Before Islam, Khadija was
the Princess of Makka. When the sun of Islam rose above
the horizon, Allah was pleased to make her the Princess
of Islam also. Allah was also pleased to make her the
Mother of the Believers, as He says in His Book:
THE PROPHET IS CLOSER TO THE BELIEVERS THAN THEIR OWN
SELVES, AND HIS WIVES ARE THEIR MOTHERS.
(Chapter 33; verse 6)
Translators Note
"This Sura (chapter 33) establishes the dignity and
position of the Holy Prophet's wives, who had a special
mission and responsibility as Mothers of the Believers.
They were not to be like ordinary women: they had to
instruct women in spiritual matters, visit and minister
to those who were ill or in distress, and do other kindly
offices in aid of the Prophet's mission." (A. Yusuf
Ali)
The title of the Mother of
Believers appears to have been specifically designed for
Khadija. Without Khadija, this title becomes meaningless.
She and she alone gave the sacred love which a mother
alone can give, to the believers. A mother may be hungry
but if her children are hungry, she will feed them first.
In fact, if necessary - in an exigency - she will feed
her children her own share of food and will gladly go
hungry. This has
happened on countless occasions in history, especially
during wars and famines. The fact that her children are
well-fed and contented, is enough to make a mother happy
and contented, and is enough to make her forget her own
hunger and thirst. A mother's love is unconditional; it
is all-protective, all-enveloping.
Most of the Muslims of
Makka were poor. They had no source of income, and they
had no means of making a living in a city the economic
life of which was controlled by a cartel of idolaters.
The members of the cartel had decreed that no one would
pay a Muslim any wages for any work done by him, and no
one would buy anything from him. They knew that material
privation affected the body as well as the spirit, and
they figured that when the resistance of the Muslims
breaks down through economic attrition, they would
repudiate Islam, and they would abandon Muhammed. A
concurrent aim of this policy was to starve the Muslims.
But Khadija fed the poor Muslims, day after day, so that
no one among them ever went hungry, and she provided
shelter to them. For her, charity was nothing new but the
size and scope of the commitment were; she spent money
prodigiously on the poor and the homeless Muslims of
Makka, and thus foiled the aims of the cartel.
The support that Khadija gave to the Muslim community in
Makka, was indispensable for the survival of Islam. Her
support to the Muslim community guaranteed its survival
when it was in a state of blockade. In this sense, she
was a maker of history the history of Islam.
All wives of Muhammed
Mustafa, the Messenger of Allah, are the Mothers of
Believers; but between them and Khadija there is a basic
difference. All the women he married in Medina, received
a stipend from the Bavt-ul-Mal (the Public Treasury).
Some of
them claimed special prerogatives, and demanded
"perks" from him. They said that the stipend
paid to them was insufficient for their needs, and they
could not buy enough food to eat from it.
Khadija, on the other hand, never asked her husband for
anything. Far from asking him to bring anything for her,
she made her own purse a public treasury for the Muslims.
In Makka there was no Bayt-ul-Mal, and it was the
boundless generosity and the unlimited wealth of Khadija
that saved the Community of the Faithful from starving.
She was so solicitous of the welfare of the followers of
her husband that she didn't withhold even the last coin
that was in her possession, and spent it on them.
May Allah bless His slave, Khadija, the Mother of the
Believers, par excellence.
Khadija as a Mother
Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal (d.
1938) was the Poet-Philosopher of Indo-Pakistan. He was
also a catalyst in the renaissance of the Muslims in the
20th-century. He says that as a creator, a mother ranks
next only to God Himself. She brings new life into the
world, i.e., she creates; and that act - the act of
bringing new life into the world or the act of creating,
calls for sacrifice. In bringing new life into the world,
a mother risks her own life. She therefore merits the
greatest honor and respect. What makes her willing to
sacrifice her life is love - the love of her child. Her
love for her child is the most sacrosanct love. In
sanctity, a mother's love for her child ranks second only
to the love of God
Khadija was the proud mother of three children - two boys
and a girl, as noted before. The two boys - Qasim and
Abdullah were still infants when they died. Her last and
the only surviving child was her daughter, Fatima Zahra.
If Khadija was the ideal mother, Fatima Zahra was the
ideal daughter.
Fatima Zahra, the ideal daughter of Muhammed Mustafa and
Khadija, also became the ideal mother. She was the mother
of two boys - Hasan and Husain - and two girls - Zaynab
and Umm Kulthum.
Khadija and Fatima Zahra - the mother and daughter - were
two of the only four perfect women in the world. Both of
them made motherhood sacrosanct. They brought glory and
honor to motherhood.
As noted earlier in this
book, women had no status in pre-Islamic Arabia. In the
male-dominated Arab society they were ruthlessly
exploited and were treated like cattle. Muhammed Mustafa,
the Messenger of Allah, put an end to their exploitation
by men, and gave them a status which they didn't have in
any country, at any time. About mothers, he said:
"Paradise is under the feet of one's mother."
This means that no one may entertain the hope of entering
paradise if one has displeased one's mother. One's
admission to paradise hinges upon one's ability to win
salvation, and no one who has displeased one's mother,
will ever win salvation.
The Prophet of Islam has thus made the winning of the
pleasure of one's mother - a woman - a
condition-precedent for one to win salvation and to enter
paradise.