Muhammad's children

In chronological order, most Sunni sources list Muhammad's children as

• Qasim (CE 598 – 601)
• Zainab (CE 599 – 629)
• Ruqayyah (CE 601 – 624)
• Umm Kulthum (CE 603 – 630)
• Fatimah (CE 605 – 632) (disputed date-of-birth)
• Abdullah (CE 611 – 615)
• Ibrahim (CE 630 – 632)

A number of Shia sources argue that three of Muhammad's daughters were, in fact, adopted by Muhammad.[4] These sources list Zainab, Ruqayyah, and Umm Kulthum as the daughters of Hala, Khadija's sister, who were adopted by Muhammad after her death.[4] According to Abbas, most Shia Muslims hold that Fatimah was Muhammad's only biological daughter.[6]

Muhammad's sons all died in childhood.[7] Their early deaths has been viewed as detrimental to a hereditary-based system of succession to Muhammad.[8] According to Madelung, however, after the past prophets, their descendants became the spiritual and material heirs to them in the Quran, a matter that is settled therein by divine selection and not by the faithful.[9]

Muhammad's daughters reached adulthood but they all died relatively young.[10] Fatimah married Ali, Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum married Uthman one after another, and Zainab married Abu al-As ibn al-Rabi. Umm Kulthum remained childless whereas Ruqayya gave birth to a boy Abd Allah, who died at the age of six.[11] Zaynab gave birth to a son Ali and a daughter Umama, whom Ali married after Fatima's death.[12] Fatimah gave birth to two boys, Hasan and Husayn, and it through her that Muhammad's progeny has spread throughout the Muslim world.[13] The descendants of Fatimah are given the honorific titles sayyid (lit. 'lord, sir') or sharif (lit. 'noble'), and are respected in the Muslim community.[14]

Muhammad's attitude and treatment towards his children, enshrined in hadith literature, is viewed by Muslims as an exemplar to be imitated.[15] However, critics have noted favoritism towards his daughter Fatimah in refusing her husband Ali’s pursuit of a second wife, despite the Islamic legality of polygamy.[16] While there is evidence that Fatimah was the favorite daughter,[17] the historicity of the allegation against Ali is disputed.[18]

• Muhammad's wives
• Companions of the Prophet
• Islam and children
• Sayyid

• Abbas, Hassan (2021). The Prophet's Heir: The Life of Ali ibn Abi Talib. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300252057.
• Madelung, Wilferd (1997). The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-64696-0.
• Jafri, S.H.M (1979). Origins and Early Development of Shia Islam. London: Longman.
• Hazleton, Lesley (2013). The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad. Atlantic Books Ltd. ISBN 9781782392316.
• Fitzpatrick, Coeli; Walker, Adam Hani (2014). Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopaedia of the Prophet of God. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781610691772.
• de-Gaia, Susan (2018). Encyclopedia of Women in World Religions. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781440848506.
• McAuliffe, Jane Dammen, ed. (2002). "Fatima". Encyclopaedia of the Quran. Vol. 2. ISBN 978-90-04-11465-4.
• Bodley, R.V.C. (1946). The Messenger; the Life of Mohammed. Doubleday & Company, inc.
• Nasr, Seyyed Hossein; Afsaruddin, Asma (2021). "Ali". Encyclopædia Britannica.
• Khetia, Vinay (2013). Fatima as a motif of contention and suffering in Islamic sources (Thesis). Concordia University.
• Haykal, Muḥammad Ḥusayn (1933). al-Fārūqī, Ismaʻīl Rājī (ed.). The Life of Muhammad (1994 revision of 1976 English translation ed.). Islamic Book Trust. pp. 76, 77. ISBN 9789839154177.
• Gwynne, Paul (2013). Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad: A Comparative Study. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781118465493.
• Smith, Bonnie G., ed. (2008). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History: 4 Volume Set. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195148909.
• Freedman, David Noel; McClymond, Michael (2000). The Rivers of Paradise: Moses, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, and Muhammad as Religious Founders. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 9780802829573.
• Yust, Karen-Marie, ed. (2006). Nurturing Child and Adolescent Spirituality: Perspectives from the World's Religious Traditions. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780742544635.
• Morimoto, Kazuo, ed. (2012). Sayyids and Sharifs in Muslim societies: The living links to the prophet (Illustrated ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9780415519175.
• Hughes, Thomas Patrick (1885). Dictionary of Islam. W. H. Allen.
• Ibn Warraq (2000). The Quest for the Historical Muhammad. Prometheus Books. ISBN 9781573927871.
• Rogerson, Barnaby (2006). The heirs of the prophet Muhammad: And the roots of the Sunni-Shia schism. Abacus. ISBN 9780349117577.
• Q. Ahmed, Asad (2011). The Religious Elite of the Early Islamic Ḥijāz: Five Prosopographical Case Studies (Illustrated ed.). Occasional Publications UPR. ISBN 978-1900934138. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
• Haylamaz, Resit (2007). Khadija: The First Muslim and the Wife of the Prophet Muhammad. Tughra Books. ISBN 9781597841214.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Akbar, Syed (2006). Reliving Karbala : Martyrdom in South Asian Memory: Martyrdom in South Asian Memory. United States: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199706624.

• M. J. Kister. "THE SONS OF KHADIJA" (PDF). Retrieved 22 February 2015.