Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (rha)
First wife and first believer; mother of his children.
Hijri d. BH 3 (approx.) CE m. c. 595 CE; d. c. 619 CE
First wife of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the first person to believe in him, and the mother of all his surviving children. A noble, wealthy Qurayshi merchant of Banu Asad.
Identity & role
- Daughter of Khuwaylid ibn Asad; cousin of the hanif Waraqa.
- Twice widowed and independently wealthy; ran caravans by mudarabah (profit-share).
- Hired the Prophet ﷺ for a trade journey to Bosra (Syria); impressed by his honesty and the barakah in his dealings, she initiated the marriage proposal (via her friend Nafisa). Married c. 595 CE.
Age at marriage (disputed)
Popular tradition says 40 (al-Waqidi); but better-attested reports (Ibn Ishaq via al-Hakim; Ibn al-Kalbi; al-Bayhaqi, Ibn Kathir) point to about 28 — more consistent with her bearing 6 children. Yasir Qadhi favours 28 (EP 009). See Open questions in Yasir Qadhi Seerah EP 001–010: Foundations to First Revelation.
The first believer
When revelation came she reassured him — “By Allah, Allah will never disgrace you…” — and took him to Waraqa, who confirmed the The Beginning of Revelation (Iqra). Jibril sent her Allah’s greeting and glad tidings of a house in Paradise. The Prophet ﷺ never married anyone else in her lifetime and mourned her deeply.
Children (all through Khadijah)
Al-Qasim (d. infancy), Abdullah (al-Tayyib/al-Tahir, d. infancy), and daughters Zaynab, Ruqayyah, Umm Kulthum, and Fatimah (rha).
Death (EP 019)
Died c. 619 CE (~BH 3), shortly after the Boycott, in the Year of Sorrow — within weeks of Abu Talib (the exact order/interval is disputed). Salah was not yet obligatory, so no janazah was prayed; the Prophet ﷺ buried her himself and did not smile for months. Years later, of her he said: “She believed in me when none did, comforted me, spent on me when all boycotted me, and Allah gave me children through her” — Allah “has not given me anyone better than her.”
Cross-references
Muhammad ﷺ · Waraqa ibn Nawfal · The Beginning of Revelation (Iqra) · Abu Talib · Zayd ibn Harithah (ra) · The Year of Sorrow ('Am al-Huzn) · The Boycott of Banu Hashim
Sources
- S003 — Yasir Qadhi Seerah EP 009 (marriage), EP 010 (first revelation). S004 — Yasir Qadhi Seerah EP 019 (death, Year of Sorrow). S001 — Ar-Raheeq.