Supplication · c. 615 CE (Meccan period)
O Allah, help Khabbab.
Said upon seeing Khabbab tortured with fire by Ummi Anmar.
Khabbab ibn al-Aratt, an Arab slave and swordsmith owned by Ummi Anmar, was set upon by a gang of Quraysh at his workplace when his conversion to Islam was discovered, beaten until he was bloodied and bruised. Ummi Anmar herself later burned his back with the very iron he used to forge swords. The Prophet ﷺ, seeing Khabbab tortured by fire, prayed, "O Allah, help Khabbab." Ummi Anmar soon fell gravely ill and died after her doctors' only prescribed treatment, cauterization, failed to save her.
An example of Allah answering the Prophet's ﷺ prayer on behalf of a tortured believer.
Other events recorded in 7 BH. Their order within the year is not established; use the storyline above for the sequence.
O Allah, help Khabbab.
Said upon seeing Khabbab tortured with fire by Ummi Anmar.
When I came back, I saw a whole group of Quraysh around me at my place of work. They began to taunt and ridicule me until I confessed that I was a Muslim, and when I did, they began hitting me so much that the next thing I knew, I woke up bloodied and bruised.
O Messenger of Allah ﷺ, for how long are we going to suffer like this?
Indeed, the people before you were tortured worse than you, with hot iron combs that would strip his flesh, with a saw or knife that would cut him in half, and still that would not turn them away from the worship of Allah. Verily, I swear to you by the One who has sent me, Allah will perfect this matter to such an extent that a Muslim shepherdess will take her flock from Sana'a to Hadhramaut and fear none but Allah, or a wolf attacking her sheep. But you are being hasty.
إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا
“Surely, with difficulty comes ease.”
Cited in the lecture alongside the hadith of Khabbab ibn al-Aratt complaining to the Prophet ﷺ about the duration of persecution.