خَدِيجَةُ بِنْتُ خُوَيْلِد
رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهَا
Khadijah bint Khuwaylid
The first to believe · Merchant of Makkah · Of the years before Madinah
may Allah be pleased with her
Quraysh — Banu Asad ibn Abd al-Uzza · Makkah, up to about three years before the Hijrah
A merchant of standing who employed him, then proposed to him, and who was the first person to believe him when he came home from the cave frightened. She died before the Hijrah, and he did not stop mentioning her.
Known for
She was the first to believe him
She steadied him after the first revelation
He came home shaking and asked to be covered. She covered him, and when he told her what had happened she told him Allah would never disgrace him — and gave her reasons.
She was a merchant, and she employed him before she married him
She sent goods to Syria with him, and it was she who made the approach that led to the marriage.
Both Sahih collections carry reports of glad tidings given to her
Jibril is reported to have conveyed peace to her, and she was given the news of a house in Paradise.
Story
Her story in moments
Short episodes from her life, in order. Read one at a time.
In full
Life & legacy
Before the revelation
Khadijah was of Banu Asad, a woman of independent means who traded on her own account and hired others to carry her goods. She had been married before.
She engaged Muhammad ﷺ to take a consignment to Syria, and what came back — both the return on the trade and the account of how he had conducted himself — led her to make the approach. They married. He was in his twenties and she was older; the reports differ on by how much.
All of his children except one were hers.
After it began
What she did on the day the revelation began is set out in the moment below, and it is the reason she is in this app.
For the ten years that followed she was the household he came back to. When the clans of Makkah cut off Banu Hashim — refusing to trade with them or marry into them — she was inside that boycott with him, having entered it from a position of wealth she did not need to risk.
She died in Makkah about three years before the Hijrah, in the same period as his uncle Abu Talib. He did not remarry while she lived, and the reports of his later years describe him still mentioning her.
How the sources describe her
She judged him by what she had already seen of him
She had her own position, and spent it
Connect
People around her
Family
Her daughter, and the only one of her children to outlive the Prophet ﷺ.
- The Prophet Muhammad ﷺSpouse
She employed him, made the approach that led to their marriage, and was the first to believe him.
Full timeline
- Before the revelation began
She employs him, and then marries him
- At the beginning of the revelation
She believes him on the day the revelation begins
- The years of the boycott, before the Hijrah
Inside the boycott of Banu Hashim
- About three years before the Hijrah reports differThe reports differ over the year, placing it three to five years before.
Dies in Makkah
Part of
Sources & review
Draft content — undergoing reviewThis content was written for SahabaMate and has not yet been checked by a reviewer against the works below. Treat it as a starting point, not a citation.
Sahih al-Bukhariصحيح البخاري
Hadith collection · Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari
Sahih Muslimصحيح مسلم
Hadith collection · Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj
As-Sirah an-Nabawiyyahالسيرة النبوية
Classical biography · Ibn Hisham, from the recension of Ibn Ishaq
Kitab at-Tabaqat al-Kabirالطبقات الكبرى
Classical biography · Ibn Sa'd
Al-Isabah fi Tamyiz as-Sahabahالإصابة في تمييز الصحابة
Classical biography · Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani
Siyar A'lam an-Nubalaسير أعلام النبلاء
Classical biography · Shams ad-Din adh-Dhahabi
SahabaMate editorial summary
Editorial summary
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