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Khadijah, the Mother of
Believers
Before Islam, she was known
as Malikat al-Arab or the richest lady of Arabia. When the
sun of Islam rose above the horizon, Allah was pleased to
make her Om al-Mommenieen or the Mother of all Believers.
Allah says in His Book, the Holy Qoran: Surah 33, Ayah 6.
“THE PROPHET IS CLOSER TO
THE BELIEVERS THAN THEIR OWN SELVES, AND HIS WIVES ARE THEIR
MOTHERS.”
The title of the Mother of
Believers appears to have been specifically designed for
Khadijah. Without Khadijah, this title becomes meaningless.
She and she alone gave the sacred love that a mother alone
can give, to the believers. A mother may be hungry but if
her children are hungry, she will feed them first. This has
happened on countless occasions in history of early days of
Islam, especially during wars and famines.
Khadijah was an
“eye-witness” to the advent of Islam. She nursed it through
its infancy, through its most difficult, and through its
most formative years. Islam was given shape and design in
her home. If any home can be called the cradle of Islam, it
was her home. She “reared” Islam. If any home can be called
the “axis” of Islam, it was her home; Islam revolved around
her home. Her home was the “home” of the glorious Quran, the
Book of Allah and the religious and political code of Islam.
It was in her home that Archangel Gabriel was bringing
Revelations from Heaven.
Khadijah was the
first woman to declare that the Creator was One, and that
Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him and his progeny) was His
Messenger. The glory and honor of being the First woman
Believer in the whole world, is hers to all eternity.
Next to her
husband, and the Prophet’s young cousin, Imam Ali (AS), she
was the 3rd individual who heard the Voice of
Revelation. She, Imam Ali (AS) and her husband were the
first to hold the Salaat Jama’at or the congregational
prayer in Islam.
When Islam came
under mounting pressure from its enemies, Khadijah
sacrificed her comfort, her wealth and her home for it; and
it appeared that she sacrificed her life also.
She preferred to
stand by her husband and his clan, and to share the bitters
of life with them. During the 3-year social and economic
boycott of the Muslim community, she had to endure not only
the pangs of hunger and thirst but also the extremes of heat
in summer and cold in winter; yet she never complained to
her husband about them. It was this temperament that was an
unfailing source of comfort, courage and strength for her
husband during the bleakest moments of his life.
During the years when Muslims were in a state of siege in
the Shi'b Abu Talib or the Valley of Abu Talib outside
Mecca, from 616 to 619 A.D., Khadijah spent all her fortune
on buying essentials like food and water for the clan of her
husband. When she died, there was not enough money available
in the house even to buy a shroud. A cloak of her husband
was used as a shroud for her, and she was given burial in
it.
During her illness, the Great Prophet of Islam kept a
nightlong vigil nursing her, comforting her and praying for
her. He told her that Allah had promised Eternal Bliss to
her, and had built for her a palace of pearls in Paradise.
Toward morning her frail frame could not endure the attack
of fever any more and her sanctified and noble soul left
this earth for its destination in Heaven where it entered
the company of the immortals. Her death filled Prophet
Muhammed's heart with sorrow.
Khadijah died on the tenth of the Holy Month of Ramadan, of
the tenth year of the Proclamation of Islam.
Prophet Muhammed
(SAWA) never took another wife for over 25 years as long as
Khadijah lived, and if she had not died, it is most probable
that he would never have married any other woman.
The Prophet
placed her in the rank of four perfect women, with Om-
Kolsoum the sister of Moses, Mary the mother of Jesus, and
the greatest of them all, his beloved daughter, Hadhrat
Fatima Zahra (Peace be upon her).
Muhammad ibn Ishaq, the
biographer of the Prophet, says that when there was
resumption of Divine revelation, after its cessation
following the first two visits of Archangel Gabriel,
Khadijah received a tribute and a salutation of peace from
the Almighty. The message was communicated to Prophet
Muhammed (SAWA) by Gabriel, and when he conveyed it to
Khadijah, she said: “Allah is Peace, and from Him is all
Peace, and may peace be on Gabriel.”
Khadijah died the year in
619 A.D. Less than a year after her death, Prophet Muhammed
(peace be upon him and his progeny) had to sustain another
shock with the death of Abu Talib, his uncle and guardian,
and the bulwark of Islam on the 7th of Ramdhan of
the next year. The death of these two near and dear ones,
Khadija and Abu Talib, was the greatest shock that the
Messenger of God Almighty had to endure in the fifty years
of his life. The two lamps of his life were extinguished. He
was overwhelmed with sorrow. The grief was so deep that the
Prophet called the year of their death Aam al- Hozn or “the
Year of Grief.”
Some Muslims may
forget it but Islam cannot forget that in its infancy, it
were Abu Talib and Khadijah who protected it. They made
Islam invincible. Abu Talib protected the bud of Islam from
the storms of misbelieve; and Khadijah irrigated it with her
wealth. And it was her beloved child and grandchildren who
protected Islam from its enemies and irrigated it with their
blood, after the Prophet’s departure to Eternity.
Khadijah’s
compatriots acknowledging her trade and commercial
achievements may have bestowed upon her the title of
“Malikat al-Arab or the proverbial Princess of Arabia” her
great wealth. But even more remarkably, Khadijah, the Mother
of all Believers also earned a third title. She was called
“Tahira” which means “the pure one.”
Khadija was
born in Makka. She was the daughter of Khuwailad bin Asad
bin Abdul Uzza bin Qusayy. Qusayy was of the progenitor of
the clan of Bani Hashim, as the future Prophet of Islam (May
Allah Bless Him and His Ahlel Al-Bayt). Khadija, the
Mother of Believers thus belonged to a collateral branch
of the Bani Hashim. Next to Bani Hashim itself, her family
was the noblest and the most honorable and distinguished in
all Arabia, both in terms of its noble pedigree and the
content of its character.
Thus died Khadijah, the first woman to believe in the
Oneness of the Creator.
Peace on Khadijah to whom Allah Ta'ala sent His greetings
and salutations.
Peace on Khadijah for whom Allah Ta'ala built a palace of
pearls in Paradise.
Peace on Khadijah, the best of women, and the chief of all
women. |
