Her mother was Zaynab, the daughter of Motta’wum B. Habyb B. Wohb B. Hudhâfah. Hafssah was born five years before the mission. She was first married to Hanys B. Hudhâfah B. Qays Sahmy, who had been present at the battle of Bedr, and after his decease the apostle of Allah— bl., etc.—married her, towards the end of the second or the beginning of the third year after the exile [A.D. 624 or 625]. His lordship had once divorced her, and being shortly afterwards visited by Qodâmah and O’thmân, who were the sons of Motta’wum and uncles of Hafssah, she wept and said: ‘The apostle of God has not divorced me on account of old age.’ While they were conversing, his lordship condescended to make his appearance, whereon she covered her head with a veil, and he exclaimed: ‘Jebrâil has said to me: “Take back Hafssah, because she fasts in the day and prays during the night; she will be thy wife in paradise.”’
The author of the Guzidah states that Hafssah— m. A. r. h.—died during the Khalifate of Dhu-n-nûryn [i.e., O’thman] — Allah reward them both—in the year 27 [A.D. 647], but according to the Raudzatu-l-âhbâb that event happened at the time of the government of Moa’awyah in the year 45, or 41, or 47, or 50, after the exile [A.D. 665, 661, 667, or 670]. Merwân B. Alhukm held prayers over her corpse. According to one tradition Hafssah was sixty years old when she died, and her sepulchre is in the cemetery of Baqyi’.