Al-Shifa bint Abdullah was a Sahabiyyah of Quraysh remembered for literacy, teaching, and lawful healing practice. Her life does not belong to a verse revealed about her personally; rather, it illustrates Islam’s honouring of knowledge, beneficial skill, and service.
Life and Setting
Al-Shifa bint Abdullah al-Adawiyyah was from Quraysh and is often named by her personal name, Layla, while her kunya-like title al-Shifa became the name by which she was most famous. She belonged to the same broad Makkan environment in which literacy was uncommon, especially among women. The biographical books remember her precisely because she could write and because she taught others.
She was also connected to the household of Umar ibn al-Khattab through clan ties and Madinan society. Reports mention her son Sulayman ibn Abi Hathmah, and later Muslim memory places her among the respected women of the early community. Some later accounts say Umar valued her judgement and entrusted her with certain public responsibilities. The exact administrative form of that role is not certain, so it is better to say that she was a woman whose competence was publicly respected rather than to overstate a modern-sounding office.
Encounter with Islam
Al-Shifa is a genuine Companion: she met the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), believed in him, and is counted among the Sahabiyyat. The dependable early material does not preserve a dramatic conversion scene for her. What it does preserve is her Muslim life: pledge, migration in the broad sense of joining the Prophet’s community, learning, teaching, and using her abilities in ways approved by the Messenger of Allah (PBUH).
This distinction matters. Many Companions are rightly honoured even when the details of their first moment of faith are not known. Al-Shifa’s importance is not built on an invented story, but on the traces that remain: literacy, instruction, and a healing practice brought under prophetic guidance.
Quranic Connection
The original claim connected her to Quran 96:1. That verse is not about al-Shifa personally. It is the opening command of revelation and a general foundation for recitation, knowledge, and learning:
“Recite in the name of your Lord who created.” Quran 96:1
Her relationship to this passage is illustrative, not a specific occasion of revelation. She stands as one example of how the early Muslim community valued learning. Quran 96:1-5 links revelation, reading, the pen, and divine teaching. Al-Shifa’s known literacy and her teaching of writing to Hafsah bint Umar fit beautifully under that broad Quranic light, without claiming that the verses were revealed concerning her.
Hadith and Historical Reports
The best-known report about al-Shifa concerns ruqyah and writing. In Sunan Abi Dawud 3887, al-Shifa reported that the Prophet (PBUH) said to her, in meaning, that she should teach Hafsah the ruqyah for namlah, a skin ailment, as she had taught her writing. Scholars have discussed the chain, but the report has been treated by many hadith scholars as acceptable evidence in the chapter of permitted ruqyah, especially because its meaning agrees with the established rule that ruqyah is allowed when it contains no shirk or unlawful elements.
The report is important for two reasons. First, it shows that the Prophet (PBUH) did not reject every pre-Islamic skill simply because it existed before Islam. He corrected, purified, and permitted what was sound. Second, it shows a woman teaching another woman writing in the Prophet’s own household. That is not a decorative detail; it is a window into the practical religious culture of the first Muslims.
Biographical notices in works such as Ibn Sa'd and later summaries by Ibn Hajar preserve her status among the women Companions. These reports are brief and sometimes vary in detail, but they agree on the central image: a learned, capable Muslim woman whose knowledge benefited others.
What This Life Teaches Us
Al-Shifa’s life is especially helpful for readers who want a balanced Islamic view of education and useful expertise. She was not made less religious by literacy, nor was her healing skill treated as automatically suspect. Both were placed in the service of faith.
- Seek knowledge as worship when it is pursued for Allah and used responsibly.
- Do not invent pious stories where the sources are silent; truthfulness is part of reverence.
- Beneficial skills from one’s culture may be retained when Islam approves their content and use.
- Women’s learning and teaching were present in the earliest Muslim community.
- Public respect should be tied to trustworthiness, competence, and service.
Sources and Method
This profile relies on the Quran, especially Quran 96:1-5 as an illustrative passage, and on hadith material such as Sunan Abi Dawud 3887. Biographical details are drawn from the source families of Ibn Sa'd, Ibn Hajar, and related Companion dictionaries. The exact details of her conversion and some later public roles are not securely preserved, so they have been stated cautiously.