Sumayya bint Khayyat
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- Meaning of the name Sumayya
Who was Sumayya bint Khayyat? The seventh person to accept Islam. An enslaved woman in Mecca who died under torture at the hands of Abu Jahl rather than renounce her faith. The first to give her life for Islam.
The seventh person to accept Islam. An enslaved woman in Mecca who died under torture at the hands of Abu Jahl rather than renounce her faith. The first to give her life for Islam.
Life
Sumayya bint Khayyat was a servant in the household of Abu Hudhayfah ibn al-Mughira in Mecca. She was among the first seven people to accept Islam. Her husband Yasir and her son Ammar accepted with her.
When Quraysh discovered their conversion, the family was taken out into the burning heat of the desert of Mecca. Abu Jahl himself tortured them, demanding they renounce. The Prophet ﷺ once passed by them being tortured. He could not free them. He raised his hands and said: patience, family of Yasir. Your appointment is with Paradise.
Yasir died under torture. Sumayya continued to endure. Abu Jahl came to her personally and drove a spear through her belly. She died in that moment. She was the first person to give her life for Islam.
Ammar was tortured to the point where he gave a false verbal renunciation to save his life. He came weeping to the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ read to him the ayah that came down about that very moment: unless it is one who is coerced while his heart is at rest in faith. (An-Nahl 106.)
When Ammar much later, as an old man, was killed at the Battle of Siffin against the army of Muawiya, the Muslims wept because they remembered the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ: Ammar, the party of oppressors will kill you.
Stories
Each story is drawn from the classical Islamic sources.