Khadijah bint Khuwailid

Khadijah bint Khuwailid (555-620 CE) was the first wife of Prophet Muhammad and the first person to accept Islam. A noble woman of the Quraysh from the clan of Asad, she was a successful and respected businesswoman in Mecca, known for her intelligence, purity, and generosity. She employed the young Muhammad to manage her trade caravans and, impressed by his honesty and character, proposed marriage to him. She was about forty years old and he was twenty-five at the time of their marriage.

When Muhammad received his first revelation in the Cave of Hira and returned home trembling, Khadijah was the first to comfort him and affirm her faith in him and in his prophethood. She took him to her cousin Waraqah ibn Nawfal, a Christian scholar, who confirmed that the experience was genuine divine revelation. Khadijah's unwavering support during the earliest and most difficult years of Islam was indispensable to the Prophet's mission.

She spent her entire wealth supporting the Muslim community during the boycott imposed by the Quraysh against the Prophet's clan. She bore the Prophet's children, including Fatimah, who would become one of the greatest women in Islamic history. The Prophet loved Khadijah deeply and never married another woman during her lifetime. After her death, he continued to honor her memory and speak of her with deep affection. The angel Jibril conveyed Allah's greetings of peace to her and gave her the glad tidings of a palace in Paradise.