Khadijah bint Khuwaylid

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Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (خديجة بنت خويلد‎) (555 – 619 AD) was the first wife of Muhammad and also his distant cousin. Belonging to the Bani Asad tribe, Khadijah was the daughter of Khuwaylid bin Asad bin. ‘Abd al-‘Uzza bin Qusayy, the Grand son Qusayy.

Love affair with Muhammad

Abu Talib, the uncle of Muhammad found the size of his family increasing faster than his ability to provide for them. Hence he thought Muhammad, now aged about twenty-five, should be able to provide for himself. He made an offer to Muhammad to accompany a mercantile expedition for Khadijah. Abu Talib approached Muhammad and addressed him in these words: "I am as thou knowest, a man of small substance; and truly the times deal hardly with me. Now here is a caravan of thine own tribe about to start for Syria, and Khadija daughter of Khuweilid needeth men of our tribe to send forth with her merchandise. If thou wert to offer thyself, she would readily accept thy services. Mahomet replied: "Be it so, as thou hast said." Thus Muhammad goes on this Mercantile trip and he doubled the stock, or nearly so.^[1]

Muhammad returned from this successful trip and met Khadijah. She was a wealthy woman aged forty who ran her own business. Though she was born into a rich family, much of her wealth came from her two previous marriages, from which she had borne two sons and a daughter. She cast a fond eye upon this thoughtful youth of five-and-twenty; and when he departed, she could not dismiss him from her thoughts. Upon deciding to know Muhammad and his heart, she sends her sister (alternatively, some say her servant) to speak to Muhammad. William Muir records the conversation:

"What is it, O Mahomet;' said this female, adroitly referring to the unusual circumstance of his being unmarried at so mature an age,-" what is it which hindereth thee from marriage?" "I have nothing" replied he, "in my hands wherewithal I might marry." "But if haply that difficulty was removed, and thou wert invited to espouse a beautiful and wealthy lady of noble birth, who would place a position of affluence, wouldest thou not desire to have her?" "And who," said Mahomet, startled at the novel thought, "may that be?" "It is Khadija" "But how can I attain unto her?" "Let that be my care," returned the female. The mind of Mahomet was at once made up: he answered, "I am ready." The female departed and told Khadija.^[2]

Controversial Marriage

As soon as she (Khadijah) received consent from Muhammad, she sent word to Muhammad of the time of marriage. Worryingly though, she found resistance from Khuwaylid, her father. Here is where the controversy sparks off. Some narrations describe the event of marriage as follows:

Khadijah provided for her father a feast. When Khuwaylid had well drunk and was happy, she slaughtered a cow, and casting over her father perfume of saffron or ambergris, dressing him in marriage raiment. thus, while under the effects of wine, the old man united his daughter to Muhammad in the presence of his uncle Hamza. When he recovered his senses, he began to look around himself in wonder, and to enquire as to what these symptoms of a nuptial feast; the slaughtered cow, the perfumes, and the marriage garment should mean. As soon as he was made aware of the deception, (for they told him "The nuptial dress was put upon thee by Mahomet, thy son-in-law) Khuwaylid fell into a passionate rage, declaring he would never consent to giving away his daughter to an insignificant youth, a daughter that had been courted by all the great men of the Quraysh. The party of Muhammad replied indignantly that this alliance had not been conceived by them, but by no other than his very own daughter. Weapons were drawn on both sides, and blood might have been shed, had not the old man then become pacified, allowing reconciliation to ensue. ^[3]

William Muir’s foot note

It is also instructive to quote William Muir’s foot note on reference 3; here it is in full:

It is not without much hesitation that I have followed Sprenger and Weil in adopting this version of the marriage. It has a strongly improbable air; but its very improbability gives ground for believing that it has not been fabricated. it is also highly disparaging to the position of Mahomet at a period of his life when it is the object of his followers to show that he was respected and honoured. Its credibility is therefore sustained by the Canon III. C laid down in chap. i. of the Introduction. There was no object in vilifying Khuweilid or the Bani Asad; and, even if it is possible to suppose the story fabricated by Mahomet's enemies before the conquest of Mecca, it would (if resting on no better foundation) have fallen out of currency afterwards. We seem therefore to have no option but to receive it as a fact, which later traditionists have endeavoured to discredit, under the impression that it was a foul spot on their Prophet's character that Khadija, the pattern of wives, should have brought about her marriage with Mahomet by making her father drunk. See Canon 11. L

Wackidi gives the narrative twice in a differing form, and from different traditions, (the variety of source thus giving it a wider and less doubtful foundation); but he adds that the whole story is a mistake, as Khuweilid, the father of Khadija, had died previously, and even before the sacrilegious war. Katib al Wackidi, p.25. Yet we have seen above that his name is given as one of the Commanders in that war. Tabari quotes the tradition from Wackidi, word for word, together with his refutation, (p.67). Both add that not her father, but her uncle, Amr ibn Asad, betrothed her. Yet other traditions, containing no allusion to his drunkenness, speak of her father as having given her away (Tabari, p 65); and Hishami's account, which is fused from a variety of traditions by Ibn Ishac, while containing no reference to the drunken fray, states clearly that Khuweilid was the party who betrothed her. We are therefore driven to the conclusion that the tradition of Khuweilid's previous death has been invented, to throw discredit on the story of his drunkenness. Wine shops were common in Mecca before Islam; but drunkenness, though occasionally mentioned, does not seem to have been a general or common failing. Hishami adds to his statement that Mahomet gave his wife a marriage present of twenty young she-camels.

Children of Muhammad by Khadijah

Khadijah bore to Muhammad, two sons and four daughters. The first born, (a boy) was named Qasim (Abdul Qasim), who died within two years, of his birth. And then came Zaynab the eldest of Muhammad’s daughters. Followed by, the other three daughters Ruqayyah bint Muhammad, Fatima, and Umm Kulthum bint Muhammad,. Last of all was born his second son, who is variously named Abd Menaf, Abdallah, Tayib, and Tahir.

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References

↑ LIFE OF MAHOMET. Volume II. Chapter 2,WIlliam Muir, [Smith, Elder, & Co., London, 1861] pg. 15-17
↑ LIFE OF MAHOMET. Volume II. Chapter 2,WIlliam Muir, [Smith, Elder, & Co., London, 1861] pg. 23
↑ LIFE OF MAHOMET. Volume II. Chapter 2,WIlliam Muir, [Smith, Elder, & Co., London, 1861], pg. 24

[1] LIFE OF MAHOMET. Volume II. Chapter 2,WIlliam Muir, [Smith, Elder, & Co., London, 1861] pg. 15-17

[2] LIFE OF MAHOMET. Volume II. Chapter 2,WIlliam Muir, [Smith, Elder, & Co., London, 1861] pg. 23

[3] LIFE OF MAHOMET. Volume II. Chapter 2,WIlliam Muir, [Smith, Elder, & Co., London, 1861], pg. 24

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