The magnanimous wife of Prophet Muhammad (pbut). Hazrat Khadija was a brilliant and pure lady who served Islam greatly.
Hazrat Khadija (pbuh) submitted to Islam upon the very first days in which Islam came into existence; she made the greatest efforts as a perfect, wise and magnanimous woman. Therefore, she is distinguished as the first believer of Islam.
Eventually, she spent all her wealth on inviting people to Islam and promoting the religion.
The significance of Khadija’s role can only be understood by those who have experienced the responsibility of contributing aid, to fighters, during times of conflict and repression.
Had it not been for the financial assistance Hazrat Khadija (peace be upon her) offered, Islam’s movement and progress might have faced major impediments. Later Khadija, Prophet Muhammad (pbut) and his Muslim followers migrated, by force, to the Shib Abi Talib (Abi Talib Valley); it was here that she endured an arduous and exhausting life, for a few short years; finally, she passed away while in exile and under boycott.
(Excerpts from statements made by the Leader during a Friday sermon, May 23, 1986)
There have been many women in the history of the world who have become great and famous because of their great deeds. Mankind can justly be proud of them.
But in the entire history of the world, there are only four women who could measure up to the high standards of true greatness and perfection set by Islam. They measured up to these standards by dint of their great services to Allah. Muhammad Mustafa, the Prophet of Islam, the Recipient of Revelation from Heaven, and its Interpreter, identified them. They are:
1. Asiya, the wife of Pharaoh 2. Maryam (Mary), the mother of Isa (Jesus) 3. Khadija, the daughter of Khuwayled, and 4. Fatima Zahra, the daughter of Muhammad Mustafa (S)
Muhammad Mustafa found only four perfect women in the entire human race. Out of these four, the last two belong to the same house; they are Khadija, the mother, and Fatima, her daughter.
Khadija was the image of the perfect soul.
In the rest of mankind, the only other women who might qualify as perfect, would be the other wives of Muhammad Mustafa. But he himself gave the verdict in this matter, and his verdict remains irrevocable. He mentioned only Khadija out of all his wives as the perfect woman, and thus excluded - by a fiat -his other wives from the group of perfect women.
Khadija combined in her person all those attributes which add up to perfection. If she had lacked any of those attributes, her husband would not have classified her as perfect. And there is no evidence that she had any of those frailties which are said to be characteristic of womanhood as a rule.
One of the characteristic weaknesses of women is said to be jealousy. Khadija was untouched by jealousy of any kind. She was a woman who found fulfillment, pleasure and satisfaction in giving. She was a munificent patron of the poor. She was at her very best when she was feeding the hungry and comforting the cheerless. The acts of feeding and comforting the hungry and the cheerless did not call for a conscious effort on her part; for her they had become a reflex.
Just as Khadija was free from jealousy, she was also free from cynicism. One thing she never did, was to hurt anyone. She never made fun of any woman; she never tried to belittle anyone; she never despised anyone; she was never angry and never spiteful; and she was strictly non-judgmental. She never uttered an ugly or a pejorative word against anyone. So true to the dimensions of the understanding heart, she was solicitous of the feelings of even the humblest and the poorest of women, and she was distressed by the distress of other people.