Sumayyah bint Khayyat was born around 550 CE in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. She was a slave under the possession of a member of the Makhzum clan who would later give her in marriage to Yasir ibn Amir, from the Malik clan in Yemen. She gave birth to their son, Ammar, in 566 CE and she along with her son were later freed but remained “clients” of her former master, whose status offered them some protections. Despite the fact that she was technically free, she was still of low social rank. When Muhammad (SAW) began proclaiming the word of God, it is said Sumayyah was one of the first seven to display Islam. As a Muslim of low social rank, she was vulnerable to persecution by non Muslims Quraysh, the Arab clan that inhabited Mecca at the time. Upon the death of her patron, she was tortured by his fellow clans people to abandon their faith. It is said she was forced to stand in the sun and the heat dressed in coats all day and was once put in a pitcher full of water that was then lifted so she couldn’t escape. At this time, she was now 65 and considered old and frail for the time but she refused to abandon Islam. Finally, one evening, Abu Jahl, also a member of the Makhzum clan, approached her, taunting her for her faith and eventually stabbing her to death with a spear. Upon her death, she was the first member of the ummah to become a female martyr or shahidah.