The Prophet's trade journey to Syria with Khadija's goods

At the age of twenty-five the Prophet went out as a merchant to Syria with the goods of Khadija bint Khuwaylid, with her servant Maysara. ^{1 2} When he came back, Khadija saw in her property a trustworthiness and blessing she had never seen before, and that was her path to marrying him. ^{3 4}

He had no fixed work in his early youth, but the reports agree that he tended sheep: he tended them among the Banu Sa'd, and in Mecca for its people for small coins. ^{1 5 6}

The author relates from Ibn Ishaq that Khadija was a trading woman of rank and wealth, who hired men to trade her goods on the basis of a share she gave them, and that Quraysh were a people of trade. ^{1 2} When it reached her that he was truthful, that his trustworthiness was great and his character noble, she sent to him and offered that he should go out with her goods to Syria as a merchant, and she would give him the best share she gave any other merchant, with a servant of hers called Maysara. He agreed and went out with her goods, with Maysara, until he reached Syria. ^{1 2}

When he came back to Mecca, Khadija saw in her property a trustworthiness and blessing she had never seen before, and her servant Maysara told her what he had seen in him: sweet character, noble qualities, sound judgement, a truthful speech and a trustworthy way. ^{1 7 4}

• The book does not mention in this place the meeting of the monk Nestor on this journey; what al-Mas'udi says of it is recorded under Maysara's entry. ⁷
• The date of the event is derived from his age and the Year of the Elephant.