Chapter XII : The Death of Khadija-tul-Kubra and Abu Talib A. D. 619
The five paladins of Makka had trampled upon the covenant of the Quraysh to boycott the Bani Hashim. Thanks to their chivalry and gallantry, the Bani Hashim could return to the city, and live in their homes once again. But they had barely begun to recover from the rigors of living in a mountain hideout for three years, when Khadija, the wife, the companion and the friend of Muhammed Mustafa, the Messenger of Allah; and the benefactress of Islam and the Muslims, fell ill. Her illness was brief but fatal. All her life she had lived in the midst of abundance and luxury but the three years of exile had been a time of excessive austerity for her which inevitably took its toll.
As noted before, Khadija was the first woman to declare that the Creator was One, and that Muhammed was His Messenger. The glory and honor of being the First Believer in the whole world, is hers to all eternity.
When Islam came under mounting pressure from its enemies, Khadija sacrificed her comfort, her wealth and her home for it; and now it would appear that she sacrificed her life also. Without a doubt, if she had lived in her palatial house in Makka, surrounded by her maid-servants, she might have lived for many more years. But she preferred to stand by her husband and his clan, and to share the bitters of life with them. During the siege, she had to endure not only the pangs of hunger and thirst but also the extremes of heat in summer and cold in winter; yet she never complained to her husband about them. Whether times were good or bad, whether she had plenty or she had nothing, she was always cheerful. Austerity and privation never soured her. It was this temperament that was an unfailing source of comfort, courage and strength for her husband during the bleakest moments of his life.
During the years of the siege, Khadija spent all her fortune on buying essentials like food and water for the clan of her husband. When she returned to her house, her last cent was gone; and when she died, there was not enough money available in the house even to buy a shroud. A cloak of her husband was used as a shroud for her, and she was given burial in it.
Muhammed Mustafa never took another wife as long as Khadija lived, and if she had not died, it is most probable that he would never have married any other woman.
Edward Gibbon
During the 24-years of their marriage, Khadija's youthful husband abstained from the right of polygamy, and the pride or tenderness of the venerable matron was never insulted by the society of a rival. After her death, the Prophet placed her in the rank of four perfect women, with the sister (sic) of Moses, the mother of Jesus, and Fatima, the best beloved of his daughters (sic).
(The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire)
Muhammad ibn Ishaq, the biographer of the Prophet, says that when there was resumption of Divine revelation, after its cessation following the first two visits of Gabriel, Khadija received a tribute and a salutation of peace from Allah Ta'ala. The message was communicated to Muhammed by Gabriel, and when he conveyed it to Khadija, she said: "Allah is Peace (as-Salam), and from Him is all Peace, and may peace be on Gabriel."
Muhammed forever remembered Khadija with affection, gratitude and love. During her illness, he kept a nightlong vigil nursing her, comforting her and praying for her. He told her that Allah had promised Eternal Bliss to her, and had built for her a palace of pearls in Paradise. Toward morning her frail frame could not endure the attack of fever any more and her sanctified and noble soul left this earth for its destination in Heaven where it entered the company of the immortals. Her death filled Muhammed's heart with sorrow.
Khadija died on the tenth of Ramadan of the tenth year of the Proclamation of Islam.
Khadija was buried in Hujun above Makka. Muhammed Mustafa, the Messenger of Allah, himself descended into her grave to lie in it for a few moments. Then he assisted the other mourners in lowering the body into it. After the burial, he smoothed the earth on her grave.
Thus died Khadija, the first woman to believe in the Oneness of the Creator.
Peace on Khadija to whom Allah Ta'ala sent His greetings and salutations.
Peace on Khadija for whom Allah Ta'ala built a palace of pearls in Paradise.
Peace on Khadija, the best of women, and the chief of all women.
Khadija died in 619. One month after her death, Muhammed Mustafa had to sustain another shock in the death of Abu Talib, his uncle and guardian, and the bulwark of Islam. The death of these two friends - Khadija and Abu Talib - was the greatest shock that the Apostle of God had to endure in the fifty years of his life. The two lamps of his life were extinguished. He was overwhelmed with sorrow. He called the year of their death "the Year of Sorrow."
The year 619 turned out to be a year of sorrow for Muhammed Mustafa in more than one sense. The death of one's loved ones is naturally an occasion for sorrow. But in the case of Muhammed, the death of these two friends was not merely a subjective experience for him. He was soon made conscious of the meaning of their death by a series of extraneous events.
Muhammad ibn Ishaq
Khadija and Abu Talib died in the same year, and with Khadija's death troubles came fast one after another. She had been a faithful supporter for him in Islam, and he used to tell her of his troubles. With the death of Abu Talib he lost a source of strength in his personal life and a dcfence and protection against his tribe. Abu Talib died three years before he (Muhammed) migrated to Medina, and it was then that Quraysh began to treat him in an offcnsive way which they did not dare to follow in his uncle's lifetime. A young lout actually threw dust on his head.
Hisham on the authority of his father, Urwa, told me that the Prophet went into his house, and he was saying: "Quraysh never treated me like this when Abu Talib was alive."
(The Life of the Messenger of Allah)
Washington Irving
Mohammcd soon became sensiblc of lhC loss he had suslained in the dealh of Abu Talib who had becn not merely an affectionate relative, but a steadfast and powerful protector, from his great influence in Mccca. At his death there was no one to check and counteract the hostilities of Abu Sofian and Abu Jahl.
The fortunes of Mohammed were becoming darker and darker in his native place. Khadija, his original benefactress, the devoted companion of his solitude and seclusion, the zealous believer in his doctrine, was dead; so also was Abu Talib, once his faithful and efficient protector. Deprived of the sheltering influence of the latter, Mohammed had become, in a manner, an outlaw in Mecca, obliged to conceal himself and remain a burden on the hospitality of those whom his own doctrines had involved in persecution (sic). If worldly advantage had been his objective, how had it been attained?
(The Life of Mohammed)
Washington Irving has erred in stating that Muhammed had become "a burden on the hospitality of those whom his own doctrines had involved in persecution." Muhammed was never a burden to anyone at any time. The members of his clan - the Bani Hashim - considered it an honor and a privilege to defend him and to protect Islam - both of them their greatest treasures. They were aware that with Muhammed in their midst, they had become the recipients of the blessings of Heaven, and they had no intention of forfeiting those blessings at any price.
Who else but the clan of Bani Hashim would defend Muhammed and protect Islam? Muhammed was its flesh and its blood, and Islam was its life and its love.
Another error that the distinguished historian has made the question which he has posed: "If worldly advantage had his (Muhammed's) objective, how had it been attained?"
Attaining worldly advantage was not Muhammed's objective. The Quraysh had offered him all the worldly advantages; they offered him wealth, kingdom and beauty. They were all his for the asking. But he kicked at them. Could they offer him anything else?
Muhammed had only one objective and that was to carry out the duty imposed upon him by Allah Ta'ala, namely, to promulgate Islam - the Religion of Allah.
Sir William Muir
The sacrifices to which Abu Talib exposed himself and his family for the sake of his nephew, while yet incredulous of his mission (sic), stamp his character as singularly noble and unselfish. They afford at the same time strong proof of the sincerity of Mohammed. Abu Talib would not have acted thus for an interested deceiver; and he had ample means of scrutiny.
(The Life of Mohammed, London, 1877)
Sir William Muir further says in this connection:
"If indeed, it had not been for the influence and steadfast protection of Abu Talib, it is clear that the hostile intentions of the Coreish would have imperilled the liberty, perhaps the life, of Mohammed."
(The Life of Mohammed, London, 1877)
Jurji Zaydan
The reason why Abdul Muttalib made Abu Talib the guardian of Muhammed, was that Abu Talib and Abdullah were the children of the same mother. Without a doubt, the proteclion of Abu Talib was the major cause not only of the success of Muhammed's mission but also of his physical survival. Abu Talib was a dignitary of Quraysh, and a man of great prestige. Muhammed lived in his house like one of his children ...
(Complete Works, published by Dar-ul-Jeel, Beirut, Lebanon, Volume 1, page 91. 1981)
Lt. General Sir John Glubb writes in his book, The Life and Times of Mohammed, that Abu Talib is not considered a hero by Muslims because he died in unbelief. But he adds, "Nevertheless, if it had not been for the staunch courage with which he stood by his nephew, Islam might have died in its cradle."
Both Sir William Muir and Sir John Glubb and many other historians have insinuated that Abu Talib died in unbelief. If challenged to prove this, they would advert to an authority like Imam Bukhari. Bukhari says in one of the "traditions" that he has collected that when Abu Talib was on his deathbed, the Apostle urged him to become a Muslim but he said that doing so would embarrass him with his Qurayshi friends.
The aulhors of this "tradition" forgot one thing. Abu Talib was dying, and knew that he was not going to see his Qurayshi "friends" any more. He knew that he was going into the presence of his Creator. At a time like this he could not have cared less for the Quraysh. His anxiety at all times was to win the pleasure of Allah. He proved by his deeds more than anyone else could ever prove by his words that his faith in the Oneness of God and in the mission of Muhammed as His messenger, was rocklike and unshakable.
Amin Dawidar, the modern Egyptian historian, says that Abu Talib was like a fortress for Muhammed which sheltered him from all the heat and cold and the contrariness and cussedness of the world outside. "And when Abu Talib died," he says, "Muhammed found himself face to face with the enemy for the first time in his life. Without a doubt, the death of Abu Talib was a great tragedy for him."
Abu Talib could not but be a Muslim and a Momin. No man can love Muhammed and idolatry at the same time; the two loves are mutually exclusive. And no man can love Muhammed yet hate Islam. The love of Muhammed and the hatred of Islam cannot coexist. Whoever loves Muhammed, must inevitably love Islam. If there is any one thing beyond any doubt in the history of Islam, it is the love of Abu Talib for Muhammed. As noted before, Abu Talib and his wife, loved Muhammed more than they loved their own children. Such love could have had only one fountainhead, namely, their conviction that Islam was divine in its origins.
Abu Talib was proud that Allah had chosen Muhammed, the son of his brother Abdullah, in all creation, to be His last and greatest messenger to mankind. Muhammed was the greatest love and the greatest pride of his uncle, Abu Talib.
In His Book, Allah Ta'ala identified the protection that Abu Talib gave to Muhammed Mustafa, as His Own protection as per the following verse:
DID HE NOT FIND THEE AN ORPHAN AND GIVE THEE SHELTER (AND CARE)?
Allah Ta'ala gave shelter (protection) and care to His Messenger, Muhammed Mustafa, through His slave - Abu Talib.
Abu Talib worked in Makka for the glory and power of Islam, and he was the guardian of its absolute and incontestable values. For ten years, he steered the "vessel~ of Islam through dark and turbulent seas with a skill, vision and faith that became the dismay of the guardians of the idols of the pagans of Arabia. His deeds are an integral part of the story of Islam, and they are also the most eloquent testimony of his faith in Allah and His Messenger - in Islam!
May Allah bless His loving slaves, Khadija and Abu Talib. Both of them put obedience to Him ahead of everything else in life.
Chapter XIII : Khadija, the Mother of Believers
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.
Chapter XIV : Khadija, the Perfect Woman
There have been many women in the history of the world who have become great and famous because of their great deeds. Mankind can justly be proud of them.
But in the entire history of the world, there are only four women who could measure up to the high standards of true greatness and perfection set by Islam. They measured up to these standards by dint of their great services to Allah. Muhammed Mustafa, the Prophet of Islam, the Recipient of Revelation from Heaven, and its Interpreter, identified them. They are:
1. Asiya, the wife of Pharaoh
2. Maryam (Mary), the mother of Isa (Jesus)
3. Khadija, the daughter of Khuwayled, and
4. Fatima Zahra, the daughter of Muhammed Mustafa (S)
Muhammed Mustafa found only four perfect women in the entire human race. Out of these four, the last two belong to the same house; they are Khadija, the mother, and Fatima, her daughter.
Khadija was the image of the perfect soul.
In the rest of mankind, the only other women who might qualify as perfect, would be the other wives of Muhammed Mustafa. But he himself gave the verdict in this matter, and his verdict remains irrevocable. He mentioned only Khadija out of all his wives as the perfect woman, and thus excluded - by a fiat his other wives from the group of perfect women.
Khadija combined in her person all those attributes which add up to perfection. If she had lacked any of those attributes, her husband would not have classified her as perfect. And there is no evidence that she had any of those frailties which are said to be characteristic of womanhood as a rule.
One of the characteristic weaknesses of women is said to be jealousy. Khadija was untouched by jealousy of any kind. She was a woman who found fulfillment, pleasure and satisfaction in giving. She was a munificent patron of the poor. She was at her very best when she was feeding the hungry and comforting the cheerless. The acts of feeding and comforting the hungry and the cheerless did not call for a conscious effort on her part; for her they had become a reflex.
Just as Khadija was free from jealousy, she was also free from cynicism. One thing she never did, was to hurt anyone. She never made fun of any woman; she never tried to belittle anyone; she never despised anyone; she was never angry and never spiteful; and she was strictly nonjudgmental. She never uttered an ugly or a pejorative word against anyone. So true to the dimensions of the understanding heart, she was solicitous of the feelings of even the humblest and the poorest of women, and she was distressed by the distress of other people.
There was a time when Khadija was called the Princess of the Merchants and the Princess of Makka. Then a time came when her great fortune changed hands. From her hands, it passed into the hands of Islam. She was rich and she became poor in the material sense. She exchanged a lifestyle of luxury for a lifestyle of austerity. But nothing changed in her temperament. She remained cheerful, magnanimous, and idealistic as before. She spent more time than ever in devotions to Allah, and in service to His messenger, and of course, she was never forgetful of the well-being and welfare of the Community of the Faithful.
The following verse in Quran Majid may be referring to her:
... AND THERE ARE SOME WHO ARE, BY GOD'S LEAVE, FOREMOST IN GOOD DEEDS; THAT IS THE HIGHEST GRACE. (Chapter 35; verse 32)
Khadija, the idealist, was foremost in doing "good deeds." She had an air of compelling sanctity about her. Through her "good deeds" she became the recipient of the "highest graces" from Heaven.
Khadija was the ideal woman, the ideal wife for Muhammed Mustafa, the ideal mother for her children, and the ideal Mother of the Believers.
Faith in Allah's mercy was the spring from which Khadija took her life's responses. She was endowed with what Quran Majid has called Qalb Saleem (nthe sound heartn) in verse 89 of its 26th chapter. Qalb Saleem or the sound heart, has been defined by A. Yusuf Ali, the translator and commentator of Quran Majid, as follows:
"A heart that is pure, and unaffected by the diseases that afflict others. As the heart in Arabic is taken to be not only the seat of feelings and affections, but also of intelligence and resulting action, it implies the whole character."
Khadija's symmetry of character was an index of her Qalb Saleem.
Khadija was born with Qalb Saleem or the "sound heart" such as only the chosen ones of Allah are born with. It was a heart brimming with deep convictions, dedication to Islam, and love for and gratitude to Allah.
Chapter XV : Khadija's Generosity
Khadija, the princess of Arabia, and Muhammed Mustafa were married in ~D. 595. Fifteen years later, Muhammed was chosen by Allah to be His messenger. As God's messenger, his duty was to promulgate Islam in the world. From that moment, every thing changed for Khadija. She made her entire fortune an endowment for Islam. That endowment could not have come at a more opportune time for Islam. Khadija told her husband that all her vast wealth was his, and he could spend it just as he wished.
Khadija's generosity had a glowing spontaneity.
Muhammed Mustafa "invested" Khadija's wealth in Islam. There has never been a better "investment" in the entire history of mankind. This "investment" was a guarantee that Islam's march would not be halted or even be retarded because of any lack of material means and support. It was an investment that, to this day, is paying enormous "dividendsn, and will pay "dividends" for every generation of the Muslims, to the end of time itself.
But material wealth was not the only investment that Khadija made in Islam. She also invested her time, talent, energy, spirit and heart in Islam - an investment otherwise known as commitment. She knew her spouse's dreams and hopes, and she .shared them all with him.
Khadija's intent in supporting Islam was so transparent that Allah Ta'ala was pleased to call her wealth His Own in the following verse of Quran Majid:
AND HE FOUND THEE IN NEED, AND MADE THEE INDEPENDENT. (Chapter 93; verse 8)
Translator's Note
"The holy Prophet inherited no wealth and was poor. The true, pure, and sincere love of Khadija not only raised him above want, but made him independent of worldly needs in his later life, enabling him to devote his whole time to the service of Allah." (A. Yusuf Ali)
Allah Ta'ala made His slave, Muhammed, rich with the wealth of Khadija.
Khadija and the Two Migrations to Abyssinia
Two groups of Muslims left Makka in the years 615 and 616 to escape persecution by the Quraysh and they sought sanctuary in Abyssinia. The total number of men and women in both groups was about one hundred.
With a few exceptions like Uthman and Zubayr, the rest of the refugees in these two groups were too poor to bear the expenses of travel to Abyssinia. Who equipped their caravans and paid their expenses so they were able to travel? The historians have not answered this question. But it is most probable that Khadija equipped the caravans and financed the emigration of the Muslims from Makka to Abyssinia. In Makka, she alone had the resources with which to underwrite emigration of Muslims on such a scale.
