Khadijah bint Khuwaylid: Difference between revisions

{{QualityScore|Lead=3|Structure=4|Content=4|Language=4|References=4}}{{Infobox Person|name=Khadījah bint Khuwaylid|image=Khadijah bint Khuwaylid.jpg|caption=Khadijah’s “medal” in ''Promptuarii iconum insigniorum ''(1553). Lyon: Rouillé. This illustration made no pretense of being an accurate portrait but it has become a widely accepted symbolic representation of Khadijah.|date_of_birth=555|place_of_birth=[[Mecca]], Mecca, Hijaz, Arabia (present day Saudi Arabia)|death_date=c. 619 (aged 63-64)|other_names=Khadījah al-Kubra<br>Khadījah al-Tahira|occupation=Merchant|title=''Umm al-Mu'mineen'' ("Mother of the Believers")|spouse=[[Muhammad ibn Abdullah]]|children=Qasim<br>Abdullah<br>Zainab<br>Fatimah<br>Ruqayyah<br>Umm Kulthum|relations=Khuwaylid ibn Asad<br>Fatimah bint Za'idah}}

'''Khadijah''' or '''Khadīja bint Khuwaylid''' ([[Arabic]]: خديجة بنت خويلد‎) (555 - c.619) was Prophet [[Muhammad]]’s first wife and she was his only wife as long as she lived.<ref>Ibn Hisham note 127, note 918. {{Citation|title=Sirat Rasul Allah|author=Ibn Ishaq|publisher=Oxford University Press|trans_title=The Life of Muhammad|url=https://archive.org/details/TheLifeOfMohammedGuillaume|editor=A. Guillaume|year=1955|location=Oxford|isbn=9780196360331}}; see also {{Muslim|31|5975}}.</ref> She is known to Muslims as ''al-Kubra'' (“the Great”)<ref>E.g., [http://www.al-islam.org/khadija/ Razwy, S. A. A. (1990). ''Khadija tul Kubra: A Short Story of Her Life''. New York: Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an.]</ref> and ''al-Tahira'' (“the Pure”).<ref>E.g., [http://l.b5z.net/i/u/6103974/f/wives_of_the_prophet.pdf/ Mus’ad, M. F. (2001). ''Wives of the Prophet Muhammad: their Strives and Their Lives'', p. 7. Cairo: Islamic Inc.]</ref> Twelve of [[Muhammad's Wives|Muhammad’s wives]] are credited with the title ''Umm al-Muminun'' (“Mother of the Faithful”),<ref>{{Quran|33|6}}.</ref> but Khadijah occupies a unique position as ''the'' Mother of [[Islam]] itself. Until she passed, Khadijah was Muhammad's only wife. Khadijah was also mother to all of Muhammad's children, including Fatimah, save one.

The traditions about Khadijah’s early life are scarce and often contradictory. It is generally accepted that she was born “fifteen years before the Elephant” and that she was 65 ([[lunar]]) years old when she died,<ref>E.g., {{Tabari|6|p. 47}}.</ref> indicating a birth date between July 556 and July 557. However, the source of this tradition is Khadijah’s nephew, Hakim ibn Hizam,<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:9, 11-12. {{Tabari|39|pp. 41, 106}}.</ref> who was one of the many early Muslims who claimed his own age to be 120.<ref>{{Muslim|10|3662}}. See also {{Tabari|39|pp. 40, 43}}, where Huwaytib ibn Abduluzza claims to be 120 years old, yet in the same breath betrays that he cannot count.</ref> By contrast, Abdullah ibn Abbas, the cousin who lived at Muhammad’s side through the final years in [[Medina]],<ref>{{Tabari|39|p. 95}}.</ref> stated that “on the day Khadijah married Allah’s Messenger, she was 28 years old.”<ref>[http://qurango.com/images/b/5/293.jpg/ Ibn Kathir, ''Al-Bidaya wa’l-Nihaya'' vol. 5 p. 293]. Majlisi, ''Bihar al-Anwar'' vol. 16 p. 12. Ibn Ishaq, cited in Al-Hakim al-Nishaburi, ''Mustadrak'' vol. 3 p. 182.</ref> If this is correct, she was born between March 568 and March 569. Variant traditions claim other years.<ref>See [https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.kister.huji.ac.il/sites/default/files/khadija.pdf&embedded=true/ Kister, M. J. (1993). The Sons of Khadija. ''Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 16'', 59-95.]</ref> Whatever her precise date of birth, she was still of childbearing age as late as 605.

Khadijah’s personality is described as “determined and intelligent”.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 82.</ref> Although it is not explicitly stated that her father was a merchant, “the Quraysh were a people given to commerce,”<ref>Guilaume/Ishaq, p. 82.</ref> so it is possible that Khadijah spent her childhood sitting in the bazaars learning to negotiate trade deals. Her known siblings were two brothers, Hizam<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 160.</ref> and Al-Awwam,<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 115.</ref> two sisters, Ruqayqa<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:180.</ref> and Hala,<ref>{{Bukhari|5|58|168}}</ref> and a paternal half-brother, Nawfal.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 177.</ref> At one stage, there was talk of [[Marriage|marrying]] Khadijah off to her [[Cousin Marriage in Islam|cousin]], Waraqa ibn Nawfal, but this never happened.<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:9.</ref>

This story highlights the Arab practice of marriage as a contract between bridegroom and father-in-law in which they transferred the guardianship of a woman. It was somewhat similar to buying a camel: the purchase required the consent of the vendor. Muhammad largely preserved this practice of marriage. To the end of his life, he was particular about meeting the legal requirement to contract with a guardian;<ref>E.g., see Bewley/Saad 8:63, 65; {{Tabari|39|pp. 178-179}}; Bewley/Saad 8:105.</ref> and explicitly endorsed the transactional nature of the [[mahr]] as being a sort of payment for unlimited sexual access to a woman, [[Rape in Islamic Law|even against her will]], so long as she consented once in the form of agreeing to marry.  

==The Persecution==

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. It is isimilarly unclear how many of these stories of harassment were later inventions of Muslims seeking to galvanize their past, but so is the case with perhaps the entirety of the hadith collection.

After the conversions of two famously violent citizens, Hamza ibn Abdulmuttalib<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 131-132.</ref> and Umar ibn Al-Khattab,<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 155-159.</ref> the ruling clans of Mecca declared a boycott. This boycott was against Muhammad’s entire clan, including its non-Muslims. Thenceforth no Meccan might trade, socialise or intermarry with the Hashimites.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 159-160.</ref> The clan inferred that they had been condemned to outlaw status and would not be protected against theft or violence. Fearing worse hostility to follow, in September 616 Abu Talib evacuated the Hashimites from Mecca proper. They camped out in a mountain gorge “formed by one of the defiles, or indentations of the mountain, where the projecting rocks of [Mount] Abu Cobeis pressed upon the eastern outskirts of Mecca. It was entered on the city side by a low gateway, through which a camel passed with difficulty. On all other sides it was detached from the town by cliffs and buildings.”<ref>[http://www.answering-islam.org/Books/Muir/Life2/chap5.htm/ Muir (1861) vol. 2 pp. 176-178.]</ref> Such a narrow entrance could be constantly guarded, leaving the Hashimites safe but effectively trapped.

==Co-Wives==

Muhammad's fidelity to Khadijah is often referenced as a positive aspect of the Islamic tradition. It is described as the "prime time of his youth and constitutes two-thirds of his marriage life,"<ref>"''His first marriage was with Khadija. He lived with her alone for twenty-five years. It was the prime time of his youth and constitutes two-thirds of his marriage [''sic''] life.''" - Al-Jibouri, Y. T. (1994). “[http://www.al-islam.org/muhammad-yasin-jibouri/8.htm/ Marriages of the Prophet]” in ''Muhammad: The Prophet and Messenger of Allah. Qum, Iran: Ansariyan Publications.''</ref> and it is stated that it "should be noted by those who criticise him for his polygamy in later years."<ref>"''The Prophet did not marry another woman during his first marriage with Khadija, is a fact that should be noted by those who criticise him for his polygamy in later years.''" - [http://www.bzu.edu.pk/PJIR/eng%201%20Hafiz%20M.pdf/ Saleem (2012)]</ref>

In one sense this is true. For example, when the Quraysh chiefs wanted to end the boycott, they offered Muhammad “as many wives as he wanted in marriage,” together with wealth, political power and a competent exorcist, if only he would stop reviling their gods. Muhammad scorned this bribe.<ref>{{Tabari|6|pp. 106-107}}. See also Guillaume/Ishaq 132-133.</ref> In this case, however, his loyalty to Khadijah can scarcely be disentangled from his loyalty to his own prophetic office. He responded to Khadijah’s support with a (perhaps nepotistic) revelation that the Virgin Mary had been the best woman of her generation while Khadijah was the best woman of the present generation.<ref>[http://www.searchtruth.com/book_display.php?book=55&translator=1&start=91&number=633/ Bukhari|4|55|642]. {{Bukhari|5|58|163}}. {{Muslim|31|5965}}.</ref> He claimed that although there were many perfect men, there had only ever been only three perfect women: Asiya “wife of Pharaoh,” who had rescued the infant Moses; Mary the virgin mother of the Prophet Jesus; and Khadijah. He later allowed that their daughter Fatima was also one of the four “best among the women of Paradise.”<ref>[http://www.qtafsir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1298&Itemid=122/ Ibn Kathir, ''Tafsir''] on {{Quran|66|11}}. See also {{Muslim|31|5966}}. He never called any of his other wives or daughters “perfect”, not even his fourth divine spouse, Kulthum the sister of Moses.</ref> How his three elder daughters reacted to such open favouritism is not recorded. When Khadijah once brought Muhammad a bowl of soup, she was granted a personal message from Jibreel (of which Aisha was later intensely jealous): “Give her Allah’s greeting and the good news that in Paradise she will have a palace built of a hollow pearl, where there will be no noise or fatigue.”<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 111. Ibn Hisham note 148. {{Bukhari|3|27|19}}. {{Bukhari|5|58|167}}. {{Bukhari|5|58|168}}. {{Bukhari|9|93|588}}. {{Muslim|31|5967}}. {{Muslim|31|5968}}. {{Muslim|31|5970}}.</ref>

Yet despite this loyalty to Khadijah, it was exactly in this period of his life when Muhammad pronounced verses that strongly suggested that he was thinking about other women.After 614 he introduced to his descriptions of Paradise the “modest ''houris''” (virgins) with “lustrous eyes” and “swelling breasts” who reclined “like pearls or rubies” on “green cushions”.<ref>{{Quran|38|52}}. {{Quran-range|56|22|23}}. {{Quran-range|37|48|49}}. {{Quran|44|54}}. {{Quran|52|20}}. {{Quran|78|33}}.</ref> According to Muir, all of the Qur’anic descriptions of ''houris'' date to the last few years of Khadijah’s life; after Muhammad moved to Medina, remarried to a younger woman, there were only two brief and tame references<ref>{{Quran|2|25}}. {{Quran|4|57}}.</ref> to “companions pure”.<ref>[http://www.answering-islam.org/Books/Muir/Life2/chap4.htm/ Muir (1861) 2:141-144]. See also [http://www.muhammadanism.org/Canon_Sell/Quran/p024.htm/ Sell, E. (1923). ''The Historical Development of the Qur'an'', 4th Ed, pp. 25-26. London: People International.]</ref> Muir might have miscalculated, as the most detailed reference to the divine virgins<ref>{{Quran-range|55|56|58}} {{Quran-range|55|70|76}}.</ref> is sometimes dated to the Medina period,<ref>[http://www.wikiislam.net/wiki/Chronological_Order_of_the_Qur'an]</ref> although the German historian Nöldeke assigned even this one to Khadijah’s lifetime.<ref>[http://www.truthnet.org/islam/Watt/Chapter7.html/ Bell, R. (1953). Introduction to the Qur’an. Revised by Montgomery Watt (1970). Chapter 7: “The Chronology of the Qur’an.” Edinburgh University Press.]</ref> Regardless of the exact date when Muhammad eventually shifted his focus, it is certain that the ageing Khadijah knew about the ''houris''.

*[[Muhammad's Wives]]'' - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Muhammad's wives and concubines''

[[Category:Islam and Women]]