The Messenger’s Trade Journey to Syria for Khadijah

Ibn Ishaq said: Khadijah bint Khuwaylid was a woman of standing and wealth who traded. The account continues on printed page 188.

[1] Other reports say the Messenger was twenty-one, thirty, or thirty-seven years old when he married Khadijah, and there are further reports. See Sharh al-Mawahib and al-Isti‘ab. [2] Khadijah was then forty years old; another report says forty-five. In the pre-Islamic period she was called al-Tahirah, “the Pure,” because of her chastity and reserve. She had been married to Abu Halah ibn Zurarah al-Tamimi, who died before Islam. Khadijah bore him Hind, a Companion who narrated a description of the Prophet and witnessed Badr, or, according to another report, Uhud. Al-Hasan ibn ‘Ali narrated from him and called him his maternal uncle, since Hind was the brother of Fatimah through their mother. Hind was eloquent and skilled in description. He used to say, “I am the noblest of people in father, mother, brother, and sister: my father is the Messenger of Allah, my brother is al-Qasim, my sister is Fatimah, and my mother is Khadijah.” Hind was killed with ‘Ali on the Day of the Camel; another report says he died in Basra during the plague, while another says it was his son, also named Hind, who died in the plague. Khadijah also bore Abu Halah a son, Halah ibn Abi Halah, who was a Companion. After Abu Halah died, Khadijah married ‘Atiq ibn ‘A’idh al-Makhzumi and bore him a daughter named Hind, who accepted Islam and became a Companion. See Sharh al-Mawahib and al-Isti‘ab.

Khadijah hired men to trade with her wealth, giving them an agreed share of the profit. Quraysh were traders. When she heard of the Messenger of Allah’s truthful speech, great trustworthiness, and noble character, she sent for him and offered him a journey to Syria to trade with her property. She promised him better terms than she gave other merchants and sent a young servant of hers named Maysarah with him. The Messenger accepted her offer, traveled with her goods, and Maysarah went with him until they reached Syria. The Messenger stopped in the shade of a tree near a monk’s hermitage. The monk looked out toward Maysarah and asked, “Who is this man beneath that tree?” Maysarah replied, “He is a man of Quraysh, from the people of the Sanctuary.” The monk said, “No one has ever stopped beneath that tree except a prophet.”

[1] Tudharibuhum means that she entered into a profit-sharing partnership with them; mudarabah is such a partnership. [2] The monk’s name was Nastura; he is not the same as Bahira mentioned earlier. [3] The editor explains that “no one has ever stopped beneath it except a prophet” means no prophet had stopped there in that particular moment, not that no one had ever sat beneath the tree in all time. Trees do not ordinarily live so long that a person could know that only Jesus or another prophet had once sat beneath it. A report from someone other than Ibn Ishaq says that no one had sat there since Jesus son of Mary; on that reading, the tree was singled out by this sign. See al-Rawd al-Unuf. [4] Al-Zurqani cites al-Waqidi and Ibn al-Sakan on Khadijah’s choice of the Messenger. Abu Talib reportedly told his nephew that he had no wealth, that difficult years had come upon them, and that their people’s caravan was preparing to leave for Syria. Khadijah hired men of Quraysh to trade with her money and profit from it. He suggested that the Messenger approach her, since she would prefer him for his purity, although he disliked sending him to Syria and feared the Jews; yet they had little choice. The transmitted quotation breaks off in the source after “He replied, may Allah bless him…”. Its missing continuation is not supplied.