Download Khadijah

KHADIJAH
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Students learn to:1(a) Explain Khadijah’s contribution to the development and
expression of Islam
1(b) Analyse the impact of Khadijah on Islam
2(a) Describe and explain Islamic ethical teachings on
bioethics
3(a) Describe the Hajj
3(b) Demonstrate how the Hajj expresses the beliefs of Islam
3(c) Analyse the significance of this practice for both the
individual and the Muslim community
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KHADIJAH BINT KHUWAYLID
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KHADIJAH- Background and Contribution
• Khadijah came from one of the noblest and wealthiest families
in Arabia and belonged to the clan of Assad of the tribe of
Bane Quraish – was from Royal or noble blood.
• Was a distant relation (cousin) to Muhammad
• Her father was Khuwayled – a well-known and wealthy
tradesman.
• She herself was an independent, self-assured business woman
living in Makkah (Mecca).
• She was a widow. She was married twice but both her
husbands had passed away leaving her very wealthy.
• Her title is ‘al-Kubra’ – The Grand, because she was very rich.
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KHADIJAH
• She helped Muhammad (and the spread if Islam) with her
wealth.
• She was very kind and chaste (pure) woman. She had very
good morals and manners.
• Khadijah was the most successful and richest woman in
Makkah.
• She employed workers who took her goods to other cities for
sale via the caravans.
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KHADIJAH
• Muhammad was not educated and did not have
enough money to start his own business, so he
worked for others as a trader.
• One time, when a business caravan was heading for
Syria selling her goods, Khadijah was looking for an
honest person who could take her items.
• When Hadrat Abu Talib (Muhammad’s uncle) heard
about this, he encouraged Muhammad to take up this
position. He said to Muhammad, “if you offer your
services to Khadijah, she will definitely take you on
due to your honesty.”
• Muhammad had the best of the characters. He was
humble and hence did not feel comfortable in asking
favours from others. So he replied, ‘Perhaps she may
ask for my services herself.’
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KHADIJAH
• Khadijah also knew about the trustworthiness and honesty of
Muhammad. She wanted Muhammad to take her sale items
to Syria.
• She herself sent an invitation to Muhammad to trade on her
behalf. She agreed to pay double commission to
Muhammad. He accepted this invitation. Khadijah sent one
of her servants to look after Muhammad. His name was
Maysarah.
• In this trip, Muhammad made more profit than any other
previous business trips by other traders. This was due to his
honesty, trustworthiness and openness. Customers liked to
buy from him because they knew he would not lie to them
and they would get good products.
• When this caravan returned to Makkah, Maysarah narrated
all that had happened during the trip to Khadijah.
• He confirmed Muhammad’s strong and high character,
honesty, truthfulness, caring and being kind to others, having
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good decision making and business skills.
Marriage of Muhammad to Khadijah
• Khadijah was married twice and both of her
husbands had passed away leaving her very wealthy.
• Afterwards, some of the chiefs of Makkah wanted to
marry her, but she always declined them because of
their lack of good character.
• Khadijah was a woman of great intelligence and
noble birth. When she heard about the good
qualities of Muhammad, she thought that if she were
to marry again, she would marry a person like
Muhammad.
• She was not sure if Muhammad would want to
marry an older woman like herself. So she sent her
friend, Nafisah, to Muhammad to find out his
opinion regarding marriage.
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Marriage of Muhammad to Khadijah
•
•
•
Nafisah went to Muhammad and asked him: ‘Why
don’t you marry?’ Muhammad replied: ‘I don’t have
enough wealth to meet the expenses.’
Nafisah said: ‘Don’t worry about the expenses. What
would you say to a woman of beauty, wealth and
position who is willing to marry you? Would you
marry her?’ Muhammad replied: ‘Who is that
woman?’ Nafisah said: ‘Khadijah.’
Since Muhammad knew about the good character and
noble birth of Khadijah, he said he was willing to
marry her.
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Marriage of Muhammad to Khadijah
•
•
•
Khadijah was very pleased to hear this answer. She
then sent a message to Muhammad asking him to
meet her.
When Muhammad visited her, she said: ‘Oh
cousin, (Muhammad was a distant cousin of hers) I
admire you because of your good position among
your people, your honesty and good manners and
because you are a man of your word.’
Then she made her proposal to marry him.
Muhammad was pleased with this proposal and
he accepted it.
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Marriage of Muhammad to Khadijah
•
•
•
•
•
This was Muhammad’s first wife.
He was about 25 and Khadijah was around 40 years old.
From this marriage, Muhammad had 7 children: three boys
(who died at birth) and four daughters:
 Qasim
Fatima was to
 Zainab
 Ruqayyah
become one of the
 Umm Kalthoom
Four Perfect Women
 Fatima
 Abdullah
All four daughters lived on. But three of the daughters,
Zainab, Ruqayyah, Umm Kalthoom passed away during
the life of Muhammad.
Only Fatima lived on after the death of Muhammad and
helped support his task of preaching Islam. She died six
months after Muhammad.
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Khadijah - and Muhammad’s revelations
• For the first 15 years of their marriage, they lived happily
together
• The angel Gabriel (Jibril) appeared to Muhammad when he
was about 40 years old
• Muhammad went home and told Khadijah what had occurred.
• Khadijah was not afraid because she realized that something
amazing had happened to her husband
• To help Muhammad feel more at ease, she took him to see her
cousin Waraqa Ibn Mawfal who had read the books of the
Jews and the Christians and told Muhammad that he was to be
the last Prophet
• This pleased Khadijah greatly as she now had a better
understanding of what had happened to her husband.
• Khadijah thus became the first person to “convert” to Islam by
publically proclaiming, “... that there is no god but Allah and
Muhammad is his messenger.”
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The difficult years
• For the next few years Muhammad himself was subjected to
much persecution and harassment by the Quraysh: they were
trying to drive him out to prevent him from spreading his
message.
• Quraysh was the name of the tribe to which Muhammad and
Khadijah belonged.
• Those who had embraced Islam were enslaved and tortured
by those opposed to Muhammad’s teachings
• Khadijah spent all her money (as Allah wanted) to help free
these slaves and to feed and shelter the growing Muslim
community.
• Even though their marriage was happy, their struggle to
promote Islam was difficult as it was met with solid resistance
• She comforted Muhammad and together, they formed a
formidable team striving together in the cause of Allah. 14
Khadijah’s death
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Khadijah died aged about 65?
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Even though he married several more times, (he chose to
have several wives – as was allowed), Muhammad never
stopped loving Khadijah
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He loved each wife – but Khadijah was special
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When Aisha (Muhammad’s 3rd wife) heard him speak of
Khadijah, she was jealous: “The prophet would not leave
home without praising Khadijah.”
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Muhammad once said of Khadijah, “She believed in me
when no one else did; she accepted Islam when people
rejected me; she helped and comforted me when there
was no one else to lend me a helping hand.”
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Khadijah summed up
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She was the first ever person - and the first woman - to accept
Islam as a way of life
She has been a great role model throughout time for all Muslims.
 She showed how to be a perfect wife, woman, mother and
follower of Islam
 She was thus the ideal woman
She contributed to Muslim society and community
 As a wealthy businesswoman, she took care of her father’s
business
 She chose an honest and trustworthy man for her husband
 She stood by her husband during the early days of his
prophethood
 she accepted without question that he was the prophet
 She accepted his revelations without questioning them or
their sources
She produced and raised beautiful faithful and sincere children
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Khadijah’s contributions to the
development of Islam
• She was the first believer. When the prophet was given his revelations,
he was terrified and on his return, Khadijah was there to comfort him.
• She also was a good wife and mother. During their married life,
Mohammed loved her and she supported him. She consoled him when
nobody else would. She remained the only wife of Muhammad until
her death at the age of 65.
• When the prophet Muhammad proclaimed his mission as the messenger
of Allah, and told the Arabs not to worship idols, he was persecuted
everywhere he went. Khadijah supported him in many ways.
• The polytheists made many attempts to stifle his voice forever. In those
times of stress and distress, Khadijah was a bastion of strength for him.
• She and his uncle, Abu Talib protected and supported him. Thanks to
them, the polytheists could not disrupt the prophet Muhammad's work
of preaching and propagating Islam.
• Khadijah made thus the most important contribution to the survival
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and propagation of Islam.
Contributed
to the
development
of Islam
Accepted
Muhammad’s
revelations without
question
Lived her
faith
Mother
Role model
1st Muslim
KHADIJAH
Managed her
father’s
business
Supportive
wife
wealthy
Stood by
Muhammad
in the early
years
Ideal
daughter
Contributions
to Islamic
society
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COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS – Khadijah
Use your resource booklet to answer the following questions in your exercise book.
1. What tribe was Khadijah from, what was her occupation, and how successful was she
in this?
2. What evidence is there even before her marriage to Muhammad, that Khadijah was a
“Pure One” (Tahra)?
3. Why did she decide to marry Muhammad?
4. What support did she give her husband after his first revelation and then his second?
5. What support did she give him during the difficult years following the first 2
revelations?
6. What high praise did Muhammad give about Khadijah to his later wife Aisha?
7. What unique message was Khadijah given by the Angel Jibril?
8. What quote from the Qur’an sums up the responsibilities of a wife, and were amply
demonstrated by Khadijah herself?
9. What was the “Year of Sorrow”?
10. Which of her daughters continued to develop the Muslim religion after Khadijah’s
death?
11. What is the oldest reference in the Hadith to the 1st Revelation of Muhammad and
what did it specifically say here about Khadijah?
12. Who are the other women that the Muslim religion recognises as pure?
13. In what 3 ways can individual Muslim adherents today use Khadijah life as a role
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model?
Review questions from your booklet
1. Describe the cultural and religious conditions that existed at the
start of the 7th century in Arabia?
2. What tribe did Khadijah come from? Why was it so named?
3. What was her occupation?
4. Why was she known as the pure one?
5. What attracted her to Muhammad?
6. How did she support Muhammad in spreading his message?
7. What was the year of sorrow?
8. Who are the four perfect women?
9. What support did she give Muhammad after the first 2
revelations?
10. What are 3 ways Muslims can model their lives on Khadijah?
11. How did Fatima continue the work of Muhammad and
Khadijah?
12. How does Fatima describe Khadijah?
13. What was her contribution to the development of Islam?
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14. What was her impact on the development of Islam?
Analysis of the Impact of Khadijah on Islam
What was Islam like before Khadijah?
• There was no Islamic religion before Khadijah
• Saudi Arabia had polytheistic nature gods and some groups or
individuals believed in one supreme god – Muhammad was one
of these
• Before marrying Muhammad, and helping support him during his
revelations, Khadijah lived a spiritual life and showed great
compassion for others- this was in stark contrast to the lack of
social justice in the community at the time- a time where the
tribal nomadic lifestyle was breaking down and there was an
increase in infant genocide, murder and mistreatment of women
• Pre Islamic society and its diverse expressions of religion was
corrupt and in need of change
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Analysis of the Impact of Khadijah on Islam
What did she do in her day and how did
people react to the changes she brought about?
• See previous notes on her contribution
• In her day, she and Muhammad were met with support from
those that embraced this new religious tradition but mostly
negativity from the bulk of the community ( see previous notes)
• It was the notion that surrendering to this one God, Allah, meant
total accountability in this life and the next for your actions, and
the notion of an afterlife after death that most offended those
who did not convert
• To be accountable meant they had to live a good life, not just
make offerings to the gods and pray at shrines and that there be a
heaven and hell was repugnant to them- eternity was not
something they valued
• In addition to help others and not fight was again not met with
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favour by those who did not convert
Analysis of the Impact of Khadijah on Islam
What about the impact after her death?
1. In the immediate few years after her death her impact was
enormous, in helping firstly Muhammad, her own family and
her own early community to continue to be first disciples,
believing and enacting the preaching's of Muhammad
2. Those around her were motivated to continue her alms giving
and social justice programme, and her own daughter Fatima looked
after and supported her own husband , Ai Taliban her father
Muhammad in the war they engaged in ( the Battle of Ehud) before
their final return to Mekka and its conversion to the Muslim religion
3. In addition women especially were influenced by Khadijah's to be
pure and supportive to husbands and children modelling the values
implicit in Quran and Hadith and enacting the Pillars
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Analysis of the Impact of Khadijah on Islam
What about in the many years since?
Ever since her death women have known how to be good Muslim
disciple and wife and mother and some Islamic women have over
the centuries contributed to social justice and education programmes
For example, during the 5th – 15th Centuries wealthy Islamic women
funded projects and Zubadiah constructed mosques and houses for
pilgrims on their way to Mekka for Hajj, and replenished the water
supply to the well of ZamZam
Today, many Islamic women head interfaith initiatives for peace and
justice , such as the Muslim Women's National Network in Australia
However, her impact today is much more that just with Muslim
women- she assists all Muslims, especially new converts to be true
disciples, carrying out the Pillars and living them also in the values
they enact in their onw family and local communites
Today, all interfaith initiative and world comities for peace have
representatives from the Islamic religion- a reflection of Khadijah’s24
life work
HSC KEY VERBS
Analyse
Identify components and the relationship between
them; draw out and relate implications
Describe
Provide characteristics and features
Explain
Relate cause and effect; make the relationships
between things evident; provide why and/or how
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/glossary_
keywords.html
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Typical HSC exam questions – note the Key Verbs
1. Explain the contribution to the development and
expression of Islam by a significant person or school of
thought other than Muhammad?
2. Explain and analyse the contribution of one significant
person or school of thought other than Muhammad to
Islam?
3. Describe the effect of Khadijah on the development of
Islam
4. Explain the contribution of Khadijah to the development
and expression of Islam?
5. Analyse the impact of Khadijah on Islam?
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