Khadijah bint Khuwaylid
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Khadijah bint Khuwaylid or Khadijah al-Kubra[1] (555 AD – 623 AD) was the first wife of Muhammad. Khadijah was the daughter of Khuwaylid ibn Asad and Fatimah bint Za'idah and belonged to the clan of Banu Hashim of the tribe of Banu Asad. Traditionally, she was the first convert to Islam.
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[edit] Biography
Khuwaylid ibn Asad (Khadijah's father), who died around 585, was a merchant, a successful businessman whose vast wealth and business talents were inherited by Khadijah and who succeeded in managing her father's business interests and preserving the family's vast wealth. It is said that when Banu Quraish's trade caravans gathered to embark upon their lengthy and arduous journey either to Syria during the summer or to Yemen during the winter, Khadijah's caravan equaled the caravans of all other traders of Quraish put together. Fatimah bint Za'idah (Khadijah's mother), died around 575, a member of the Banu `Amir ibn Luayy ibn Ghalib tribe and a distant relative of Muhammad.
Khadijah earned two titles: Ameerat-Quraish (Princess of Quraish) and al-Tahira (the Pure One), and was said to have had an impeccable character. She used to feed and clothe the poor, assist her relatives financially, and provide for the marriage of those of her kin who could not otherwise have had the means to marry. Another aspect of her character, unusual for her times and unlike the practices of her people Khadijah was said to have neither believed in nor worshipped idols.
By 585, Khadijah was left a widow. Despite having married twice, and twice losing her husband to the ravaging wars to which Arabia was subjected, she showed no inclination to marry a third time, even 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 did not want to be widowed for a third time. [1]
Her first husband was Abu Halah Hind ibn Zarah who belonged to Banu `Adiyy, and the second was Ateeq ibn `Aaith. Both men belonged to Banu Makhzum. 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 Sahaba. He participated in both battles, Battle of Badr and Battle of Uhud, and he is also famous for describing the Prophet's physique; he was martyred during the Battle of the Jamal in which he fought on the side of Ali ibn Abi Talib. All biography accounts describe Hind as an outspoken orator, a man of righteousness and generosity, and one who took extreme caution while quoting Muhammad. Besides him, Khadijah gave birth to Abu Halah’s two other sons: Tahir and Halah (who is not very well known to historians despite the fact that his father is nicknamed after him).
Khadijah did not travel with her trade caravans, she relied on someone else to act as her agent to trade on her behalf in return for an agreed upon commission. In 595, Khadijah 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 who, by then, had earned the honorifics of Al-Sadiq (the truthful) and Al-Amin (the trustworthy).
Muhammad, who was 15 years younger than Khadijah, did not have any official 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. It was not uncommon to hire an agent who did not have prior experience; so, Khadijah decided to give Muhammad a chance. He was only 25 years old. Khadijah sent Muhammad 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 sent 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 that was most striking, indeed one that encouraged her to abandon her decision never to marry again.
The profits Khadijah reaped from that trip were twice as much as she had anticipated. Maysarah was more fascinated by Muhammad than by anything related to the trip. The trip's measure of success encouraged Khadijah to employ Muhammad again on the winter trip to Yemen. Yemen, at that time, had just been annexed by Persia and a regent of the Persian King, Chosroes I, Anoshervan was ruling the land. This time Khadijah offered Muhammad 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.
[edit] Marriage to Muhammad
| Part of a series on Islam: The Wives of Muhammad |
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Khadijah bint Khuwaylid Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya Rayhana bint Amr ibn Khunafa** *succession disputed ** status as wife or concubine is disputed |
With the passage of time, her admiration for Muhammad developed into a deeper affection. Khadijah 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 detailed all the business transactions in which he would be involved on her behalf, but Khadijah was thinking to leave the financial matters to her distant cousin Waraqah ibn Nawfal, as she had simply fallen in love with Muhammad just as the daughter of the Arabian prophet Shu`ayb had fallen in love with then fugitive prophet Moses.
By the time Muhammad was gone, Khadijah sought the advice of a friend named Nufaysa bint Umayyah. The latter offered to approach him on her behalf and, if possible, arrange a marriage between them.
Khadijah and Muhammad agreed that he should speak to his uncles and she would speak to her uncle, `Amr ibn Asad, since her father had died. It was Hamza ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib, 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 Saffiyah bint ‘Abd al-Muttalib had just married Khadijah'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 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 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 is a man whose lineage you all know, and he has sought Khadijah bint Khuwaylid for marriage, offering her such-and-such of the dower of my own wealth.
[edit] Becoming the first Muslim
When her husband received his first revelation from the Angel Gabriel, she was the first person — among both male and females — to convert to Islam. According to some sources, it was Khadijah's parental cousin, Waraqah ibn Nawfal, who informed Muhammad of his prophet hood soon after his vision of the angel. [2]
Khadijah did not hesitate to embrace Islam at all, trusting to her husband's teachings. Yahya ibn `Afeef is quoted saying that he once came, during the period of Jahiliyyah (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," he said, "I saw a man who came out of a place not far from us, faced the Ka`ba 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." 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 Khadijah bint 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 Quraish, sacrificing her vast wealth to promote Islam, seeking Allah's Pleasure.
She remained at his side and supported him throughout his mission to spread Islam.
[edit] Death — 619 or 623
Muhammad took no other wife until after her death because of his love for her.
The year of her death is known as the Year of Sorrow, because of the devastation that it caused him and it was also the same year in which his uncle and guardian Abu Talib died. She was either 64 or 68 years old (having been born in AD 555). [1] Her body was buried in Mecca.[2] Many scholars place the events of Year of Sorrow in 619, prior to hijra, and use these events as part of the reason for the Prophet's emigration.
[edit] Muslim views
[edit] Ibn Kathir
Ibn Kathir, the famous Islamic scholar and commentator on the Qur'an writes in his book Wives of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)[3]:
| “ | Khadijah had been the first to publicly accept Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) as the Messenger of Allah, and she had never stopped doing all she could to help him. Love and mercy had grown between them, increasing in quality and depth as the years passed by, and not even death could take this love away. The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) never stopped loving Khadijah, and although he married several more wives in later years and loved them all, it is clear that Khadijah always had a special place in his heart. Indeed whenever 'Aisha, his third wife, heard the Prophet speak of Khadijah, or saw him sending food to Khadijah's old friends and relatives, she could not help feeling jealous of her, because of the love that the Prophet still had for her.
Once Aisha asked him if Khadijah had been the only woman worthy of his love. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) replied: "She believed in me when no one else did; she accepted Islam when people rejected me; and she helped and comforted me when there was no one else to lend me a helping hand." It had been related by Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) that on one occasion, when Khadijah was still alive, Jibril came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and said, "O Messenger of Allah, Khadijah is just coming with a bowl of soup (or food or drink) for you. When she comes to you, give her greetings of peace from her Lord and from me, and give her the good news of a palace of jewels in the Garden, where there will be neither any noise nor any tiredness." After the Prophet's uncle, Abu Talib, and his first wife, Khadijah, had both died in the same year, the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and his small community of believers endured a time of great hardship and persecution at the hands of the Quraish. Indeed the Prophet, who was now fifty years old, name this year 'the Year of Sorrow.' |
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[edit] Shi'a views
[edit] The Favorite Wife
The following view of Khadijah can be found in the Shi'a book Fatima The Gracious:
| “ | As for Lady Khadijah, she was a beautiful, tall, light skinned woman, considered noble among her people; she was wise in decision-making, enjoyed a great deal of intelligence and sharp discernment. She bestowed her brilliant insight of economical principles, especially in the export and import field, on the trade market. This was Khadijah the human, the woman, and the wife; on the other hand, she granted thousands of dinars to her husband to use as he saw fit. Thus, Khadijah's financial support had a great role in strengthening Islam during its prime days, when it was still in the formation stage and critically needed material aid. Allah foreordained Khadijah's property to help Islam and fulfill its goals.
Muhammad said in this regard: "No property has ever been so useful to me as Khadijah's." While in Mecca, the Prophet used this property to free slaves, help the needy, support the poor and rescue his financially inflicted companions. He also paved the way for those who wished to immigrate; all this through Khadijah's wealth from which he spent freely during her life; and when she died, he and her children inherited it. [1] Therefore, the meaning of the Islamic Prophet's saying ... becomes clear: "Religion succeeded and became manifest only through Ali's sword and Khadijah's property." [1][4] |
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[edit] Relatives
Sons:
Daughters: From Khadija the Prophet Muhammad had four daughters:
- Zainab who was married to her maternal cousin Abu Al-'As bin Al-Rabi' and that was before Al-Hijra
- Ruqayya was married to Uthman ibn Affan
- Umm Kulthum too was married to Uthman ibn Affan after the death of her sister Ruqayya
- Fatimah the youngest was married to 'Ali bin Abi Talib
(According to Shia sources she only had one daughter, Fatimah. The rest either belonged to her sister or orphaned girls raised by her, or all of them where Khadijah's but only Fatimah was born to the Prophet (p.b.u.h).)
Sister:
Cousins:
- Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum
- Waraqah ibn Nawfal
[edit] See also
Daughters: The lady Khadija(A. S) and Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.W) had four daughters, the yougest daughter, "The sinless and The princess of the ladies of Heaven", is Fatimah (Salam Ullah-e-Aliyaha)
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Wife of the Prophet Muhammad (SAWAS)
- ^ Muhammad, Farkhanda Noor.Islamiat for Students. Revised Edition 2000: pp. 74-75.
- ^ http://www.islamawareness.net/Muhammed/ibn_kathir_wives.html
- ^ Fatima The Gracious page 29
