A Critical Assessment of Umm Kulthum’s Marriage to Umar

Introduction

The purpose of writing this book is to conduct a research into the narrations or reports regarding Umar‘s marriage to Umm Kulthum, the daughter of the Commander of the Faithful, Ali, peace be upon him. This event has always been used by a group of people to deny the bitter incidents and adverse events that took place during the early period of Islam in regards to Ali bin Abi Talib and Fatima Zahra, peace be upon them. Thus, they argue as such:

If what is known as Umar‘s assault on Ali‘s house were correct and his attack led to the martyrdom of Fatima, the daughter of Holy Prophet (S), such a marriage or matrimony would not have taken place but it took place and we conclude, therefore, that the alleged events are not true and that Ali (a.s.) and Umar were in quite good terms with each other.

This study delves into the narrations regarding Umar‘s marriage to Umm Kulthum in a bid to clarify whether the foregoing argument is complete and reasonable or invalid and fruitless.

Obviously, such an argument can be complete and acceptable only when the subject around which we discuss should have existed. That is to say, it must be proved, in the first place, that the Commander of Faithful, Ali (a.s.) had a daughter by the name Umm Kulthum. Therefore, if a daughter by this name never existed, or Fatima Zahra (a.s.) did not have such a daughter – as stated by some scholars, the above argument would be incomplete and out of place.

It could be termed as a marriage between Umar and Umm Kulthum by simply pronouncing the formula of marriage contract. If the conclusion of marriage contract between those two depends on conjugal relations, this argument will again be incomplete and you will see that there is no concrete evidence to show that the two sides had conjugal relations.

Assuming that such a marriage took place, the argument would be justified only when the marriage should have taken place with complete consent and approbation. In case the marriage, as stated by the narrations of the Two Sects, has taken place under coercion, intimidation and pressure, making recourse to such an argument would then be counterproductive and it will be counted as another injustice done to the Prophet‘s progeny (a.s.).