 This
noble lady, known to us as Mother of the Believers (Ummul Momineen) and
the first wife of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saw), was the first
person ever to accept Islam after it had been revealed to him by Jibreel
(Angel Gabriel).
There is a truly beautiful story told by Yahya ibn Afeef about an
occasion when he visited Makkah to stay with Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib,
one of the uncles of Prophet Muhammad (saw).
When the sun started rising, he said, "I saw a man who came out of a
place not far from us, faced the Kaaba, 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 himself, they, too,
prostrated themselves."
Then he expressed his amazement at that, saying to Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, "This is quite strange, Abbas!"
"Is it really?" retorted Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, who asked his
guest if he knew who this man was and went on to tell him, "He is
Muhammad ibn Abdullah, my nephew. Do you know who the young boy is?"
When Yahya ibn Afeef said that he didn't know, he was told, "He is
Ali ibn Abi Talib. Do you know who the woman is?" The answer came again
in the negative, to which Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib said, "She is
Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, my nephew's wife" (Ahmad and At-Tirmidhi).
Lady Khadija (sa) was an "eye-witness" of the birth of Islam. She
nursed it through its infancy, through its most difficult, and through
its most formative years. Islam was given shape and design in her home.
If any home can be called the cradle of Islam, it was her home. She
"reared" Islam. If any home can be called the "axis" of Islam, it was
her home; Islam revolved around her home. Her home was the "home" of
Glorious Qur'an - the Book of Allah (SWT), and the religious and
political code of Islam. It was in her home that Jibreel (Angel Gabriel)
was bringing Revelations from Heaven for ten years.
Lady Khadija (sa) was one of the greatest women of the world and her rank is as high as the great Mary/Maryam the mother of Prophet Jesus/Isa (pbuh).
Prophet Muhammad (saw) says about her: "Four greatest women of the
world are: Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, Fatimah bint Muhammad, Mary bint
Emran and Asiya bint Muzahim, the wife of Pharaoh."
Khadija tul Kubra (sa), combined in her person all those attribute,
which add up to perfection. Malikatul Arab was the ideal woman, the
ideal wife for the Seal of Prophets, Prophet Muhammad (saw), and the
ideal mother.
As the saying goes "Islam did not rise except through Ali's sword and
Khadija's wealth." Let us take a peep into the life of this blessed
lady and hope to understand her enormous contribution to Islam.
After the death of her father Khuwaylid, Lady Khadija (sa) took
charge of the family business, and as a result, it rapidly expanded.
With the profits she made, Lady Khadija (sa) helped the poor, the
widows, the orphans, the sick and the disabled. If there were any poor
girls, Lady Khadija (sa) married them off, and gave them dowry.
When Prophet Muhammad (saw) married Lady Khadija or Khatija (sa), she
brought many dowries into Prophet Muhammad's (saw) house. No woman in
all of Arabia has ever done that. Lady Khadija's (sa) dowry included
slaves, real estate property, pasture lands, herds of camels and horses,
flocks of goats and sheep, her personal wardrobe, priceless heirlooms,
precious metals and stones, and masses of gold and silver coins.
Lady Khadija (sa) wanted everything that belonged to her to also
belong to her precious and beloved husband, Prophet Muhammad (saw). Lady
Khadija's (sa) dowry, as big as it was, was not a gift from her uncles
or siblings; rather it was all a product of her own hard work. As a
Successful Business Women, she produced it by her own intelligence,
industry, prudence, and foresight. After marriage Lady Khadija's (sa)
primary focus was to make her husband's life happy and pleasant.
Khadija tul Kubra (sa) so earnestly and with such great love and
devotion rested full authority of all her wealth on Prophet Muhammad
(saw), to ease the difficulties and release the pressure on new Muslim
converts, that Almighty Allah (SWT) brought her great generosity to the
attention of Prophet Muhammad (saw) with the descending of the following
verse which says: "Did He not find you needy, and enrich you?"
(Glorious Qur'an 93:8)
 Lady
Khadijah (sa), the wife, the companion and the friend of Muhammad
Mustafa (saw), the Messenger of Allah (SWT), and the benefactress of
Islam and the Muslims, fell ill. Her illness was brief and fatal. All
her life she had lived in the midst of abundance and luxury but the
three years of exile between 616-619 CE, had been a time of excessive
austerity for her which inevitably took its toll.
When Islam came under mounting pressure from its enemies, Lady
Khadijah (sa) sacrificed her comforts, her wealth and her home for it;
and now it would appear that she sacrificed her life too, in the way of
Islam. Without a doubt, if she had lived in her palatial house in
Makkah, surrounded by her maid-servants, she might have lived for many
more years. But she preferred to stand by her husband and his clan, and
to share the hardships of life with them. During the siege, she had to
endure not only the pangs of hunger and thirst but also the extremes of
heat in summer and cold in winter; yet she never complained to her
husband about them. Whether times were good or bad, whether she had
plenty or she had nothing, she was always cheerful. Austerity and
privation never soured her. It was this temperament that was an
unfailing source of comfort, courage and strength for her husband during
the blackest and trying moments of his life.
During the years of the siege, Lady Khadijah (sa) spent all her
fortune on buying essentials like food and water for the clan of her
husband. When she returned to her house, her last cent was gone; and
when she died, there was not enough money available in the house to even
buy her shroud. A cloak of her husband was used as a shroud for her,
and she was given a burial in it.
Lady Khadijah (sa) has collected more "firsts" in the history of
nascent Islam than anyone else. She was the first wife of the last
messenger of Allah. She was the first woman Believer. She was the very
first mortal to declare that the Creator was only One, and that Muhammad
(saw) was His Messenger. The glory and honor of being the first woman
believer in the whole world, is hers to all eternity.
Next to her husband, she was the very first individual who heard the
Voice of Revelation. She was the first person who offered prayers to
Allah (SWT) with her husband. Whenever prophet Muhammad (saw) went into
the presence of Allah (SWT), she was his constant companion. She was the
first Mother of Believers. She was the only wife of Muhammad Mustafa
who did not have to co-exist with a co-wife. All the love, all the
affection and all the friendship of her husband, were hers and hers
alone - exclusively!
Prophet Muhammad (saw) forever remembered Lady Khadija (sa) with
love, affection and gratitude. Her death filled his heart with deep pain
and sorrow. Lady Khadija (sa) expired on the 10 Ramadhan
of the 10th year of the Proclamation of Islam at the age of 65 in 619
CE, and was laid to rest in Al-Hujun, Makkah al-Mukarramah.
Prophet Muhammad (saw) himself dug the grave and descended into her
grave to lay in it for a few moments. He (saw) smoothed the earth on her
grave after the burial. As in the same year Prophet Muhammad (saw) also
had to bear the loss of his affectionate uncle Hazrat Abu Talib (as).
The deaths of these two friends - Lady Khadija (sa) and guardian uncle
Hazrat Abu Talib (as) - were the greatest shocks that Prophet Muhammad
(saw) had to endure in the fifty years of his life, he (saw) named the
year "Aam-ul-Huzn" the year of sorrow/grief.
These two deaths were a great blow to Prophet Muhammad (saw) and his
mission. Everything looked dark and dismal. Prophet Muhammad (saw) was
now without a guardian and Imam Ali (as) without a father. The loss of
Khadijah (sa) was also a big loss to both of them. She had given twenty
eight years of her life and all that she possessed to Prophet Muhammad
(saw) to spend on the cause of Islam, and Imam Ali (as) had lost a
mother in whose laps he had grown. Prophet Muhammad (saw) was left alone
with Imam Ali (as) and his daughter Fatimah al-Zahra (sa) who was just eight years old.
Lady Khadijah (sa) had a great value in the eyes of Prophet Muhammad
(saw) to the extent that he (saw) did not marry a second woman while she
was alive. Aisha,
one of Prophet Muhammad's (saw) wives, narrates: "The Prophet never
left our house unless he reminded well of Khadijah." Aisha also
narrates: "Whenever, Prophet Muhammad (saw) slaughtered a lamb he would
say: 'Send this to friends of Khadijah.' Once I asked for the reason of
this action and he (saw) replied: 'I like friends of Khadijah as well.'"
After Lady Khadija (sa) demise, Prophet Muhammad (saw) regarded her
many times as a great woman. Once, years after Lady Khadija (sa) died,
Prophet Muhammad (saw) came across a necklace that she once wore. When
he saw it, he remembered her and began to cry and mourn. His love for
her never died, so much so, that his later wife Aisha became jealous of
her. Once she asked the Prophet Muhammad (saw) if Khadijah (sa) had been
the only woman worthy of his love. The Prophet Muhammad (saw) 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."
Prophet Muhammad (saw) always remembered Khadija tul Kubra (sa) and
moaned, "Never did Allah (SWT) give me a better wife than Khadijah. She
hailed my mission at a time when everybody shouted against it. She lent
me the support of her conviction when there was hardly a believer. She
enlivened my heart when I felt lonely and deserted. Khadijah's love was
given to me by Allah (SWT). How could I forget her?"
Prophet Muhammad (saw) at another time remarked his beloved wife
Khadijah (sa) as "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
(SWT) granted me children by her while depriving me of children by other
women." From Khadijah (sa), Prophet Muhammad (saw) got son Qasim. Qasim
was born before the advent of Islam and died in his infancy. But the
Arabs always addressed Prophet Muhammad (saw) as Abul Qasim.
 On
another occasion, Aisha said to Prophet Muhammad (saw), when he
mentioned Khadija (sa) in her presence: Sahih Bukhari Hadith: Volume 5,
Book 58, Number 168:
Narrated Aisha: Once Hala bint Khuwaylid, Khadija's sister, asked the
permission of Prophet to enter. On that, the Prophet remembered the way
Khadija used to ask permission, and that upset him. He said, "O Allah!
Hala!" So I became jealous and said, "What makes you remember an old
woman amongst the old women of Quraish an old woman (with a toothless
mouth) of red gums who died long ago, and in whose place Allah has given
you somebody better than her?"
Prophet Muhammad (saw) became very angry at this until his hair
stood. Moreover, al-Bukhari narrated that Aisha confessed: Sahih Bukhari
Hadith: Volume 5, Book 58, Number 166:
I did not feel jealous of any of the wives of Prophet as much as I
did of Khadija though I did not see her, but the Prophet used to mention
her very often, and when ever he slaughtered a sheep, he would cut its
parts and send them to the women friends of Khadija. When I sometimes
said to him, "(You treat Khadija in such a way) as if there is no woman
on earth except Khadija," he would say, "Khadija was such-and-such, and
from her I had children."
Considering her high position, it might be easier to realize why she
gained the glory of being Prophet's wife and the honor of being mother
of Fatimah al-Zahra (sa), the Lady of all women of the worlds.
 Aisa Sharaf Kisi Ko Jahan Main Mila Nahe
Sab Beeviyun Main In Sa Koi Doosra Nahe
Perkho Kisi Bhi Rukh Say Natija Koi Bhi Ho
Azwaaj Aur Bhi Hain Khadija Koi Nahe |
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