Umm Habibah (Ramlah bint Abi Sufyan)

Ramlah bint Abi Sufyan, known as Umm Habibah, was the daughter of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, one of the most powerful leaders of Quraysh and a chief opponent of the Prophet at the time. Despite her father's enmity toward Islam, she embraced the faith early and migrated with her first husband Ubaydullah ibn Jahsh to Abyssinia in the second migration. There, her husband apostatised from Islam and converted to Christianity, and subsequently died, leaving her stranded and alone in a foreign land with her young daughter Habibah. Despite her isolation and the option to return to her powerful father's household in Makkah, she remained steadfast upon Islam. The Prophet, moved by her faith and sacrifice, sent Amr ibn Umayyah al-Damri to the Negus (al-Najashi) in Abyssinia with a proposal of marriage. The Negus conducted the marriage on the Prophet's behalf, with a mahr of 400 dinars, and it is reported that Khalid ibn Sa'id ibn al-As acted as her representative (wali). This was approximately 7 AH (628 CE). When her father Abu Sufyan came to Madinah before the conquest of Makkah seeking to renew the treaty of Hudaybiyyah, he visited her. When he was about to sit on the Prophet's mat, she folded it away from him, saying: 'You are an unclean polytheist, and I do not want you to sit on the Prophet's mat.' Her father remarked: 'By Allah, you have been afflicted with evil after me.' She replied: 'Rather, Allah has guided me to Islam.' She was known for her firmness in faith and dignity. She passed away in 44 AH (664 CE) in Madinah.