Kabsha bint Rafi' (Umm Sa'd ibn Mu'adh)

Kabsha bint Rafi' al-Ansariyya was the mother of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, chief of Banu Abd al-Ashhal, and of his brother Amr ibn Mu'adh; Mahmood Ahmad Ghadanfar includes her in Great Women of Islam among the women Companions given the good news of Paradise. ¹

Ghadanfar tells how Usayd ibn Hudayr and then Sa'd ibn Mu'adh accepted Islam through Mus'ab ibn Umayr, how Sa'd gathered his clan so that by evening every man and woman of them had embraced Islam, that Umm Sa'd was the first of her household to do so, and that Mus'ab moved from As'ad ibn Zurara's house to theirs. ^{1 2 3} When the Prophet reached Medina, he says, she was the first Ansari woman to pledge allegiance to him, together with Umm Amir and Hawwa', daughters of Yazid ibn al-Sakan, and she hoped he would stay in her house. ^{3 4}

He describes her as forbearing, brave and devout; her sons Sa'd and Amr fought at Badr, and she carried water-skins to the wounded. ⁴ She was present at Uhud; on hearing that her son Amr had been killed she hurried to the fighting, and on seeing the Prophet safe praised God and said her loss was lightened; twelve men of Banu Abd al-Ashhal were killed that day. ⁴ He relates that the Prophet met her at Uhud while Sa'd held his horse's reins, and gave her the good news that her family's martyrs were in Paradise; she asked him to pray for those left behind, and he did. ^{5 6}

At the Trench she was with the women in the fort of Banu Haritha, and A'isha relates that she saw Sa'd going out in a short coat of mail and pointed it out to his mother. ⁴ When Sa'd died of his wound after Qurayza she wept bitterly, and the Prophet consoled her and urged patience, as Asma' bint Yazid ibn al-Sakan relates. ⁵ Ghadanfar adds that she was among the women given a share of the Qurayza spoils, and that after losing her two sons she spent the rest of her life in prayer and remembrance. ^{5 6}

• The source is a popular English book without references; its reports are attributed to its author.