Layla bint Abi Hathmah

Laylā bint Abī Hathmah ibn Ḥudhayfah ibn Ghānim was a Qurashī woman of Banū ʿAdī, the wife of the companion Āmir ibn Rabīʿah, the mother of ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿĀmir, and the sister of Sulaymān ibn Abī Hathmah. She was also known by the kunyah Umm ʿAbdullāh.

She and Āmir were among the earliest Muslims and took part in both migrations to Abyssinia. Some reports also describe her as the first woman to migrate to Madinah, while another report gives that distinction to Umm Salamah; the reconciled explanation preserved by later scholars is that Laylā was the first woman to migrate with her husband, while Umm Salamah was the first to migrate alone.

She is named by the speaker as "Layla bint Abī Hathmah", now finally identified with her full name after being referred to only as "Āmir's wife" in earlier accounts.

Her most significant moment in the Seerah: when she was packing her belongings for the second Hijra to Abyssinia, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (still a pagan enemy of Islam at the time) passed by. He asked where she was going. Rather than being cowed by him, she responded sharply: "Because of YOU we are leaving our land. Your animosity and persecution have made it impossible for us to worship Allāh here. So we are leaving." She fully expected hostility in return.

Instead, for perhaps the first time, ʿUmar visibly softened. He said: "Has it reached this level?", as if he had not fully grasped the human cost of the persecution. He then made duʿāʾ for her: "May Allāh give you barakah wherever you go." When her husband Āmir returned, she excitedly told him what had happened. He reportedly responded: "Do you really think he'll accept Islam? By Allāh, his father's donkeys will accept Islam before he does!", a statement that was soon overtaken by events.

This brief encounter is one of the small moments the speaker identifies as Allah softening ʿUmar's heart before his conversion. It is narrated as one of several pre-conversion incidents that chipped away at his resistance.