Khadijah Bint Khuwaylid

Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (خديجة بنت خويلد‎) was a prudent and forbearing woman. She was of the noblest descent, highest in dignity and the wealthiest of the Quraysh. She was born around 15 years before Aam-ul-Feel (Year of the Elephant) in Makkah. ¹ Her father, Khuwaylid was a famous business man who had died before Harb Al-Fujjar (Sacrilegious War). ² Her family was considered more prestigious and honorable than other families of the locality.

Lineage

Khadija was the daughter of Khuwaylid ibn Asad ibn Abd Al-Uzza ibn Qusai ibn Kilab ibn Murrah ibn Ka'b ibn Lu’ayy ibn Ghalib ibn Fahr. Her mother was Fatima, daughter of Za'ida ibn Al-Asamm ibn Rawaha ibn Hajar ibn Abd ibn Ma'is ibn Amir ibn Lu'ayy ibn Ghalib ibn Fihr. ³

Marriages before Marriage with the Holy Prophet

Khadija was initially married to Ateeq ibn Aabid ibn Abdullah Makhzoomi, and after his death, she was married to Abu Halah ibn Zirarah Tamimi. ⁴ She had a son named Hind ibn Abi Halah from him. Hind ibn Abi Halah was brought up by the Holy

and Khadija . He became a Muslim and fought in the battles of Badar and Uhud alongside the Holy Prophet . ⁵

From Ateeq ibn Aabid Makhzoomi, Khadija had a daughter and she got famous with the title of Umm-e-Hind. ⁶ When her second husband died, she was sent various proposals for marriage by the elite members and famous personalities of the tribe. However, she refused them all due to personal reasons. ⁷

Character

Khadija was one of those women who was famous for her lineage, honor, dignity, character, wealth, kindness, generosity and business. ⁸ Although she was born and raised in a society which was plagued by

, she refrained from polytheistic and immoral practices because her Uncle Warqa ibn Naufil was a refuter of . ⁹ She was also aware of the fact that a would arrive from the descendants of Banu Ishmael, as she was given this information by Warqa ibn Naufil. ¹⁰

Business Activities

According to historians, Khadija inherited a great fortune from her parents and husbands, which she invested in many businesses. Since she could not travel with the trade caravans, she would invest in many business ventures as a sleeping partner. ¹¹ At that time, Yemen and Syria were the major trading centers for the Arabs, thus, their trade caravans would go towards Syria during summers, and towards Yemen in winters. ¹²

Marriage with Prophet Muhammad

Many accurate and inaccurate narrations regarding the events of Khadija's wedding with

Muhammad’s have been recorded by Muslims and non-Muslims. One narration states that Prophet Muhammad refused to marry Khadija since he did not have any money, and accepted it on the pretext that Khadija would pay for everything. Muhammad ibn Saad narrates:

  عن نفيسة بنت منية قالت: ... فأرسلتني دسيسا إلى محمد بعد أن رجع في عيرها من الشام. فقلت: يا محمد ما يمنعك أن تزوج؟ فقال: ما بيدي ما أتزوج به. قلت: فإن كفيت ذلك ودعيت إلى الجمال والمال والشرف والكفاءة ألا تجيب؟ قال: فمن هي؟ قلت: خديجة. قال: وكيف لي بذلك؟ قالت قلت: علي. قال: فأنا أفعل. فذهبت فأخبرتھا. فأرسلت إليه أن ائت لساعة كذا وكذا… ¹³

  Nafisah bint Munyah narrates… Khadijah secretly sent me to Muhammad when he returned after his business trip from Syria. I (Nafisa) said: O Muhammad ! What stops you from marriage? He said: I do not have any means to marry. I (Nafisa) said: If you get enough means, and you get a proposal from (a lady of) beauty, wealth, dignity and equal status, will you accept? He inquired: who is she? She replied: Khadijah . He asked: How will it be possible? I said: I shall arrange that. He said: I agree. So, she went and informed her (Khadijah).

Other reliable accounts state that this was not the first business trip or the first occupation of

Muhammad . Imam Bukhari states that the Holy used to graze the sheep of the Makkans at Qararit. ¹⁴ Akber Shah Najeebabadi states that Muhammad accompanied various trade caravans with his merchandise and returned with a substantial profit. He also narrates that the Holy took Khadija’s trade caravans to Bahrain, Yemen and Syria and returned with a profit every time. ¹⁵ Ibn Kathir states that Khadija offered the Holy with better business terms than other merchants, ¹⁶ which means that Muhammad earned a good profit in this transaction. All these narrations clarify the fact that Muhammad was although not as wealthy as Khadija , but had enough means to support himself and his family.

Furthermore, Ibn Hisham states that when the Holy

married Khadija , he gave her 20 young camels as Maher (Dower) ¹⁷ which cost a fortune in those days. Another quotation by Imam Dolabi, which was recorded by Zurqani, states that he gave her 12 Auqia silver and each Auqia was the equivalent of 40 dirhams. ¹⁸ One Dirham is roughly equal to 3 grams which means that he gave her 1500 grams of silver. This shows that he had the means to marry and support a family independently. Hence, the narration mentioned above is weak, and that is why eminent historians such as Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Hisham, Ibn Kathir and others have not included it in their works. Additionally, this narration is not recorded in the major books of Ahadith as well.

Another false account states that Khadija made her father drunk and tricked him in accepting her marriage with the Holy

. The account is mentioned as:

  …ذكر خديجة، وكان أبوها يرغب أن يزوجه، فصنعت طعاما وشرابا، فدعت أباها ونفرا من قريش، فطعموا وشربوا حتى ثملوا، فقالت خديجة لأبيھا: إن محمد بن عبد الله يخطبني، فزوجني إياه. فزوجها إياه فخلعته وألبسته حلة، وكذلك كانوا يفعلون بالآباء، فلما سري عنه سكره، نظر فإذا هو مخلق وعليه حلة، فقال: ما شأني، ما هذا؟ قالت: زوجتني محمد بن عبد الله. قال: أنا أزوج يتيم أبي طالب لا، لعمري. فقالت خديجة: أما تستحي تريد أن تسفه نفسك عند قريش؟ تخبر الناس أنك كنت سكران؟ فلم تزل به حتى رضي. ¹⁹

  The Holy Prophet mentioned Khadija and said that her father was not willing to let her daughter marry Prophet Muhammad . Hence, Khadija arranged a banquet and invited some of the elite people of the Quraysh. They (including her father) all ate and drank until they became extremely intoxicated. At that moment, Khadija told her father that Prophet Muhammad had sent a proposal for marriage so (she requested him to) please marry her to him. Her father agreed to marry her to the Holy Prophet so Khadija had him (her father) dressed in special clothes (according to Arabic customs). When the marriage was conducted and her father came to his senses, he looked at his clothes and asked: what has happened? Why am I dressed like this? His daughter told him that you have married me to Prophet Muhammad . He said how can I marry you to an orphan of Abu Talib? I swear this can never happen. On this, Khadija said that if you say such things, won’t you be ashamed in front of the people of Quraysh? She kept on convincing him until he agreed.

Regarding this account, Ahmed ibn Hanbal states that the chain of narrators of this hadith is extremely weak. ²⁰ The same view is held by Bayhaqi as well. ²¹ Ibn Saad adds that the whole narration appears to be false and wrong. The approved version is that Khadijah's father had died before, in the Battle of Al-Fujjar and that Amr ibn Asad had given Khadijah into marriage with Holy

. ²²

Children

Being a wife, Khadijah was also a friend to her husband, the sharer of his inclinations and ideals, to a remarkable degree. Their marriage was wondrously blessed, and fraught with great happiness, though not without sorrows of bereavement. ²³ She was the mother of all the children of the Holy

except Ibrahim . The names of her children were: Qasim , Tahir , Tayyab , Zainab , Ruqayya , Umm Kulthum and Fatima . Qasim , Tayyab , and Tahir died in age of Jahiliya before Muhammad’s declaration of prophethood. All her daughters lived on, accepted Islam, and migrated with their father to Madinah. ²⁴

Demise

Khadijah passed away in the same year as Abu Talib, ²⁵ around 3 years before Hijrah (the migration) at the age of 65, ²⁶ and was buried in Jannat ul Muallah in Makkah.

 

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• ¹ Muhammad bin Saad Al-Basri (1990), Tabqat Al-Kubra, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyah, Beirut, Lebanon, Vol. 1, Pg. 105.
• ² Muhammad bin Jareer Abu Jaffar Al-Tabri (1387 A.H.), Tareekh Al-Tabri, Dar Al-Turath, Beirut, Lebanon, Vol. 2, Pg. 282.
• ³ Muhammad bin Ishaq bin Yasar Al-Madani (2009), Al-Seerah Al-Nabawiyah Li Ibne Ishaq, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyah, Beirut, Lebanon, Pg. 129.
• ⁴ Abul Hasan Ali bin Abi Al-Karam Al-Shaibani Al-Jazri (1994), Usud Al-Ghabba fi Ma’rifat Al-Sahaba, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyah, Beirut, Lebanon, Vol. 7, Pg. 80.
• ⁵ Abul Fida Ismael bin Kathir Al-Damishqi (1998), Jami Al-Masanid, Maktaba Al-Nahdha Al-Haditha, Makkah, Saudi Arabia, Vol. 8, Pg. 369-370.
• ⁶ Muhammad bin Saad Al-Basri (1990), Tabqat Al-Kubra, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyah, Beirut, Lebanon, Vol. 8, Pg. 11-12.
• ⁷ Ibid, Vol. 1, Pg. 105.
• ⁸ Ali bin Ibrahim bin Ahmed Al-Halabi (1427 A.H.), Al-Seerah Al-Halabiyah, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyah, Beirut, Lebanon, Vol. 1, Pg. 199.
• ⁹ Muhammad Abdul Malik bin Hisham (2009), Al-Seerah Al-Nabawiyah, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyah, Beirut, Lebanon, Pg. 171-172.
• ¹⁰ Ibid, Pg. 151.
• ¹¹ Abul Fida Ismael bin Kathir Al-Damishqi (2011), Al-Seerah Al-Nabawiyah, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyah, Beirut, Lebanon, Pg. 51.
• ¹² Abul Faraj Abdul Rehman bin Al-Jawzi (1422 A.H.), Zaad Al-Maseer, Dar Al-Kitab Al-Arabi, Beirut, Lebanon, Vol. 4, Pg. 494.
• ¹³ Muhammad bin Saad Al-Basri (1990), Tabqat Al-Kubra, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyah, Beirut, Lebanon, Vol. 1, Pg. 105.
• ¹⁴ Muhammad Bin Ismael Bukhari (1999), Sahih Al Bukhari, Hadith: 2262, Darus Salam, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Pg. 360.
• ¹⁵ Akber Shah Najeebabadi (2000), The History of Islam, Darus Salam, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Vol. 1, Pg. 98.
• ¹⁶ Abul Fida Ismael bin Kathir Al-Damishqi (2011), Al-Seerah Al-Nabawiyah, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyah, Beirut, Lebanon, Pg. 51.
• ¹⁷ Muhammad Abdul Malik bin Hisham (2009), Al-Seerah Al-Nabawiyah, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyah, Beirut, Lebanon, Pg. 150.
• ¹⁸ Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Abdul Baqi Al-Zarqani (2012), Sharah Al-Allamatu Al-Zarqani Ala Al-Mawahib Al-Ladunya Bi Al-Manhi Al-Muhammadiya, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyah, Beirut, Lebanon, Vol. 1, Pg. 378.
• ¹⁹ Abu Abdullah Ahmed bin Muhammad bin Hanbal Al-Shaibani (2001), Musnad Ahmed bin Hanbal, Hadith: 2849, Muasasatu Al-Risala, Beirut, Lebanon, Vol. 5, Pg. 46.
• ²⁰ Ibid, Pg. 47
• ²¹ Abu Bakr bin Ahmed Al-Hussain Al-Bayhaqi (2008), Dalail Al-Nabuwwah, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyah, Beirut, Lebanon, Vol. 2, Pg. 72.
• ²² Muhammad bin Saad Al-Basri (1990), Tabqat Al-Kubra, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyah, Beirut, Lebanon, Vol. 1, Pg. 105.
• ²³ Martin Lings (1985), Muhammad ﷺ his life based on the Earliest Sources, Suhail Academy, Lahore, Pakistan, Pg. 37.
• ²⁴ Muhammad bin Ishaq bin Yasar Al-Madani (2009), Al-Seerah Al-Nabawiyah Li Ibne Ishaq, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyah, Beirut, Lebanon, Pg. 130.
• ²⁵ Ibid, Pg. 271.
• ²⁶ Izzuddin ibn Al-Athir Ali bin Muhammad Al-Jazri (2003), Usud Al-Ghabba Fi Ma’rifat Al-Sahaba, Maktaba Al-Tawfiqiya, Cairo, Egypt, Vol. 7, Pg. 81.