While Nusayba Knows Her Worth is a lyrical biography of the brave Nusayba bint Ka’ab, it means far more to me than a retelling of her story. It is essentially a letter from me to my Nusayba, reminding her of the power in the name she carries. It is my hope that reading this story and seeing it illustrated will instill in her a desire to be worthy of the name. This is one reason I chose the book’s title.
The other side of that is that when I think of Nusayba bint Ka’ab’s life, I see a woman who had a strong sense of her own worth. She knew when she had something to bring to the table and didn’t shy away from putting herself out there. She didn’t limit herself or talk herself down from joining the congregation that met with the Prophet ﷺ at ‘Aqaba. It would be so easy for her to say, “I can’t join them. There won’t be any other women there.” Yet, she stepped up and pledged her oath like the seventy men who did so, knowing that her word was as good as theirs.
After her initial heroic performance at the Battle of ‘Uhud, Nusayba could have written it off as a fluke, or as a result of extenuating circumstances, and never fought again. Instead, she fought in several subsequent battles, despite sustaining injuries. The Prophet ﷺ and the men around him didn’t patronize her either, as if they were just humoring her by allowing her to tag along. Indeed, the Prophet ﷺ lauded her skill on the battlefield and boasted about her. I heard in a lecture once that he would compare her to “so-and-so” man and say Nusayba was even better than him at ‘Uhud.
It’s my sincere wish that young Muslim girls will take away from this story a message of recognizing their own merits and being self-assured enough to push their ways into spaces that may appear off-limits at first.
In my next post, I plan to discuss why I think parents should especially read this book with their boys as well.
Golden Butterfly Books 