It is reported that when Safiyyah was still a young girl, she saw in her dream that the moon fell into her lap
[ It is reported that when Safiyyah was still a young girl, she saw in her dream that the moon fell into her lap. She mentioned her dream to her father and he hit her hard in the face.
He said to her: “You surely wish to be wed to the King of the Arabs.” The slap left a visible mark on her face which the Prophet (Sallallaahu alaihi vasallam) noticed when he married her. He asked her about that mark and she told him its cause.]
WHEN it was clear that the Prophet (peace be upon him) decided to marry Safiyyah, the news was received with considerable expectation.
On their arrival in Madinah, the Prophet accommodated her first in the house of his Ansari companion, Harithah ibn Al-Numan. Many women, particularly from the Ansar, went there to see the Prophet’s new wife.
This was only to be expected since the Ansar were used to have the Jews living in their city until they had recently been evacuated. Safiyyah’s own people, Al-Nadir tribe, were evacuated only three years earlier.
The Prophet even noticed his wife, Ayesha, going there, having covered her face. He observed her movement until he saw her going into that house. When she came back home, he asked her: ‘How did you find her?’ Her answer expressed her jealous feelings: ‘I only saw a Jewish woman.’ The Prophet said: ‘Do not say that. She has become a Muslim and she is a good Muslim.’
A report by Umm Sinan, a companion of the Prophet, states that she saw four of the Prophet’s wives coming to that house to look at Safiyyah. They had heard of her beauty.
Umm Sinan says: ‘I heard Zaynab speaking to Juwayriyyah: ‘I fear that this young woman will be the Prophet’s favorite.’
Juwayriyyah answered: ‘I do not think so. She belongs to a type of women who are rarely favored by their husbands.’
Whatever Juwauriyyah saw to make her give this judgment is not mentioned.
The Prophet, however, did not treat Safiyyah any differently from his other wives. She established her position in his home and she loved him dearly.
When he suffered illness, shortly before his death, she said she would willingly bear the pain if he would only recover. He said that she was expressing her genuine feelings.
After their marriage the Prophet did all he could to help Safiyyah forget the events of the past, which were naturally a source of grief to her.
She is reported to have said later: “God’s Messenger (peace be upon him) was very hateful to me because he killed my husband and my father. However, he kept apologizing to me, saying that my father had raised the Arabs against him, and did this and did that, until all my hard feelings disappeared.”
One day, the Prophet went into Safiyyah’s room to find her crying. When he asked her why, she said that Ayesha and Hafsah, who were both his wives, kept talking about her, belittling her position.
They said that either of them was far superior to her because they were distant cousins of the Prophet and that he married them for their personalities, not for any other reason.
He said to her: “Why did you not reply to them and said: ‘how can you be superior to me when Aaron is my father [meaning her lineage ended with him], and Moses is my uncle and my husband is Muhammad’.”
It is reported that when Safiyyah was still a young girl, she saw in her dream that the moon fell into her lap. She mentioned her dream to her father and he hit her hard in the face.
He said to her: “You surely wish to be wed to the King of the Arabs.” The slap left a visible mark on her face which the Prophet noticed when he married her. He asked her about that mark and she told him its cause.
Safiyyah died in year 50, when she was around 70 years of age. She reported several Hadiths which are transmitted in anthologies of authentic Hadiths.
– By Adil Salahi