Companions · First martyr of Islam
سمية بنت خياط
Sumayyah bint Khayyat
An enslaved old woman, the first soul to die for La ilaha illallah.
The account
An elderly enslaved woman of Makkah with no clan to avenge her, which is precisely why Abu Jahl chose her family for public torture, and precisely why her stand mattered most. She refused to renounce, under the sun and the stones, and Abu Jahl killed her with a spear: the first person in the history of this ummah to die for the testimony of faith. The religion whose final ranks include kings was opened, in blood, by a woman society priced at nothing. Her husband Yasir died under the same torment; her son Ammar carried their banner for sixty more years. "Patience, family of Yasir, your appointed place is Paradise."
The facts
- RankFirst martyr
- KillerAbu Jahl
- Promise“Your place is Paradise”
Read beside it
The words
Lights that name it
- The first person killed for this religion was a slave womanSumayyah bint Khayyat · Makkah, c. 615 CE
People beside it
- Ammar ibn YasirSon of the first martyrs · Filled with faithعمار بن ياسر
- Muhammad ﷺThe Seal of the Prophets · Mercy to the worldsمُحَمَّد ﷺ
Places