Khadija bint Khuwaylid

Khadija bint Khuwaylid was a wealthy merchant of Mecca who employed a young trader named Muhammad, then married him about 595 CE. When he began to preach, tradition counts her the first person who believed.

Born around 555 CE into the clan of Asad ibn Abd al-Uzza of Quraysh, Khadija ran a trading business that sent caravans to Syria and Yemen ¹. Impressed by reports of the honesty of Muhammad, she employed him in her trade and later proposed marriage; the wedding is remembered as the event The Prophet's marriage to Khadija, when he was about twenty-five ².

When the Prophet returned shaken from The first revelation, tradition tells that Khadija answered, "God will never disgrace you," and took him to her cousin Waraqa ibn Nawfal, who recognized what had happened as prophecy ². For about twenty-five years she was his only wife and the mother of his daughters, including Fatima bint Muhammad. She shared the hardship of The boycott of the Banu Hashim and died about April 619 CE, in the same season as her husband's protector Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib — the year remembered as The Year of Sorrow ¹.

In Sunni tradition Khadija is among the most honored women: the first believer, the mother of the Prophet's daughters, and a model of trust and generosity. She was buried at al-Hajun cemetery in Mecca.