The commercial expedition
of Muhammed to Syria turned out to be the prelude of his
marriage with Khadija.
The translator and commentator of Quran Majid, Yusuf Ali,
poses the following rhetorical question in this context:
"Can we wonder at
Jacob's re-union with Joseph, or that of Moses with
Aaron, or of Muhammad Mustafa with the Lady
Khadija?"
No. We cannot. It was the decree of Allah that two of his
slaves - Muhammed and Khadija - should be united in
marriage, and they were.
It is reported that one of
the close friends of Khadija was a high-born lady of
Makka called Nafisa (or Nufaysa) the daughter of Munyah.
She was aware that Khadija had turned down many proposals
of marriage. At first she wondered if there was any man
in Arabia who would come up to the standards set by her.
She had discussed the matter many times with Khadija.
Finally, she had one more discussion with her which
convinced her that she (Khadija) was not impressed by any
man's wealth or rank or power. What really impressed
Khadija, her friend gathered, was character - a sterling
character. Khadija admired only a man of ethical and
moral principles.
Nafisa (or Nufaysa) also happened to know that there was
such a man in Makka and his name was Muhammed.
It is reported that one day Muhammed was returning home
from the Kaaba when Nafisa stopped him, and the following
exchange took place between them:
Nafisa: O Muhammed, you are a young man and you are
single. Men who are much younger than you, are already
married; some even have children. Why don't you marry?
Muhammed: I cannot afford to marry; I am not rich enough
to marry.
Nafisa: What would be your response if you could marry a
woman of beauty, wealth, status and honor,
notwithstanding your present poverty?
Muhammed: Who could be
such a woman?
Nafisa: Such a woman is Khadija the daughter of
Khuwayled.
Muhammed: Khadija? How is it possible that Khadija would
marry me? You know that many rich and powerful princes
and chiefs of tribes proposed to her, and she rebuffed
them all.
Nafisa: If you are agreeable to marry her, you just say
so, and leave the rest to me. I shall arrange everything.
Muhammed wished to inform
his uncle and guardian, Abu Talib, about Nafisa's
demarche, and to consult him in the matter before giving
her an answer.
Abu Talib knew Khadija as well as he knew his own nephew.
He welcomed Nafisa's suggestion. There was no doubt in
his mind that Muhammed and Khadija would make the ideal
couple. He, therefore, gave his blessings to the proposal
of their marriage. Thereupon, Muhammed told Nafisa that
her suggestion
was acceptable to him and that she had the authority to
negotiate, on his behalf, his marriage with Khadija.
Once Abu Talib had approved the match, he sent his
sister, Safiya, to see Khadija, and to talk with her
about the proposed marriage. In the meantime, Nafisa had
already done the "groundwork," and Khadija was
expecting a visitor from the house of her future in-laws.
She cordially received Safiya, entertained her, and told
her that she (Khadija) had selected her (Safiya's) nephew
to be her (Khadija's) life-partner without any
preconditions and reservations. Safiya was very happy
with the success of her embassy. Before she left the
house, Khadija gave her an elegant robe which she
accepted with many expressions of joy and gratitude.
Abu Talib then decided to comply with the traditional
formalities of marriage. He bought gifts for Khadija, and
took his brothers, Abbas and Hamza, with him to her house
to formally present to her the proposal of the marriage
of his nephew with her. Khadija accepted the gifts that
Abu Talib had brought, and of course she accepted the
proposal of marriage. The two parties immediately fixed a
date for the auspicious wedding.
Abu Talib himself took charge of the preparations for the
marriage of his beloved nephew. For the blessed occasion,
he brought out all the heirlooms of the family and the
sacred relics of his forefathers. These included the
cloak and the staff of Abdul Muttalib, the late chief of
Bani Hashim. The bridegroom put on the cloak and held the
staff in his hand. Abu Talib put the black turban of his
clan on his (the bridegroom's) head, and a ring of green
agate on his finger. The ring, at one time, had belonged
to Hashim bin Abd Manaf bin Qusayy.
The wedding party was made
up of all the chiefs of Quraysh and the lords of Makka.
The bridegroom rode a proud and prancing horse, and the
young warriors of Bani Hashim brandished gleaming swords
high above their heads as they escorted him from the
house of Abu Talib to the house of Khadija. The women of
the clan had gone ahead of the bridegroom, and were
already being entertained in the house of the bride.
Khadija's house was illuminated by myriads of lamps.
Inside the house, chandeliers hung on golden chains from
the ceiling, and each chandelier held seven lamps. The
guests arrived in the amber dusk. The chief steward of
Khadija's estates had formed a committee for the
reception of the bridegroom and the distinguished guests.
The members of this committee conducted them inside the
house through a high-arched entrance to a rectangular
hall whose walls were panelled with tiles and whose
ceiling was gilded. They made themselves comfortable on
rugs and cushions.
For this special occasion, Khadija had ordered a special
outfit to be made for all her domestics - male and
female. Men were handsomely arrayed in spangled turbans,
scarlet tunics, and black sashes around their waists.
Attached to their turbans were silk tassels of ivory hue.
The girls were wearing decor-blending costumes which
dripped with gold and spangles. They were wearing
coronets on the head and ropes of pearls and rivers of
crystals. Their hair, cascading from the head to the
shoulders and from the shoulders down to the waist, was
braided with pearls.
The decor of the chamber of the bride was exquisite and
was in fact, unsurpassable in taste and skill. The
hangings of silk and brocade in many delicate tints,
draped the walls; and a white velvet carpet covered the
floor. The smoke of incense rose from a goblet of silver
sparkling with diamonds, blue sapphires and balas rubies.
Khadija, the bride, sat on a high dais placed under a
richly embroidered canopy. She looked radiant and
resplendent like the rising sun itself. On her head she
was wearing a crown of gold and pearls of amazing orient
and beauty. Her dress, in subtle
shades of crimson and green, was shot with gold, and was
set with pearls and emeralds. There were two maids in
personal attendance on her; each was wearing a diadem of
gold, an amethyst silken dress, and jewel-studded
slippers.
When all the guests had
taken their seats, Abu Talib, the guardian of the
bridegroom, rose to read the sermon of marriage as
follows:
All glory and all praise
to Allah, the Creator of Heavens and earth, and all
thanks to Him for all His blessings, bounties and mercy.
He sent us into this world in the posterity of Ibrahim
and Ismael. He put us in charge of the Mosque and made us
guardians of His House, the Kaaba, which is a sanctuary
for all His creatures.
After this exordium, Abu Talib continued:
My nephew, Muhammed ibn Abdullah ibn Abdul Muttalib, is
the best individual in all mankind in his intelligence,
in wisdom, in purity of lineage, in purity of his
personal life, and in distinction of family. He has all
the markings of a man destined to be great. He is
marrying Khadija the daughter of Khuwayled against a
meher of four hundred pieces of gold. I declare Muhammed
and Khadija husband and wife. May Allah bless them both,
and may He be their Protector.
In his sermon, Abu Talib declared that the Bani Hashim
were the heirs of Ibrahim and Ismael, and were the
carriers of their heritage. They were, therefore,
uncontaminated by idolatry.
When Abu Talib concluded
his sermon, Waraqa bin Naufal rose to read the marriage
sermon on behalf of the bride. He said:
All praise and glory to Allah. We testify and we affirm
that the Bani Hashim are just as you have claimed. No one
can deny their excellence. Because of their excellence,
we cherish the marriage of Khadija and Muhammed. Their
marriage unites our two houses, and their union is a
source of great happiness to us. O Lords of Quraysh, I
want you to be witnesses that I give Khadija in marriage
to Muhammed ibn Abdullah against a meher of four hundred
pieces of gold. May Allah make their marriage a happy
one.
(M. Shibli, the Indian historian, says in his Seera that
the meher of Hadret Khadija was five hundred pieces of
gold).
Amr bin Asad, the aged uncle of Khadija, also spoke on
the occasion, and he affirmed, in his own words, what
Waraqa b. Naufal, had said. And it was he who, as
guardian of the bride, gave her away to Muhammed ibn
Abdullah.
Abu Talib paid the meher
for his nephew.
Edward Gibbon
At home and abroad, in peace and war,
Abu Talib, the most respected of Mohammed's uncles, was
the guide and guardian of his youth; in his 25th year he
entered into the service of Khadija, rich and noble widow
(sic) of Mecca, who soon rewarded his fidelity with the
gift of her hand and fortune. The marriage contract, in
the simple style of antiquity, recites the mutual love of
Mohammed and Khadija; describes him as the most
accomplished of the tribe of Koreish; and stipulates a
dowry of twelve ounces of gold and twenty camels, which
was supplied by the liberality of his uncle.
(The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire)
Washington Irving
Khadija was filled with a lively faith
in the superhuman merits of her youthful steward,
Mohammed. At her nuptials, Haleema, who had nursed
Mohammed in his infancy, was summoned and was presented
with a flock of forty sheep.
(The Life of Mohammed)
All the guests congratulated Muhammed Mustafa on his
wedding and expressed their best wishes for his
happiness. They also congratulated his uncle, Abu Talib,
on the auspicious occasion. Both thanked their guests
cordially.
When these ceremonies were over, the major-domo ordered
the slaves to spread out the banquet. The banquet was a
gustatorial extravaganza such as no one had ever seen in
Makka. The guests feasted upon delicacies each of which
was a masterpiece of the culinary art. They slaked their
thirst with delectable drinks laced with lotus nectar.
After the feast, each guest was invested with a robe of
honor, in conformity with the ancient custom of the
Arabian aristocracy.
Presently, the major-domo announced
that the bride was ready to depart. A richly-caparisoned
she-camel, carrying a white pavilion on her back, was
waiting at the gate of the house. All the guests gathered
in the foyer to see the bride being escorted to the gate.
Her maids assisted her in climbing into the bridal
pavilion.
...EMBARK YE ON THE ARK, IN THE NAME OF
ALLAH, WHETHER IT MOVE OR BE AT REST! FOR MY LORD IS, BE
SURE, OFT-FORGIVING, MOST MERCIFUL."
(Quran Majid. Chapter 11; verse 41)
One of the maidservants sat in the pavilion with the
bride. Resting upon her head was a floral tiara, and her
hair was threaded with blue ribbons and strands of
lustrous pearls. She was wearing bracelets of agate,
coral and rock crystal, and she held a jewelled fan in
her hand.
A team of Nubian slaves carrying flambeaus, marched in
front and on the right and the left sides of the
she-camel.
The bridegroom also mounted his horse, and he, his
uncles, the young men of Bani Hashim and their guests,
returned to the house of Abu Talib in the same panoply as
they had gone earlier that day to the house of the bride.
When this torch-lit procession arrived at the house of
Abu Talib, his wife and sisters assisted the bride in
dismounting from the she-camel. A chamberlain held a
parasol of white silk over her head, and conducted her
into the inner apartments of the house.
And say:
"O MY LORD! ENABLE ME TO DISEMBARK
WITH THY BLESSING: FOR THOU ART THE BEST TO ENABLE (US)
TO DISEMBARK"
(Quran Majid. Chapter 23, verse 29)
Everything went off with perfect precision. Coordination
was superb from beginning to end.
The marriage of Muhammed and Khadija
had brought happiness to everyone but the happiness of
Abu Talib knew no bounds. He had been very anxious that
his nephew should have a good wife. This anxiety turned
into pure and undiluted joy when his nephew and Khadija
were married. There could not have been a better match.
Abu Talib thanked Allah for the new happiness he had
found, and his happiness was shared by his brothers,
Abbas an~ Hamza, and all other members of the clan of
Hashim.
Three days after the marriage, Abu
Talib made arrangements for a banquet to mark the
occasion called since then "the feast of
walima." He dazzled the whole city by his
liberality. At the feast, every resident of Makka was his
guest. Muhammed, the bridegroom, was himself welcoming
the guests into the house. He himself, his uncles, his
cousins and all the young men of Bani Hashim, were the
proud hosts. The banquet lasted for three days. Years
later, Islam made the feast of walima a
"memorial" to the banquet of Abu Talib at the
marriage of Muhammed and Khadija, instituting it as a
tradition of all Muslim marriages. Abu Talib was the
first man to arrange it. Before the marriage of Muhammed
and Khadija, the feast of walima was not known to anyone
in Arabia.
Abu Talib must have wished that his beloved brother,
Abdullah and his wife, Amina, may Allah bless them, were
also present to witness and to bless the marriage of
their son, and to share his (Abu Talib's) happiness. But
even if Abdullah and Amina had been present, the marriage
of their son could not have been celebrated with more
pomp and pageantry than it was with Abu Talib as his
(Muhammed's) guardian.
Next it was Khadija's turn to show
generosity and hospitality. Generosity and hospitality
were her old "addictions." And what occasion
could be more appropriate or propitious for her than her
own marriage to satisfy this propensity? She, therefore,
ordered her major-domo to make arrangements for the most
elaborate banquet in the history of Makka.
It was a banquet that was truly memorable. Even the
beggars of Makka and the wandering tribesmen and women
were not
excluded from the list of guests. They feasted on
delicacies which they had never seen before. Those Arabs
of the desert who had never tasted anything but brackish
or rank water all their lives, drank rose water as the
guests of Khadija. For many days the guests - rich and
poor, high and low, lord and lackey, young and old - were
fed in her house. To the poor guests, Khadija gave pieces
of gold and silver and clothes, and she filled the houses
of many widows and orphans with the necessities of life
which they didn't have before.
Khadija had spent many years of her
life waiting for the ideal man to come. Her long wait was
at last rewarded when Muhammed came along, and they were
united in holy wedlock.
The marriage of Muhammed and Khadija was the first and
the last of its kind in the world. It was the only
marriage in the whole world which abounded in heavenly
blessings as well as material blessings. It was a
marriage which was immeasurably and incalculably rich in
the blessings of both the heaven and the earth.
It is entirely probable that in Arabia, no woman ever
brought so much dowry with her into the house of her
husband as Khadija did. It included slaves, slave girls,
real estate, pasture lands, herds of camels and horses,
flocks of goats and sheep, and her personal outfit of
rich and rare fabrics, accessories, priceless heirlooms,
ornaments, precious metals, precious stones and masses of
gold and silver coins.
This dowry, unprecedented as it was for its quality and
its quantity, was not a gift to Khadija - the bride -
from her uncles or from her brothers. It was the product
of her own efforts. She had produced it by her own
diligence, industry, prudence, and foresight.
But these were not the only riches that Khadija brought
with her. She also brought the riches of heart and mind,
and these were immeasurable and inexhaustible. In the
years to come she immeasurably enriched the life of her
husband with these gifts.
Once Khadija was married, she appears
to have lost interest in her mercantile ventures and in
her commercial empire. Marriage changed the character of
her dedication and commitment. She had found Muhammed
Mustafa, the greatest of all treasures in the world. Once
she found him, gold, silver and diamonds lost their value
for her. Muhammed Mustafa, the future Messenger of Allah
and the future Prophet of Islam, became the one object of
all her affection, attention and devotion. Of course, she
never lost her genius for organization, but now instead
of applying it to her business, she applied it to the
service of her husband. She reorganized her whole life
around the personality of Muhammed Mustafa.
(Khadija could not wind up her wide-ranging commercial
operations abruptly. She had to phase them out. By
degrees, therefore, she phased out the export-and-import
business which her father had founded.)
In the years following his marriage, Muhammed travelled
again with Khadija's caravans to Syria. M. Shibli, the
Indian historian, says that he also went to Yemen.
Wherever he went, he made profits. Khadija also recruited
other managers who sold her merchandize or bought
merchandise for her, and they too made profits for her.
But the emphasis had shifted; instead of expanding her
business as she had done in the years before her
marriage, Khadija began, gradually, to curtail her
commitments until all her merchandize was sold, and she
had recovered all her investments.
When the Princess of Makka entered the
house of her husband, Muhammed Mustafa, the most
successful and the happiest phase
of life began for her. This phase lasted 25 years - until
her death. She immediately adapted her life to the new
environment. From the very first day, she took charge of
her new duty which was to make the life of her husband
happy and pleasant. In carrying out this duty, she was
eminently successful, as the history of later times has
eloquently borne witness.
Marriage opened a new chapter for both Muhammed and
Khadija in their life. The keynote of this
"chapter" was happiness - the purest kind of
happiness. Blessed with happiness as their marriage was,
it was also blessed with children. Their first-born was a
boy called Qasim. It was after the birth of the infant
Qasim that his father, Muhammed Mustafa, was called
Abul-Qasim - the father of Qasim - as per the custom of
the Arabs.
The second child was also a boy. His name was Abdullah.
He bore the nicknames of Tahir and Tayyeb. Both Qasim and
Abdullah died in their infancy.
The third and the last and the only surviving child of
Muhammed Mustafa and Khadija was their daughter, Fatima
Zahra. Though the gifts which Allah had bestowed upon
them, were many, there was none that they treasured more
than their daughter. She was the "light of the
eyes" of her father, and she was the "comfort
of his heart." She was also the future "Lady of
Heaven." The father and mother showered their love
upon her, and she brought hope and happiness and the
blessings and the mercy of Allah with her into their
home.