Tesneem Alkiek – Inspirational Muslim Women #09 Zobaida bint Jaafar

Assalamu alaikum Warahmatullahi Waikatooh, and welcome back to

another episode of Sayi Dati.

Today, I want to discuss the story of

Zubaydah Bint Jafar ibn Mansur

who is the wife of the famous Harun

al Rashid during that Basit Khalifa.

For those of you who might be familiar

with her story or not her real name

was actually Ahmed Razi's and she was later

given the Kunya or Agmen of Umni Jafar

to reflect her lineage as the granddaughter of

the Khalifa Ujjafar al Mansur.

As for her name, Subaydah,

it was actually a nickname she received from

her grandfather when she was a child.

Fun fact, if you know Arabic, you might

be familiar with the term which means oil

or butter. And

is the form of

so her name literally means like little butter,

which is really cute and a great conversation

starter for those of you who know or

meet a Zubaydah.

Anyways back to our main story so Zubaydah's

father Ja'far was a half father to the

then sitting abbaas of harif al Mahdi she

married her cousin Harun in 165 Hijri when

Al Mahdi's caliphate was in Baghdad and she

soon gave birth to her son Al Amin

who would eventually become Khalifa for some time

as for her personality,

one author described her as among the greatest

women of our time in terms of her

religion, heritage, beauty, eloquence,

mind and her cultural competence.

Talk about a rounded personality.

Her literary and grammar knowledge was so impressive

that once when one of her workers presented

her with a book to read,

she read it all and told him to

fix the mistake.

Now as you can imagine, she only hired

the best of workers to start off with

so the mind was sort of you know

taken aback.

What mistake could I have possibly made?

So he went through it over and over

again and he couldn't find anything.

And then finally, he requested the help of

other experts in the field and they pointed

out this one Dua he wrote slightly incorrectly

in the entire

book. So of course he fixed it and

immediately returned it to beta, but really the

whole incident just goes to show her sharp

perceptiveness

and acute grasp in the field

now what she's most usually renowned for is

her construction of wells and other water reservoirs

for Hajjaj

or pilgrims along the route from Baghdad to

Makkal Madira which are still present till today

and were renamed in her honor as Darbiz

Zubaydah

the reason she took this project upon herself

was a result of her own experience

during her 5th pilgrimage to Mecca in 186

Hijdi

upon her route, she noticed that the drought

that was occurring at the time was so

devastating that even the Zamzam wall was down

to a trickle of water

In order for more Zamzem to be retrieved,

she called her treasurer and asked him to

gather all the engineers and workers from around

the land to improve the water supply throughout

Mecca and the surrounding areas

as well as deepening the Zamzem walls in

order to increase their water supply.

At her request, the workers hesitated and informs

Raya that her plans were kind of enormous

and would cost a large sum of money

yet she persisted in her demand and offered

to pay any amount needed to get the

job done. Her generosity wasn't limited here either.

She was also known for spending on a

regular basis on the poor and needy.

One of my favorite facts about Zubaydah was

that she had 100 maids who were memorizing

the Quran.

If you've ever heard someone reviewing or memorizing

the Quran, it's kind of an entertaining sight.

I for 1 pace around my room endlessly

murmuring and you can always find that one

little boy or girl in the masjid sitting

on the floor rocking back and forth reciting

under the breath

and you can hear the murmuring.

But what's even more interesting is when there's

a whole bunch of people doing it at

the exact same time.

So here you had a 100 of her

maids memorizing together

and the sound of the recitation was so

captivating that her palace was described as a

beehive

because it constantly sounded like a 100 bees

were buzzing.

I

mean that's a lot of bedikah right there,

what an environment to be in. My respect

for Zebaida stems for her concern of others.

When she went to Khalei Hajj as the

wife of the Khalifa,

no doubt she had plenty of water to

suffice herself. In fact, she probably could have

arranged for all the travelers in sight to

be granted water as well. But she had

a bigger picture in mind.

Not only did she want to help the

pilgrims of that year, but she wanted to

ensure that no Hajjaj would face this problem

again.

And so she dedicated her time and her

money in making sure this project was successfully

carried out.

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala allowed for her work

to be established and remain until today.

Can you imagine the number of good deeds

Zubayla receives every time a thirsty pilgrim quenches

his or her thirst on their way to

worship Allah Subhayla?

Now think about your own community and the

challenges they might face. Is there an older

Khana or uncle who always needs help grabbing

a chair when they come to sit for

Jannah?

Does the city you live in have refugees,

homeless people, or others in need of help?

Identify the issues in your community and think

of creative ways for solutions.

Tag team with a friend before or every

Friday to make their make sure that there

are chairs set up in the prayer hall.

Organize a clothing or furniture donation drive local

members of your community in need.

What my husband and I like to do

is keep a whole bunch of food gift

cards in our cars so anytime we see

a homeless person, we can offer them a

meal for the day.

Take time to reflect on your own challenges

and remember the reward you'll get every time

the little girl you donated just to smiles

and happiness.

May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala put barakah and

blessings in our efforts, and maybe he reward

us for simply sincerely trying.

I mean,