The Al-Fateh Mosque (Bahrain)

• Ummul Momineen Hazrat Khadija (RA)

Introduction

Hazrat Khadija (RA) was the first and the most beloved wife of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). She had the honour of being first woman to embrace Islam. She was not reluctant to spend her wealth in the way of Allah. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had deep love and respect towards her, not just because she was his first wife and mother of his children, but because she was the first convert to Islam. She converted immediately after hearing about the first revelation of the Holy Qur’an, and in fact, she was the one who assured him about the incident.

Narrated Hazrat Abu Huraira: Gabriel came to the Prophet and said, “O Allah’s Apostle! This is Khadija coming to you with a dish having meat soup (or some food or drink). When she reaches you, greet her on behalf of her Lord (i.e. Allah) and on my behalf, and give her the glad tidings of having a Qasab palace in Paradise wherein there will be neither any noise nor any fatigue (trouble).  (Sahih Bukhari) 

Prophet's Trip To Damascus

When the commercial caravan of the Quraysh was ready to start moving towards Damascus and the Prophet, too, had made provisions for the trip and was about to join the caravan, Khadija ordered her servant, Masara, to accompany him to Damascus and be always ready to serve him.

 This journey brought about many blessings and much good fortune, such as enormous profits in commerce, the manifestation of the Prophet's wonderful personality to the people in the caravan, the meeting with the Christian monk, the prediction of his prophecy,  and the preliminary causes of an auspicious matrimonial union. When the trading was over, the caravan returned from Damascus.

Masara explained the trip to Khadija in detail, reporting the huge, unprecedented profits they had gained. She also spoke about the Prophet's excellent character and his generosity, as well as his many other virtues manifested during this journey.

Upon hearing this and hearing about the predictions of a learned Jewish man about his divine character and his marriage with the most honorable woman of the Quraysh, Khadija not only started to cherish his love in her pure heart, but also came to realize that he was her ideal husband.

Also, her uncle, Waraqah ibn Nawfal, had talked to her about tile predictions of the last prophet and about the good news of his marriage with Khadija.  These words, too, added to her love and enthusiasm.

Hazrat Khadija's Proposal of Marriage

Hazrat Khadija (RA) asked her close friend Nafisa about her secret. Nafisa went to the Prophet (SAW) with this proposal and asked, 'Why do you not get married?' He answered, 'My living conditions and financial situation do not allow me to get married'.

Nafisa said, 'Will you agree to get married if this problem is solved and a rich, beautiful, and honorable woman from a well-known famIntroductionly asks you to marry her?'
He asked, 'Who is this woman you are talking about?' Nafisa answered, 'Khadija'.
He said, 'How is it possible? She has rejected the proposals of many of the Quraysh aristocrats and rich men. Would she marry me?' Nafisa said, 'This union is possible and I will arrange it'.

When he became quite sure of Khadija's inclination towards marriage with him, the Prophet talked to his uncles about the matter. They were very pleased with this good news, and they attempted to arrange the marriage for their blessed nephew. And finally this auspicious marriage was celebrated with special ceremonies.

 The Prophet's uncles asked for Khadija hand

The Prophet's uncles proceeded towards Khadija's house and asked for her hand from her father (or uncle) who at first rejected them but later agreed to the proposal.
Without doubt, an appropriate sum of money had to be presented to Khadija as her dowry; how could it be obtained? And who would donate it?

This was a difficult question at hand, until Khadija once again surprised everyone by giving four thousand dinars as a gift to the Prophet, and urged him to pay it to her father as her dowry. Although according to another historical finding, it was Abu Talib who paid the dowry from his own money.

Even though Khadija was a woman of high standards who sacrificed material gains to achieve honor, her father, Khuwaylid, possessed contradicting values. This difference between Khadija and her father is not rare between parents and their children; in fact, this ideological difference can also be found between various classes of people, brothers, spouses, and parents.

Khadija's payment of the dowry was a unique, amazing and unforeseen act; for the Arabs were not acquainted with women giving dowries to their husbands. Thus, it was not unexpected of Abu Jahel to incite an envious commotion and say:

"O people, we have thus seen men paying dowries to women; we are not used to women giving dowry to men" In answer to this, Abu Talib angrily replied:
"What is the matter with you? O you wicked man! Men like Muhammad are to be given gifts and grants, but your likes give gifts that people always reject."
or he said:

"If it was a man like my nephew then the greatest dowries are to be granted to him, but men like you cannot get married save by paying large sums of money."
The blessed wedding took place in the best possible way, the Messenger moved in with Hadrat Khadija (RA) who felt that she was going through the happiest period of her life, because she had reached her best wishes and sweetest dreams. 

The Holy Prophet’s Children from Khadijah

Khadija gave birth to several children of whom only four daughters survived: Zainab (RA), Umme Kulthum (RA), Ruqiya (RA), and Fatima-Zahra (RA) who was the youngest and most exalted of them all. 

 Sons

• Qasim (RA) the elder one
• Abdullah(RA) the younger one
  
  
  Daughters
• Ruqayyah (RA)
• Zaynab (RA)
• Umme Kulsum (RA)
• Fatimah (RA)
  
  
  
  

Hazrat Khadija used to trade; Hazrat Ayesha was a teacher of Quran and Sunnah from whom even the elderly Sahabas (blessed companions of the Prophet Muhammad) used to acquire knowledge; Hazrat Zainab was famous for her charitable deeds. All of them were a great strength of Islamic society in every way. With their kindness; love and strength of character, they spread the message of Islam in the far and wide. It is indeed a duty of Muslim women to get enlightened with the virtues of Ummha tul Momineen (Mothers of the Believers) and live life with its true purpose.

The best of the women of her time

Abdullah ibn Jafar (RA) reported that he heard Sayyiduna Ali say in Kufa that Allah's Messenger, (RA) said, "The best of the women of her time was Maryam, daughter of Imran, and the best of the women of her time was Khadijah, daughter of Khuwaylid."

Is it not a great honor that the first person to embrace Islam was a woman? She was the first to bear witness that there is no god except Allah and that her husband was the Messenger of Allah. Her husband was our beloved Prophet Muhammad, (SAW) and she was called Khadijah, (RA) She was also called Thaira, meaning 'pure'.

Khadijah, (RA) came from a noble family. Her father Khuwaylid had been one of the most honoured leaders of their tribe until he was killed in battle. Her husband had also died, leaving her a very wealthy woman. When Muhammad (SAW) was still a young man, she entrusted him with some of her wealth, asking him to trade with it in Syria on her behalf. He was already well known for his honesty, truthfulness and trustworthiness. He returned from Syria after having made a large profit for Khadijah.

After hearing his account of the journey, she decided that he would make the best of the husbands, even though many of the most important nobles of the Quraish had already proposed to her and had been refused, and in due course she proposed to him. After the Prophet's uncle, Abu Talib, had given the proposal of marriage, Muhammad (SAW) and Khadijah (RA) were married. At the time of the marriage, the Prophet was twenty-five years old, while Khadijah was forty years old.

No one except Allah of course, knows more about a man than his wife, both his good and his bad qualities, his strengths and his weaknesses. The more Khadijah came to know about her husband, the more she loved and respected him. Everyone in Makka called him 'al-Amin', which means 'the trustworthy one', and she, more than anyone else, knew how fitting this name was. It became Muhammad's custom each year to spend the month of Ramadan in seclusion and reflection in a cave on the mountain of Hira, which is on the outskirts of Makka. Khadijah would always make sure that he was provided with food and drink during his retreat. Towards the end of one Ramadan, when he was forty and Khadijah fifty-five, Muhammad (SAW) suddenly appeared at their house in the middle of the night, trembling with fear and saying, "Cover me up, cover me up!"

Hazrat Khadijah was very alarmed to see him in such a state. Quickly she wrapped a blanket around his shoulders and, when he had calmed down, she asked him to describe exactly what had happened. He told her how a being whom he had never seen before - in fact it was the angel Jibril - had suddenly appeared to him while he was asleep and had said, "Read!"

"But I cannot read," he had replied, for he was unlettered and could neither read nor write. "Read!" the angel had repeated, clasping Muhammad close to his chest. "I cannot read," he had repeated. "Read!" the angel had repeated, firmly embracing him yet again. "What shall I read?" he had asked in desperation, and the angel had replied:

Read, in the Name of thy Lord who created, created man from a clot, Read, and thy Lord is the Most Gracious, Who taught with the pen, taught man what he did not know.(Quran 96:1-5)

Although Muhammad (SAW) did not fully realize it at the time, this was the beginning of the revelation of the Qur'an; but in that first encounter with the angel Jibril, Muhammad was very frightened, for he did not know who the angel Jibril was or what was happening. He woke up and ran out of the cave only to find Jibril still in front of him, and whenever he turned away from him, there Jibril was in front of him yet again, filling the horizon with his mighty yet beautiful form.

"Oh Muhammad," said Jibril eventually, "you are the Messenger of Allah and I am Jibril," and with these words he disappeared from Muhammad's sight.

After the angel had disappeared Muhammad (SAW) had clambered down the mountain as fast as he could run, not knowing if he was going mad and imagining things, or if he had been possessed by one of the jinn.

As she listened to Muhammad's (SAW) words, Khadijah did not share any of these fears. She realized that something tremendous and awe-inspiring had happened to her husband, and she was certain, knowing him as she did, that he was neither mad nor possessed. "Do not worry," she said, "for by Him who has dominion over Khadijah's soul, I hope that you are the Prophet of this nation. Allah would 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."

When Muhammad (SAW) as a little more relaxed, Hazrat Khadijah (RA) took him to see her cousin, Waraqa ibn Nawfal, for he was a man of knowledge, and she was sure that he would be able to explain the meaning of what had just happened to her beloved husband. Waraqa had studied the books of both the Jews and the Christians very closely and he had learned a great deal from many of their wisest people. He knew that the coming of another Prophet had been foretold by both Moses and Jesus, peace be on them, and he knew many of the signs that would confirm the identity of this Prophet when he appeared.

After listening closely to his story, Waraqa, who was both old and blind, exclaimed, "This is the same being who brought the revelations of Allah to Moses. I wish I was young and could be alive why our people will drive you out."

"Will they drive me out?" asked Muhammad (SAW)

"Yes," replied Waraqa. "No one has come with what you have been given without being treated with enmity; and if I were to live until the day when you are turned out, then I would support you with all my might. Let me just feel your back." So, saying, Waraqa felt between the Prophet's shoulder-blades and found what he was feeling for: a small round, slightly raised irregularity in the skin, about the size of a pigeon's egg. This was yet another of the many signs that Waraqa already knew would indicate the identity of the next Prophet after Jesus, (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

"This is the Seal of the Prophet hood!" he exclaimed. "Now I am certain that you are indeed the Prophet whose coming was foretold in the Torah that was revealed to Moses and in the Injil that was revealed to Jesus, (pbut) You are indeed the Messenger of Allah, and the being who appeared to you on the mountain was indeed the angel Jibril!"

Hazrat Khadijah as both overjoyed and awed to find that her understanding of what had happened on the mountain had been confirmed. Not long after this incident, Muhammad (SAW) was commanded in a subsequent revelation from Allah, through the angel Jibril, to call people to worship Allah only, and it was at this point that Khadijah did not hesitate in expressing in public what she had now known for certain in secret for some time: " I bear witness that there is no god except Allah," she said, "and I bear witness that Muhammad(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) is the Messenger of Allah."

In the years that followed, difficult years in which the leaders of the Quraish did everything in their power to stop the Prophet spreading his message, Hazrat Khadijah (RA) was a constant source of help and comfort to Muhammad (SAW) in the difficulties which he had to face. All her wealth was spent in the way of Allah, helping to spread the message of her husband, helping to free slaves who had embraced Islam, and helping to feed and shelter the community of Muslims that slowly but surely began to grow in numbers and strength.

The Quraish were infuriated by the Prophet's success and did everything in their power to discourage both him and his followers, often inflicting awful tortures on them, but without success. The situation became so bad that the Prophet told some of his followers to go to Abyssinia, where their ruler, the Negus, who was a sincere Christian gave them shelter and protection. Eventually there came a time when, as Waraqa had foretold, Muhammad and his followers -along with all the members of his tribe, the Banu Hashim were driven out of the city of Mecca and forced to camp out in a small ravine in the mountains nearby. This happened long after Waraqa had died, and about seven years after that extraordinary night of power in which Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) had received the first revelation of Quran through the angel Jibril. There, while their homes lay empty in Mecca, the Muslims were exposed to the bitterly cold nights of winter and the fiery hot days of summer, with very little food and shelter. No one would buy and sell with the Muslims, or allow their sons and daughters to marry any of them. Fortunately those who secretly sympathized with the Muslims would send what food they could to them whenever the chance arose, sometimes by loading provisions onto a camel or a horse and then sending it off at a gallop in the direction of the camp, hoping that the animal would not stop or get lost before it reached its intended destination.

For three years the small Muslim community lived a life of hardship and deprivation, but although they suffered from hunger and thirst, and from exposure to heat and cold, this was a time in which the hearts of the first Muslims were both purified and also filled with the light of knowledge and wisdom. The Muslims knew that they were following the truth, and so nothing else mattered. They did not care what the Quraish did to them or said about them. Allah and His Messenger were enough for them!

It was during this period that the Muslims who had sought shelter in Abyssinia returned, only to find the situation even worse than when they had left it. Not long after, many of them returned to Abyssinia, their numbers swelled by those whom the Prophet (SAW had told to accompany them. Finally the boycott was lifted and the Muslims were allowed to reenter the city; but the three years of hardship had taken their toll. First of all the Prophet's uncle, Abu Talib, who was by then more than eighty years old, died; and then a few months later, during the month of Ramadan, Khadijah also died, at the age of sixty-five, may Allah be pleased with her. The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) mourned her deeply. They had shared twenty-five years of marriage together and she had given birth to five of his children. Only one of the Prophet's future wives, Maria the Copt, would give him another child, Ibrahim, and he, like Qasim, was destined to die when he was still very young, at the age of eighteen months.

Hazrat Khadijah had been the first to publicly accept Muhammad (SAW) 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 (SAW) never stopped loving Khadijah, and although he married several more wives in later years and loved them all, it is clear that Hazrat 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 Hazrat Aisha (RA) asked him if Hazrat Khadijah (RA) had been the only woman worthy of his love. The Prophet (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." 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 (SAW) 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 (SAW) 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.'

In private his dearest wife was no longer present to share his life; and in public the insults that he received from the Quraish multiplied, now that he had no longer had the protection of his dead uncle. Even when he journeyed to Ta'if, a small city up in the mountains outside Mecca, to call its people to worship Allah, he was rejected and stoned by them. It has been related by Aisha that on his way back to Mecca, Jibril appeared to the Prophet (SAW) and said, "Allah, may He be exalted and glorified, has heard what the people have said to you and how they have responded to your invitation, and he has sent the angel in charge of the mountains so that you can tell him what you want him to with them." Then the angel in charge of the mountains called out to him and greeted him and said, "O Muhammad, Allah has listened to what your people have said to you. I am the angel in charge of the mountains, and your Lord has sent me so that you can order me to do whatever you want. If you wish, I can bring the mountain of the outskirts of Mecca together so that they are crushed between them." But the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said to him, "Rather I hope that Allah will make their descendants a people who will worship Allah alone, without ascribing any partners to him."

It was a while after this that following Surah was revealed:

In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate

By the morning hours, and by the night when it is stillest, Your Lord has not for sake you nor does He hate you, And truly what comes after will be better for you than what has come before, And truly your Lord will give to you so that you will be content. Did he not find you an orphan and protect you? Did he not find you wandering and guide you? Did he not find you destitute and enrich you? So do not oppress the orphan, And do not drive the beggar away, And speak about the blessings of Your Lord. (Quran 93:1-11)

And so it happened. After three years of constant struggle, a relative of his, called Khawla, went to him and pointed out that his house was sadly neglected and that his daughters needed a mother to look after them. "But who can take the place of Hazrat Khadijah?" he asked. Hazrat "Aisha, the daughter of Hazrat Abu Bakr (RA), the dearest of people to you," she answered. Abu Bakr (RA) had been the first man to accept Islam and he was the Prophet's closest companion. Like Khadijah, he had done all that he could do to help the Prophet (SAW), and had spent all his wealth in the way of Allah. However, while the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was now fifty-three years old, Aisha as only a little girl of seven. She was hardly in a position to look after either the Prophet's household or children. "She is very young." Replied the Prophet (SAW). Khawla had a solution for everything. She suggested that he marry at the same time a lady called Sawda, the widow of Al-Sakran ibn 'Am

The Prophet spent 25 years of his life with Khadija, who was not only a loving wife for him, but also his best and most helpful companion.  This period is considered to be the best period of his married life.

Hazrat Khadija (RA), was the first woman who believed in the Prophet's divine prophecy. She put all her wealth at his disposal to propagate and promote Islam.  Six children were born of his marriage: two sons named Qasim and Tahir who passed away as infants in Makkah and four daughters named Ruqiya, Zaynab, Umm Kulsum, and Fatima, who was the most prominent and honoured of them all.

Hazrat Khadija (RA) was so devoted to her husband and showed such great sympathy and self-sacrifice for him and for the promotion of his religion that not only did he love her dearly and respect her highly during her lifetime, but even after her death. Each time he remembered her, his blessed heart filled with sorrow and he wept at her loss. Khadija's brilliant sun of life set at the age of 65, ten years after the actualization of the prophetic mission of the Prophet. In this way, the house of our Holy Prophet became deprived of the light of Khadija's existence forever