Khadīja

Arab merchant and religious leader

• Born: c. 554
• Birthplace: Mecca, Arabia (now in Saudi Arabia)
• Died: 619
• Place of death: Mecca, Arabia (now in Saudi Arabia)

Khadīja was the first convert to Islam. Her support of her husband, the prophet Muḥmmad, and his revelations, and her conversion, helped lead the way to the promotion of Islam. She used her wealth to support his mission and to promote the spread of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula.

Early Life

Khadīja (Khah-DEE-jah) was born in Mecca, in the western part of the Arabian Peninsula, to Khuwaylid ibn Asad and Fāimah bint Zaidah. Her father was a successful merchant and businessman, and his wealth and the family’s position as a member of the powerful Quraysh tribe combined to make the family prominent in the city of Mecca. Khadīja’s mother died around 575, and when Khadīja’s father died about ten years later, Khadīja and her siblings inherited his businesses and wealth, and Khadīja inherited her father’s business skills.

Already wealthy from her inheritance, Khadīja soon demonstrated her intellectual abilities and own commercial savvy. She sent trade caravans to various locations in the region, making substantial profits on these trips; some sources refer to her as the richest trader in the city of Mecca. Her ability to expand her wealth and her consistent success in business earned her the nicknames princess of the Quraysh and princess of Mecca.

Nevertheless, Khadīja was not known only for her wealth; her nobility of character and her good morals also earned her the nickname “al-tahira” (the pure one). Khadīja was known to use her prominence in Meccan society and her wealth for the good of others, undertaking charitable activities such as providing assistance to orphans and funds for poor people to marry and set up households.

Before her father’s death, Khadīja married and was widowed. Some sources mention only one husband, others mention two husbands; a very small minority assert that Khadīja was never married before her marriage to Muḥammad. Most sources agree that Khadīja had at least two sons with her first husband, and that both of these sons later died in battle.

Life’s Work

Khadīja’s wealth did not allow her to travel with her trade caravans; doing so would deviate from what was expected of “respectable” widows. Instead, she hired agents to act on her behalf. In 595, on the recommendation of several of her relatives, she hired the twenty-five-year-old Muḥammad ibn ՙAba Allāh, a distant cousin, to accompany her trade caravan to Syria and conduct her commercial affairs there. Although Muḥammad did not have much experience in this field, having only observed trading negotiations previously, he had already earned a reputation in Mecca as an honest, reliable man; he was known throughout Mecca as al-Amin (the trustworthy).

When Muḥammad returned from Syria, he brought with him enormous profits some sources estimate the profits were at least twice what Khadīja expected to earn from the trade. One of Khadīja’s servants, Maysarah, who had accompanied the caravan, provided Khadīja with glowing accounts of Muḥammad’s conduct and business skills; Khadīja’s relatives were also impressed with this young man. Khadīja employed Muḥammad again, this time for an equally profitable trip into the southern region of the Arabian Peninsula (now Yemen). Khadīja decided that despite her decision not to marry again, Muḥammad was a remarkable man with an outstanding character who would be an ideal husband. Muḥammad was also impressed with Khadīja’s character, but as she had rejected offers of marriage from some of the wealthiest and most elite men of Mecca, he did not anticipate any possibility of marriage. Khadīja therefore initiated the union, first through sending one of her friends to discuss the matter with Muḥammad and then through discussions with her relatives. Shortly thereafter, with the consent of their families, the two were wed.

Khadīja was twice widowed before her marriage to Muḥammad; both husbands died during the frequent tribal warfare in the Arabian Peninsula during this era. She and her first husband, Abū Hālah Hind ibn Zarah, had three sons (Hind, Hālah, and al-Ṭāhir). Although most scholars believe that Khadīja’s four daughters were by Muḥammad, a small minority argue that her first three daughters were by her second husband, Ateeq ibn ՙAaith, and some assert that the first three were in fact Khadīja’s nieces who grew up in her household. Khadīja and Muḥammad also had at least two sons, both of whom died as infants. The four daughters who survived into adulthood were Zaynab, Ruqayyah, Umm Kulthūm, and Fāimah (c. 605-633).

Khadīja and Muḥammad lived happily together, devoting themselves to their family and to each other, for approximately fifteen years. Both continued to feel compassion for those less fortunate and to offer their assistance to widows, to orphans, and to the poor. During this time, Muḥammad began exploring questions of religion and faith and listening to the discussions of others. He often retreated to the hills near Mecca to consider and meditate on these issues. During one of these retreats in 610, Muḥammad received the first of his revelations from God. Delivered through the angel Gabriel, this revelation marks the beginning of Muḥammad’s prophethood; the revelations received were later recorded and compiled into the Qur՚ān, the holy book of the new religion of Islam.

Her husband’s revelation changed the course of Khadīja’s life. Muḥammad himself, though impressed with the truth and beauty of the first revelation, was rather troubled by the experience. Returning home in a feverish state, he told Khadīja what had happened. She was convinced that the revelation was indeed from God and that Muḥammad was God’s messenger, and she expressed these views to him. Her immediate and unquestioning acceptance of the revelation and her husband’s role as Prophet not only made Khadīja the first Muslim, or believer in Islam; it also made Khadīja an important, moving figure in the acceptance of Muḥammad and his revelations as worthy and prophetic. Khadīja’s conversion influenced other women to convert as well; as an older, respectable, wealthy woman, she was an influential figure within the Quraysh tribe.

Muḥammad’s status as Prophet was also confirmed by Waraqah ibn Nawfal, one of Khadīja’s cousins who was a Christian. Waraqah compared Muḥammad’s revelation with Christian scriptures, declaring Muḥammad’s experience to be similar to what had happened to Moses. For the first three years after the revelations began, Muḥammad shared them with family and friends, many of whom also began to believe in the revelations. Although some were skeptical, including his uncle, Abū Ṭālib (fl. sixth century), who had raised Muḥammad after the deaths of Muḥammad’s parents, trouble did not begin until Muḥammad began preaching publicly in Mecca in 613. In his public preaching, Muḥammad condemned the worship of the old gods of Mecca, thus angering the city’s elite. Although none dared act directly against the Prophet because of his family’s and his wife’s status in the community, other converts to the emerging religion were not so fortunate. New Muslims of the poorer classes and without powerful families to protect them were harassed, attacked, and seized. This persecution led to the emigration of a group of converts to Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), where they were protected and allowed to worship freely.

Despite these troubling developments, Khadīja’s faith in her husband never wavered. She reassured him when he expressed doubts and frustration. She continued to support him emotionally, intellectually, and religiously, and she continued to use her financial resources to support his mission. The continued financial support of Khadīja had earlier allowed Muḥammad to pursue his spiritual activities, free from the necessity of constantly working to earn a living; now her financial support and her confidence in him enabled him to fully embrace his role as messenger of God. When Khadīja died, neither her husband nor her daughters inherited from her, perhaps an indication that her considerable wealth had either been spent by the time she died or that she had somehow lost her wealth as a consequence of the persecution of the Muslims of Mecca.

In spite of the attacks on the small Muslim community, Muḥammad continued to deliver his message publicly, calling on Meccans to renounce polytheism and worship the one, true God. His activities resulted in a lengthy boycott of the Hashim clan, the clan of the Quraysh tribe to which Muḥammad belonged, by the other clans of the tribe. This boycott was designed to pressure Muḥammad into ceasing his public denunciations and preaching. As leader of the clan, Abū Ṭālib continued to protect Muḥammad, Khadīja, and their family, even though he himself never converted to Islam. When he died, however, the Muslim community lost one of its most influential allies, and Muḥammad began looking for a new base for himself and his followers. Before the Muslim community relocated to the new site (Yathrib, or Medina, in 622), Khadīja died from a fever in Mecca at the approximate age of sixty-five. Although the Prophet remarried several times after her death, Khadīja remained the wife whom he held up to others as an example of piety and faithfulness.

Significance

Khadīja’s significance lies in her belief that Muḥammad’s revelations were authentic and her belief in the consequent religion of Islam. Her support of Muḥmmad and her conversion helped lead the way to the promotion of Islam.

Khadīja is considered to have been an exemplary wife, an exemplary mother, and an exemplary Muslim. Moreover, she is considered by Muslims to be one of the four perfect women in history, in company with Fāimah, one of the Prophet’s daughters; Mary, mother of Jesus; and Asiya, wife of the pharaoh, who rescued Moses from the Nile, according to Muslim belief. Because of her devotion to her husband, to her children, and to God and Islam, Khadīja remains a role model for Muslims.

Bibliography

Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992. This book discusses the changing roles and norms ascribed to Muslim women throughout history. Although the author’s discussion of Khadīja and the early years of Islam is relatively brief, the work is valuable in tracing the development of gender roles in Islamic history.

Denny, Frederick Mathewson. An Introduction to Islam. New York: Macmillan, 1994. This book discusses the religion of Islam and its history, including its foundation and Khadīja’s significance in that history.

Esposito, John, ed. The Oxford History of Islam. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Good general history of the religion and its role in political expansion. Chapters 1 and 2 are most valuable to those interested in Khadīja, as they discuss the foundation of Islam.

Haykal, Muḥammad Husayn. The Life of Muḥammad. Translated by Ismail Ragi A. al-Faruqi. Indianapolis, Ind.: North American Trust, 1976. A translation from a well-known Arabic biography of the Prophet that provides a full and detailed account of Muḥammad’s work. It blends historical information with references to religious texts and Hadith reports. Bibliography, index.

Roded, Ruth, ed. Women in Islam and the Middle East: A Reader. New York: I. B. Tauris, 1999. Provides a collection of original sources on women in Islam in the Middle East, from the Middle Ages through the twentieth century. Looks at the legal, cultural, political, religious, and domestic contexts of women’s experience in a discussion of the Qur՚ān, the foundations of Islam, selective quotation of the Prophet’s words, and the death of Khadīja and Muḥammad’s daughter Fāimah. Bibliography, index.

Rubin, Uri. The Eye of the Beholder: The Life of Muḥammad as Viewed by the Early Muslims. Princeton, N.J.: Darwin Press, 1995. An exploration of Muḥammad’s life from the perspective of his contemporaries, including a chapter on the viewpoints of Khadīja and her cousin Waraqah. Bibliography, index.

Ṭabarī, Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jarir al-. Ta՚rīkh al-rusul wa al-mulūk. Translated and annotated by Ella Landau-Tasseron. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998. Al-Ṭabarī chronicles the early history of Islam and is a valuable source for information on Khadīja and Muḥammad and his companions.

Wadud, Amina. Qur՚ān and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective. 2d ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. The author’s unique reading of the Qur՚ān sheds light on the role of women and relations between women and men presented in the book of Islam. Chapters explore the biases of earlier interpretations and its effects on tradition and Islamic culture and society, equality between men and women, and more. Includes a list of women mentioned in the Qur՚ān, a bibliography, and an index.