Layla bint Harmalah

Layla bint Harmalah also known as transl|sem|Al-Nābiġah ( _ar. النابغة) was the mother of the prominent Sahaba Amr ibn al-A'as.

hi'a view

In the Shia work Nahj al-Balagha or Peak of Eloquence, Ali is quoted as saying::I have taught you the Qur'an, clarified to you arguments, apprised you of what you were ignorant and made you swallow what you were spitting out. Even a blind man would have been able to see, and he who was sleeping would have been awakened. How ignorant of God is their leader Muawiyah and their instructor "Ibn an-Nabighah".Fact|date=February 2007

"Al-Nabighah" is the nickname of the mother of Amr ibn al-A'as according to many Shias. He is called "son of his mother" because of his mother's reputation: once Arwa bint al-Harith went to Muawiyah and during their conversation Amr ibn al-A'as intervened. Arwa said to Amr::"O son of al-Nabighah, you too dare speak, although your mother was known publicly and was a singer of Mecca? That is why five persons claimed you (as a son), and when she was asked she admitted that five people had visited her and that you should be regarded as the son of him you resembled most. You must have resembled A'as ibn Wa'il and therefore you came to be known as his son."Fact|date=February 2007

These five persons were:
#A'as ibn Wa'il
#Abu Lahab
#Umayah ibn Khalaf
#Hisham ibn al-Mughirah
#Abu Sufyan ibn Harb [(Ibn Abd Rabbih, al-lqd al-farid, vol. 2, p. 120; Ibn Tayfur, Balaghat an-nisa, p. 27; Ibn Hijjah, Thamarat al-awraq, vol. 1, p. 132; Safwat, Jamharat khutab al-Arab, vol. 2, p.363; Ibn Abu al-Hadid, vol. 6, pp. 283-285, 291; al-Halabi, as-Sirah (sirah?) vol. 1, p. 46). ( [http://www.holynajaf.net/eng/html/nahjulbalaga/179.htm ref] ), See also Nikah Ijtimah]

unni view

Sunnis tend to stay away from blackening the names of Sahabah and their relatives. Furthermore, Sunnis maintain that slandering anyone is an unjust act, pointing to the Quranic verse 4:15

"If any of your women are guilty of lewdness, Take the evidence of four (Reliable) witnesses from amongst you against them; and if they testify, confine them to houses until death do claim them, or Allah ordain for them some (other) way."

And they maintain that because there wasn't four eye-witnesses (let alone one) of Layla having commit adultery as is alleged by Shia apologetics against her, that it is unjust to simply believe in some unsubstantiated rumors. No Sahih Sunni hadiths mention these allegations against Layla, which are found almost entirely in either Shia traditions which were collected after the main Sunni ones or are found in certain da'if and mawdoo hadiths which aren't reliable. However, it is also possible that the five visited her seperatley and it was not a Nikah Ijtimah.

References