Her cognomen was Omm* Alaswad. She was the daughter of Zamqah, s. of Qays, s. of A’bdu-sh-shams, s. of A’bdu, s. of Nadzar, s. of Mâlek, s. of Jabal, s. of A’amer, s. of Lowâ, s. of Ghâleb, and in Lowâ her pedigree becomes connected with that of the prophet—o. w. b. b., etc.— Her mother was Shamûs, the daughter of Qays, s. of A’mru, s. of Zayd, s. of Lobeyd, s. of Khoddâsh. Soadah had first been married to her cousin Sikrân, s. of A’mru, s. of A’bdu-sh-shams, and had by him a son called A’bdu-r-rahman, who attained martyrdom in the battle of Halaullâ, during the time of the Commander of the Faithful O’mar. Both Sikrân and Soadah had made their profession of Islâm in the beginning of the mission, and were enrolled among the exiles of Abyssinia; but after they had returned from that country to Mekkah, Soadah dreamt one night that his lordship the apostle—p. b. o. h.—had come to her, and had placed his foot on her neck. This dream she related to Sikrân, who replied: ‘If you speak the truth I shall die, and Muhammad will marry you.’ After the death of Sikrân, in the tenth year after the mission, the prophet had, according to authentic traditions, married and taken her to himself before A’ayshah, and her dowry was four hundred dirhems* of silver. When Soadah was overtaken by the weakness of old age, the apostle—b., etc.—wanted to divorce her, but she said: ‘O prophet of God, do not divorce me, for I wish to have no carnal intercourse with you, because that appetite has left me; but I wish on the day of the resurrection to be reckoned among your noble spouses, and I yield my turn* to A’ayshah. Accordingly the prince of this world—b., etc.—gave up his intention.
There is a tradition of Abu Harirah—m. A. r. h.—that he said: ‘The apostle—b., etc.—took all his wives with him to the Hajjatu-l-wodaa’ [pilgrimage of valediction], and on returning from that journey he said: “This was the pilgrimage of Islâm, which you have performed, and henceforth you are no longer under the obligation to repeat it. You must hereafter abandon travelling, and go nowhere.” But after the decease of his lordship the prince of inspired messengers—b., etc.—the mothers of the Faithful again went on pilgrimage, except Soadah and Zaynab, the daughter of Jahash, who, acting according to the above injunction, and said: “After the death of the seal of prophets we shall mount no beast.”’ According to one tradition, the death of Soadah—m. A. r. h.—took place towards the end of the Khalifate of the Commander of the Faithful O’mar, and according to another it happened in the fifty-fourth year after the flight [A.D. 674], when the government of Moa’wiah prevailed. According to the first tradition, she was also the first person for whom a bier was made.