Khadijah bint Khuwaylid: First Wife of the Prophet ﷺ

In short

In Arabic: خديجة بنت خويلد
Name: Khadijah bint Khuwaylid ibn Asad ibn Abd al-Uzza ibn Qusayy
Title: al-Tahirah (the pure); Umm al-Muminin, Mother of the Believers
Tribe: Banu Asad, of Quraysh; her line meets the Prophet's ﷺ at Qusayy
Married: About 595 CE, fifteen years before the first revelation, when the Prophet ﷺ was 25
Accepted Islam: The first person to believe, on the day of the first revelation
Children: Al-Qasim, Abdullah, Zaynab, Ruqayyah, Umm Kulthum and Fatimah
Died: In Makkah, in Ramadan of the tenth year of prophethood, three years before the Hijrah (619 CE)
Buried: Al-Hajun (al-Mualla), Makkah

In short: Khadijah hired the young Muhammad ﷺ to take her goods to Syria, and was so moved by his honesty and character that she proposed marriage. He was 25. They were married for about twenty-five years, and he took no other wife while she lived.¹ When the first revelation came in the cave of Hira and he came home trembling, she covered him, comforted him and believed in him. She stood by him through the years of persecution and boycott, and died in the Year of Sorrow, three years before the Hijrah.²

Her marriage to the Prophet ﷺ

Khadijah was a widow from a noble family of Quraysh who traded through agents. Ibn Ishaq reports that she sent Muhammad ﷺ with her goods to Syria with her servant Maysarah, who told her of his honesty, and that she then proposed to him through a friend. The Prophet's ﷺ uncles agreed, and they were married. Ibn Sad gives her age then as forty, and other reports give twenty-eight.³ All his children were from her except Ibrahim.

The first to believe

When Jibril came to the Prophet ﷺ in the cave of Hira with the first verses, "Recite in the name of your Lord who created" (96:1), he returned to Khadijah with his heart trembling and said, "Cover me, cover me." When his fear left him he told her what had happened and said he feared for himself. She said: "Never, by Allah. Allah will never disgrace you. You keep ties of kinship, you carry the burden of the weak, you give to the destitute, you honour the guest and you help against the calamities of truth." She took him to her cousin Waraqah ibn Nawfal, who knew the earlier scriptures, and he told them it was the same angel that came to Musa.⁴

She was the first to believe, and she spent her wealth and her strength on the message. When Quraysh boycotted the Prophet's ﷺ clan for about three years in the valley of Abu Talib, she shared the hardship with them.³

Her virtues in the hadith

خَيْرُ نِسَائِهَا مَرْيَمُ ابْنَةُ عِمْرَانَ، وَخَيْرُ نِسَائِهَا خَدِيجَةُ

"The best of its women is Maryam daughter of Imran, and the best of its women is Khadijah."

Sahih al-Bukhari 3432; Sahih Muslim 2430 · narrated by Ali · sahih

فَاقْرَأْ عَلَيْهَا السَّلاَمَ مِنْ رَبِّهَا وَمِنِّي، وَبَشِّرْهَا بِبَيْتٍ فِي الْجَنَّةِ مِنْ قَصَبٍ، لاَ صَخَبَ فِيهِ وَلاَ نَصَبَ

Jibril came and said: "O Messenger of Allah, here is Khadijah coming with a dish of food or drink. When she comes to you, give her greetings of peace from her Lord and from me, and give her the glad tidings of a house in Paradise of hollow pearl, in which there is no noise and no fatigue."

Sahih al-Bukhari 3820; Sahih Muslim 2432 · narrated by Abu Hurayrah · sahih

Years after her death, Aishah said she was never as jealous of any woman as of Khadijah, though she had never seen her, because the Prophet ﷺ remembered her so often and would slaughter a sheep and send portions to her friends. When Aishah said something about it, he said: "She was this and that, and I had children from her".⁵

Her death

Khadijah died in Makkah three years before the Hijrah,⁶ in the tenth year of prophethood, a few days or weeks from the death of Abu Talib. The Prophet ﷺ lost his wife and his protector in the same season, and that year became known as the Year of Sorrow. She was buried at al-Hajun, the cemetery of Makkah now called al-Mualla. The funeral prayer had not yet been made law, so none was prayed over her.³

Lessons from her life

A believing spouse is a support in the hardest moments.
She judged the Prophet ﷺ by his character, and her words are still a picture of good character.
Wealth and status can serve the truth.
Loyalty: the Prophet ﷺ honoured her memory all his life. Read about all the Mothers of the Believers.

In the seerah

Khadijah's life is woven into the life of the Prophet ﷺ. For the whole story in order, see the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ life timeline, and for the battles and turning points, the seerah events. More Companions are on the Sahaba page, and the meaning of the word is on Sahaba meaning.

Questions

Who was Khadijah in Islam?

The first wife of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the first person to believe in his message, and the mother of all his children except Ibrahim. She is one of the best women of all time.

How old was Khadijah when she married the Prophet ﷺ?

Ibn Sad reports that she was forty and he was twenty-five. Other reports give her age as twenty-eight.

How did Khadijah die?

She died of illness in Makkah in Ramadan of the tenth year of prophethood, three years before the Hijrah (Bukhari 3896). That year is called the Year of Sorrow.

Where is Khadijah buried?

At al-Hajun, the old cemetery of Makkah now known as Jannat al-Mualla.

Did the Prophet ﷺ marry anyone else while Khadijah was alive?

No. Aishah said he did not marry any other woman until Khadijah died (Muslim 2436).

Sources

Sahih Muslim 2436, from Aishah.
Sahih al-Bukhari 3 and 3896.
Ibn Hisham, al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah, from Ibn Ishaq; Ibn Sad, al-Tabaqat al-Kubra.
Sahih al-Bukhari 3, from Aishah: the beginning of revelation.
Sahih al-Bukhari 3818; Sahih Muslim 2435, from Aishah.
Sahih al-Bukhari 3896, from Urwah.
Sahih al-Bukhari 3432 and Sahih Muslim 2430, from Ali; Sahih al-Bukhari 3820 and Sahih Muslim 2432, from Abu Hurayrah.
Quran: Arabic from the Tanzil Uthmani text, transliteration from Tanzil, English by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic is the standard wording of the collection named; gradings are given for every hadith outside al-Bukhari and Muslim.