Sayyidah Sakīnah was the daughter of Imam al-Husayn ibn ʿAli (RA) and Sayyidah al-Rabāb bint Imruʾ al-Qays, and therefore a great-granddaughter of Nabi…
Sayyidah Sakīnah was the daughter of Imam al-Husayn ibn ʿAli (RA) and Sayyidah al-Rabāb bint Imruʾ al-Qays, and therefore a great-granddaughter of Nabi Muhammad ﷺ through Sayyidah Fāṭimah al-Zahrāʾ and Sayyiduna ʿAli (RA). Her personal name is variously recorded as Āminah, Āmanah or Umaymah, while Sakīnah was the affectionate name given to her by her mother. She became renowned for her dignity, eloquence, intelligence, generosity and refined character. She accompanied her father’s family to Karbala, witnessed the martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn (RA) and was taken with the surviving members of the Ahl al-Bayt to Kufa and Damascus. She later returned to Madinah, where she became a respected woman of the Ahl al-Bayt and was remembered for her knowledge, courage and patience following the tragedies she endured. She died in 117 AH/735 CE, with the strongest historical accounts placing her death and burial in Madinah. The site attributed to her in Bāb al-Ṣaghīr Graveyard in Damascus should therefore be described as a traditional commemorative shrine rather than her confirmed grave.