Rubayyi' bint Mu'awwidh

Rubayyi' bint Mu'awwidh was a companion of the Prophet Muhammad from the Ansar of Medina. She came from the Banu Najjar clan, and her father Mu'awwidh ibn Afra was one of those credited with striking the blow that killed Abu Jahl at the Battle of Badr — one of the most significant moments of early Islamic history.

Rubayyi' herself participated in military campaigns as part of the cohort of women who accompanied the army to provide medical care and logistical support. She is one of the narrators who gave later generations a direct account of how Muslim women served during wartime. She described how the women would go to the battlefield with the army, providing water to the soldiers, retrieving the wounded, and carrying the injured back to Medina for treatment. Her narrations provide some of the clearest first-hand testimony about the role of women in early Islamic military medicine.

Beyond her battlefield service, Rubayyi' bint Mu'awwidh is a recognised narrator of hadith. She narrated traditions about the Prophet's practices, including accounts of his daily life and worship, and her narrations are included in the major hadith collections. She is also known for an account of her own wedding, at which the Prophet attended and which she described in some detail — a narration valued for the light it sheds on social customs in early Medina.

Rubayyi' bint Mu'awwidh represents the double contribution of many early Muslim women: active service to the community in both practical and scholarly capacities.