Umm Ayman (Barakah)

Umm Ayman Barakah al-Habashiyya (died after 11 AH) was an Ethiopian Companion of the Prophet ﷺ who had been a slave in the household of his father Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Muttalib and remained to care for the Prophet ﷺ after his parents died. She is considered one of his earliest companions by virtue of having been present from his birth and having nursed him as an infant alongside his mother Amina.

She was freed by the Prophet ﷺ and married first to Ubayd ibn Zayd of the Khazraj, with whom she had a son named Ayman. After Ubayd died, the Prophet ﷺ encouraged Zayd ibn Haritha, his freed slave and adopted son, to marry her. Their marriage produced Usama ibn Zayd, who became one of the most beloved of the Prophet's companions — the Prophet ﷺ called Usama "the beloved, son of the beloved."

The Prophet ﷺ would frequently visit Umm Ayman and call her "my mother after my mother." He said she was among the people of Paradise. After the Prophet's death, when Abu Bakr and Umar visited her and found her weeping, they asked why she cried when she knew the Prophet was with Allah. She replied: "I know that he is with Allah, but I weep because the revelation has ceased from the heavens." This response moved them to weep with her.

She lived in Medina through the early caliphate and died sometime after the Prophet's death. Her position as a living personal connection to the earliest moments of the Prophet's life made her uniquely precious to the community.