Lady Khadija was born in Mecca in 68 BC / 556 AD, into a house of
noble lineage, prestige, faith, and purity of conduct. Her father was Khuwaylid
bin Asad bin Abd al-Uzza bin Qusay al-Qurashiyya al-Asadiyya, and her mother
was Fatima bint Zaida, a Qurayshi from the Banu Amir bin Lu’ay.
Before Islam, she was known as al-Tahira (the Pure). As soon as
Khadija (may God be pleased with her) reached marriageable age, she became the
object of desire for the young men of Quraysh and the noble Arabs. She was a
woman of sound judgment and noble lineage, from one of the most distinguished
families of Quraysh.
She married Abu Hala ibn Zurara ibn al-Nabbash al-Tamimi and lived
with him for a short time, bearing him two children, Hind and Hala. He then
passed away, leaving her a considerable fortune.
After him, she married Atiq ibn A'idh al-Makhzumi, who also passed
away after she had a daughter with him named Hind (Imam al-Dhahabi and
al-Baladhuri).
Khadija (may God be pleased with her) was among the
wealthiest women of Mecca, possessing a large trading business. She would send
men on her trading expeditions to Syria and Yemen, carefully selecting those
she was confident would safeguard her capital and increase her profits. She
only chose men whose integrity, business acumen, and extensive experience she
trusted. When she heard about the Prophet Muhammad's truthfulness,
trustworthiness, and noble character, she offered him the opportunity to trade
her merchandise in Syria, promising him a better reward than she gave to other
merchants. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, accepted. He set out
on her trading expedition, accompanied by her servant, Maysarah. Upon their return
from Syria, having made a substantial profit,
Maysarah told her of the Prophet's excellent character and great
trustworthiness, which won her heart.
The Prophet's return from Syria with Khadijah's caravan was one of
the first signs of his impending marriage to her. Nafisa bint Munya narrated,
saying, "Khadija bint Khuwaylid was a resolute, strong, and noble woman,
blessed with honor and goodness by God." At that time, she was of the most
distinguished lineage among the women of Quraysh, the most honorable, and the
wealthiest. All her people were eager to marry her if they could. They sought
her hand and offered her money. She sent me secretly to Muhammad after he
returned from her caravan in Syria. I said, "O Muhammad, what prevents you
from getting married?" He said, “I have nothing with which to marry.” I
said, "If you were provided for and invited to wealth, beauty, honor, and
suitability, would you not accept?" He said, “Who is she?” I said,
"Khadija." He said, “How can I do that?” She said: I said, "It
is up to me." He said:
Then I will do it. So I went and told her, and she sent word to
him: Come at such and such an hour. So she sent word to her uncle, Amr ibn
Asad, to give her in marriage. He came, and the Messenger of God, may God bless
him and grant him peace, entered with his uncles, and one of them gave him in
marriage. Amr ibn Asad said, "This stallion's nose cannot be cut."
The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace,
married her when he was twenty-five years old, and she was forty years old at
that time. She was born fifteen years before the Year of the Elephant (The
Prophetic Biography, as in Uyun al-Athar).
Khadija lived with the Prophet for fifteen years before his
prophethood, showering him with care and attention. These were the years during
which Khadija was occupied with bearing her children, with the exception of
Abdullah, who was born after the prophethood. She had children named Zaynab,
Ruqayya, Umm Kulthum, Qasim (after whom the Prophet was known), Fatima
al-Zahra, and then Abdullah, who was known as al-Tayyib al-Tahir. Khadija was
busy raising her children until Qasim passed away.
During this time, the Prophet asked his uncle Abu Talib, who had
many children, to give him Ali to raise, to ease his burden. When al-Awwam ibn
Khuwaylid died, he left behind Zubayr, who was two years old. Khadija decided
to take him under her wing and care for him. Then, when Hakim bin Hizam bin
Khuwaylid came from Syria with slaves, among them Zayd bin Haritha, his aunt
Khadija entered upon him, and she was at that time with the Messenger of God.
He said to her: Choose, O aunt, whichever of these boys you wish, and he is
yours." , "Choose,So she chose Zayd and took him. The Messenger of
God saw him with her, so he asked her to give him to him, and she gave him to
him. So the Messenger of God freed him and adopted him, and that was before he
was given revelation prohibiting adoption. So he was like a son to Khadija, and
she took good care of him. And this good upbringing had a great effect on these
people following the light of Islam, so Ali was the first of the boys to
embrace Islam, and Al-Zubayr was among the first to enter Islam. Zayd ibn
Haritha was the second of the boys to convert to Islam after Ali.
The Prophet Muhammad continued his journey by secluding himself
and worshipping in the cave of Hira, away from people. Lady Khadija was busy
with the family and providing for their needs while she was engaged in her
trade, from which she spent on the family. Nevertheless, she would go to him in
the cave of Hira to provide him with food and drink (Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani).
Al-Bukhari narrated in his Sahih on the authority of Aisha,
the Mother of the Believers, that she said, “The first revelation to the
Messenger of Allah was true dreams in sleep. He would not see a dream except
that it came true like the break of dawn. Then seclusion was made dear to him,
and he would retreat to the cave of Hira and devote himself to worship there
for a number of nights before returning to his family. He would take provisions
for this, then return to Khadija and take provisions for a similar period. Then
the truth came to him while he was in the cave of Hira. The angel came to him
and said, ‘Read!’ He said, ‘I cannot read.’ The angel seized him and squeezed
him until he was exhausted, then released him and said, ‘Read!’ He said, ‘I
cannot read.’ The angel seized him and squeezed him a second time until he was
exhausted, then released him and said, ‘Read!’ He said, ‘I cannot read.’ The
angel seized him and squeezed him a third time, then released him and said:
‘Read! In the Name of your Lord, Who has created (all that exists), Has created
man from a clot (a piece of thick coagulated blood). Read! And your Lord is the
Most Generous, Who taught by the pen, Has taught man that which he knew not.
(Surat Al-Alaq: 1-5)
The Messenger of God returned with it, his heart trembling. He
entered upon Khadijah bint Khuwaylid and said, “Cover me, cover me!” So they
covered him until his fear subsided. He said to Khadijah and told her what had
happened, “I feared for myself.” Khadijah said, “Never! By God, God will never
disgrace you. You maintain ties of kinship, you bear the burdens of the weak,
you provide for the destitute, you are hospitable to guests, and you assist
those afflicted by misfortune.”
Lady Khadijah took her husband, our master the Messenger of God,
to her cousin Waraqah ibn Nawfal, the elderly blind man. He had knowledge from
the Book (the Gospel), so she said to him, "O cousin, listen to your
nephew." Waraqa said to him, "O nephew, what do you see?" So the
Messenger of God told him what he had seen, and Waraqa said to him, “This is
the same law that God revealed to Moses. I wish I were a young man then; I wish
I were alive when your people drive you out.” The Messenger of God said, “Will
they drive me out? He said, "Yes, no man has ever brought what you have
brought without being opposed." If I live to see that day, I will support
you with all my might. Then Waraqa did not live long after that, and the
revelation ceased.
Lady Khadija witnessed the descent of the revelation, both the
Quran and the commandments. When Gabriel taught the Prophet ablution and prayer
before the five daily prayers were made obligatory, she prayed with the Prophet
on the very day Gabriel taught him. He then went to Khadija and told her, and
she fainted with joy.
Then he took her hand and led her to Zamzam, where he performed
ablution to show her how. Then he instructed her to do the same, and he led her
in prayer as Gabriel, peace be upon him, had led him. Thus, Khadija was the
first to believe, the first to remain steadfast, the first to perform ablution,
and the first to pray (Shihab al-Din al-Qastalani).
Khadija transitioned from her role of strengthening and giving
glad tidings to her role of supporting and assisting the Prophet in conveying
the message, confronting the polytheists, and dealing with their rejection and
aggression. Whenever he heard something from the polytheists that he
disliked—rejection and denial—God would relieve him through her. She would
strengthen him, affirm his truthfulness, ease his burden, and make light of
what he faced from his people. She suffered greatly when her daughters,
Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum, were divorced by Utbah and Utaybah, the sons of Abu
Lahab, in response to the polytheists' demands. Then she grieved once more when
her daughter Ruqayyah left her, having emigrated with her husband, Uthman ibn
Affan, to Abyssinia. Uthman ibn Affan was the first to emigrate to God with his
family after our master “Lot,” peace upon him.
The Quraysh conspired to besiege the Prophet and his followers,
severing all ties with them and anyone who defended them. They decreed in a
document they hung inside the Kaaba: they would neither marry them nor give
their daughters in marriage to them; they would neither trade with them nor buy
from them; they would neither shelter them nor speak to them nor sit with them
until they renounced their faith.
During this siege, Khadijah faced two choices: either to join her
tribe in besieging the Prophet and his followers in the valley of Abu Talib,
with all the comforts that entailed, or to stand with the Prophet and his
followers, with all the hardship and suffering that entailed. Khadija bint
Khuwaylid chose to leave her tribe, the powerful and influential Banu Asad, and
join her husband, the Prophet Muhammad, and his companions from the Banu Hashim
clan, enduring their hunger, weakness, and hardship for three long years.
Abdullah ibn Abbas, who was born in the valley, said, “We were
besieged in the valley for three years. They cut off our supplies, to the point
that a man would go out with provisions and not even be able to pledge
allegiance until he returned, until some perished.” The siege ended when Hisham
ibn Amr, Zuhayr ibn Abi Umayya al-Makhzumi, Abu al-Bakhtari ibn Hisham, Zam’a
ibn al-Aswad, and al-Mut’im ibn Adi conspired to nullify the boycott agreement
and worked diligently to achieve their goal.
Khadija bint Khuwaylid died three days, or some say more, after
the death of the Prophet’s uncle, Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib, in Ramadan,
three years before the Hijra, in 619 CE, at the age of sixty-five. The
Messenger of God buried her in al-Hajun, and he grieved for her and descended
into her grave. Misfortunes continued to befall the Messenger of God with the
deaths of Abu Talib and Khadija, for they were among his staunchest supporters
and defenders. The persecution of the Quraysh intensified, to the point that
some threw dust on his head and others threw the placenta of a sheep on him
while he was praying. The year in which Abu Talib and Khadija died was called
the Year of Sorrow.
The Prophet remained loyal and cherished his affection for Khadija
both during her life and after her death. Aisha exemplifies the Prophet's
loyalty to Khadija in a narration by Ahmad on the authority of the Mother of
the Believers, Aisha, who said, "Whenever the Prophet (peace and blessings
be upon him) mentioned Khadija, he would praise her highly. One day I became
jealous and said, 'How often you mention her! That red-cheeked woman! God
Almighty has given you someone better than her.' He replied, 'God Almighty has
not given me anyone better than her. She believed in me when people disbelieved
in me, she affirmed my truth when people denied it, she comforted me with her wealth
when people deprived me, and God Almighty blessed me with children through her
when other women did not bear me children.'" Another example of loyalty is
what was narrated by Anas ibn Malik, who said, "When the Prophet (peace
and blessings be upon him) was given something, he would say, 'Take it to
so-and-so, for she was a friend of Khadija,' or 'Take it to so-and-so's house,
for she loved Khadija.'" And what Ibn al-A'rabi narrated in his dictionary
on the authority of the Mother of the Believers, Aisha, who said, "An old
woman came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while I was with
him. The Messenger of God asked her, 'Who are you?' She replied, 'I am Jathama
al-Muzaniyya.' He said, 'Rather, you are Hassana al-Muzaniyya. How are you? How
are things? How have you been since we last met?' She said, 'We are well; may
my father and mother be sacrificed for you, O Messenger of God.' When she left,
I said, 'O Messenger of God, why did you show such kindness to this old woman?'
He replied, 'She used to visit us during Khadija's time, and honoring past
relationships is part of faith.'" And what Ahmad ibn Hanbal narrated in
his Musnad on the authority of 'Abbad, on the authority of Aisha, the wife of
the Prophet, who said, "When the people of Mecca sent ransom for their
captives, Zaynab, the daughter of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be
upon him), sent money to ransom Abu al-'As ibn al-Rabi', and she included a
necklace with it. This necklace belonged to Khadija, and Khadija had given it
to Zaynab when she married Abu al-'As. She said, 'When...' The Messenger of God
saw her and felt deep compassion for her. He said, "If you see fit to
release her captive and return to her what belongs to her, then do so."
They replied, "Yes, O Messenger of God," so they released him and
returned to her what belonged to her.
تعليقات