Khadija Bint Khuwaylid: a Saintly Woman for Our Times

DEEN A Saintly Woman for Our Times KHADIJA bint Khuwaylid by Zahra Ayubi hadija bint Khuwaylid, may God be pleased with her, was a woman of the ages, from whom we can learn much. The first wife of the Prophet KMuhammad, peace be upon him, she is considered in popular thought “Give Khadija the on the historical roles of women in Islam, as a symbol of women’s piety, chastity and belief in God, as well as a model wife who unconditionally supported her good tidings that husband. She embodied these attributes, and so much more, to which we can relate today. If we understand Khadija’s life from a vantage point that respects her station, she will have a palace her relationship to the Prophet and her own relationship to God, we will make sense of her life as an empowered woman in a deeply patriarchal world in which made of pearls in Islam was just beginning to bring about the revolution of human equality. While the Prophet remains for both women and men a model human being, Paradise and there the model believer in God, the stories of his life as a man who lived more than 1400 years ago, can at times be inaccessible to today’s women. If the Prophet is will be neither noise al-insan al-kamil (the perfect, complete human being) then the figure of Khadija can function as the complete woman. She is certainly not a parallel female prophetic figure; however, on the level nor trouble in it” of women’s expression of faith, when we read Khadija’s life story holistically we are presented with a uniquely female way of being Muslim. It is a way that (Sahih Bukhari 27:19). is inspirational, not merely because of Khadija’s piety, wealth and role as a wife, but also because she faced and overcame numerous obstacles that are familiar to women in our own 21st century context. Interpreting Khadija as a woman of faith, even before the arrival of Islam, helps us to understand more fully her role in the prophecy and to decipher the ways in which she is inspirational. In this essay I offer a rereading of her character 16 AZIZAH as it appears in the scant historical in a society that expected women The legend narrated by Ibn ‘Abbas sources such as fragments in the to have male support, Khadija was is that before she knew the Prophet, Prophet’s sira (biographical narrative); exceptional in making the conscious Khadija was attending an important some hadith records, and Khadija’s decision not to remarry in order to festival for women held in Makkah own biographical entry in Muhammad protect her wealth, and likely her during the month of Rajab when, Ibn Sa’d’s 9th century chapter on children, from untrustworthy men. from behind an idol, something took women in Kitab at-Tabaqat al-Kabir. the shape of a man who called out, Khadija came from a noble, predicting that a man named Ahmad wealthy trade family within the tribe would become the prophet of the of the Quraysh. She inherited her If women’s experiences of people and any woman who could father’s vast wealth and business become his wife should do so. savvy, and continued to maintain her hardship as single mothers in The narrative recounts that, family’s business. It is reported that except for Khadija, all the women her caravans exceeded the number modernity are any indication present, became angry, cursed and of caravans owned by all the rest threw stones at the figure. Whether of the traders of the Quraysh tribe, of some of the challenges that or not this actually happened, it is combined. From her first marriage to women must have faced in unlikely that she predicted her future a man of an allied tribe named Hind employee’s prophethood, or that she ibn an-Nabash bin Zurara al-Tamimi late antiquity, then it is clear deliberately married him because of she had two sons, Hind and Hala. such an event, but her reaction to this After being widowed at a young age that Khadija must have had experience indicates that she was open she remarried and had a daughter from to perceiving the mystical and being this second marriage, named Hindah. unwavering resolve in herself touched by a miracle from God. Her second husband, ‘Atiq ibn Although long before her ‘Abid Al-Makhzumi also died at a and faith in her Higher Power. association with the Prophet, she young age, leaving Khadija a twice- lived a complete life, with marriages, widowed, single mother of three births of children and deaths in her orphan children. (The definition of family, we can recognize the pre- yatim (orphan) in 6th century Arabia, As the sole head of her household Islamic Khadija as a distinguished, and how the term is used in the she was independent, holding the strong woman of resolve – a woman Qur’an, is a child whose father is power of self-determination over her who had all the character traits to deceased.) Without having access to own affairs as much as was possible recognize God’s presence and the social history of Makkah from this under the confines of pre-Islamic moment of truth when the Prophet time, we can surmise from the number Makkan custom and possible tribal would first receive revelation. That of verses in the Qur’an that command interference. If women’s experiences phenomenal event would confirm her justice for the orphans that they were of hardship as single mothers in understanding of the Godly presence certainly a vulnerable segment of the modernity, even those who are in the mundane world. community, open to all kinds of abuses financially secure, are any indication Because she did not accompany or exploitations. Although Khadija of some of the challenges that women her caravans to Syria and elsewhere was wealthy, she probably had to be must have faced in late antiquity, then on trade missions the success of vigilant in protecting her children. it is clear that Khadija must have had her business, her livelihood and her The sources are silent on how she unwavering resolve in herself and children’s, depended on her being faced the stigmas of being a single faith in her Higher Power. able to find trustworthy employees. woman in a patriarchal world, how she Although not much is known about She then employed a man named managed to stave off the numerous her religious beliefs before Islam, (we Muhammad who was known as al- marriage proposals she is reported know from later in her biography that amin, (the trustworthy one). After to have received from opportunistic she had a Christian uncle and some knowing him for a considerable length suitors greedy for access to her say she was always a monotheist). One of time and employing him on a few wealth, and what hardships she may episode in particular discussed in Ibn caravan trips to Syria on her behalf, have encountered in raising her three Sa’d’s biographical entry indicates that she was so impressed with his conduct, children while managing a large-scale she was serious-minded about God, honesty in business and kindness to trade business. We can only presume, believing in God’s presence in her life. servants that she proposed marriage azizahmagazine.com 17 to him. She sent a woman named Additionally, Khadija and the he had just experienced, an encounter Nafisa bint Umayya to the proposal Prophet took in his young cousin, with an angel or a demon. First she to Muhammad. He accepted and the Ali ibn Abu Talib whose father, an asked him to sit on her right thigh and two were married in the presence of important elder in the tribe, was under asked him if he still saw the angel. The their uncles, one of whom performed financial stress. They also adopted Prophet answered that he could. She the marriage. an orphan boy named Zayd, whose then asked him to sit on her left thigh Some reports say that she was 15 mother had been captured and sold and repeated the question. He still years older than the Prophet, who into slavery; the couple raised these could see him. Finally, she asked him was about 25, while others claim she two young males as their own. One to sit in her lap, removed her veil and was about 20 years his senior. Ages in imagines other good deeds that came opened her robe, revealing her form. hadith reports are generally considered of their partnership, although there is In this close embrace when he finally to be estimates. It is likely their age little discussion of their married life in stopped seeing him she said, “Rejoice difference was significant, but possibly the sources. and be of good heart; by God he is she was not as old as 40 years (and thus an angel and not a satan” (Ishaq, 107). near menopause), because she carried Prophet said to her about In addition to the Prophet’s six pregnancies to full term during humanity in the face of God, this their marriage. The pregnancies were Khadija: “…she accepted me story demonstrates that Khadija’s reported to have been two years apart. endorsement of her husband’s Khadija’s advanced age and instinct when people rejected me, she prophethood was far more than to protect her wealth and children just becoming his first follower or make her proposal of marriage to a believed in me when people providing financial support, as is poor, young man of only 25 years, doubted me, she shared her popularly discussed as her main curious.

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