Siti Khadijah Binti Khuwailid.

Siti Khadijah Binti Khuwailid.

Description: Lady Khadijah was the first wife of Prophet Muhammad SAW. Prophet Mohammad SAW was twenty-five, while Khadijah had reached her forty. She was a widow and twice married. He was at the peak of his youth. Impressed by Muhammad’s honesty and moral character, she sends a relative to propose marriage. They were married for twenty five years until her death.

The Mother of the Believers

She was the first person to embrace Islam. Through every persecution, Khadijah binti Khuwailid was his sole companion and helper. Khadijah played a major contribution in the establishment and spread of the Islamic civilization. All his children were born from her, except Ibrahim. ‘Aishah RA said: “I never felt jealous of any of the wives of the Prophet SAW as I did of Khadijah, although she died before he married me, because of what I heard him say about her.”

Khadijah came from a noble family, her father, Khuwailid, was one of the most honoured leaders of their tribe. Her husband had also died, leaving her as a very wealthy woman of Makkah. When Muhammad was young, she entrusted him to trade missions to Syria. Muhammad known for his honesty, truthfulness and trustworthiness, returned from Syria with large profit. Impressed with the account of his journey, she soon decided to propose him as her husband. Many eminent nobles of the Quraish had proposed to her earlier but she turned them down. Muhammad and Khadijah were married when Prophet's uncle, Abu Talib bin Abdul Muttalib gave his blessing.

For fifteen years, they lived together happily and Khadijah bore several children. Their first child, a son whom they named Qasim, died when he was only two years old. Abdullah too died in the infancy. Muhammad and Khadijah also had four daughters who survived: Zainab, Ruqaiyah, Umm Kalthum and Fatimah. Khdijah has a daughter, Hind, from her previous marriage. In their household there was also Zaid ibn Harithah. Zaid was an Arab from the tribe of Kalb who was captured as a boy and brought to Makkah to be sold in the slave market. He was bought by Khadijah's nephew and put in her service. Zaid became attached to Muhammad and devoted himself to his service. Their relationship was like that of a son to a father.

The more Khadijah came to know about her husband, the more she loved and respected him. Everyone in Makkah called him 'Al-Amin', which means 'the trustworthy one', and she, more than anyone else, knew how fitting this name.

It became Muhammad's custom each year to spend the month of Ramadhan in seclusion and reflection in a Mountain on the outskirts of Makkah. One his favorite retreat is the Cave of Hira’ on the Jabal Nur', which is. Khadijah always made sure that he had enough food particularly Sawiq, and drink during his retreat. This was until that day came, when Muhammad returned home trembling with fear saying:

"Cover me! Cover me!"

Muhammad was swarmed with the trauma, Khadijah consoled him put him to sleep on her laps. When he recovered Muhammad then he related to his wife:

"While I was in the cave, the angel Jibril (Gabriel) came to me and said: 'Recite.' I replied: 'I cannot recite'. So he took me and embraced me tightly, then let me go and repeated the order: ‘Recite.’ ‘I cannot recite,’I said , and once again he embraced me till I was exhausted then released me. Then he ordered once more: ‘Recite.’ I proclaimed: ‘I cannot recite!’ He embraced me for a third time and after releasing me said:

"Recite in the name of your Lord who created. Created man from a clinging substance. Recite and your Lord is the most Generous." [Al-'Alaq: 96:1-3]

Then I went out until I was at the mountain, I heard a sound coming from the sky saying: 'O Muhammad! You are the Messenger of Allah and I am Jibril.' So I raised my head up to see, and I saw Jibril spreading his wings throughout the horizon saying: 'O Muhammad! You are the Messenger of Allah and I am Jibril." Then I stopped in my place, gazing, and did not walk forward or backward until he went away. And here I am, O mother of 'Abdullah (Khadijah)!"

Khadijah said to the Prophet: "O father of Al-Qasim! I sent some of my messengers to look for you and they looked everywhere and did not find you, then they returned." Then she smiled and said: "Cheer up, my dear husband; for I hope that you are the prophet of this nation. Allah will never humiliate you, for you are good to your relatives, you are true to your word, you help those who are in need, you support the weak, you feed the guest and you answer the call of those who are in distress."

After that, she went with the Prophet to meet her cousin, Waraqah bin Nawfal bin Asad bin 'Abd Al-'Uzza, who had embraced Christianity in the pre-Islamic period and used to write the Bible in Hebrew. He was elderly and had become blind.

Khadijah said: "O My cousin! Listen to your nephew!" Waraqah enquired: "O my nephew! What did you see?" The Messenger of Allah told him what had happened to him. Waraqah replied, "This is the Namus (i.e., the Angel who is entrusted with the Divine messages) that Allah sent to Musa (Moses). I wish I were younger. I wish I could live to the time when your people will drive you out."

Muhammad asked: "Will they drive me out?"

Waraqah answered in the affirmative and said: "Anyone who had come with something similar to what you have brought was treated with hostility, and if I should live to that day, then I would strongly support you."

This hadith is related in both of the two most authentic collections of the Prophet's traditions prepared by Al-Bukhari and Muslim, and also related by Imam Ahmad in his collection.

At-Tabaari also relates the following hadith, on the authority of 'Abdullah ibn Al-Zubair:

The Prophet SAW said: "While I was asleep he came to me carrying a case of a very rich material in which there was a book. He said: "Read". I replied: "I am not a reader." He pressed me so hard that I felt that I was about to die. Then he released me and said, 'read'. I asked: 'What shall I read?' (I said this only out of fear that he might repeat what he had done to me before.) He said: 'Read: in the name of your Lord who created. It is He who created man from clots of blood. Read! Your Lord is the Most Bounteous, who has taught the use of the pen. He has taught man what he did not know.' I read it. He stopped. Then he left me and went away. I woke up feeling that it was actually written in my heart."

The Prophet went on to say: "No man was ever more loathsome to me than poets or deranged persons. I could not bear even looking at either.

I thought: 'The man [meaning himself] is undoubtedly a poet or deranged. This shall not be said about me amongst the Quraish. Let me climb higher up the mountain and throw myself down and get rid of it all.

I went to carry out this intention. When I was halfway up the mountain, I heard a voice coming from the heavens saying: 'Muhammad, you are the Messenger of God and I am Gabriel.' I raised my head up to the sky and I saw Gabriel in the image of a man with his feet next to one another up on the horizon.

He said again: 'Muhammad, you are the Messenger of God and I am Gabriel.' I stood in my place looking up at him; he distracted me from my intention. I was standing there unable to move.

I tried to turn my face away from him and to look up at the sky, but wherever I looked I saw him in front of me. I stood still, moving neither forward nor backward.

Khadijah sent her messengers looking for me and I remained standing in my place all the while until they went back to her. He then left me and I went back to my family." (At-Tabaari)

Khadijah was a constant source of help and comfort for him through the difficulties which he had to endure. All her wealth was spent in the way of Allah in helping to spread the Message of Islam, to free slaves who had embraced Islam, and to feed and shelter the community of Muslims that slowly began to grow in numbers and strength.

After a great deal of hard work and sincere effort, Khadijah reached a high level and an exalted position amongst the Muslims. It was related by Abu Hurairah that on one occasion when Khadijah was still alive, Jibril came to the Prophet SAW and said:

"O Messenger of Allah! Khadijah is 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."

'Ali bin Abu Talib narrated that the Allah's Messenger SAW said: "The best of the world's women is Maryam [Mary] in her lifetime. The best of the world's women is Khadijah [in her lifetime]."

Khadijah lived as an honorable, free woman and died as a merciful believing woman, for the Prophet SAW said after her death: "Allah has not blessed me with a woman like Khadijah: she believed in me at a time when people were disbelievers; she comforted me by her money at a time when people prohibited me; and Allah has blessed me with children from her, amongst all of my wives."