Asma bint Umais: A Female Companion of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
What follows is a part of a note written by senior seminary teacher Ayatollah Mohammad Jafar Tabasi about Asma bint Umais:
According to valid sources, the third day of the lunar month of Jumada al-Thani is the day when Hazrat Fatemeh (SA), daughter of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and wife of Imam Ali (AS), was martyred. These days provide a good opportunity to have a brief look at the spiritual position and the life of Asma bint Umais who had close relations with Hazrat Fatemeh (AS).
According to Muslim historian Ibn Ishaq, Asma bint Umais and her husband Ja'far b. Abi Talib were among those who migrated to Abyssinia in early Islam.
Historians and figures such as Sa'id b. Musayyib, Amer Al-Shaabi, Abd Allah b. Ja'far, Urwat b. Zubayr, Abu Dawud al-Sijistani, Ibn Majah, Al-Tirmidhi, and Al-Nasa'i have referred to her as the source of some of the narrations and hadiths.
Shaykh al-Saduq (923-991 CE) in one of his books Al-Khisal (volume 2, p. 363) quotes Imam Baqir (AS) as saying that Asma bint Umais is one of the heavenly women.
Asma bint Umais had an influential role in Ghazwas (battles of the early years of Islam in which the Prophet himself was present) as making waterskin and providing medical aid to the wounded were among main services of her in the battles between the right and the wrong.
