Death of Umm Kulthum, Daughter of the Prophet

Umm Kulthum bint Muhammad was the third of the Prophet's ﷺ daughters by Khadijah. She had been married in Mecca to Utba ibn Abi Lahab, a son of Abu Lahab, before the Hijra. When Surah al-Masad was revealed condemning Abu Lahab by name, Abu Lahab commanded his son to divorce Umm Kulthum, and Utba complied — a public humiliation of the Prophet's ﷺ daughter that also freed her from a household that had become a center of active opposition to her father's message. After the Hijra to Medina, the Prophet ﷺ gave Umm Kulthum in marriage to Uthman ibn Affan, who had previously been married to her older sister Ruqayyah. Ruqayyah had died in 2 AH while Uthman remained with her through her illness at the Prophet's ﷺ command, missing the Battle of Badr. The Prophet ﷺ assured Uthman he would receive Badr's reward and then gave him Umm Kulthum — the second of the Prophet's ﷺ daughters to marry the same man, giving Uthman the title Dhu al-Nurayn (Possessor of Two Lights) that he carries in Islamic tradition. The Prophet ﷺ reportedly said: 'If I had a third daughter, I would give her to Uthman.' Umm Kulthum died in Sha'ban 9 AH. The Prophet ﷺ was present at her burial rites. At her grave, he wept; Uthman ibn Affan stood beside him, also weeping. With her death, the Prophet ﷺ had buried three daughters in Medina: Zaynab in 8 AH, and now Umm Kulthum. Only Fatimah remained among his children. The deaths of the Prophet's ﷺ daughters during the Medinan period are among the sustained personal griefs of his later years — grief he experienced openly, weeping honestly while trusting completely in Allah's decree. The combination of sincere feeling and patient submission to Allah's will was the same model he taught and lived in every personal loss of the Medinan period. Uthman ibn Affan's title Dhu al-Nurayn — Possessor of Two Lights — for having been husband to two daughters of the Prophet ﷺ, is a distinction no other man in Islamic history holds, and the bonds it reflected were understood by the companions as among the deepest personal connections of the early community.