Touching Stories Of The Sahaba (ra) ..

#15:ATIKAH BINT ZAID( (رضي الله عنه) THE WIFE OF MARTYRS..

You just lost a loved one. You're torn, broken and in pain - a pain that is so much it lingers, it stings. Tears just fall as soon as that person's name is mentioned or each time his or her thought crosses your mind - same name you used to make du'a for Allah to protect and keep healthy is now the name that you ask Allah to grant ease in his or her grave and to be amongst those Allah would grant a place in Jannah.

We all know, it's excruciatingly and constantly painful. It may be a mother, a father, a spouse or even your own child that you had to bury.

Indeed, how much can one take? With what is happening in this world, we witness a lot of our brothers and sisters who are living in war torn countries suffer by losing a number if not all of their family members in just one glimpse. May Allah grant them ease.

Unimaginable pain indeed, yet we trust in the Qadr of Allah and we move on and we find comfort in His Words and in perfecting our worship.

Yet, here is a story of a person who lost not just anyone in her life but the closest ones in her lifetime - one by one.

If you are married or is getting married - how would you feel or how would you cope losing that person? Terrifying even to think about, right?

Well, Atikah Bint Zaid Radiyallahu Anha had to go through that not only once in her life but four times.

Atikah bint Zayd was the daughter of Zaid bin Amr bin Naufal, a member of the Adi clan of the Quraysh in Mecca and the sister of Sa'id ibn Zayd. As Sa'id was among the earliest to convert to Islam, Atika became a Muslim too. Sa'id ibn Zayd was among the ten people who were promised Paradise by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and it was he who guided Atiqa to Islam. She was a poet who is notable for having married Muslim men who died as shahids .

Atikah was a beautiful lady and her beauty did not shine only through her physical appearance but also through her character and manners. She was also stern in her beliefs and would voice out for her rights.

At Madina, Atika was married to Abdullah the son of Abu Bakr. Anyone who have read about their love story would agree that they illustrate a very loving relationship. Atika was very beautiful and Abdullah was much enamoured of her. He was so much lost in her love that he failed to participate in the various expeditions undertaken by the Muslims.

The love of Abdullah and Atika became proverbial. Abdullah felt that Atika was the most valuable thing in the world. When Abu Bakr came to know that Abdullah had not taken part in the various expeditions and had even neglected his prayers, he put him to explanation. He had no explanation to offer. The matter of fact position was that he was so much overwhelmed by the love of Atika that he could not attend to other duties. Abubakar Siddiq (RA) commanded Abdullahi to divorce her.

Abdullah was torn between two minds. At times he thought that he should be faithful to his love. On second thought he felt that the command of his father should be obeyed whatever the cost. After three days Abdullah divorced Atika. This decision made Abdullah deranged. He would neither eat nor drink. He sobbed and sighed and sang heart rending verses giving expression to his great grief over the loss of his beloved.

Her absence turned him into a poet. Abdullahi admired her truthfulness and her acceptance of the separation. He uttered verses in her praise and testified that she was a woman of good habits, wisdom, and high moral character, and lamented:

"Oh Atika, I will never forget you, so long as anything appears during the day(meaning the sunrises) ,or any star or any bird flies through the sky at night. I will never forget you day or night and I will always think about you oh Atika. I have never known a man like me divorce a woman like her, nor any woman like her divorced for no fault of her own."