Re: Hinda
Extracts from an Interesting article about ancient Arab women (including reference to life of Hinda).
"One late striking example of such female participation in warfare was Hind bint ‘Utbah, the highly active and outspoken wife of the chief leader of Mecca , Abu Sufyan, and an early enemy of the Prophet Muhammad. Hind was to become noted also as the mother of Mu’awiyah, who governed the province of Syria and following Hind’s death established the Islamic Umayyad dynasty, of which he was the first caliph. Hind was a devout supporter of her tribal goddesses until the days when she gave up her deities and converted to Islam. Prior to her conversion, Hind contended ferociously against Muhammad and his people. At the famous battle of Uhud, in a fit of revenge for having lost her father and brother in the previous Badr conflict, Hind went to the battlefield with her women of the “Lady of Victory” where she fashioned and wore hideous victory “jewelry” by cutting off the ears and noses of the fallen of Muhammad’s. She mutilated the corpse of Muhammad’s uncle Hamzah and further cut out his liver and bit it. At the defeat of Mecca , as she realized that there was no more hope against Muhammad’s band, she angrily toppled her idols and bemoaned: “We have certainly been deceived in you” (Abbott 1941, 274-75).
Following Hind’s conversion to Islam she continued to participate in warfare, now for the side of Islam. She and Abu Sufyan aided Mu’awiyah as the governor of the province of Syria in his battles against the Byzantines. At the Battle of Yarmuk, Hind’s daughter was wounded and Hind herself was characterized again as encouraging the warriors by shouting “Strike the uncircumcised with your swords!” (Abbott 1941, 277) Hind also became an independent merchant-trader, following her divorce from Abu Sufyan, indicating that she was a courageous woman, capable and very bright (Abbott 1941, 277-78). She also showed great independence in seeking a divorce from the very notable Abu Sufyan.
Following the winning over of Mecca the men first swore their allegiance to Islam; then Hind leading the women of Mecca as their spokeswoman pledged her loyalty to Islam and one God as seen in the following narrative from the traditions where Muhammad leads her in the oath:
Muhammad: Thou shalt have but one God.
Hind: We grant you that.
Muhammad: Thou shalt not steal.
Hind: I only stole provisions from Abu Sufyan, who is too stingy to give me enough.
Muhammad: That is not theft.
Muhammad: Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Hind: Does a free woman commit adultery?
Muhammad: Thou shalt not kill thy children [by infanticide].
Hind: We brought up our young children but you killed them full grown at Badr.
Muhammad: Thou shalt not slander.
Hind: Slander is indeed abominable and exceeds all bounds.
Muhammad: Do not disobey me in anything that is right.
Hind: Had we intended to disobey you, we would not be here now. (Abbott 1941, 276-77; Ahmed 1992, 57-58)
Hind was sensitive about slander, having been herself accused of adultery by her first husband who charged that he saw a strange man leaving Hind's private quarters and sent her back to her family. Hind's father, ‘Utbah was furious and threatened to kill the husband in retaliation for the insult even if his daughter was guilty (Abbott 1941, 269).
Another remark implies a bit of sarcasm as Hind, who had lost her father and brother in the Battle of Badr, told Muhammad that they do not have to commit infanticide or perhaps exact revenge by blood to decrease their numbers; their people have already been depleted and revenge exacted by his battles for the cause of Islam.** The comment that Hind makes about Abu Sufyan's stinginess and her need to steal from him, is verified by later traditions that following her divorce from Abu Sufyan she borrowed money from the caliph ‘Umar, because she could not borrow the money from her miserly husband** (Abbott 1941, 277-78).
Finally, Hind was ready to concede to the one true God as her goddesses had failed her, but she did not concede her pride in her position as a free and upstanding woman. The comment "does a free woman commit adultery" may have had a broader meaning than the dignity of her position and strength of her character, however. As Montgomery Watt has also indicated, her point may have been that no sexual contract a free woman would make could be termed inappropriate (See Watt 1981, 384). This may have been a reference to matrilineal marital practices, which viewing from several incidents, Hind may have held onto in her life, such as (1) Hind's brush with a reputation of adultery, (2) her own choice of her next husband from among several suitors, (3) the later divorce from Abu Sufyan, and (4) the tradition that Mu’awiyah refused to give the hand of his middle-aged, divorced mother to an unnamed suitor. These incidents may demonstrate that Hind was freer in making her own sexual alliances even though she appears to have joined her husbands in the patrilineal culture. Hind at least seems to have been in control and to have been the one to choose her own destiny."
Link:http://arabianwomen.nielsonpi.com/warfare.html
why are sunnis supposed to dislike Hazrat Abu Talib?
No I’m supposed to be a sunni.
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