and even if We used the same again to assist. (Qur'an 18:109)
Juwayriyya was married to the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him) for six years, and lived for another
thirty-nine years after his death, dying in 50 AH at the age of
sixty-five, may Allah be pleased with her.