لطفا منتظر باشید ...
Khadija Daughter of Khuwaylid
May 12, 1994
Yasin T. al-Jibouri
INTRODUCTION:
If you wish to research the life of this great lady, and if
you do not have al-Majlisi's voluminous [110 Vol.] encyclopedia titled Bihar al-Anwar,
the best references are: al-Sayyuti's Tarikh al Khulafa, Abul-Faraj al-Isfahani's Aghani,
Ibn Hisham's Seera, Muhammad ibn Ishaq's Seerat Rasool-Allah, and Tarikh
al-rusul wal muluk by Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (839-923 A.D.). Of all
these books, only al-Tabari's Tarikh is being translated (by more than one
translator and in several volumes) into English. One publisher of Tabari's Tarikh is
the press of the State University of New York (SUNY). This article has utilized a number
of Arabic and English references, and it is written especially for those who appreciate
history, our great teacher, be they Muslims or non-Muslims, and who aspire to learn from
it.
Islam did not rise except through Ali's sword and
Khadija's wealth, a saying goes. Khadija al-Kubra daughter of Khuwaylid ibn (son of)
Asad ibn Abdul-Uzza ibn Qusayy belonged to the clan of Banu Hashim of the tribe of Banu
Asad. She was a distant cousin of her husband the Messenger of Allah Muhammad ibn Abdullah
ibn Abdul-Muttalib ibn Hashim ibn Abd Manaf ibn Qusayy, Allah's peace and blessings be
upon him and his progeny. Qusayy, then, is the ancestor of all clans belonging to Quraysh.
According to some historians, Quraysh's real name was Fahr, and he was son of Malik son of
Madar son of Kananah son of Khuzaimah son of Mudrikah son of Ilyas son of Mazar son of
Nazar son of Maad son of Adnan son of Ismaeel (Ishmael) son of Ibrahim (Abraham) son of
Sam son of Noah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon the prophets from among his
ancestors. According to a number of sources, Khadija was born in 565 A.D. and died one
year before the Hijra (migration of the Holy Prophet and his followers from Mecca to
Medina) in 623 A.D. at the age of 58, but some historians say that she lived to be 65.
Khadija's mother, who died around 575 A.D., was Fatima daughter of Za'ida ibn al-Asam of
Banu Amir ibn Luayy ibn Ghalib, also a distant relative of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
Khadija's father, who died around 585 A.D., belonged to the Abd al-Uzza clan of the tribe
of Quraysh and, like many other Qurayshis, was a merchant, a successful businessman whose
vast wealth and business talents were inherited by Khadija and whom the latter succeeded
in faring with the family's vast wealth. It is said that when Quraysh's trade caravans
gathered to embark upon their lengthy and arduous journey either to Syria during the
summer or to Yemen during the winter, Khadija's caravan equalled the caravans of all other
traders of Quraysh put together.
Although the society in which Khadija was born was a terribly
male chauvinistic one, Khadija earned two titles: Ameerat-Quraysh, Princess of
Quraysh, and al-Tahira, the Pure One, due to her impeccable personality and
virtuous character, not to mention her honorable descent. She used to feed and clothe the
poor, assist her relatives financially, and even provide for the marriage of those of her
kin who could not otherwise have had means to marry.
By 585 A.D., Khadija was left an orphan. Despite that, and
after having married twice- and twice lost her husband to the ravaging wars with which
Arabia was afflicted- she had no mind to marry a third time though she was sought for
marriage by many honorable and highly respected men of the Arabian peninsula throughout
which she was quite famous due to her business dealings. She simply hated the thought of
being widowed for a third time. Her first husband was Abu (father of) Halah Hind ibn Zarah
who belonged to Banu Adiyy, and the second was Ateeq ibn Aaith. Both men belonged to
Banu Makhzoom. By her first husband, she gave birth to a son who was named after his
father Hind and who came to be one of the greatest sahabah (companions of the Holy
Prophet). He participated in both battles of Badr and Uhud, and he is also famous for
describing the Prophet's physique; he was martyred during the Battle of the Camel in which
he fought on the side of Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib (as), although some historians say that he
died in Basrah. All biography accounts describe Hind as an outspoken orator, a man of
righteousness and generosity, and one who took extreme caution while quoting the Messenger
of Allah (pbuh). Besides him, Khadija gave birth by Abu Halah to two other sons: al-Tahir,
and, of course, Halah, who is not very well known to historians despite the fact that his
father is nicknamed after him.
Who were Khadija's children by her second husband? This is
another controversy that revolves round the other daughters or step-daughters of the
Prophet (pbuh) besides Fatima (as). These daughters, chronologically arranged, are:
Zainab, Ruqayya, and Ummu Kulthoom. Some historians say that these were Khadija's
daughters by her second husband, whereas others insist they were her daughters by Muhammad
(pbuh). The first view is held by Sayyid Safdar Husayn in his book The Early History of
Islam wherein he bases his conclusion on the contents of al-Sayyuti's famous work Tarikh
al-khulafa wal muluk (history of the caliphs and kings). We hope some of our Muslim
sisters who read this text will be tempted to research this subject. Here is a brief
account of Khadija's daughters:
Zainab, their oldest, was born before the prophetic mission
and was married to Abul-As ibn al-Rabee. She had accepted Islam before her husband, and
she participated in the migration from Mecca to Medina. She died early in 8 A.H. and was
buried in Jannatul Baqee where her grave can still be seen defying the passage of time.
Ruqayya and Ummu Kulthoom married two of Abu Lahab's sons. Abu Lahab, one of the Prophet's
uncles, stubbornly and openly rejected his nephew's preaching; therefore, he was condemned
in the Mecci Chapter 111 of the Holy Qur'an, a chapter named after him. Having come to
know about such a condemnation, he became furious and said to his sons, There shall
be no kinship between you and me unless you part with these daughters of Muhammad,
whereupon they divorced them instantly. Ruqayya married the third caliph Uthman ibn
Affan and migrated with him to Ethiopia in 615 A.D., five years after the inception of
the prophetic mission, accompanied by no more than nine others. That was the first of two
such migrations. After coming back home, she died in Medina in 2 A.H. and was buried at
Jannatul Baqee. Uthman then married her sister Ummu Kulthoom in Rabi al-Awwal of the
next (third) Hijri year. Ummu Kulthoom lived with her husband for about six years before
dying in 9 A.H., leaving no children.
One particular quality in Khadija was quite interesting,
probably more so than any of her other qualities mentioned above: she, unlike her people,
never believed in nor worshipped idols. There was a very small number of Christians and
Jews in Mecca, and a fairly large number of Jews in Medina. Waraqah ibn Nawfal, one of
Khadija's cousins, had embraced Christianity and was a pious monk who believed in the
Unity of the Almighty, just as all early Christians did, that is, before the concept of
the Trinity crept into the Christian faith, widening the theological differences among the
believers in Christ (as). He reportedly had translated the Bible from Hebrew into Arabic.
His likes could be counted on the fingers of one hand during those days in the entire
populous metropolis of Mecca, or Becca, or Ummul-Qura (the mother town), a major
commercial center at the crossroads of trade caravans linking Arabia with India, Persia,
China, and Byzantium, a city that had its own Red Sea port at Shuayba. Most importantly,
Mecca housed the Kaba, the cubic House of God which has always been sought
for pilgrimage and which used to be circled by naked polytheist pilgrims who
kept their idols, numbering 360 small and big, male and female, inside it and on its
roof-top. Among those idols was one for Abraham and another for Ishmael, each carrying
divine arrows in his hands. Hubal, a huge idol in the shape of a man, was given as a gift
by the Moabites of Syria to the tribesmen of Khuzaah, and it was Mecca's chief idol. Two
other idols of significance were those of the Lat, a grey granite image which was the
deity of Thaqif in nearby Taif, and the Uzza, also a block of granite about twenty feet
long. These were regarded as the wives of the Almighty... Each tribe had its own idol, and
the wealthy bought and kept a number of idols at home. The institute of pilgrimage was
already there; it simply was not being observed properly, and so was the belief in Allah
Whom the Arabs regarded as their Supreme deity. Besides Paganism, other
religions in Arabia included star worship and fetishism.
The Jews of Medina had migrated from Palestine and settled
there waiting for the coming of a new Prophet from the seed of Abraham (as) in whom they
said they intended to believe and to be the foremost in following, something which
unfortunately did not materialize; on the contrary, they joined ranks with the Pagans to
fight the spread of Islam. Only a handful of them embraced Islam, including one man who
was a neighbor of Muhammad (pbuh); he lived in the same alley in Mecca where Khadija's
house stood; his wife, also Jewish, used to collect dry thorny bushes from the desert just
to throw them in the Prophet's way.
Since Khadija did not travel with her trade caravans, she had
always had to rely on someone else to act as her agent to trade on her behalf and to
receive an agreed upon commission in return. In 595 A.D., Khadija needed an agent to trade
in her merchandise going to Syria, and it was then that a number of agents whom she knew
before and trusted, as well as some of her own relatives, particularly Abu Talib,
suggested to her to employ her distant cousin Muhammad ibn Abdullah (pbuh) who, by then,
had earned the honoring titles of al-Sadiq, the truthful, and al-Amin, the
trustworthy. Muhammad (pbuh) did not have any practical business experience, but he had
twice accompanied his uncle Abu Talib on his trade trips and keenly observed how he
traded, bartered, bought and sold and conducted business; after all, the people of Quraysh
were famous for their involvement in trade more than in any other profession. It was not
uncommon to hire an agent who did not have a prior experience; so, Khadija decided to give
Muhammad (pbuh) a chance. He was only 25 years old. Khadija sent Muhammad (pbuh) word
through Khazimah ibn Hakim, one of her relatives, offering him twice as much commission as
she usually offered her agents to trade on her behalf. She also gave him one of her
servants, Maysarah, who was young, brilliant, and talented, to assist him and be his
bookkeeper. She also trusted Maysarah's account regarding her new employee's conduct, an
account which was most glaring, indeed one which encouraged her to abandon her insistence
never to marry again.
Before embarking upon his first trip as a businessman
representing Khadija, Muhammad (pbuh) met with his uncles for last minute briefings and
consultations, then he set out on the desert road passing through Wadi al-Qura, Midian,
and Diyar Thamud, places with which he was familiar because of having been there at the
age of twelve in the company of his uncle Abu Talib. He continued the lengthy journey till
he reached Busra (or Bostra) on the highway to the ancient city of Damascus after about a
month. It was then the capital of Hawran, one of the southeastern portions of the province
of Damascus situated north of the Balqa'. To scholars of classic literature, Hawran is
known by its Greek name Auranitis, and it is described in detail by Yaqut al-Hamawi,
Abul-Faraj al-Isfahani, and others. Arab trade caravans used to go there quite often and
even beyond it to Damascus and Gaza, and few made it all the way to Mediterranean shores
to unload their precious cargoes of Chinese paper and silk textiles bound for Europe.
What items did Muhammad (pbuh) carry with him to Busra, and
what items did he buy from there? Meccans were not known to be skilled craftsmen, nor did
they excel in any profession besides trade, but young Muhammad (pbuh) might have carried
with him a cargo of hides, raisins, perfumes, dried dates, light weight woven items,
probably silver bars, and most likely some herbs. He bought what he was instructed by his
employer to buy: these items may have included manufactured goods, clothes, a few luxury
items to sell to wealthy Meccans, and maybe some household goods. Gold and silver currency
accepted in Mecca included Roman, Persian, and Indian coins, for Arabs during those times,
including those who were much more sophisticated than the ones among whom Muhammad (pbuh)
grew up such as the Arabs of the southern part of Arabia (Yemen, Hadramout, etc.), did not
have a currency of their own; so, barter was more common than cash. The first Arab Islamic
currency, by the way, was struck in Damascus by the Umayyad ruler Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan
(697-698 A.D.) in 78 A.H., 36 years after the establishment of the Umayyad dynasty
(661-750).
The time Muhammad (pbuh) stayed in Busra was no more than a
couple of months during which he met many Christians and Jews and noticed the theological
differences among the major Christian sects that led to the disassociation of the Copts,
the Syrian (Chaldean) Nestorian, and the Armenian Christians from the main churches of
Antioch (Antakiya), Rome, and Egyptian Alexandria. Such dissensions and differences of
theological viewpoints provided Muhammad (pbuh) with plenty of food for thought; he
contemplated upon them a great deal. He was seen once by Nestor the monk sitting in the
shade of a tree as caravans entered the outskirts of Busra, not far from the monk's small
monastery. Who is the man beneath that tree? inquired Nestor of Maysarah.
A man of Quraysh, Maysarah answered, adding, of the people [the
Hashemites] who have guardianship of the Sanctuary. None other than a Prophet
is sitting beneath that tree, said Nestor who had observed some of the signs
indicative of Prophethood: two angels (or, according to other reports, two small clouds)
were shading Muhammad (pbuh) from the oppressive heat of the sun. Is there a glow, a
slight redness, around his eyes that never parts with him? Nestor asked Maysarah.
When the latter answered in the affirmative, Nestor said, He most surely is the very
last Prophet; congratulations to whoever believes in him.
One of Muhammad's observations when he was in that Syrian
city was the historical fact that a feud was brewing between the Persian and Roman
empires, each vying for hegemony over Arabia's fertile crescent. Indeed, such an
observation was quite accurate, for after only a few years, a war broke out between the
then mightiest nations on earth that ended with the Romans losing it, as the Holy Qur'an
tells us in Chapter 30 (The Romans), which was revealed in 7 A.H./615-16 A.D., only a few
months after the fall of Jerusalem to the Persians, just to win in a successive one. Only
four years prior to that date, the Persians had scored a sweeping victory over the
Christians, spreading their control over Aleppo, Antioch, and even Damascus. Muhammad
(pbuh) was concerned about either of these two empires extending its control over the land
inhabited by Muhammad's Pagan fiercely independent Pagan people. The loss of Jerusalem,
birthplace of Christ Jesus son of Mary (as), was a heavy blow to the prestige of
Christianity. Most Persians were then following Zoroastrianism, a creed introduced in the
6th century before Christ by Zoroaster (628-551 B.C.), also known as Zarathustra, whose
adherents are described as worshippers of the pyre, the holy fire.
Persia, hence, meant the land of the worshippers of the pyre, the sacred
fire. Modern day Iran used to be known as Aryana, land of the Aryan
nations and tribes. Not only Iranians, but also Kurds, and even Germans, prided in being
Aryans, (Caucasian) Nordics or speakers of an Indo-European dialect. Some Persians had
converted to Christianity as we know from Salman al-Farisi who was one such adherent till
he fell in captivity, sold in Mecca and freed to be one of the most renown and cherished
sahabis and narrators of hadith in Islamic history, so much so that the Prophet of Islam
(pbuh) said, Salman is one of us, we Ahl al-Bayt (People of the Household of
Prophethood).
The war referred to above was between the then Byzantine
(Eastern Roman) emperor Heraclius (575 - 641 A.D.) and the Persian king Khusrau (Khosrow)
Parwiz (Parviz) or Chosroes II (d. 628 A.D.). It was one of many wars in which those
mighty nations were embroiled and which continued for many centuries. Yet the hands of
Divine Providence were already busy paving the path for Islam: the collision between both
empires paved the way for the ultimate destruction of the ancient Persian empire and in
Islam setting root in that important part of the world. Moreover, Muhammad's (and,
naturally, Khadija's) offspring came to marry ladies who were born and raised at Persian
as well as Roman palaces. Imam Husain ibn Ali ibn Abu Talib (as), Muhammad's grandson and
our Third Holy Imam, married the daughter of the last Persian emperor Jazdagird
(Yazdegerd) III son of Shahryar and grandson of this same Khusrau II. Jazdagerd ruled
Persia from 632-651 A.D. and lost the Battle of Qadisiyyah to the Muslim forces in 636,
thus ending the rule of the Sassanians. Having been defeated, he fled for Media in
northwestern Iran, homeland of Persian Mede tribesmen, and from there to Merv, an ancient
Central Asian city near modern day Mary in Turkmenistan (until very recently one of the
republics of the Soviet Union), where he was killed by a miller. The slain emperor left
two daughters who, during their attempt to escape, following the murder of their father,
were caught and sold as slaves. One of them, Shah-Zenan, ended up marrying our Third Holy
Imam Husain ibn Ali ibn Abu Talib (as), whereas her sister married the renown scholar and
acclaimed muhaddith (traditionist) Muhammad son of the first Muslim caliph Abu
Bakr. Shah-Zenan was awarded a royal treatment and was given a new name in her own Persian
mother tongue: Shahr Banu, which means mistress of the ladies of the city. The
marriage between her and Imam Husain (as) produced our Fourth Holy Imam (Zainul-Abidin, or
al-Sajjad) Ali ibn al-Husain ibn Ali ibn Abu Talib (as).
The profits Khadija reaped from that trip were twice as much
as she had anticipated. Maysarah was more fascinated by Muhammad (pbuh) than by anything
related to the trip. Muhammad (pbuh), on the other hand, brought back his impressions
about what he had seen and heard, impressions which he related to his mistress. You see,
those trade caravans were the only links contemporary Arabs had with their outside world:
they brought them the news of what was going on beyond their drought-ridden and
famine-stricken desert and sand dunes.
Waraqah ibn Nawfal, like Bahirah, the monk who had seen and
spoken to Muhammad (pbuh) when Muhammad (pbuh) was a lad, adhered to the Nestorian
Christian sect. He heard the accounts about the personality and conduct of young Muhammad
(pbuh) from both his cousin Khadija and her servant Maysarah, an account which caused him
to meditate for a good while and think about what he had heard. Raising his head, he said
to Khadija, Such manners are fit only for the messengers of God. Who knows? Maybe
this young man is destined to be one of them. This statement was confirmed a few
years later, and Waraqah was the very first man who identified Muhammad (pbuh) as the
Messenger of Allah immediately after Muhammad (pbuh) received the first revelation at Hira
cave.
The trip's measure of success encouraged Khadija to employ
Muhammad (pbuh) again on the winter trip to southern Arabia, i.e. Yemen, the land that
introduced the coffee beans to the rest of the world, the land where the renown Ma'rib
irrigation dam was engineered, the land of Saba' and the renown Balqees, the Arabian Queen
of Sheba (Saba') of Himyar, who married King Solomon (Sulayman the wise, peace be upon
him), in 975 B.C. (after the completion of the construction of the famous Solomon's Temple
[1]), the land of
natives skilled in gold, silver and other metal handicrafts, not to mention their
ingenuity in the textile industry and domestic furniture..., and it may even be the land
that gave Arabic its first written script which, as some believe, was modelled after
written Amheric, then the official language in Ethiopia and its colonies. Yemen, at that
time, was being ruled by an Ethiopian regent. This time Khadija offered Muhammad (pbuh)
three times the usual commission. Unfortunately, historians do not tell us much about this
second trip except that it was equally profitable to both employer and employee. Some
historians do not mention this trip at all.
Khadija was by then convinced that she had finally found a
man who was worthy of her, so much so that she initiated the marriage proposal herself.
Muhammad (pbuh) sat to detail all the business transactions in which he became involved on
her behalf, but the wealthy and beautiful lady of Quraysh was thinking more about her
distant cousin than about those transactions. She simply fell in love with Muhammad (pbuh)
just as the daughter of the Arabian prophet Shuayb had fallen in love with then fugitive
prophet Moses (as). Muhammad (pbuh) was of medium stature, inclined to slimness, with a
large head, broad shoulders and the rest of his body perfectly proportioned. His hair and
beard were thick and black, not altogether straight but slightly curled. His hair reached
midway between the lobes of his ears and shoulders, and his beard was of a length to
match. He had a noble breadth of forehead and the ovals of his large eyes were wide, with
exceptionally long lashes and extensive brows, slightly arched but not joined. His eyes
were said to have been black, but other accounts say they were brown, or light brown. His
nose was aquiline and his mouth was finely shaped. Although he let his beard grow, he
never allowed the hair of his moustache to protrude over his upper lip. His skin was white
but tanned by the sun. And there was a light on his face, a glow, the same light that had
shone from his father, but it was more, much more powerful, and it was especially apparent
on his broad forehead and in his eyes which were remarkably luminous.
By the time he was gone, Khadija sought the advice of a
friend of hers named Nufaysa daughter of Umayyah. The latter offered to approach him on
her behalf and, if possible, arrange a marriage between them. Nufaysa came to Muhammad
(pbuh) and asked him why he had not married yet. I have no means to marry, he
answered. But if you were given the means, she said, and if you were
bidden to an alliance where there is beauty and wealth and nobility and abundance, would
you not then consent? Who is she?! he excitedly inquired.
Khadija, said Nufaysa. And how could such a marriage be mine?! he
asked. Leave that to me! was her answer. For my part, he said,
I am willing. Nufaysa returned with these glad tidings to Khadija who then
sent word to Muhammad (pbuh) asking him to come to her. When he came, she said to him:
O son of my uncle! I love you for your kinship with me, and for that
you are ever in the center, not being a partisan among the people for this or for that.
And I love you for your trustworthiness, and for the beauty of your character and the
truth of your speech.
Then she offered herself in marriage to him, and they agreed that he
should speak to his uncles and she would speak to her uncle Amr son of Asad, since her
father had died. It was Hamzah, despite being relatively young, whom the Hashemites
delegated to represent them on this marriage occasion, since he was most closely related
to them through the clan of Asad; his sister Safiyya had just married Khadija's brother
Awwam. It was Abu Talib, Muhammad's uncle, who delivered the marriage sermon saying,
All praise is due to Allah Who has made us the progeny of Ibrahim
(Abraham), the seed of Ismaeel (Ishmael), the descendants of Maad, the substance of
Mudar, and Who made us the custodians of His House and the servants of its sacred
precincts, making for us a House sought for pilgrimage and a shrine of security, and He
also gave us authority over the people. This nephew of mine Muhammad (pbuh) cannot be
compared with any other man: if you compare his wealth with that of others, you will not
find him a man of wealth, for wealth is a vanishing shadow and a fickle thing. Muhammad
(pbuh) is a man whose lineage you all know, and he has sought Khadija daughter of
Khuwaylid for marriage, offering her such-and-such of the dower of my own wealth.
Nawfal then stood and said,
All praise is due to Allah Who has made us just as you have
mentioned and preferred us over those whom you have indicated, for we, indeed, are the
masters of Arabs and their leaders, and you all are worthy of this (bond of marriage). The
tribe (Quraysh) does not deny any of your merits, nor does anyone else dispute your lofty
status and prestige. And we, furthermore, wish to be joined to your rope; so, bear witness
to my words, O people of Quraysh! I have given Khadija daughter of Khuwaylid in marriage
to Muhammad ibn Abdullah for the dower of four hundred dinars.
Then Nawfal paused, whereupon Abu Talib said to him, I wished
her uncle had joined you (in making this statement). Hearing that, Khadija's uncle
stood and said, Bear witness, O men of Quraysh, that I have given Khadija daughter
of Khuwaylid in marriage to Muhammad ibn Abdullah.
These details and more are recorded in Ibn Hisham's Seera.
After his marriage, Muhammad (pbuh) moved from his uncle's house to live with his wife in
her house which stood at the smiths' market, an alley branching out of metropolitan
Mecca's long main bazaar, behind the masa, the place where the pilgrims perform
the seven circles during the hajj or umra. In that house Fatima (as) was
born and the revelation descended upon the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) many times. This
house, as well as the one in which the Prophet of Islam (pbuh) was born (which stood
approximately 50 meters northwards), were both demolished by the ignorant and fanatical
Wahhabi rulers of Saudi Arabia last year (1413 A.H./1993 A.D.) and turned into public
bathrooms. The grave sites of many family members and companions of the Holy Prophet
(pbuh) were all demolished by the same Wahhabis in 1343 A.H./1924 A.D. against the wish
and despite the denunciation of the adherents of all other Muslim sects and schools of
thought world-wide.
The marriage was a very happy one, and it produced a lady who
was one of the four perfect women in all the history of mankind: Fatima daughter of
Muhammad (pbuh). Before her, Qasim and Abdullah were born, but they both died at infancy.
By the time Khadija got married, she was quite a wealthy
lady, so wealthy that she felt no need to keep trading and increasing her wealth; instead,
she decided to retire and enjoy a comfortable life with her husband who, on his part,
preferred an ascetic life to that of money making. The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) had no
desire to accumulate wealth; that was not the purpose for which he, peace and blessings of
Allah upon him and his progeny, was created. He was created to be savior of mankind from
the darkness of ignorance, idol worship, polytheism, misery, poverty, injustice,
oppression, and immorality. He very much loved to meditate, though his meditation deepened
his grief at seeing his society sunk so low in immorality, lawlessness, and the absence of
any sort of protection for those who were weak and oppressed. Khadija's period of
happiness lasted no more than 15 years after which her husband, now the Messenger of Allah
(pbuh), started his mission to invite people to the Oneness of God, to equality between
men and women, and to an end to the evils of the day. Muhammad (pbuh) was forty years old
when the first verses of the Holy Qur'an were revealed to him. They were the first verses
of Surat al-Alaq (chapter 96), and they were revealed during the month of Ramadan 13 years
before the Hijra, at the cave of Hira in Jabal al-Noor (the mountain of light), his
favorite place for isolation and meditation, a place which is now visited by many
pilgrims. Muhammad (pbuh) went back home heavy-hearted, profoundly perplexed, deeply
impressed by the sight of arch-angel Gabriel and by the depth of meaning implied in those
beautiful words:
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Proclaim (or read)! In the Name of your Lord and Cherisher who created (everything).
(He) created man of a (mere) clot of congealed blood. Proclaim! And your Lord is the Most
Bountiful Who taught (the use of) the pen, Who taught man that which he knew not...
(Qur'an, 96:1-5)
He felt feverish, so he asked to be wrapped and, once he felt
better, he narrated what he had seen and heard to his faithful and supportive wife.
By Allah, Khadija said, Allah shall never subject you to any
indignity..., for you always maintain your ties with those of your kin, and you are always
generous in giving; you are diligent, and you seek what others regard as unattainable; you
cool the eyes of your guest, and you lend your support to those who seek justice and
redress. Stay firm, O cousin, for by Allah I know that He will not deal with you except
most beautifully, and I testify that you are the awaited Prophet in this nation, and your
time, if Allah wills, has come. After a short while, Khadija told her husband about
the prediction of the Syrian monk Buhayra regarding Muhammad's Prophethood, and about her
dialogue with both her servant Maysarah, who had informed her of what Bahirah (or
Buhayrah) had said, and with her cousin Waraqah ibn Nawfal. She then accompanied her
husband to Waraqah's house to narrate the whole incident. Let me hear it in your own
words, Nawfal said to Muhammad (pbuh), adding, O noble master! Having
heard the Prophet's words, Nawfal took his time to select his words very carefully; he
said, By Allah, this is the prediction which had been conveyed to Moses (as) and
with which the Children of Israel are familiar! [Moses] had said: O how I wish I could be
present when Muhammad (pbuh) is delegated with Prophethood to support his mission and to
assist him!'
It was only natural for Khadija to receive her share of the
harassment meted to him by none other than those who, not long ago, used to call him al-Sadiq,
al-Amin. Khadija did not hesitate to embrace Islam at all, knowing that her husband
could not have put forth any false claim. Yahya ibn Afeef is quoted saying that he once
came, during the period of jahiliyya (before the advent of Islam), to Mecca to be
hosted by al-Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib, one of the Prophet's uncles mentioned above.
When the sun started rising, says he, I saw a man who came out of a
place not far from us, faced the Kaba and started performing his prayers. He hardly
started before being joined by a young boy who stood on his right side, then by a woman
who stood behind them. When he bowed down, the young boy and the woman bowed, and when he
stood up straight, they, too, did likewise. When he prostrated, they, too,
prostrated. Then he expressed his amazement at that, saying to al-Abbas: This
is quite strange, O Abbas! Is it, really? retorted al-Abbas. Do
you know who he is? al-Abbas asked his guest who answered in the negative. He
is Muhammad ibn Abdullah, my nephew. Do you know who the young boy is? asked he
again. No, indeed, answered the guest. He is Ali son of Abu Talib. Do
you know who the woman is? The answer came again in the negative, to which al-Abbas
said, She is Khadija daughter of Khuwaylid, my nephew's wife. This incident is
included in the books of both Imam Ahmad and al-Tirmithi, each detailing it in his own Sahih.
And she bore patiently in the face of persecution to which her revered husband and his
small band of believers were exposed at the hands of the polytheists and aristocrats of
Quraysh, sacrificing her vast wealth to promote Islam, seeking Allah's Pleasure.
Among Khadija's merits was her being one of the four most
perfect of all women of mankind, the other three being: Fatima daughter of Muhammad
(pbuh), Maryam bint Umran (Mary daughter of Amram), mother of Christ (as) and niece of
prophet Zakariyya and Ishba (Elizabeth), and Asiya daughter of Muzahim, wife of Pharaoh.
Prophet Zakariyya, as the reader knows, was the father of Yahya (John the Baptist), the
latter being only a few months older than prophet Jesus (as). The Prophet of Islam (pbuh)
used to talk about Khadija quite often after her demise, so much so that his youngest
wife, Ayesha daughter of Abu Bakr, felt extremely jealous and said to him, ... But
she was only an old woman with red eyes, and Allah has compensated you with a better and
younger wife (meaning herself). This caused him (pbuh) to be very indignant, and he
said, No, indeed; He has not compensated me with someone better than her. She
believed in me when all others disbelieved; she held me truthful when others called me a
liar; she sheltered me when others abandoned me; she comforted me when others shunned me;
and Allah granted me children by her while depriving me of children by other women.
Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Abu Hatim, al-Dulabi, al-Tabari, and many others, all quote Ayesha
saying: One day, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) mentioned Khadija affectionately, so
I was carried away by jealousy and said about her what I should not have said. It
was then that his face changed color in a way I never saw it change except when he (pbuh)
was receiving revelation, so I realized what I had done and felt overwhelmed by regret to
the extent that I could not help uttering these words: O Lord! If You remove the anger of
Your Messenger right now, I pledge not to ever speak ill of her as long as I live.' Having
seen that, he forgave me and narrated to me some of her merits. Both Muslim and
Bukhari indicate in their respective Sahih books that among Khadija's merits was
the fact that the Lord of Dignity ordered Jibraeel (Gabriel), peace be upon him, to convey
His regards to her. Gabriel said to Muhammad (pbuh): O Muhammad! Khadija is bringing
you a bowl of food; when she comes to you, tell her that her Lord greets her, and convey
my greeting, too, to her. When he (pbuh) did so, she said: Allah is the Peace,
and He is the source of all peace, and upon Gabriel be peace. Khadija died of an
attack of fever on the tenth or eleventh day of the month of Ramadan, ten years after the
start of the Prophetic mission (in the year 619 A.D.), 24 years after her marriage with
Muhammad (pbuh), and she was buried at Hajun in the outskirts of Mecca. The Messenger of
Allah (pbuh) dug her grave and buried her... Funeral prayers (salat al janaza) had
not yet been mandated in Islam. It is reported that by the time she died, her entire
wealth had already been spent to promote Islam; she left not a single gold dinar nor a
single silver dirham, nor anything more or less...
O soul that are at rest! Return to your Lord,
well-pleased (with Him),well-pleasing (Him),
so enter among My servants, and enter into My garden.
(Qur'an, 89:27-30)
[1] This temple was
built by Solomon (Prophet Sulayman) to express his gratitude for what the Almighty had
granted him. Solomon had in advance obtained his Lord's permission to erect it. A glimpse
of its grandeur is described in the Holy Qur'an in 27:44: It was said to her (to
Balqees, the Queen of Sheba): Enter the palace; but when she saw it, she deemed it to be a
great expanse of water, that is, its marble floors shone like glass, reflecting her
image as water does. This temple was later ordered by Solomon to be demolished in its
entirety, and the claim of the Jews that the al-Aqsa mosque is built on its very
foundations is false. The Jews plot to demolish the al-Aqsa mosque in order to rebuild
Solomon's Temple. Jews intend to do so at the right time, when they realize that the
Muslims of the world, because of the weakness and hypocrisy of their rulers, are too weak
to stand between them and the achievement of their most vile goals, and when the
Christian West will be ready, more than now, to help them achieve their
objectives. The West has been supporting the Jews against the Muslims, and there will
never be any reversal to this trend... We are Allah's, and to Him shall we return...
