Nusaybah bint Ka'b (Umm Amarah)

Nusaybah bint Ka'b, known as Umm Amarah, was one of the two women who took part in the Second Pledge of Aqabah, pledging to defend the Prophet with their lives. At the Battle of Uhud, she came initially to bring water to the fighters. When the Muslim lines broke and the Prophet was surrounded, she dropped the water skin, picked up a sword and shield, and fought to defend the Prophet. She placed herself between the Prophet and the attacking Quraysh, striking and parrying. She sustained twelve major wounds at Uhud, including a deep sword strike to her shoulder from Ibn Qami'ah that left a wound that took a year to heal. When she was bleeding heavily, the Prophet called for her son to bandage her wounds, then said: 'From where can anyone get courage like yours, O Umm Amarah?' She asked the Prophet to pray that she would be his companion in Paradise. He said: 'O Allah, make them my companions in Paradise.' She said later: 'I do not care what befalls me in this world after that.' The Prophet said of her: 'Wherever I turned on the day of Uhud, to my left or to my right, I saw her fighting to defend me.' She also participated in the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah and the Battle of Hunayn, and later fought in the wars against the false prophet Musaylimah, where she lost her hand.