Hafsa was the daughter of 'Umar bin al-Khattâb, who belonged to a renowned family, an intelligent, proud and strong man who had travelled to many countries. He was feared by his enemies because of his violent anger, while his friends respected him, and he looked after his family in a most generous way and took great care to give all his children a good education.

However, he was a determined adversary of Islam. At first, he had not taken the Prophet serious. Everyone in Mecca knew Muhammad as an honest, sincere businessman and a reliable business partner. Besides, it was wellknown that he never took part in the worship of the ancient deities. In fact there were quite a few people who kept away from that, trying, instead, to live like their ancestor Ibrahim. Nor did he take part in the occasional drinking-bouts of the men, being thoughtful and modest and a great supporter of the poor. But then strange changes had taken place. He was seen together with his wife Khadija who was an unusual woman anyway, and with his young cousin Ali praying like in ancient times. Soon his closest friends and his children joined him as well as Kahdija's friends and some young people and slaves. Well, people were free to believe what they wanted, weren't they, as long as law and order in the city were not disturbed. Even the Jews were free to follow their own traditions and to pray to their own God, not to mention the Christians who were really strange, some of them fasting a lot and never getting married at all and wearing simple woolen clothes. But then there were rumours that Muhammad criticized the old deities, inviting to worship only one God, saying that the world would soon come to an end and promising people reward or punishment for their actions, as the case may be, in a life after death. Once he had even introduced this idea at a council meeting; while everybody else found it rahter funny, 'Umar had just shrugged - he had other things to worry about. It was only when his own slave girl converted to the new faith, without even asking for his permission, her radiant eyes likely to arouse his children's curiosity, he decided to set a stop to it by giving her a sound beating. From then on, nobody dared to talk about Muhammad and his teachings in 'Umar's presence or to let him know that he of she was interested in it.

Nevertheless, the children did hear what happened to the Muslims. At first, the elders tried to dissuade Muhammad from his faith because they considered it a danger for their society. If the worship of the old deities was discontinued, Mecca could hardly remain the rich and famous city it used to be. Inside the Ka'ba, the ancient House of God, there were numerous valuable statues and pictures of various deities, and during the pilgrimage season, people came even from far away to bring them their sacrificial animals. During these days, the merchants of the city made good bargains, and the "Protectors of the Ka'ba" could charge fees for all kinds of services. The elders offered Muhammad a lot of money, power and beautiful women to make him stop talking about the faith in One God. However, he did not listen to them, and his teaching magnetically attracted more and more young people. In the beginning, the Muslims were scoffed at. Parents made their children shout naughty verses and play tricks on them. The Muslims did not react to this but went away in a dignified manner. If people found ot that their own sons and daughters or their slaves were interested in Islam, they beat them and locked them up. But all this was of no avail. Young people like Hafsa and her brother Abdullah who had been indifferent as yet developed more and more respect for the Muslims. Finally, some of the Quraish became so furious that they started to torture their Muslim slaves in a futile attempt to scare others, and they assaulted poor, unprotected Muslims to beat them up. Once they even tried to kill the Prophet (s), but one of his loyal friends interfered and saved him.

Hafsa would never forget the day when her father was totally changed. In this morning, he had been informed of two things: that Muhammad had sent those of his companions who were suffering most from the persecutions to emigrate to a foreign country, that is, to Abyssinia; and that the remaining Muslims met in the house of a certain Arqam. 'Umar considered emigration as treason because he suspected that the Muslims were going to persuade the Abyssinian emperor to help them with his troops. He became very angry at the news. "I am going to kill Muhammad!" he shouted. He took his sword and went out of his house. All his familiy members anxiously waited for his return, for if he really did what he had said, Muhammad's familiy was entitled, according to the laws of that time, to demand 'Umars life in retribution. When 'Umar finally came back after a long time, he was a different man.

Later on, Hafsa's aunt Fatima often told the story of what had happened. She was 'Umar's sister and lived with her husband in a different part of the city. Some time ago, the couple had heard what Prophet Muhammad (s) was teaching, and they had seriously thought about hat it meant to serve the One God and to consider all human beings as brothers and sisters in one large family and to do good actions until they were rewarded accordingly in the life after death. Soon they had accepted Islam, and now they performed their prayers with joy and gratefulness and learned the revealed parts of the Qur'an from a teacher who came to see them regularly. Fatima was already able to read well and to understand what she had learned. One day in the middle of a lesson, loud bangs were heard at the door of their house. Quite shocked, Fatima stopped in the middle of the sentence and looked first at her husband, then at the teacher. This could only be 'Umar standing outside, and if the door was not opened at once, he would certainly break it. In any case, he must have heard them reading, so what could she do? Quickly she put the pages of the Qur'an into the folds of her dress and showed the teacher a hiding-place behind a curtain - hopefully 'Umar would not search the whole house! Then her husband went to the door and opened it. "What is going on here?" demanded 'Umar instead of greeting them and went at his brother-in-law with his fists. Afraid that he would kill her husband in his rage, Fatima interfered. But 'Umar was blind with fury and went on beating, only coming to his senses when he saw Fatima bleeding from a wound on her head. What had happened to her sister that made her brave like that? 'Umar felt ashamed. Wasn't it a shame for a big strong man like him to beat his sister? How blind a man can be when he is angry! He had gone out from his home with the intention to kill Muhammad, and there, on the way, someone had scoffed at him and said that he should set his own sister straight first for she had accepted Islam already a long time ago. And without thinking, he had come here, nearly killing his sister and his brother-in-law. Partly for curiosity, partly because he wanted to make up for his behviour, he asked Fatima to read something from the Qur'an for him. When she felt that he was serious, she produced the pages and started reading. After that, her brother was silent for a long time. He felt touched deep inside his heart, and he knew that these words were a divine revelation. When he left Fatima's house, she knew that he would go to the Prophet immediately in order to testify that there is only one God, and in order to put the sword that he intended to use, only a few hours earlier to kill the Prophet, into the service of Islam.

From then on Hafsa did not have to hide her interest in Islam any longer. She was a self-evident part of the Muslim community and shared their worries as well as their joy about Allah's revelearion and loving care. When she had grown up, her parents looked for a bridegroom for her and found Hunaif, a young Muslim who had already been part of the group that had emigrated to Abyssinia.

Meanwhile, people from the city of Yathrib had visitied Mecca and invited the Prophet and the Muslims to come to live with them and to make peace among the tribes of the city after a feud that had lasted for several generations. The Prophet had accepted, and so the Muslims were gradually leaving Mecca. Hafsa and Hunaif left soon after 'Umar who had announced his emigration publicly in the market-place, challenging his enemies to persecute him if they liked. Since the Prophet (s) had asked the emigrants and the "helpers", the Muslims of Yathrib, to share everything with each other as brothers and sisters, they first lived in the house of a local family until they were able to build a house of their own. In Yathrib, everything was slightly different from Mecca. There was no big market where merchants sold goods from all over the world but only a small one where people could buy food, sheep, goats, chickens and household utensils. On the other hand, Yathrib was not as baren and dry as Mecca but situated in a fertile valley where people could grow wheat, dates and vegetables and keep cattle. But all these were things that Hunaif, the businessman, and the other immigrants from Mecca had to learn. In return, they were able to teach commerce to the people of Yathrib who proved themselves to be very clever and soon became successful. The women also had to learn a lot of new things. In Yathrib, raw materials were often available rather than ready made goods as in Mecca. Hafsa learned spinning and weaving from her sister in Yathrib, and both women shared their work as long as they lived together.

All tribes of Yathrib, both the Arab and the Jewish ones, made a treaty. From now on they were to cooperate, help each other in need and danger and accept the Prophet as their judge in case of disagreement. The city got the new name Madinat-un-Nabi (City of the Prophet), in short, Medina. During that time, the Prophet's mosque was built. All Muslims helped building it. The Prophet himself and his best friends gave a good example carriying stones with their own hands. When the mosque was finished, the Muslims thought abput how to announce the prayer times. Some suggested to ring a bell like the Christians. Others suggested to blow a horn like the Jews. But finally they agreed that the human voice is the most beautiful thing to call to prayer with. Bilal who had a beautiful voice was asked to climb on to the roof of the mosque. From there he called people to prayer for the first time, with the very words we are still using today. Then the Prophet came out of his house right beside the mosque to lead the prayer.

Each day after the afternoon prayer, the Prophet held meetings in the mosque where he taught the Muslim men and women. Hafsa and Hunaif took part whenever their hard work and their care for their family left some time for it. The Prophet then recited many new passages from the Qur'an and explained them. His students wrote the text and collected the sheets and arranged them the way the Prophet explained to them. Of course everybody could ask questions for better understanding.

The emigrants had left nearly all their property in Mecca because they could take only what was absolutely necessary. After they were gone, the idolworshippers entered their houses and took everything that seemed valuable to them. They started to send part of the loot to Syria by the next caravan because they expected to sell it there with a huge profit. But this was not all. They also planned a war against the Muslims themselves. The way they saw it, there were two possibilities. Either the Muslims in Medina were weak enough to be subdued after some time without much effort. Or they were able to overcome their difficulties. Then they could be considered a danger for the Meccan trade with Syria because they could try to demand a fee for the caravans to pass through their territory on the great road right in the neighbourhood of Medina just as the Bedouin tribes used to do. Or otherwise they could try to build up business relations with Syria themselves, thus becoming serious competitors. Anyway, the elders of the Quraish decided to prepare for war against Medina.

From those friends and relatives of theirs who had to stay behind in Mecca, the Muslims heard about these plans and were carful. They explored the surroundings and made treaties with some of the neighbouring tribes. Occasionally there was a skirmish, like when the idolworshippers tried to steal some of the Muslims' cattle, or once when the Muslims stopped a caravan from Mecca. In the latter case, one of the two men who were taken prisoner became a Muslim and remained in Medina. The Muslims always tried to avoid bloddshed as much as possible. For them, the only important thing was to survive and be able to worship the One God. When the Muslims heard that the Quraish were sending a big caravan to Syria, they hoped they could stop it and take it over to make up for what the idolworshippers had taken away from them. But they soon heard that an army of a thousand armed men was on their way to them as well, while the Muslims had only three hundred men who were able to fight but poorly equipped and without enough horses and camels so that they had to take turns riding. Hunaif was among them while Hafsa stayed home to look after their business and prayed for the success of the Muslims and for her husband's safe return. When the fighting at Badr started, the Prophet prayed, "0 Allah, if this group of mine is wiped out today, who will be able to worship You any longer?" And he encouraged the Muslims even though the battle looked more than unequal. But Allah helped them. Later on, Hunaif told Hafsa that Allah had sent an army of angels who stood by the side of the Muslims, scaring their enemies so that they left everything and ran away. The Muslims brought some of the idolworshippers to Medina as prisoneres of war and demanded a ransom for them the way it was done in those days. But in those cases where the family members in Mecca could not afford the ransom for their captured son or brother, the Prophet set him free anyway after he had taught reading and writing to ten Muslims. Thus, quite a number of boys and girls in Medina had a chance to learn reading and writing and in turn were able to become teachers for others.

The idolworshippers were not ready to accept their shame. They were afraid of the mockery of the neighbouring tribes against the famous Quraish who had been defeated by just a handful of people. In the next year, they organized an even bigger and stronger army to fight against the Muslims. They even took along their women to ginger up the fighters and to sing and dance for them after the expected victory. Meanwhile in Medina, the Muslims got ready to defend themselves. Prophet Muhammad (s) suggested to wait within the city for the enemies to attack. But most of the Muslims, especially the young men, preferred to fight in the open desert, especially after the idolworhsippers had become bold enough to let their horses and camels graze in the Muslims' fields. Finally, the Muslims left their elderly people and their women and children in the fortress an set off. The two armies met near the mountain of Uhud. The Muslims fought as bravely as last year at Badr, and soon the enemies started to withdraw. But the Muslims rejoiced too soon, forgetting their discipine. They became careless and ran onto the battlefield in order to take over the horses and weapons the fugutives had left there. But the enemies had not really fled. They changed their minds and came back and attacked. The Muslims defended themselves, but many were killed or wounded, and the Prophet himself was wounded and one of his teeth was knocked out. The idolworshippers' women rushed to the bodies of the Muslims who had been killed to cut off their noses and ears. Someone spread the rumour that the Prophet had been killed as well, but his closest friends stood by his side to defend him. Finally they did manage to defeat the idolworshippers.

Hunaif had taken part in this battle as well. He was sereiously wounded and taken back to Medina where Hafsa looked after him. But already after a few days he died, and Hafsa went back to live with her parents as a widow.

Like Hafsa, many women had become widows after the war of Uhud, and many children had lost their fathers. To the Prophet who had been an orphan himself it was very important to care for them properly, not to remain satisfied with giving them alms but to enable them to have a real family life as well. He asked his companions to marry the widows and to accept their children into their families and give them a good education. In those days, it was quite common that a man had more than one wife if he was able to provide for them and the children. In these cases, the Prophet told the men to treat their wives justly and not to prefer or neglect one of them. He had two wives himself then, the elderly experienced widow Sawda, one of the first Muslims whose husband had died during the first emigration to Abyssinia, and Aisha, the daughter of his friend Abu Bakr who had been eager to learn everything she could since her early childhood and already now helped him with his task to teach the other Muslims.

When 'Umar had seen his daughter's sadness for some time and worried for her because her former joy of life would not come back, he considered finding a new husband for her. First he thought of Abu Bakr. Abu Bakr was a gentle, softhearted man who would certainly comfort her and look after her lovingly. Secretly, 'Umar hoped that this marriage would increase his ties with the Prophet as well, for Abu Bakr was the Prophet's best friend. So 'Umar went to Abu Bakr to suggest this possibility to him, but he was only embarrassed and kept quiet. 'Umar was very disappointed. Wasn't his daughter an intelligent, warmhearted woman who liked to pray and fast and work for Islam? He considered again, and Uthman came to his mind. He had been married with Ruqayyah, the Prophet's daughter, and lived all by himself after his wife had died from a disease by the time of the war of Badr. He came from a good family, and he was both respected by the Muslims and a pious, modest man. But again, Uthman was embarrassed at the offer and said, "I do not really want to get married right now." 'Umar was upset at this. He could not understand what objections Abu Bakr and Uthman could possibly have against his daughter. Irritated, he went to the Prophet in order to complain about their strange behaviour. But the Prophet only laughed and said, "Hafsa will marry a person who is better than Uthman, and Uthman will marry a person who is better than Hafsa." The puzzle was soon solved, for the Prophet himself married Hafsa while Uthman married Ruqayyah's sister Umm Kulthum who thus finally had found a believing husband. Hafsa moved into a little house at the mosque right beside the houses of Sawda and Aisha.

Sawda received Hafsa very friendly. But Aisha was jealous at first. Like herself, Hafsa was an intelligent, educated, beautiful woman who eagerly learned from the Prophet and was committed to the cause of the Muslims. In the course of time, however, Hafsa and Aisha became good friends. Both of them liked to discuss religious issues with the Prophet. Sometimes 'Umar told his daughter off, but she was wilful and obstinate. One day, the Prophet mentioned some sincere people who had sworn allegiance to him and defended him, saying, "God willing, they will not enter hell." "But they might, Messenger of God," replied Hafsa, and when he asked her not to say such a thing, she answered with a verse from the Qur'an, "There is no one among you who will not get there - this is a final decision with your Lord (Surah 19:71)." There he could not help smiling because she was right insofar as even the best human being has to undergo some purification of his inner self, and he was happy that she was so knowledgable. He replied with the verse, "Then We will rescue the righteous ones, but We shall leave the evildoers there on their knees (Surah 19:72)."

The Prophet included included another widow into his household, Zeinab who was nicknamed "Mother of the Poor" because she had committed herself to the task of supporting the poorest people in the city, trying to alleviate the most severe suffering. She was a quiet, reserved woman who never interfered with debates and jealous squabbles. Everyone loved her. But she died already a few months after her wedding.

Being married with the Prophet imlied a special responsibility. His wives were called "Mothers of the Faithful" because their task, like the task of a mother, consisted in teaching and educating the Muslims, to offen them help and advice, to encourage them, and to be role models. People followed their example. Therefore it was important for them to lead their everyday lives according to their dignity and especially to keep to themselvses whatever was communicated to them confidentially. No Muslim is supposed to talk carelessly anyway, and the more this applies to people with a special task in society like the Mothers of the Faithful. But one day it happened that Hafsa , forgetting her self-control, told her co-wives something that the Prophet had told her personally and confidentially. It was an embarrassing situation, causing misunderstandings and dissatisfaction. For one month, the Prophet kept away from all his wives. There was even a rumour that he had separated from Hafsa or even from all his wives, so 'Umar came to scold his daughter for being the reason for it. But at last they reconciled, and Hafsa went on fulfilling her tasks very carefully.

The years passed with work and struggle. Many tribes joined the Muslims, and finally the city of Mecca was surrendered without fighting. Step by step, the whole Qur'an was revealed, and the Prophet's scribes wrote down every single word of it and arranged it the way the Prophet told them, starting with the passages that contained many practical rules of community life, followed by passages explaining the history of humankind and earlier nations and prophets to enable the readers to learn from their experience, then came passages dealing mainly with spiritual subjects and the prospect of the life to come, and finally there were the short surahs that people learn first in order to recite them in prayer or when they are scared and ask for Allah's protection. When the Prophet had finished his life on earth and Abu Bakr was elected caliph, he entrusted the complete copy of the Qur'an, the pattern according to which all later copies until today have been written and printed, to Hafsa.

Like Aisha, Hafsa had started to teach the men and women who met in her house for instructions. She explained the Qur'an to them, told them many of the things he had learned from the Prophet and watched him doing, and helped them to solve their questions and problems. It was most important for the community that the Mothers of the Faithful thus continued the Prophet's work because the Romans and Persians again and again attacked the Muslims, fearing that the message of Islam could encourage the oppressed people in their empires to free themselves from their yoke. Again and again there were wars where many of the male companions of the Prophet were killed, taking their knowledge into their graves with them.

At the same time, the number of the Muslims increased. When Hafsa's father 'Umar became caliph, Islam had spread all over the Arab peninsula. But the new Muslims did not have the standard of knowledge the companions of the Prophet had had. Therefore 'Umar sent teachers to them who were well versed in the Qur'an and Islamic law and able to explain it properly. In Medina, he established schools for all boys and girls and declared it a duty for the children to attend school.

In those days, the art of printing was not known yet. If you wanted to acquire a book, you had to copy it yourself or have a scribe copy it for you. Of course this was also true for the Qur'an. Many companions of the Prophet acquired a copy of their own by writing and collecting the text as soon as it was revealed or by copying it from others later on, and many of those who became Muslims made a copy of their own from these copies and learned part of it by heart. But Islam spread quickly, much faster than the respective knowledge even though both teachers and students worked very hard. Again and again it happened that mistakes were made or only part of the text could be copied. It also happened that a person wrote only the surahs he wanted to leanr by heart, or that he wrote explanations in between the text or in the margins. Sometimes it even happened that a person who did not know the Qur'an well arranged the sheets in a different way. When Uthman had been elected caliph, he got the news that there were many copies of the Qur'an that contained mistakes. Was the same going to happen to the Qur'an, the last Book of Revelation, as it had happened to the Holy Scriptures of the Jews and Christians? Uthman decided to prevent this, cooperating with many of those who still had the necessary knowledge. He asselmbled all those who had learned the whole Qur'an from the Prophet himself. A person who knows the whole Qur'an by heart is called hafiz (preserver of the Qur'an). Aisha and Hafsa were among them. Uthman asked Hafsa to bring the copy that had been entrusted to her that had been written and arranged according to the Prophet's instructions. Then he had the scribes copy it several times. Aferwards, the "preservers of the Qur'an" proofread it carefully to make sure that no mistakes had been made. Finally, Uthman sent these copies into the provinces, to Egypt, to Palestine, to Syria, to Iraq, to Persia, to Yemen and to all those other places where Islam had spread in the meantime. These copies were to be patterns for all new copies of the Qur'an. The copies containing mistakes were taken out of circulation so no more confusion could be caused by them. Until the present day, all new copies, whether written or printed, are checked carefully in the same way, and no letter of the text has been changed ever since.

Hafsa spent the last years of her life in her house in Medina, fasting and praying. She was highly respected by all Muslims. When she died, she was buried in al-Baqi cemetery.