The Generosity of the Mother of the Believers, Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), and the Reason for Her Vow Not to Speak to Ibn al-Zubayr

The Shaykh : The Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) was extremely generous. She and some of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) other wives would compete in generosity and nobility. However, Aisha’s generosity was in the form of giving large sums, whereas her co-wife, and I think it was Zaynab, was different; she would not hold onto anything. We have discussed a hadith with this meaning in a previous lesson. Aisha would gather things together and then distribute them. Nothing would come to her that she did not give away. This was in a hadith narrated by Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr himself, who said, “I have never seen two women more generous than Aisha and Asma.” Asma was her sister, and their generosity was different. “As for Aisha, she would accumulate things until she had a large amount, and then she would distribute it. As for Asma, she would not hold onto anything for the next day.” Based on this generosity that the Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) possessed, one day she gave a generous and bountiful gift from what she had, or she sold it for a low price. The narrator was unsure whether it was through sale or gift. However, in any case, Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr could not tolerate this behavior from his maternal aunt. He swore that either she would stop such unreasonable actions, or he would place her under a legal guardianship (hijr). As is clear to everyone, hijr is imposing a legal guardianship on a person who mismanages their own property, giving them only a small amount to sustain them, while the rest of the money is kept in the hand of their guardian. It is also clear that Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr’s words contained arrogance toward his maternal aunt, the Lady Aisha, and an insult to her, as if she were a spendthrift who did not know how to manage her money. Therefore, the consequence of Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr’s words from his maternal aunt, the Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), was that when her statement reached her, “Let Aisha stop, or I will place her under a legal guardianship,” was it said? They said, yes. Aisha said, “It is a vow upon me to Allah that I will never speak to Ibn al-Zubayr again.” This was the severance of ties. She swore that, since he was her sister’s son and younger than her in age, he had spoken these harsh words about her, which showed no respect for the greatness of her knowledge and her status as the wife of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and similar noble qualities. She swore not to speak to Ibn al-Zubayr for the rest of her life.