The death of the Mother of the Believers ʿAʾisha (may Allah be pleased with her)

The Mother of the Believers ʿAʾisha bint Abi Bakr al-Siddiq — the most beloved of the Prophet's ﷺ wives to him and the most learned woman of the Ummah, who carried, it was said, a quarter of the religion — died in Madinah and was buried in al-Baqiʿ by night, as she had willed.

ʿAʾisha (may Allah be pleased with her) was the most knowledgeable of people in the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; she narrated from him more than two thousand hadiths. When a matter perplexed the senior Companions they would ask her and find knowledge of it with her. Abu Musa said: Never did a hadith perplex us and we asked ʿAʾisha but that we found knowledge of it with her.

Concerning her, her innocence was revealed from above seven heavens in verses recited from Surat al-Nur after the incident of the slander, and the Prophet ﷺ died in her house, on her day, between her chest and neck, and was buried in her chamber.

She lived about forty-eight years after him, teaching the Ummah, and died in Ramadan 58 AH at about sixty-six. She willed that she be buried in al-Baqiʿ with her companions by night; Abu Hurayra prayed over her, and the people thronged at her funeral, may Allah be pleased with her.