Hadhrat Ayesha was jealous
not only of those wives of Muhammed Mustafa who were
living at the same time and in the same house as she was,
but also of a wife who was long since dead, viz.,
Khadija. In fact, she was more jealous of Khadija, the
dead wife, than she was of any of her living co-wives.
She was so jealous of Khadija that she reserved her most
bitter blasts against her.
Abbas Mahmud al-Akkad says
in his book, Avesha:
"Ayesha did not nurse such strong feelings of
jealousy toward any wife of the Messenger of Allah as she
did toward Khadija. The reason for this jealousy was that
Khadija had made a place for herself in the heart of her
husband which no one else could take. Muhammed Mustafa
recounted her merits night and day.
Muhammed Mustafa was constantly helping the poor and the
sick. On one occasion, Ayesha asked him the reason for
this, and he said: "Khadija had told me to treat
these people with kindness and love. It was her last
wish."
When Ayesha heard this, she nared into a rage, and
shouted: "Khadija! Khadija! It seems that for you
there is no other woman on the face of the earth except
Khadija."
The Apostle was a man of unlimited forbearance. But when
he saw Ayesha's outburst, he stopped talking with
her."
If this incident points up the love that Khadija had for
the poor and the sick, it also points up the esteem in
which she was held by Muhammed Mustafa. He acted upon her
wishes, notwithstanding the overt reaction and resentment
of Ayesha. He, in fact, acted upon the wishes of Khadija
as long as he lived. Didn't he know that any reference to
Khadija displeased Ayesha? Of course he did. Therefore,
when she asked him why he was feeding the poor, clothing
the naked, and comforting the cheerless, he ought to have
given her a "discreet" answer, one that would
not have frayed her nerves. But he didn't. He just said:
"I am carrying out the wishes of Khadija."
Was this a coincidence that the last thought that Khadija
had in this world, was the welfare of the poor, the sick,
the orphans, the widows and the disabled? No. There is
nothing coincidental about it. Everything that Khadija
ever said or did, was precalculated to win the pleasure
of Allah. And she knew that she could win the pleasure of
Allah by giving love and service to the most vulnerable
of His humble slaves.
Khadija's largess was reaching the hungry, the poor and
the sick, even after her death. Her charity never came to
a halt - in life or in death!
The name and image of Khadija were etched on the heart of
Muhammed Mustafa, and neither the hand of time nor the
tantrums of Ayesha could efface them.
Hadhrat Ayesha was aware
that she could not dissuade Muhammed Mustafa from
praising Khadija, and from talking about her. But this
knowledge did not put a crimp upon her vis-a-vis her
"anti-Khadija" stance. Abbas Mahmud al-Akkad of
Egypt, relates another incident in his book, Avesha, as
follows:
One day the Messenger of Allah was praising Khadija when
Ayesha said: "O Messenger of Allah! Why do you talk
all the time about that old woman who had inflamed gums?
After all, Allah has given you better wives than
her."
Muhammed Mustafa said: "No Ayesha! Allah never gave
me a better wife than Khadija. She believed in me at a
time when other people denied me. She put all her wealth
at my service when other people withheld theirs from me.
And what's more, Allah gave me children only through
Khadija."
It appears that Ayesha's hatred of Khadija which she
expressed so blatantly, backfired upon her. Her husband
told her that Allah gave him children only through
Khadija whereas his other wives could not give him any
child.
To be childless, is a very painful experience for a
woman. But if she is told that she is barren, the pain
for her becomes a torture. And if it is her own husband
who taunts her for her barrenness, then the pain becomes
an agony.
But Ayesha could never repress her hatred of Khadija. She
herself said once: "I have never been so jealous of
any woman as I am of Khadija." She showed her
jealousy over and over again, and each time she elicited
from the Messenger of Allah the same anger and
displeasure.
The last child of Muhammed
Mustafa and Khadija was their daughter, Fatima Zahra. She
was born in the fifth year of the Proclamation, and eight
years before the Migration. Her brothers, Qasim and
Abdullah, had died before her. It was the pleasure of
Allah that the line of descent of His messenger and
friend, Muhammed Mustafa, should begin with his daughter,
Fatima Zahra. She was the joy of her father's heart, and
the light of his eyes. He cherished her and her children
as his greatest treasures. They were, for him, the
epitome of the purest of all joys - both terrestrial and
celestial.
From time to time, Muhammed Mustafa had to leave Medina
on his campaigns. It was his invariable practice that he
sent his army ahead of him, and he himself was the last
one to leave the city.
The last thing that Muhammed Mustafa did before leaving
Medina, was to visit his daughter, Fatima Zahra, the
blessed one, and her children. He entrusted them to the
protection of God, and bade them farewell.
The first thing that Muhammed Mustafa did when he
returned to Medina, was to visit the house of his
daughter. He invoked God's blessings upon her and her
family. During his frequent absences from Medina, there
was nothing that he missed so much as the children of his
daughter. When he saw them, he exchanged greetings with
them, kissed them, dandled them, and played with them.
Once he was with them, his weariness from the campaigns,
and from long marches in the dust and heat of Arabia,
vanished, and he was refreshed and restored.
It was a pattern of life for Muhammed Mustafa, and he
never veered from it. His emotional life revolved around
the house of his daughter.
Hadhrat Ayesha didn't
share her husband's love for his daughter. Abbas Mahmud
al-Akkad says in his book, Avesha:
In the first place, Fatima was the daughter of Khadija;
and the Messenger of Allah loved Khadija so much that he
was constantly praising and complimenting her. Ayesha
resented this. In the second place, Ayesha was childless.
Whenever she saw her husband coddling and cuddling the
children of Fatima which he was doing all the time, she
was further embittered being painfully reminded of her
own sterility. The relations, therefore, of Ayesha and
Fatima, were not very "friendly."