Umm al-Ala' al-Ansariyya

Umm al-Ala' al-Ansariyya; Abu Umar said: she is of the women who pledged, and her hadith is with the people of Medina ¹. Others give her lineage: bint al-Harith ibn Thabit ibn Haritha ibn Tha'laba — it is said she is the mother of Kharija ibn Zayd ibn Thabit ².

The two shaykhs relate, in al-Zuhri's account from Kharija ibn Zayd from Umm al-Ala', who said: "Uthman ibn Maz'un drew our lot for dwelling when the Ansar were divided" — she related the hadith on the death of Uthman ibn Maz'un, in which she saw a flowing spring for him and told the Prophet of it, and he said: "that is his work" — and in it her words: "my testimony over you, Abu al-Sa'ib: God has honoured you" ².

In Ibrahim ibn Sa'd's account from al-Zuhri, Umm al-Ala' is "a woman of their women who had pledged to the Prophet"; Ibn Hajar says the hadith also came by way of Yazid ibn Abi Habib from Salim Abu al-Nadr from Kharija ibn Zayd from his mother — that when Uthman ibn Maz'un was taken, she said, "Umm Haritha: be well, Abu al-Sa'ib" — and that this points clearly to Umm al-Ala' being Kharija's mother; her being left vague in al-Zuhri's account does not make her another woman, "for a man may leave even himself vague, let alone his mother" ².

In the entry on Umm Sa'd bint Sa'd ibn al-Rabi', Ibn Hajar mentions that Ibn Sa'd said in Kharija ibn Zayd's entry that his mother was Umm Sa'd Jamila bint Sa'd ibn al-Rabi' — and that what is in Umm al-Ala''s entry contradicts this ³.