Ash-Shifa bint Abd Allah- Not a Proof for Women in Leadership Roles

As-Salamu Alaykum,

Ramadan Mubarak.

Just thought I’d share some research I’ve conducted on the Sahabiyyah, ash-Shifa bint Abd Allah RA. I posted it on Facebook sometime ago and was asked to retrieve it, however I found the retrieval process daunting to say the least. So I thought it best to save the material here for future reference, In Sha’ Allah.

Ash-Shifa’ bint Abd Allah RA is constantly referred to as the Sahabiyyah who was put in charge of the market. Ibn Hajar states in his Tahdhib at-Tahdhib:

وربما ولاها شيئا من أمر السوق…

“PERHAPS she was entrusted ‘something’ of the marketplace.”

However Ibn Sa’d mentions in his ‘Tabaqat’ 1/379 the following:

وَكَانَتِ الشِّفَاءُ بِنْتُ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ أُمُّ سُلَيْمَانَ بْنِ أَبِي حَثْمَةَ مِنَ الْمُبَايِعَاتِ، وَلَهَا دَارٌ بِالْمَدِينَةِ فِي الْحَكَّاكِينَ، وَيُقَالُ إِنَّ عُمَرَ بْنَ الْخَطَّابِ اسْتَعْمَلَهَا عَلَى السُّوقِ، وَوَلَدُهَا يُنْكِرُونَ ذَلِكَ وَيَغْضَبُونَ مِنْهُ

“Ash-Shifa’ bint Abd Allah is the mother of Sulayman bin Abi Hathmah and among the those who gave the oath of allegiance; she had a residence in Madinah in al-Hakkakeen. It is said that Umar bin al-Khattab employed her in the marketplace and her children rejected that and were angered by it.”

Given the weak manner in which the authorities mention the matter briefly and this reported rejection of the fact by her own son, it’s time that people stopped quoting this matter as evidence for the mixing of men and women or the permissibility of entrusting affairs of the Muslim community to women.

In the Tarikh of Ibn Abi Khaythamah, the exact same wording used by biographers to attribute employment to ash-Shifa RA is used instead to refer to her son:

وَكَانَ ابنُها مِنْ صَالِحِي الْمُسْلِمين، اسْتَعْمَلَهُ عُمَر عَلَى سُوقِ الْمَدِيْنَة

“Her son was among the righteous Muslims and Umar employed HIM in the market of Madinah.” [at-Tarikh al-Kabeer 2/786]

This same alternative statement is found in Tarikh Dimashq 22/214:

أخبرنا أبو غالب وأبو عبد الله ابنا البنا قالا أنا أبو الحسين بن الآبنوسي أنا أحمد بن عبيد بن بيري نا محمد بن الحسين الزعفراني نا أبو بكر بن أبي خيثمة أنا مصعب بن عبد الله (2) قال سليمان بن أبي حثمة بن حذيفة من صالح (3) المسلمين استعمله عمر بن الخطاب على سوق المدينة وابنه أبو بكر بن سليمان بن أبي حثمة بن حذيفة بن غانم من رواة العلم

With a chain of narration on authority of Mus’ab bin Abd Allah that: “Sulayman bin Abi Hathmah bin Hudhayfah was among the righteous Muslims- Umar bin al-Khattab employed HIM in the market in Madinah and his son Abu Bakr bin Sulayman bin Abi Hathmah bin Hudhayfah bin Ghanim was among the transmitters of knowledge.”

No more mystery about the role of ash-Shifa’, also known as Layla bint Abd Allah RA, under Umar RA- and this is directly from al-Bukhari:

Umar bin Khalid and Abd al-Ghaffar bin Dawud narrated to me, Ya’qub bin Abd ar-Rahman narrated to us, on authority of Musa bin Uqbah, on authority of Ibn Shihab:

“Umar bin Abd al-Aziz asked Abu Bakr bin Sulayman bin Abi Hathmah what was Abu Bakr writing from Abu Bakr, the Khalifah of the Messenger of Allah SAWS, then Umar, the Khalifah of Abu Bakr. He said: ‘My grandmother ash-Shifa’ narrated to me, and she was among the first immigrants in Islam, when Umar used to enter the market he would visit her.’ [Ash-Shifa’ herself states]: ‘Umar bin al-Khattab wrote to those employed in Iraq to send two steadfast men to ask them about Iraq, so he was sent Labid bin Rabi’ah and Adi bin Hatim who both arrived and asked permission to enter upon the Commander of the Believers, Umar RA. Thus the writing proceeded from that day on.”

*Abu Bakr bin Sulayman bin Abi Hathmah is among the narrators of al-Bukhari and Muslim, a Tabi’ee, who transmitted on authority of Abd Allah bin Umar RA and is considered trustworthy as a narrator.

In Sha’ Allah, there is a lot of misinformation about ash-Shifa’ RA being some sort of ‘economic minister’ and the only case of a woman being entrusted with the affairs of the Muslims among the Salaf. Her own children rejected the idea and became angry at the mention of it, and a trustworthy compiler [al-Bukhari] and a trustworthy narrator [her own grandson] very clearly state that was not the case. Also, many biographers record that it was her grandson who worked under Umar RA in the market of Madinah and not his grandmother ash-Shifa’ RA. And while it is possible that they both worked in the market under Umar RA, it is also possible that there was a scribal error which led to the notion, as one can see the wording of both statements is exactly the same but for two pronouns ‘ha’ and ‘hu’.

Barak Allahu feekum.

-Abu Najm