Umm al-Fadl Lubaba bint al-Harith

Umm al-Fadl, wife of al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib; her name is Lubaba bint al-Harith al-Hilaliyya — Lubaba the Elder, sister of Lubaba the Younger ¹.

She became Muslim before the hijra, as it is said — or it is said after it ¹. Ibn Sa'd said: "Umm al-Fadl was the first woman to believe after Khadija", and she related from the Prophet ¹.

Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar and others relate from Ibn Abbas that the Prophet said: "the four sisters are believers: Umm al-Fadl, Maymuna, Asma' and Salma" — Maymuna is the Mother of the Believers, Umm al-Fadl's full sister, and Asma' and Salma are their sisters by their father, daughters of Umays al-Khath'amiyya ¹. Al-Waqidi mentions another account from Kurayb naming Lubaba, Izza, Asma' and Salma ¹.

It was said of Umm al-Fadl's mother, the old woman of al-Harsh: "the noblest of people in kin-by-marriage" — Maymuna was the Prophet's wife; al-Abbas married her sister Lubaba; Hamza married her sister Salma; and Ja'far ibn Abi Talib married her sister Asma', whom Abu Bakr al-Siddiq then married, then Ali ².

Ibn Sa'd narrates with a good chain from Simak ibn Harb that Umm al-Fadl said: "Messenger of God, I saw that a limb of your limbs was in my house" — he said: "Fatima will bear a boy and you will nurse him with Quthm's milk" — so she bore Hasan and Umm al-Fadl took him. In the account he urinated on the Prophet and she pinched him so he cried; he said: "you have hurt me in my son", then called for water ¹. Qabus ibn al-Mukharriq's account is similar, adding that she nursed him until he was grown; the Prophet brought him, sat him on his lap and he urinated, so she struck him between the shoulders — he said: "you have pained my son, God have mercy on you" ².

In the Sahih: the people doubted whether the Prophet was fasting on the day of Arafa, so Umm al-Fadl sent him a cup of milk and he drank at the standing-place — and they knew he was not fasting ².

Abu Umar said she was among the blessed childbearing women and the Prophet used to visit her; Ibn Hibban said she died in Uthman's caliphate before her husband al-Abbas ². From her related her sons Abdullah and Tamam, her client Umayr ibn al-Harith, her son's client Kurayb, Abdullah ibn Abbas and Abdullah ibn al-Harith ibn Nawfal ¹.