Umm Dawud

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Umm Dawud
foster mother of Imam al-Sadiq (a)
Full NameHabiba, or Fatima, daughter of 'Abd Allah b. Ibrahim
TeknonymUmm Khalid, Umm Dawud
Epithetal-Barbariyya
Well-known AsUmm Dawud
Well-known Relativesal-Hasan al-Muthanna (husband)
Known forPractices of Umm Dawud and the Supplication of Umm Dawud are transmitted by her from Imam al-Sadiq (a).


Umm Dāwūd (Arabic: أم داوود) was the wife of al-Hasan al-Muthanna and the foster mother of Imam al-Sadiq (a). Her teknonym comes from her son, Dawud b. al-Hasan. Her name was Habiba or Fatima. Practices of Umm Dawud and the al-Istiftah Supplication (the Supplication of Umm Dawud) are transmitted by her from Imam al-Sadiq (a).

Umm Dawud learned these practices and supplications from Imam al-Sadiq (a) in order to ask God for the release of her son from the prison. She said that after these practices, Dawud was released from the prison and went back home.

Name and Teknonym

Habiba, or on other accounts Fatima, was known as Umm Dawud (mother of Dawud), she was the daughter of 'Abd Allah b. Ibrahim, and the wife of al-Hasan al-Muthanna.[1] She is known as Umm Dawud because of her son, Dawud b. al-Hasan.[2] According to A'yan al-Shi'a, her other teknonym is Umm Khalid al-Barbariyya.[3]

Umm Dawud was the foster mother of Imam al-Sadiq (a).[4] Her son, Dawud, was a companion of Imam al-Baqir (a) or Imam al-Sadiq (a).[5]

Practices and the Supplication of Umm Dawud

In sources of hadiths, there is a hadith from Imam al-Sadiq (a) in which he recommends Umm Dawud to perform certain practices during Ayyam al-Bid. These practices came to be known as "practices of Umm Dawud." There is also a supplication known as al-Istiftah Supplication or the Supplication of Umm Dawud, which are recited after practices of Umm Dawud.[6] The hadith was transmitted by Umm Dawud herself.[7]

The Supplication of Umm Dawud is also cited in the book, Fada'il shahr Rajab (the virtues of the month of Rajab), written by al-Hakim al-Haskani, a fifth-century Sunni scholar.[8]

Here is how practices of Umm Dawud are done: first, one fasts during Ayyam al-Bid (Rajab 13, 14, and15), then one performs a ghusl at the noon of Rajab 15, and after saying Noon and Afternoon Prayers, one should recite certain Quranic suras, and then one recites the Supplication of Umm Dawud or al-Istiftah Supplication.[9]

According to Shiite scholars such as al-Shaykh al-Tusi, al-Sayyid b. Tawus, and al-'Allama al-Majlisi, the recitation of the Supplication of Umm Dawud is effective in the fulfillment of one's requests from God and surmounting problems.[10]

Story of the Practices of Umm Dawud

The story of how Imam al-Sadiq (a) told Umm Dawud about these practices appears in Fada'il al-ashhur al-thalatha (virtues of the three months) by al-Shaykh al-Saduq[11] and Iqbal al-a'mal by al-Sayyid b. Tawus.[12]

According to these two books, Dawud, the son of Umm Dawud, was arrested during the caliphate of al-Mansur al-Dawaniqi and was transferred to Iraq. Umm Dawud was unaware of his condition for a long time. She supplicated to God and prayed for the release of her son, but to no avail. She also made recourse to worshipers, but their supplications did not solve the problem either,[13] and so she was disappointed of seeing her son ever again.[14]

One day, she went to Imam al-Sadiq's house to make a visit because he was sick. He asked about Dawud, and she told him about the story. Imam al-Sadiq (a) told him: "why do you not recite al-Istiftah supplication [which later came to be known as the Supplication of Umm Dawud]?" Then, he asked her to fast during Ayyam al-Bid, and do certain practices (which later came to be known as practices of Umm Dawud) on the last day (Rajab 15), and then recite the supplication.[15]

According to Umm Dawud, when she did the practices, she saw the Prophet (s) in her dream, and he gave her the good tidings of her son's release. After a while, Dawud went back home and told her that he was released on exactly that night.[16]

Notes

  1. Amīn, Aʿyān al-Shīʿa, vol. 3, p. 476
  2. Amīn, Aʿyān al-Shīʿa, vol. 3, p. 476
  3. Amīn, Aʿyān al-Shīʿa, vol. 3, p. 476
  4. Amīn, Aʿyān al-Shīʿa, vol. 3, p. 368
  5. Amīn, Aʿyān al-Shīʿa, vol. 3, p. 368
  6. Kafʿamī, Misbāḥ al-Kafʿamī, p. 530-35; Ṭusī, Miṣbāḥ al-mutahajjid wa silaḥ al-mutaʿabbid, vol. 2, p. 807-12; Sayyid b. Ṭāwūs, Iqbāl al-aʿmāl, vol. 3, p. 242-48
  7. Kafʿamī, Misbāḥ al-Kafʿamī, p. 530-35; Ṭusī, Miṣbāḥ al-mutahajjid wa silaḥ al-mutaʿabbid, vol. 2, p. 807-12; Sayyid b. Ṭāwūs, Iqbāl al-aʿmāl, vol. 3, p. 242-48
  8. Akbarī and Rabīʿ Natāj. "Kāwushī dar duʿā-yi Umm-i Dāwūd", p. 88-91
  9. Qumī, Mafātīḥ al-jinān, under Umm Dāwūd practices
  10. Akbarī and Rabīʿ Natāj. "Kāwushī dar duʿā-yi Umm-i Dāwūd", p. 82
  11. Sadūq, Faḍāʾil al-ashhur al-thalātha, p. 33-34
  12. Sayyid b. Ṭāwūs, Iqbāl al-aʿmāl, vol. 3, p. 241-42
  13. Sadūq, Faḍāʾil al-ashhur al-thalātha, p. 33-34; Sayyid b. Ṭāwūs, Iqbāl al-aʿmāl, vol. 3, p. 241-42
  14. Sadūq, Faḍāʾil al-ashhur al-thalātha, p. 34
  15. Sadūq, Faḍāʾil al-ashhur al-thalātha, p. 33-34; Sayyid b. Ṭāwūs, Iqbāl al-aʿmāl, vol. 3, p. 241-42
  16. Sadūq, Faḍāʾil al-ashhur al-thalātha, p. 33-34; Sayyid b. Ṭāwūs, Iqbāl al-aʿmāl, vol. 3, p. 250-51

References

  • Akbarī, Zahrā, Sayyid ʿAlī Akbar Rabīʿ Natāj. "Kāwushī dar duʿā-yi Umm-i Dāwūd". Safīna. Tehran, Muʾassisa-yi Farhangī-yi Nabaʾ-i Mubīn, No. 36, Autumn 1391 Sh.
  • Amīn, al-Sayyid Muḥsin al-. Aʿyān al-Shīʿa. Ed. Ḥasan al-Amīn. Beirut, Dār al-Taʿāruf, 1406 AH.
  • Kafʿamī, Ibrāhīm b. ʿAlī al-. Misbāḥ al-Kafʿamī. Qom: Dār al-Raḍī, 1405 AH.
  • Qumī, Shaykh ʿAbbās. Mafātīḥ al-jinān.
  • Sadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī. Faḍāʾil al-ashhur al-thalātha. Ed. Ghulām Riḍā Irfānīyān Yazdī. Qom: Kitābfurūshī-yi Dāwarī, 1396 AH.
  • Sayyid b. Ṭāwūs, ʿAlī b. Mūsā al-. Al-Iqbāl bi-l-aʿmāl al-ḥasana. Ed. Jawād Qayyūmī Isfahānī. Qom: Daftar-i Tablīghāt-i Islāmī, 1376 Sh.
  • Ṭusī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-. Miṣbāḥ al-mutahajjid wa silaḥ al-mutaʿabbid. Beirut, Muʾassisat Fiqh al-Shīʿa, 1411 AH.