Who Were the Greatest Women in Islamic History?
إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ ٱصْطَفَىٰكِ وَطَهَّرَكِ وَٱصْطَفَىٰكِ عَلَىٰ نِسَآءِ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
God has chosen you and purified you above the women of the worlds. (Quran 3:42)
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Who were the greatest women in Islamic history? Khadijah, Aisha, Fatimah, and Maryam — alongside scholars, warriors, and the founder of the world's oldest university.
ٱلْجَنَّةُ تَحْتَ أَقْدَامِ ٱلْأُمَّهَاتِ
Paradise lies beneath the feet of mothers.
— Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (Nasa'i)
Pillars of the Faith
Khadijah, the Prophet's ﷺ first wife, was a successful businesswoman and the very first person to believe in him — his rock in the hardest years. Aisha became one of Islam's greatest scholars, teaching law and hadith to leading men of the next generation. Fatimah, his daughter, is honored as a model of devotion.
Maryam, Greatest of All
The Quran gives Mary — Maryam, mother of Jesus — an entire chapter and calls her chosen above all women. She stands as the supreme example of purity, faith and trust in God, revered by Muslims as one of the greatest human beings who ever lived.
Scholars, Warriors, Builders
Beyond these, history brims with remarkable Muslim women: Nusaybah who defended the Prophet ﷺ in battle, Fatima al-Fihri who founded what is considered the world's oldest existing university, and countless scholars, narrators and queens. Islamic civilization was built by women as well as men.
From the founder of the world's oldest university to the first believer of all, the story of Islam cannot be told without its women.