Hind bint Utba (rha)

Quraysh noblewoman who mutilated Hamzah’s body at Uhud in revenge for her father, and who later accepted Islam.

Identity & lineage

• Wife of Abu Sufyan and mother of Muawiyah.
• Daughter of Utbah ibn Rabiah, a Quraysh chief killed at Badr.
• Of Quraysh.

Role in the Seerah

• At Uhud she came with the Quraysh women to spur the men on with poetry and song, driving them to battle.

Key episodes

• Mutilation of Hamzah: after Hamzah — who had killed her father Utbah at Badr — was martyred, Hind mutilated his body: she cut open his stomach, took out and chewed his liver, and cut off his fingers and toes to wear as a necklace, purely to wound the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
• This atrocity prompted the Prophet’s ﷺ vow of retaliation, later forbidden by revelation (Q 16:126), and established the shariah ruling that mutilation (muthla) is haram.
• She was the woman Abu Dujana raised the Prophet’s ﷺ sword against during the battle but chose to spare.

The Conquest — smacking Abu Sufyan & the women’s bay’ah (EP 079–080)

At the Conquest she publicly struck her own husband Abu Sufyan, cursing him for telling the Quraysh to surrender. Then, veiled among the women giving the bay’ah (Q 60:12), her sharp tongue answered each condition: on stealing (“I used to take from Abu Sufyan’s money” — he forgave it, giving her away); on adultery (“does a free woman commit zina?”); and on not killing one’s children — “we raised them, and you killed them at Badr!” — which made Umar fall over laughing. The Prophet ﷺ, still grieved over Hamzah, forgave her but did not verbally absolve her — and never touched a non-mahram woman’s hand.

Character & lessons

• Her arc from fierce enemy to believer illustrates the Seerah’s theme of transformation. She accepted Islam (8 AH) at the Conquest — hence the honorific (rha).
• A vivid example that Iman is of levels and that Islam accommodated even a forceful, unfiltered personality.

Death

• Died a Muslim (later, in the Caliphate period).

Cross-references

• Abu Sufyan ibn Harb (ra) · Hamzah ibn Abd al-Muttalib (ra) · The Battle of Badr · The Battle of Uhud · The Conquest of Makkah · Umar ibn al-Khattab (ra) · Abu Dujana (ra) · Muhammad ﷺ · Wahshi ibn Harb (ra) · Quraysh

Sources

• S007 — Yasir Qadhi, Seerah of Prophet Muhammad EP 041–050 (Uhud; the mutilation of Hamzah).
• S010 — Yasir Qadhi Seerah EP 079–080 (the Conquest — striking Abu Sufyan; the women’s bay’ah).
• Classical: Ibn Ishaq/Ibn Hisham, Sirat Rasul Allah; al-Waqidi, Kitab al-Maghazi; Quran 16:126; 60:12.