Khadijah bint Khuwaylid: Difference between revisions

Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (view source)

Revision as of 13:53, 20 June 2013

19 bytes added , 20 June 2013

m

→‎The Persecution

[checked revision]

1234567

Editors, Reviewers

1,399

edits

@@ Line 109: / Line 109: @@
 Muhammad kept preaching, and the public arguments led to fights in the streets. It was a Muslim who struck the first blow,<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 118.</ref> but when Muhammad continued his “shameless” attacks,<ref>Francis Edwards Peters, ''Muhammad and the Origins of Islam'', p. 169, SUNY Press.</ref> mocking the idols in the Ka’aba, the pagans began a systematic campaign of punishing Muslim slaves and teenagers.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 143-145.</ref> One of the worst offenders was Khadijah’s brother Nawfal, whom the Muslims called “a satan of the Quraysh.” He once tied Abu Bakr to his kinsman Talha ibn Ubaydullah and left them helplessly roped together.<ref>Guillaume/Ibn Ishaq 127-128.</ref> His attitude raises interesting questions about Khadijah’s relationship with her brother – especially as Nawfal’s own son was an early convert to Islam.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 147.</ref> However, while his spiteful prank no doubt caused Abu Bakr and Talha some inconvenience, if this was deemed the action of a “satan”, then the general harassment of freeborn adults was far from life-threatening. The majority of these converts fled to Abyssinia, where the Christian King extended his unqualified protection. Muhammad and Khadijah, being under the protection of Muhammad’s uncle Abu Talib, remained in Mecca.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 146ff.</ref>
-More questions about Khadijah’s family arise over Abu Bakr’s purchase and manumission of seven mistreated slaves,<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 144.</ref> among them Al-Nahdiya bint Habib and her (unnamed) daughter. The story is told of how Al-Nahdiya’s mistress swore never to free them, of how quickly she changed her mind when she heard Abu Bakr’s ransom-offer, and how they dutifully postponed accepting their freedom until they had finished grinding their ex-mistress’s flour.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 144.</ref> But the usual retellings of this story omit one important detail: Al-Nahdiya was Khadijah’s own grand-niece. Khadijah’s sister Ruqayqa had a daughter named Umayma bint Abdullah.<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:1, 180.</ref> There was something irregular about Umayma’s married life: “she went to a foreigner” (whatever this expression means) and married a man from Ta’if. The daughter of this union was the slave Al-Nahdiya bint Habib.<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:180-181. Umayma appears not to have become a Muslim until the conquest of Mecca in 630, hence she was not persecuted.</ref> What is more, Al-Nahdiya’s owner belonged to the rival Abduldar clan.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 144.</ref> It is not clear whether Umayma herself had been for some reason reduced to slavery or whether it was only her daughter, perhaps deemed in some way illegitimate, who was in bondage. Either way, Khadijah could have easily afforded to ransom her nieces if she had wanted to; since she did not, there must have been some social disgrace associated with Al-Nahdiya’s situation that made Khadijah unwilling to help her. For that matter, no other family member helped either. Since the exact chronology of these events is unknown, it is difficult to discern whether there was any connection between Nawfal’s trick with the rope and Abu Bakr’s ransom of Nawfal’s embarrassing nieces. Indeed, it is difficult to calculate overall how much of the harassment of Muslims was due to Islam and how much might be attributed to old quarrels from pre-Islamic times.
+More questions about Khadijah’s family arise over Abu Bakr’s purchase and manumission of seven mistreated slaves,<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 144.</ref> among them Al-Nahdiya bint Habib and her (unnamed) daughter. The story is told of how Al-Nahdiya’s mistress swore never to free them, of how quickly she changed her mind when she heard Abu Bakr’s ransom-offer, and how they dutifully postponed accepting their freedom until they had finished grinding their ex-mistress’s flour.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 144.</ref> But the usual retellings of this story omit one important detail: Al-Nahdiya was Khadijah’s own grand-niece. Khadijah’s sister Ruqayqa had a daughter named Umayma bint Abdullah.<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:1, 180.</ref> There was something irregular about Umayma’s married life: “she went to a foreigner” (whatever this expression means) and married a man from Ta’if. The daughter of this union was the slave Al-Nahdiya bint Habib.<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:180-181. Umayma appears not to have become a Muslim until the conquest of Mecca in 630, hence she was not persecuted.</ref> What is more, Al-Nahdiya’s owner belonged to the rival Abduldar clan.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 144.</ref> It is not clear whether Umayma herself had been for some reason reduced to slavery or whether it was only her daughter, perhaps deemed in some way illegitimate, who was in bondage. Either way, Khadijah could have easily afforded to ransom her nieces if she had wanted to; since she did not, there must have been some social disgrace or personal grudge associated with Al-Nahdiya’s situation that made Khadijah unwilling to help her. For that matter, no other family member helped either. Since the exact chronology of these events is unknown, it is difficult to discern whether there was any connection between Nawfal’s trick with the rope and Abu Bakr’s ransom of Nawfal’s embarrassing nieces. Indeed, it is difficult to calculate overall how much of the harassment of Muslims was due to Islam and how much might be attributed to old quarrels from pre-Islamic times.
 Muhammad warned his opponents of Hellfire, graphically describing how sinners would be “thrown headlong”<ref>{{Quran|26|94}}.</ref> into “a fierce blast of fire and boiling water, shades of black smoke,”<ref>{{Quran-range|56|42|43}}.</ref> to drink “a boiling fluid, and a fluid dark, murky, intensely cold,”<ref>{{Quran-range|38|56|64}}</ref> allowing nothing to survive and nothing to escape, “darkening and changing the colour of man.”<ref>{{Quran-range|74|26|29}}. See also {{Quran|92|14}}. {{Quran-range|89|23|26}}. {{Quran|102|6}}. {{Quran-range|85|4|6}}. {{Quran|85|10}}. {{Quran-range|101|8|11}}. {{Quran-range|90|19|20}}. {{Quran|54|48}}. {{Quran-range|7|36|41}}. {{Quran|7|50}}. {{Quran|7|179}}. {{Quran|72|15}}. {{Quran|36|63}}. {{Quran-range|25|65|69}}. {{Quran-range|35|6|7}}. {{Quran-range|35|36|37}}. {{Quran|19|86}}. {{Quran|20|74}}. {{Quran-range|56|93|94}}. {{Quran-range|28|41|42}}.</ref> Khadijah had to take her share of the warning. When she asked about her children who had died in the days of ignorance, Muhammad replied, “They are in Hellfire. If you saw them, you would hate them.” When she asked about the child that she bore to him, he replied, “He is in Paradise... Verily, the believers and their children will be in Paradise, and the polytheists and their children in the Hellfire.”<ref>"''Khadijah asked Allah’s Apostle about her children who had died in the days of ignorance. Thereupon Allah’s Messenger said: “They are in Hellfire.” When he saw the sign of disgust on her face, he said: “If you were to see their station, you would hate them.” She said: “Allah’s Messenger, what about the child that I bore to you?” He said: “He is in Paradise.” Then Allah’s Messenger said: “Verily, the believers and their children will be in Paradise, and the polytheists and their children in the Hellfire.''” [http://www.oocities.org/tirmidhihadith/page1.html/ Tirmidhi 117.]</ref> Muhammad’s conclusion is interesting in the light of the fact that ''all'' the children in question had died before Islam. He did not explain why Khadijah’s subsequent conversion was retrospectively effective to save some of her children but not all of them.