Editor's note: For Women's History Month, we are sharing stories of some of our favorite Sahabiyyat, female companions of the Prophet Muhammad (saw). These women are the foundations of our histories, and their lives are multitude of lessons for us all.

Women – the abilities of our bodies, our struggles and our identities – are a testament to an unimaginable emotional physical, and mental strength that is continually underestimated and undervalued by society. Umm Hakim bint Harith (ra), a sahabbiya during the time of the Prophet Muhammad (saw), was the embodiment of this strength.

Umm Hakim (ra) accepted Islam on the day of the conquest of Makkah after having been present at the battle of Uhud opposite of the Muslims. She had been a part of a group of women beating drums to lead the soldiers of Quraysh into battle. Yet, she was able to recognize her ignorance, unlearn her previous biases, and changed her beliefs with grace when she accepted Islam and guided her husband to Islam as well. Not long after, her husband, brother and father were all martyred in the battle of Yarmouk.

The devastating loss of three of the closest people in her life did not shake her faith and hope. She was committed to her Islam and her Lord. Eventually, she agreed to remarry to Umayyad commander Khalid ibn Said.

On the day of their wedding as they celebrated with their guests, they were attacked by Byzantine soldiers. Glasses shattered to the floor, forks were abandoned mid-bite and all mirth was forgotten as the guests began to fend off the attackers. As fighting ensued, Umm Hakim (ra) watched her second husband be martyred by the Byzantines in front of her very eyes. She clutched her wedding dress in her arms, dislodged the pole of the wedding tent and joined the fighting. With just the pole, despair and sheer strength, she slayed seven Byzantine men.

Umm Hakim (ra) would go on to later marry Umar ibn al Khattab.

Although not many of us (certainly not myself) have had to take up arms against those who have murdered our husband on the day of our wedding after having mourned our father, brother, and a prior husband, Many of us have had to exert great physical strength despite emotional distress and many of us have sought to educate ourselves in order to unlearn previous ignorant beliefs.

Women must be unconditionally present for their children without having the time to process their own emotional trauma. Women must fight every single day to be perceived as anything more than pretty vessels. Women must exist in societies in which we work harder and make less. Women must experience those who expect us to minimize our strength into meekness to fit cultural norms. Women must constantly educate ourselves on the intersections between our struggle as women and the other identities of ourselves and those around us.

The people I most admire and am most impressed with are always women, and the trait of theirs I aspire to espouse is their sheer emotional and physical strength in the face of discrimination, inequality, violation, injustice – or even of a Byzantine army.