Khawla bint Thaʿlaba came to the Prophet ﷺ to complain about her husband Aws ibn al-Samit. ʿAʾisha said: “Blessed is He whose hearing encompasses all things! I could hear Khawla bint Thaʿlaba without catching everything”, and Allah revealed: “Allah has heard the words of the woman who disputed with you about her husband” (58:1; Ibn Maja 2063). Khawla bint Hakim transmitted the supplication for halting at a place (Muslim 2708).
Khawla is an old Arabic name. The lexicographer Ibn al-Aʿrabi, quoted by Ibn Manzur, gives khawla the meaning of “gazelle”, the animal that embodies grace and beautiful eyes for the poets. The name was famous before Islam: the celebrated muʿallaqa of Tarafa opens with “the traces of Khawla’s dwelling”. Very popular in the Maghreb (Khaoula), it also recalls Khawla bint al-Azwar, the heroine of late accounts of the conquest of Syria, whose historicity is doubtful.
[It will be said to them], "And you have certainly come to Us alone [i.e., individually] as We created you the first time, and you have left whatever We bestowed upon you behind you. And We do not see with you your 'intercessors' which you claimed that they were among you associates [of Allāh]. It has [all] been severed between you, and lost from you is what you used to claim."
And when adversity touches man, he calls upon his Lord, turning to Him [alone]; then when He bestows on him a favor from Himself, he forgets Him whom he called upon before, and he attributes to Allāh equals to mislead [people] from His way. Say, "Enjoy your disbelief for a little; indeed, you are of the companions of the Fire."
There is not upon the blind [any] constraint nor upon the lame constraint nor upon the ill constraint nor upon yourselves when you eat from your [own] houses or the houses of your fathers or the houses of your mothers or the houses of your brothers or the houses of your sisters or the houses of your father's brothers or the houses of your father's sisters or the houses of your mother's brothers or the houses of your mother's sisters or [from houses] whose keys you possess or [from the house] of your friend. There is no blame upon you whether you eat together or separately. But when you enter houses, give greetings of peace upon each other - a greeting from Allāh, blessed and good. Thus does Allāh make clear to you the verses [of ordinance] that you may understand.
تَبَارَكَ الَّذِي وَسِعَ سَمْعُهُ كُلَّ شَىْءٍ . إِنِّي لأَسْمَعُ كَلاَمَ خَوْلَةَ بِنْتِ ثَعْلَبَةَ وَيَخْفَى عَلَىَّ بَعْضُهُ وَهِيَ تَشْتَكِي زَوْجَهَا إِلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ وَهِيَ تَقُولُ…
"Whoever alights somewhere and then says: '‘A‘ūdhu bi kalimātillāh at-tāmmāti min sharri ma khalaq (I seek refuge in the perfect words of Allah from the evil of what He has created)', nothing will harm him until he leaves that place."
