Story 11 of 12

The Hairdresser of Pharaoh's House

ماشطة بنت فرعون

A servant, her children, and the smell the Prophet ﷺ noticed

About this story: This story is not in the Quran. It comes from a narration in Musnad Ahmad and Ibn Hibban, graded acceptable by a number of scholars, though it is not in the level of Bukhari or Muslim. We include it as a strong report rather than as settled text.
Bismillah, said quietly, in the wrong house

On the night of the Isra, the Prophet ﷺ passed a beautiful fragrance and asked Jibril what it was. The answer: this is the scent of the woman who used to comb the hair of Pharaoh's daughter, and her children.

Her story, as narrated, is short and almost unbearable. While combing the princess's hair, the comb fell and she said, “Bismillah.” The girl asked whether she meant her father. The woman said no, my Lord and your father's Lord is Allah. Pharaoh was told. He had a vat of copper heated and ordered her and her children thrown in one by one. She held firm through every one of them until her infant was brought, and there she hesitated, as any mother would. The narration says the baby spoke: mother, go ahead, for the punishment of this world is lighter than the punishment of the Hereafter. She went. And centuries later the Prophet ﷺ smelled her on the road to the heavens.

The lesson to keep

Lesson: The people the world never recorded are the ones Paradise smells of.
Musnad Ahmad 2822 · Ibn Hibban · reported in the Isra narration
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