In their history books,
the highest tribute that most of the Muslim historians
have paid to Khadija, is that she strengthened Islam with
her wealth. They pay this tribute and then they pass on
to other matters. It is true that it was Khadija's wealth
that made Islam viable; but it is only a partial truth.
There is little, if any, acknowledgement by the
historians of what Khadija's support - material and moral
- did for Islam and the Muslims. Far from acknowledging
her great services, many of them have either distorted
truth or have strangled truth or have cooked up stories
of their own, and have dished them out as historical
"facts."
Not all the history of the early days of Islam is
factual; some of it is "synthetic." This
synthetic history was written for or was dictated by
special interest groups. Many fairy tales found their way
into the history of Islam in this manner and Truth was
quietly given a burial.
Spinning fairy tales, putting them into circulation and
burying truth was a conspiracy in which the leaders of
the prayer-congregations, orators of the pulpits in the
mosques, teachers in schools, professors in colleges,
doctors of law, judges of the courts, courtiers of the
kings, sultans and caliphs; and the kings, sultans and
caliphs themselves, all had a hand. The historian had
little choice in the matter. Even if he was a man of
integrity and principle, he dared not challenge the party
line. If he did, he could imperil his own life. If he
wrote factual history, his wife could become a widow, and
his children could become orphans. He, therefore, adopted
the "pragmatic" course. He ditched the truth,
and wrote spurious history.
Maulana Shibli Numani, the dean of the Indian historians
of Islam, writes in his Life of the Prophet. Volume I
(Azamgarh, India, 1976), that during the reign of the
caliph Muawiya (d. A.D. 680), and the later Umayyads,
thousands and tens of thousands of Hadith (1) were
churned out by hadith manufacturing factories, and were
put into circulation. "Historians" on the
payroll of the government, strung togcther
"fact" after "fact," and incorporated
them in their history books. And for 90 years, the names
of Ali ibn Abi Talib, and other members of the Bani
Hashim were cursed from every pulpit in the Muslim world
- from Sind in India to Spain in Europe. Children were
born, they grew up, and they died, hearing these curses
and never knowing the truth.
In A D. 750, the Abbasis
seized the caliphate, and they exterminated the Umayyads.
But they were no less rabid in their animosity to the
family of Muhammed Mustafa than were the Umayyads. In
fact, some of them outdid the Umayyads in persecuting his
children and their supporters. The one characteristic
that both dynasties shared, was their built-in animosity
to the family and the children of Muhammed Mustafa.
Edward Gibbon
The persecutors of Mohammed usurped the
inheritance of his children; and the champions of
idolatry became the supreme heads of his religion and
empire.
(The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire)
(1) A Hadith is the memorial of an
alleged act and/or saying of the Prophet
of Islam, as transmitted by a chain of informants.
Robert Payn
...Again and again we shall find
Muhammadans mercilessly destroying the living descendants
of Muhammad. (p. 84-85).
For 350 years, the descendants of Abu Sufyan and those
who claimed descent from Abbas had made war on the
descendants of Muhammad's flesh. (p. 193)
Throughout all the centuries of Islam, a strange fate had
hovered over the descendants of Muhammad. It was as
though that part of the world which eagerly accepted the
Messenger of God, had turned forever against his living
descendants. (p. 306)
(The Holy Sword, 1959)
The campaign of the Abbasi caliphs against the members of
the family of the Prophet, or his children, also lasted
as long as their caliphate - 500 years. It was during
their caliphate that the histories of Islam were written,
and Hadith were collected, edited and were published.
Some half-hearted attempts were perhaps made by a few
conscientious scholars at separating facts from bunk and
junk, and at salvaging Truth from the contexture of lies
but with little success. Many of the books of history and
Hadith are saddled forever with "facts" or
"hadith" (= a statement of the Prophet) which
were planted in them.
History, it has been rightly said, is the propaganda of
the victorious party. The victorious parties, in the
history of Islam, were, first the Umayyads and then the
Abbasis which succeedcd, in the words of Gibbon, in
"usurping the inheritance of the children of
Mohammed." Once thcy had thc instruments of power in
their hands, they were free to write or to manipulate the
history of the early days of Islam as they liked.
Since most of the books of the history of Islam were
"inspircd" by what the Communists call
"the ruling circles," I shall identify their
authors as the "court historians." Thcse
historians foisted
upon their readers the following three myths vis-a-vis
the life of Hadhret Khadija, may Allah be pleased with
her and bless her.
-
She was forty years old when she and Muhammed Mustafa were
married.
-
She was married twice before she and Muhammed Mustafa
were
married.
-
She and Muhammed Mustafa had six children - two boys
and
four daughters.
We shall discuss these myths point by
point.
1. The Age of Khtadija
Most of the Muslim historians have
stated that Khadija was 40-years old when she married
Muhammed Mustafa. So many historians have repeated this
figure that now it is believed as a gospel truth. Yet
this figure is open to question on the following grounds:
No historian knows the year in which Khadija was born.
The figure "40" is only an estimate, and it is
an over-estimate. Whereas it is true that Khadija was
older than Muhammed Mustafa, she was not 15 years older
as claimed by most of the historians, but only a few
years older than him.
Arabia is a very hot country, and Arab girls reach
maturity much more rapidly than girls do in cold or
temperate climates. Hadhrat Ayesha is said to have been
married when she was only eleven years old. Other Arab
girls were also married quite early.
In a country like Arabia, a woman could not spend forty
years of her life waiting to be married. At forty, the
best years of a woman's life are already behind her - in
Arabia or in any other country. But even if she marries
at forty, she cannot entertain any hope of having
children. Even in cold and temperate zones, a woman, in
most cases, is past her child-bearing age at 40. In
Arabia, this happens, probably, much earlier.
Khadija spent many years of her life in the single state.
As noted before, she received many offers of marriage
from the lords and princes of Arabia but she turned them
down. They could not impress her with their wealth. If
they were rich, she was immeasurably richer than the
richest of them. And in such personal qualities as the
qualities of head, hand and heart, all of them were like
the dust of her feet. Anyone trying to impress her with
his wealth or power would be naive, if not foolish,
indeed. Therefore, she marked time until the man who
really impressed her - Muhammed Mustafa - came along, and
she married him.
2. Alleged Marriages of Khadija
Khadija was never married before she
married Muhammed Mustafa. Her marriage with Muhammed was
her first and last marriage. The same historians who have
claimed that Khadija was married twice before she married
Muhammed, have reported that all the lords of Quraysh and
the princes of the Arabs, sought her hand in marriage but
she didn't condescend to consider any of them for a
matrimonial alliance. If she had been married twice
before, she ought to have had no hesitation in marrying a
third time.
3. Khadija's Children
It is alleged by the court historians
of the Umayyads that Khadija and Muhammed had six
children, and they give their names as follows:
-
Qasim
-
Abdullah
-
Zaynab
-
Rukayya
-
Umm Kulthum
-
Fatima Zahra
Muhammed Mustafa and Khadija were the parents of three
and not six children. They were:
- Qasim
- Abdullah
- Fatima Zahra
Out of these three children, the first
two - Qasim and Abdullah - were boys, and both of them
died in their infancy, as noted before. The third and
their last child was their daughter - Fatima Zahra.
Who were the other three girls, viz., Zaynab, Rukayya and
Umm Kulthum? This question is answered later in this
chapter.
All these three claims have gained
currency as "facts" but are, nevertheless
fairy-tales. The "patina" of age has made
them"respectable" so that most of the Muslims
believe them to be
true. But these are not by any means, the only tales
which, formost Muslims, have acquired the status of
facts. There are many other fables which have
"graduated" as facts.
Following examples will show that this can happen even
when there is no deliberate intent to twist facts or to
mangle truth.
1. Many Muslims believe that the
character designated in verses 83, 86 and 94 of the 18th
chapter of Quran Majid (Kahf or the Cave) as Zul-Qarnain,
was Alexander the Great of Macedonia. Even Abdullah Yusuf
Ali shares this view. He says:
"Personally, I have not the least doubt that
Zul-Qarnain is meant to be Alexander the Great, the
historic Alexander, and not the legendary
Alexander..."
And yet, Zul-Qarnain might have been anyone but Alexander
the Great. Zul-Qarnain was one of the chosen ones of
Allah; perhaps he was a prophet. Alexander, on the other
hand, was a heathen. He worshipped the gods and goddesses
not only of Greece but also of Egypt, Babylon and Persia.
Harold Lamb
Alexander had bowed down to strange
deities - not only to Zeus, but Ammon-Re of the Egyptian
desert, Marduk of the towers of Babylon, and Ahura,
tutelary of the tombs of Persepolis.
(Alexander of Macedon, New York, 1946)
Alexander committed many crimes including the murder of
two of his oldest friends and most loyal generals,
Cleitus and Parmenion. And he engineered the murder of
his own father, Philip.
R D. Milns
There can be little doubt that
Alexander became king by becoming a parricide.
(Alexander the Great, New York, 1969)
In his wars, Alexander killed hundreds of thousands of
innocent men and women - unnecessarily. Perhaps he was
overcome by lust for blood. A modern historian says that
before his death, he had become insane. And recent
research has disclosed that he died an "alcoholic
megalomaniac."
2. The real name of Hadhret Abdul
Muttalib, the grandfather of Muhammed Mustafa, the
Apostle of Allah, was Shaiba. As a young lad, he once
rode pillion with his uncle, Muttalib, from Yathrib
(Medina) into Makka. The bystanders who saw him, said:
"O look! Muttalib has bought a new slave for
himsel£" Muttalib bridled at the remark, and said:
"Curse on you. He is not my slave. He is the son of
my brother, Hashim." But the name "Abdul
Muttalibn - nthe slave of Muttalib" stuck to the
boy. He is known to history only by a fake name - Abdul
Muttalib. His real name - Shaiba - is forgotten.
3. This example is from the story of
Joseph (Prophet Yusuf).
The following verse occurs in the 12th chapter of Quran
Majid (Sura Yusuf):
THEY SAID: "TRULY JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHER ARE LOVED
MORE BY OUR FATHER THAN WE: BUT WE ARE A GOODLY BODY.
REALLY OUR FATHER IS OBVIOUSLY WANDERING (IN HIS MIND!
A. Yusuf Ali has explained this verse as follows:
"The ten brothers not only envied and hated their
innocent younger brothers Joseph and Benjamin. They
despised and dishonored their father as an ignorant old
fool - in his dotage. In reality, Jacob had the wisdom to
see that his young and innocent sons wanted protection
and to perceive Joseph's spiritual greatness. But his
wisdom, to them, was folly or madness or imbecility,
because it touched their self-love, as truth often does.
And they relied on the brute strength of numbers - the
ten hefty brethren against old Jacob, the lad Joseph, and
the boy Benjamin."
Another verse in the same context reads
as follows:
THEY SAID: "BY GOD! TRULY THOU ART IN THINE OLD
WANDERING MIND."
(Chapter 12; verse 85)
This verse is explained by the
translator as follows:
"They" must be the people around Jacob before
the brothers (of Joseph) actually arrived (from Egypt).
These same brothers had sedulously cultivated the calumny
that their father was an old dotard, and everybody around
believed it, even after its authors had given it up. Thus
lies die hard once thev ~et a start."
(A. Yusuf Ali)
There are many other examples, in both
Muslim and non-Muslim history, of mendacity passing for
truth. This is precisely what happened in the case of
these three canards connected with the story of the life
of Khadija; they found
general acceptance among the Muslims. Once lies ~et a
start, theY refuse to die.
It is also possible that the historians who were
collecting material to write the history of the early
days of Islam, had access only to those stories which had
been skillfully "planted" in the primary
sources by the "ruling circles." They were
convinced that material obtained through these sources,
was authentic, and they incorporated it in their works.
The allegations pertaining to the age,
marriage(s), and children of Khadija, were prompted by
two reasons, viz.,
1. Khadija was the mother of Hadhret Fatima Zahra; and
she was the mother-in-law of Ali ibn Abi Talib; and the
grandmother of Hasan and Husain. She, therefore, could
not escape the animosity that the Umayyads and the
Abbasis had nursed against all members of the family of
Muhammed Mustafa, especially against Ali, Hasan and
Husain. The historians, for the most part, shared this
animosity with their paymasters; but if they didn't, they
could forfeit their livelihood or even life itself.
They, therefore, had to invent some "fact" or
"facts" which would minimize Khadija's
importance. In selecting "facts" which they or
their forerunners had invented, they considered
themselves free to exercise their discretion - or their
fantasy. But to make their accounts convincing, they had
to be extremely subtle or else their animosity would
become too obvious, and the worth of their works of
history would become dubious.
2. The mercenary historians wanted to tell their readers
that among the wives of the Prophet, there were some who
were just as great or perhaps even greater, than Khadija,
and that such a wife was Ayesha. They had to glorify
Ayesha at the expense of Khadija.
These historians entertained no fear for the thesis which
they were trying to develop from any other wife of
Muhammed Mustafa but they were not sure if their efforts
to show Ayesha as superior to Khadija would be
successful. But they were serendipitous people and made
the "discovery" that Khadija was forty years
old, and was married twice before she married Muhammed.
It was a "discovery" which, in their opinion,
could militate against Khadija. On the other hand, they
asserted that Ayesha was not only very young and
beautiful but also was a virgin.
Through the exercise of such arbitrary logic the
historians built up their thesis of the superiority of
one wife over the other wives. But did the Prophet marry
Ayesha for her youth, beauty and virginity? Abbas Mahmud
al-Akkad answers this question in his book, Avesha. as
follows:
"As far as we know, the Messenger of Allah did not
marry for children. Generally speaking, he married for
two reasons, viz.,
1. Some women became utterly helpless
after the death of their husbands. They had no
next-of-kin to support them. The Apostle married them to
provide a home to them.
2. The Apostle wished to break the resistance of the Arab
tribes to Islam. One way to do so was, for him to marry
the women of those tribes."
There was also a third reason for some of the marriages
of the Prophet, viz., if he was a teacher for Muslim men,
his wives had to be teachers for Muslim women, in all
matters of faith and religion. They explained to the
Muslim women the meaning of Quran, and they taught them
how to apply the laws of Islam in their personal lives.
With the exception of Khadija, the Apostle married all
other women for one or more of these reasons. His
marriage with
Khadija was the only one which rested upon affection,
love and friendship; and for him, it fulfilled all the
aims of marriage.
Khadija also taught the laws of Islam to Muslim women but
she did so more by example and less by precept as noted
before.
The court historians of the Muslims
have been repeating some falsehoods and half-truths for
centuries, and through such repetition, they have
succeeded in convincing the Muslim umma (=community) that
Khadija was widowed twice before her marriage with
Muhammed Mustafa.
Writing on the subject of the marriage of Khadija, the
author of Raudhatus-Safa says:
The principal hgures of Quraysh wished to marry Khadija
and they proposed to her but she did not agree to marry
any of them. (Volume 2, page 271).
And the author of Raudhatul-Ahbab writes as follows:
All the nobles of Quraysh sought marriage with Khadija
but she refused to consider any of them. (Volume 1, page
105).
According to the venal historians, at her marriage with
Muhammed Mustafa, Khadija was already widowed twice; and
she was 40 years old. If this is true, then it means that
she was already a middle-aged woman, or perhaps - in a
country like Arabia - even past middle-age; and the bloom
of youth had long since departed from her. Why were then
the lords of Quraysh and the princes of the Arabs so
eager to marry her? After all, being rich and powerful as
they were, they could have very easily found many young
and beautiful women, among them virgins, to marry. Why
would they want to marry a widow who was not so young
either? It will also not be correct to say that they were
lured by Khadija's wealth. They were themselves very
rich.
Allama Ali Ahmed Abul Qasim al-Kufi questions the story
of the two marriages of Khadija before her marriage with
Muhammed Mustafa. He writes in his book, Al-IstiPhatha:
Khadija did not marry anyone before she married Muhammed
Mustafa. All historians have unanimously stated that
everyone of the chiefs of Quraysh proposed marriage to
Khadija, but she turned down all those proposals with
contempt. At length she married Muhammed Mustafa. This
made the ladies of Quraysh very angry with her. They said
that when the lords and princes proposed marriage to her,
she refused. And yet, when a young man of Bani Hashim who
did not have any wealth or power, proposed to her, she
accepted. These ladies could not understand why Khadija
spurned the requests of the rich and the powerful nobles
of Arabia for marriage, and went ahead and married a poor
man. This is proof that Khadija did not marry anyone
before marrying Muhammed ibn Abdullah.
Some people pose the question that if
it is assumed that Khadija was married twice before her
marriage with Muhammed, and that she was 40 years old at
her last marriage, is there anything reprehensible about
it? No! If a man or a woman is married more than once or
is 40 years old, there is nothing reprehensible about it.
The question is not if it is true or false if Khadija was
married more than once or if she was 40 years old at her
last marriage. The only question is: is it a historical
fact that Khadija was married thrice; or that she was 40
years old at her last marriage. It is not.
If one agrees with the venal historians that Khadija was
married thrice, and she was 40 years old at her last
marriage, nothing diminishes from her status. She remains
sublime. But it is simply not true that she was a 40-year
old widow when she married Muhammed Mustafa, and,
therefore, it is unethical to interpolate
falsehoods in the story of her life, or the life of any
other man or woman, for that matter. Every man is
entitled to his own opinions but not to his own facts. If
a seeker of truth wishes to separate facts from opinions,
he can do so with the aid of intellectual and logical
analysis. His search for deduction from fixed principles
will be a rewarding experience.
Zaynab, Rukayya and Umm Kulthum
Before Khadija married Muhammed
Mustafa, there were three girls living in her house in
Makka. Their names were Zaynab, Rukayya and Umm Kulthum.
They were the daughters of her deceased sister. Their
father had died earlier, and when their mother also died,
Khadija brought them into her own house.
After Khadija's marriage, all three girls stayed with her
as her wards. They probably called Khadija their mother
and they probably called Muhammed Mustafa their father.
And according to Arab usage, they were known as his
daughters because they lived in his house, and he was
their legal guardian.
Zaynab was the eldest of these three girls. She was
married to a man called Abul-As ibn er-Rabi'. In 624 he
came with the pagan army of Makka, and fought against
Muhammed Mustafa in the battle of Badr. He was captured
but he ransomed his freedom, and returned to Makka.
Later, he accepted Islam.
The other two girls - Rukayya and Umm Kulthum - were
married to Utba and Utayba - the sons of Abu Lahab and
Umm Jameel. All three girls were married before the dawn
of Islam; the husbands of all three, therefore, were
idolaters.
After the Proclamation of Islam, Abu Lahab and his wife,
Umm Jameel, both arch-enemies of Islam, were made
subjects of a curse in chapter 111 of Quran Majid. This
aroused their wrath, and they ordered their sons - Utba
and Utayba - to divorce their
wives and to send them to their home. Both girls -
Rukayya and Umm Kulthum - were divorced, and they
returned to the house of Khadija.
Sometime later, Rukayya was married to Uthman bin Affan,
a member of the Umayyad clan of the Quraysh, and a future
khalifa of the Muslims. She died in 624 in Medina. After
her death, her sister, Umm Kulthum, was also married to
Uthman b. Affan.
Muhammad Husayn Haykal
He (Muhammad) married Ruqayyah and Umm
Kulthum to Utbah and Utaybah, the sons of his uncle, Abu
Lahab. These marriages did not last, for soon after the
advent of Islam, Abu Lahab ordered his two sons to
divorce their wives. It was Uthman that married both of
them one after the other.
(The Life of Muhammad, Cairo, 1935)
The court historians of the Umayyads,
"inspired" by Muawiya bin Abu Sufyan, the
founder of the Umayyad dynasty, and his successors,
claimed that Rukayya and Umm Kulthum were the daughters
of Muhammed Mustafa and Khadija. Since they were married
to Uthman - an Umayyad - they called him Dhawin-Nuravn,
i.e., "the owner of two lights" - Rukayya and
Umm Kulthum. Yet only a little earlier, both of these
"lights" had belonged to two idolaters of
Makka. Each of these idolaters was, therefore a
Dhawin-Nur - the owner of one "light" which he
passed on to Uthman. After all, the "light" or
the "lights" remained the same; only the
ownership changed!
Were these girls the daughters of
Muhammed Mustafa and Khadija as claimed by the mercenary
historians? The answer to this question should be sought
in (A) Quran Majid, and (B) the
testimony of history. Their answer, set forth hereunder,
is unequivocal:
A. The Testimony of Quran Majid
If the light of guidance of the Book of
Allah means anything to the Muslims, then these three
girls - Zaynab, Rukayya and Umm Kulthum - were not, and
could not have been the daughters of the Apostle of God
and Khadija. They were orphans. The only connection the
three of them had with Muhammed and Khadija, was that at
one time they lived in their house. Khadija was a
patroness of orphans (and widows) even before her
marriage.
If Muhammed Mustafa and Khadija had been the parents of
these three girls - Zaynab, Rukayya and Umm Kulthum -
they would not have given them in marriage to the
worshippers of idols which the husbands of all three of
them were. It is true that all three girls were married
before the sun of Islam rose above the horizon; but then,
Muhammed did not violate any of the imperatives of Quran
Majid at any time - before or after he was ordained
messenger of Allah. Muhammed never committed a pagan act
at any time in his life. And Quran is explicit on the
prohibition of the marriage of a Muslim woman to a pagan.
The proscriptive commandment on the marriage of a Muslim
woman and a polytheist was revealcd in the following
verses of the Book of Allah:
1. DO NOT MARRY (YOUR GIRLS) TO
UNBELIEVERS.
(Chapter 2; verse 221)
2. BELIEVING WOMEN ARE NOT LAWFUL
(WIVES)
FOR THE UNBELIEVERS, NOR ARE THE (UNBELIEVERS) LAWFUL
(HUSBANDS) FOR THEM.
There are other verses in Quran which,
without referring specifically to marriage, make it
impossible for a Muslim to give his daughter or daughters
to an idolater. Some of them are:
1....THE CURSE OF ALLAH IS ON THOSE
WITHOUT
FAITH.
(Chapter 2; verse 89)
2....ALLAH IS AN ENEMY TO THOSE WHO
REJECT
FAITH.
(Chapter 2; verse 98)
3. O YE WHO BELIEVE! TRULY THE PAGANS
ARE
UNCLEAN.
(Chapter 9; verse 28)
No Muslim would be so reckless as to
presume that Muhammed Mustafa contravened the
prohibitions of Quran by giving his daughters to those
men whom Allah has cursed: whose enemy He is, and who are
unclean.
To a Muslim, the verses of Quran Majid quoted above,
prove conclusively that Zaynab, Rukayya and Umm Kulthum,
all three, married at one time to the idolaters, were not
the daughters of Muhammed Mustafa and Khadija.
A Muslim - any Muslim - even a
"marginal" or a "statistical" Muslim
- will bridle if it is suggested to him that he give his
daughter or daughters in marriage to an idolater or even
to a Jew or a Christian. Yet the same Muslim - and the
situation reeks
with irony - will believe, without so much as a twinge,
that his own Prophet, Muhammed Mustafa - the Interpreter
and Promulgator of Quran - gave three of his daughters to
three idol-worshippers in Makka!
B. The Testimony of History
Muhammed Mustafa was extremely fond of
children. He was especially fond of the children of his
daughter, Fatima Zahra. Her children - Hasan and Husain -
were the pupils of his eyes. He pampered them. They rode
on his neck and shoulders even when he was leading public
prayers. He even interrupted his speeches to play with
them if they came into the mosque. When they were with
him, he forgot all the burdens, cares and problems of
state and government. They brought to him the happiest
moments of his life. And it appeared as if he could not
bestow enough encomiums upon them and their mother. It
is, therefore, a matter of historical curiosity why he
never mentioned Zaynab, Rukayya and Umm Kulthum at any
time. The parents give same love to all their children,
and do not make any distinction between them. But judging
by the traditions and historical literature of the time,
the Apostle was not even aware that three women called
Zaynab, Rukayya and Umm Kulthum existed.
For the Messenger of Allah, the years in Makka following
the Proclamation of Islam, were fraught with perils.
Every day brought new perils and new challenges to him.
And yet, Rukayya and Umm Kulthum are never mentioned as
giving any service to their father at any time. On the
other hand, his daughter, Fatima Zahra, helped him, both
in Makka and Medina, in various emergencies. Both Rukayya
and Umm Kulthum were many years older than Fatima. They
ought to have comforted their father whenever he was
oppressed by the infidels in Makka or was wounded in
battles in Medina. But they never did.
The truth made manifest both by the prohibitions of the
Book of Allah, and by the logic of history, is that
Rukayya and Umm Kulthum were not the daughters of
Muhammed Mustafa and Khadija.
The subject of the age, the alleged
marriages and the number of children of Khadija, is not
one on which the faith of a Muslim depends; it does not.
But a Muslim must uphold historical integrity. Khadija
was the benefactress of Islam and the Muslims. The least
that the Muslims can do to acknowledge their gratitude to
her, is not to twist facts into pretzels still less to
fabricate "facts" of their own; and to distort
plain truths into conundrums. Truth must be upheld at all
costs whether it benefits or hurts friends or foes.
A man may be eager to show his loyalty to his heroes, and
the cult of hero worship may prompt him to glorify them.
But if he is a Muslim, he must not do so at the expense
of truth. If he does, he will merit the displeasure of
Allah Who says in His Book:
1. AND COVER NOT TRUTH WITH FALSEHOOD,
NOR CONCEAL THE TRUTH WHEN YE KNOW (WHAT IT IS).
(Chapter 2; verse 42)
2....WHO IS MORE UNJUST THAN THOSE WHO
CONCEAL THE TESTIMONY THEY HAVE FROM ALLAH? BUT ALLAH IS
NOT UNMINDFUL OF WHAT YE DO!
3. THOSE WHO CONCEAL THE CLEAR (SIGNS)
WE HAVE SENT DOWN, AND THE GUIDANCE, AFTER WE HAVE
MADE IT CLEAR FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BOOK, - ON THEM SHALL
BE ALLAH'S CURSE, AND THE CURSE OF THOSE ENTITLED TO
CURSE,
(Chapter 2; verse 159)
4. CONCEAL NOT EVIDENCE; FOR WHOEVER
CONCEALS
IT, - HIS HEART IS TAINTED WITH SIN. AND ALLAH KNOWETH
ALL THAT YE DO.
(Chapter 2; verse 283)
Allah has commanded Muslims to
acknowledge and to express their gratitude for the
bounties He has given them.
BUT THE BOUNTY OF THY LORD REHEARSE AND
PROCLAIM
(Chapter 93; verse 11)
If Muslims are sincere in expressing their gratitude to
Khadija, they should spike the falsehoods vis-a-vis the
story of her life. These falsehoods have been in
circulation for much too long. There is no better way for
the Muslims to "rehearse and to proclaim" the
bounty of the Lord than by giving their loyalty to Truth
- to Absolute Truth. By giving their loyalty to Truth,
they will also win the pleasure of Allah Ta'ala.
Khadija was the favorite slave of Allah, and the first
wife of His friend and messenger, Muhammed Mustafa. She
was unique; she was incomparable, and she was a
"special" in the sight of Allah Who sent His
greetings and salutations to her through the Archangel
Gabriel!
May Allah bless His slave, Khadija.
The following verses of Quran Majid are addressed to
those sincere and loving slaves of Allah who put His
pleasure ahead of their own pleasure, and who seek His
pleasure in selfless service to His Creation. Khadija was
one of the foremost of those slaves of Allah.
(To the soul of the righteous will be
said:)
"O THOU SOUL, IN (COMPLETE) REST
AND SATISFACTION! COME BACK THOU TO THY LORD,
WELL-PLEASED (THYSELF), AND WELL-PLEASED UNTO HIM! ENTER
THOU, THEN, AMONG MY DEVOTEES! YEA, ENTER THOU MY
HEAVEN!"
(Chapter 89, verses 27-30)
May Allah bless Khadija and may He
elevate her to the highest ranks in the hierarchy of His
true and faithful friends.
May Allah bless Muhammed Mustafa, and
his Ahlel-Bayt. Through him mankind received the Blessing
of the Light of Islam.