The Cloud of Witnesses

Islam

Khadijah bint Khuwaylid

~555–620 AD, Makkah

First wife of the Prophet Muhammad and the first to believe him. A Makkan merchant who ran caravans to Syria. Mother of his daughters Zaynab, Ruqayya, Umm Kulthum, and Fatimah. Her wealth shielded the early Muslims through the boycott in the valley of Abu Talib. Died in the Year of Sorrow, before the Hijra.

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Islam

Aisha bint Abi Bakr

~614–678 AD, Madinah

Wife of the Messenger of Allah, daughter of the first caliph Abu Bakr, "Mother of the Believers." Major hadith narrator — more than two thousand reports trace through her. Taught fiqh from behind the curtain after the Prophet's death. Rode out at the Battle of the Camel against Ali; spoke of the day with grief afterward.

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Islam

Ali ibn Abi Talib

~600–661 AD, Madinah → Kufa

Cousin of the Messenger of Allah, husband of Fatimah, father of Hasan and Husayn. First male — or first child, the reports differ — to embrace Islam. Slept in the Prophet's bed the night of the Hijra. Carried Dhul-Fiqar at Badr, Uhud, Khaybar. Fourth Rightly-Guided Caliph; for the Shia, the first Imam. Struck in the mosque at Fajr by a Khariji and died saying: "By the Lord of the Ka'ba, I have succeeded."

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Islam

Fatimah az-Zahra

~605–632 AD, Madinah

Daughter of the Messenger of Allah and Khadijah, wife of Ali, mother of Hasan, Husayn, Zaynab, and Umm Kulthum. The only of the Prophet's daughters whose line continued. Washed her father's wounds at Uhud. Died six months after he did, not yet thirty.

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Islam

Bilal ibn Rabah

~580–640 AD, Makkah → Madinah → Damascus

First muezzin. Born a slave in Makkah, Abyssinian by descent. Tortured under the desert sun by his master Umayya for the sake of Tawhid; said only "ahad, ahad" — One, One. Bought and freed by Abu Bakr. Climbed the Ka'ba at the conquest of Makkah and called the adhan from above the city of his captors. Could not bring himself to call the adhan again after the Prophet's death; went to Sham and died in Damascus.

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Islam

Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya

~717–801 CE, Basra

Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya — freed slave woman from Basra, foundational Sufi mystic. She was the first to articulate pure selfless love of God: worship without hope of reward or fear of punishment. "O God, if I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell. If I worship You for hope of Paradise, forbid it to me. But if I worship You for Your own sake, withhold not Your everlasting beauty."

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Islam

Rumi

1207–1273 CE, Persia and Anatolia

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi — Persian poet, jurist, and Sufi mystic. His Masnavi is called the Persian Quran of mysticism. The death of his friend and teacher Shams of Tabriz broke him open and poured out poetry. "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there."

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Islam

Ibn Arabi

1165–1240 CE, Andalusia and the wider Islamic world

Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi — the "Greatest Master" (al-Shaykh al-Akbar). Andalusian Sufi whose doctrine of wahdat al-wujud (unity of being) shaped all subsequent Islamic mysticism. His Fusus al-Hikam assigns each prophet a jewel of divine wisdom. Dense, visionary, and willing to destabilize every question by asking about the nature of the one who asked it.

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Islam

al-Ghazali

1058–1111 CE, Khorasan and Baghdad

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali — theologian, philosopher, Sufi mystic, called "Proof of Islam" (Hujjat al-Islam). He was the most celebrated scholar of his age, teaching in Baghdad, when he underwent a crisis of certainty that paralyzed him and drove him from his position. He wandered for years and wrote the Ihya Ulum al-Din — Revival of the Religious Sciences — his life's masterwork.

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