At a glance
His family- Dates
- Died 619 CE
- Who
- Merchant of Makkah, first wife of the Prophet ﷺ and the first person to believe in his message
- Stages
- Before the Prophethood, and The Revelation
ProfileKhadijah bint Khuwaylid
Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her) ran a trading business in Makkah, sending caravans to Ash-Sham under agents she chose herself. One of them was a young man of Quraysh known as al-Amin, the trustworthy. She sent her servant Maysarah along on the trade trip, and what he reported about the young man's honesty and fairness settled her mind. She proposed marriage through a friend. She was a widow, some years older than he was, and they married around 595 CE.
Fifteen years later, in 610 CE, he came home from the Cave of Hira shaken by the first revelation. Khadijah steadied him, spoke of his character and his kindness to others, and took him to her cousin Waraqah ibn Nawfal, a man who knew the earlier scriptures. She was the first person to believe.
She stood with him through the early years of mockery, and she shared the hunger of the boycott. A narration tells that Jibril conveyed greetings of peace to her from her Lord. She died in 619 CE, in the year the Prophet ﷺ lost his uncle as well, and he spoke of her with love for the rest of his life.
Meet them inWhere they appear in the seerah
More on How to Muslim
SourcesSources for this profile
The books, lectures and maps behind this page are listed on our Sources page.