Juwayriya bint al-Harith

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Juwayriya bint al-Harith

*succession disputed **disputed

Juwayriyya bint al-Harith (Arabic: جويرية بنت الحارث juwayriyya bint al-ḥārith, born c. 608) was married to prophet Muhammad, the Islamic prophet when he was 58 years old and she was 20, thus placing the marriage in 628. She therefore his also called Mother of the Believers (Arabic: "Umm-al-Momineen")

She was the daughter of al-Hārith ibn Abi Dirar, the chief of Banu Mustaliq, who were defeated in a battle after a surprise attack. She was one of the captives taken in this campaign. Muhammad asked her to marry him, and she accepted.

The reason behind his marriage to her was for the purpose of drawing her father closer to the Prophet and raising her position. Juwayriyya was from [sic] the captives of Banu Mustaliq, and had fallen in the hands of one of the Ansar. She was the daughter of the leader of Banu Mustaliq, so she wanted to free herself from her master to whom she had become a slave-girl. Her master increased the ransom money knowing that she was the daughter of the leader of Banu Mustaliq. So her father approached the Prophet with the ransom required to free her, which he did. Then after believing in the Message of the Prophet he became a Muslim, and he took his daughter Juwayriyya to the Prophet and she too embraced Islam, so the Prophet asked her father for her hand. He married her to the Prophet himself so the Prophet’s marriage to her was in fact a marriage to the daughter of a leader of a tribe which he had subjugated. His objective was to win the friendship of its leader through marrying his daughter.^[1]

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.