His Marriage to Khadijah

when he returned to makkah, khadijah noticed, in her money, more profits and blessings than she used to. her hireling also told her of muhammad’s good manners, honesty, deep thought, sincerity and faith. she realized that she homed at her target. many prominent men had asked for her hand in marriage but she always spurned their advances. she disclosed her wish to her friend nafisa, daughter of maniya, who immediately went to muhammad [pbuh] and broke the good news to him. he agreed and requested his uncles to go to khadijah’s uncle and talk on this issue. subsequently, they were married. the marriage contract was witnessed by bani hashim and the heads of mudar. this took place after the prophet’s return from syria. he gave her twenty camels as dowry. she was, then, forty years old and was considered as the best woman of her folk in lineage, fortune and wisdom. she was the first woman whom the messenger of allâh [pbuh] married. he did not get married to any other until she had died. [ibn hisham 1/189; fiqh as-seerah p.59; talqeeh fahoom ahl-al-athar p.7]

khadijah bore all his children, except ibrahim: al-qasim, zainab, ruqaiyah, umm kulthum, fatimah and ‘abdullah who was called taiyib and tahir. all his sons died in their childhood and all the daughters except fatimah died during his lifetime. fatimah died six months after his death. all his daughters witnessed islam, embraced it, and emigrated to madinah. [ibn hisham 1/190,191; fath al-bari 7/507]