Khadijah bint Khuwaylid
A wealthy Meccan merchant who employed a young Muhammad ﷺ, proposed marriage to him, and became the first person to believe in his prophecy. She was 40 and he was 25. Their marriage lasted 25 years and during her lifetime he took no other wife.
- Lived
- c. 555 - 619 CE
- Read next
- Meaning of the name Khadijah
Who was Khadijah bint Khuwaylid? A wealthy Meccan merchant who employed a young Muhammad ﷺ, proposed marriage to him, and became the first person to believe in his prophecy. She was 40 and he was 25. Their marriage lasted 25 years and during her lifetime he took no other wife.
Life
Khadijah bint Khuwaylid was one of the wealthiest merchants of Mecca, twice-widowed, and 40 years old when she employed a young Muhammad ﷺ to lead her trade caravan to Syria. She had heard of his reputation for honesty, and after the successful trip her servant Maysara reported to her not only his conduct but signs that reminded him of prophecies concerning a coming prophet.
She proposed marriage to him. He was 25. She was 40. They were married for 25 years, and during her lifetime the Prophet took no other wife. She bore him six children, of whom four daughters lived, Zaynab, Ruqayya, Umm Kulthum, and Fatimah.
When the first revelation descended in the cave of Hira, the Prophet ﷺ ran home trembling and asked her to cover him. She wrapped him in her cloak, comforted him, and immediately went to consult her Christian cousin Waraqa ibn Nawfal, who confirmed the vision was Jibreel and that Muhammad had been called to prophecy. She was the first believer.
She spent her considerable wealth in the years of Meccan persecution supporting the tiny Muslim community. She died in 619 CE in what the Prophet ﷺ called am al-huzn, the Year of Sorrow, the same year that his uncle Abu Talib died.
Years later, whenever Khadijah's name was mentioned, the Prophet ﷺ would weep. Aisha said once she felt jealous of a dead woman; the Prophet answered her: "Allah has not given me a better wife than her. She believed in me when the people disbelieved. She trusted me when the people belied me. She spent her wealth on me when the people withheld from me. And Allah blessed me with children by her when He did not do so with anyone else."
Stories
Each story below is drawn from the classical Islamic historical sources.
The proposal and the cloak
Khadijah was a twice-widowed merchant of Mecca, fifteen years his senior, when she employed Muhammad ﷺ. He returned from her caravan trip having doubled her profits. She sent Nafisa bint Munya to sound him out about marriage. Fifteen years later she wrapped him in her cloak when Jibreel came.