Khadija bint Khuwaylid
At the age of 25, Muhammad married his employer Khadija. At the time Muhammad was employed by her as an agent for her caravan’s trading voyages to Yemen. Khadija was an independent widow with a well-run trading company. The couple could make gold out of the dust. Khadija had been widowed twice and was fifteen years older than Muhammad.
She had several children from previous marriages and had six children with Muhammad. The boys died at an early age. Muhammad had children with his first wife Khadija, and his twelfth wife, the Coptic slave Mariah. Their youngest son would also die early. The Shia view of Khadija differs from the Sunni, the former assuming that Khadija was a virgin when she married Muhammad . Apparently he deserved a virgin. Virginity for women is an important issue in Islam.
Khadija and Muhammad were part of the Quraish, a tribal group in Mecca. In addition to trade, the city earned money from pilgrims who came to worship the god Hubal at the Ka’aba. The Ka’aba was and is a cube-shaped pre-Islamic building in the center of Mecca. There are said to have been dozens of statues of God around Hubal. Hubal was also worshiped by Muhammad and Khadija at that time. The Kaaba was destroyed and rebuilt several times after Mohammed’s death.
As far as we know, the marriage with Khadija was a happy one. Muhammad and his wife were united in a monogamous marriage for 25 years. That would change significantly after Khadija’s death. According to the Hadith – the traditions about the prophet – Muhammad had the sexual appetites of 32 men (Bukhari). Allah is said to have given him special permission to be married to more than the proscribed four wives. Marriage to Mohammed will not always have been easy for Khadija. Muhammad increasingly began to withdraw from both the everyday and business life.
The monotheism of Jews and Christians had taken hold of him. He also retreated regularly to the mountains around the city. There he had his first vision in 610. The angel Gabriel is said to have grabbed him tightly and ordered him to read. According to the DSM-5, such experiences fall under auditory and physical hallucinations: hearing voices that others cannot hear. Khadija took good care of him and reassured him, she continued to rely on her husband.
Not everyone in his family believed that Muhammad had been proclaimed a prophet; his uncle and son-in-law, for example, opposed this change in role. The verses revealed during this time – the Meccan verses – are mainly religious in nature. Muhammad travelled the streets, door to door, proclaiming monotheism. He enjoyed little success and when Mecca had enough of him he fled to Yathrib (Medina). The Medina verses are much more combative in nature. It was during this time that Muhammad fought 27 battles.
Khadija did not experience this combative period in Medina. She died in 619 about 65 years old. She also did not experience Muhammad’s ‘wild’ years with many wives, concubines and a slave. Her greatest achievement was undoubtedly that she kept the man Muhammad in line.
- The wifes of the prophet: Khadija