The Women Around the Messenger SAW – Episode 02

We live in Chicago, James Miller, candlelight alameen wa salatu salam ala COVID mursaleen Sayidina Muhammad Ali was a beloved brothers and sisters in Islam. Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu. Welcome to our second installment in this, what Islam elearning called the women and on the messenger, we we look and we discuss the lives, controversies, personalities of the women, that the Prophet peace upon he married. And he spent with these women, as we said, Our mothers and we hope that through the teaching of this course, you'll get an intimate knowledge about these pious women so that we can aspire to be like them, and that we may ultimately love the prophets of Allah

through them. I mean, in our first segment of this course, we began the story of Khadija, a woman who 1500 years ago broke the mold basically shattered the ceiling of what it meant to be a woman. in Arabia, we said women were not meant for anything more than marriage. The best she could do was to be get married and be a devout wife. This was the base. At worst, she would even be inherited or sold or murdered. Even then there was no there was no repercussions to me because she was a commodity. In spite of this, you find this powerful lady Khadija in Hawaii, who became the wealthiest woman of Mecca, she ran her own business enterprise. In fact, she was perhaps the most

most successful business person in Makkah the height of an empire. She was from the ruling aristocratic class of Makkah. She was beautiful, elegant, refined. The people of Macau used to give her a nickname, she was called a thought hero, meaning the most pure one of the purest of the women of Mecca. And they used to call her Amelia to crush crush, she didn't have a royal family, but they would call her the Queen of kurush because she was the number one woman in Makkah. And we see that after two marriages, one we our first husband passed away, she had two kids, and a second husband which marriage which ended, she no longer was interested in marrying any of the men in Makkah, none

of them were suited enough for her. You know, for who she was and what she deserved in a man and a fool she had resigned herself Alas, I'm not interested in the main of Makkah. Allah subhanho wa Taala would of course change this when she would meet our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, a prophet peace be upon him. He was 15 years junior to hadiya. So he was 16 years younger than she was. And the first edition of Yolanda and hubby became aware of the Prophet solemn, the Prophet peace upon him was in his late teens, perhaps 1617 years old. And while the Prophet came from a noble family, he grew up in a very poor for a very poor family, his parents, we know it passed away,

so he was an orphan. And he was raised by his uncle Abu Talib, who was himself a poor man because he had a big family. He was a man with a big family, he didn't have much in waste of an income. So the Prophet peace grew up from very meager means, and therefore as a way of earning income for the family. The prophet SAW Selim was a shepherd, this was his first provision is a beautiful Hadith, where the Prophet sallallahu Sallam says that everything will be of Allah, every single prophet of a lot. At some point in their life. They were sheep herders, they were shepherds. And this, of course, is a very important learning tool to become an OB, when you are looking after people as a test, you

first have to see if you can look after animals. If you can't look off the sheep, then I don't think you are ready to look after animals. And I always say that perhaps all the presidents of the earth before they become presidents or kings or leaders, CEOs, they should first be looking after some animals and see how well they do before they look after people. So every prophet of Allah was a shepherd, even I want to be social. And so in his young in his in his teenage years, he was living off the ship. And it so happened that he was one day looking after the sheep of her sister, her sister had a flock of sheep, and the prophet SAW Selim would come and collect the sheep and he would

take them out to be grazed to eat from the, in the mountains to eat from the greenery, and then the sheep would take him back at the end of the day, and he would earn a wage. The prophets of Salaam had a friend who was with him doing this kind of work. And at the end of the day, when Khadija sister was about to hand out the the wages of the date the promise of Salah was too shy to ask for his his share of the wages. So he he didn't come. Felicia was the and her sister Sister Khadija, you know this, this young man Muhammad, who looks after my sheep. I've never seen a worker, an employee quite like him. He's a very good guy. He's very, I've never seen someone with such a great, a great

character. He's the most trustworthy person I've met is the most shy, he's the most chaste is the most well mannered employee I've ever met. And so this of course, naturally put the Prophet peace be upon him on his mind. Now Khadija is running away

Massive company in the context of maca, she is a sending huge amounts of goods and commodity across the desert. So what her business will do, as we said in the last lecture, people would, she would collect goods from Yemen, on her camels, and they would travel through the desert, and all the way to city and they would sell these goods and pick up new goods and imported into Makkah and through to Yemen back and forth. So this wasn't a job. Of course, being a woman, she personally could not be transporting the camels through the desert. So what she depended on was a manager, she needed good managers who would be in charge of the caravan. And as they will travel through the desert. Now,

this was a problem for Khadija, because you needed number one, a very skilled, competent caravan manager. And you have to look after the animals you need to look after the goods. They are bandits in the desert. They are many, many dangers along the way. So you need a very smart, very competent person. Also, those and the other risks that she had was those managers that were smart and competent. They were also too smart in the sense that they would cheat, they would steal from her. They would take business opportunities away from her, and they would pocket the money themselves. She was always looking for talent. She was always looking for someone that she could employ as a

manager. And as the prophet SAW, Selim grew up, he was now in his early teenage years, maybe 2021 22, has been 15 years older. She was in her late 30s. She basically heard about the Prophet Salamis, his reputation grew as being a competent man, as being a strong man as being also a very, very trustworthy man. And perhaps, you know, if you have an image of Khadija, in your mind to be nice to have an image of the Prophet Solomon, what did the Prophet system look like? The Sahaba tell us that, you know, when we looked at him, there was no one quite like him, that once his hobby looked at the full moon, and then and how beautiful it was shining. And then he looked at the

Prophet Solomon, he says, Well, I, I tell you, you know that there was no comparison between the two because our Prophet peace be upon him look even more beautiful and luminous than the moon, the promise of sun lamp. Physically, he was a strong man. He was not very tall. He was of medium to slightly above average height. He had muscular masculine arms, shoulders, chest,

well refined and defined muscles, everything in our days, the term would be he was quite adept. That's how he would be described, didn't have much he on his body. His skin was very, very smooth without any hair, yet his face his features, were warm and welcoming. And of course, the thing that also hava mentioned about him was that loving smile. Never did we see him except that he had a, a smile on his face. And he's eyes You know, he's always smiling, and His eyes are always sort of downcast looking down and reflective, in contemplation. This was the kind of, you know, image you got from the Prophet sallallahu sallam,

a man who didn't speak very much, but when he did speak, it was always profound. And of course, always honest, always correcting what he said. So how did you rely on her? She? She basically made a business offer him a contract, she told the proposition Lam, I've heard about you, and I'm quite keen for you to be employed as one of my managers. Would you like to take the job and take my caravan I need my caravan to be taken to Syria, and to bring it back. So you've got a business opportunity. The Prophet peace upon him says no problem. He agreed to the job. He needed the income. And remember, as we said, this is before he was a prophet, the prophet is also Lama still a young

man. He wasn't an abbey of Allah. He wasn't. He was just a man before. This is before he received revelation in his early 20s. So he told him, You will be in charge. You're the manager of my caravan. through the desert, you're my agent, whatever you do, you're in charge. And I'm going to send with you another person called Mesa. mesa is my slave Khadija slave he will be ready to document his justly to take down minutes basically easy to look at what you do, he will discuss with you but based on I will report back to me so mesa is late to keep watch on you, Professor associate no problem. And so the caravan winked out. The professor Salam was in charge of a caravan they pass

through the desert. They went to Cydia, the goods were offloaded was sold, it's not only about it's not just transporting the goods, the provinces are meant to be in charge of selling the goods, making an income and then purchasing goods that would make a profit or profit with with an area and income that will be beneficial to her. And so therefore, he had to make many, many business decisions. Finally, after you know, a couple of months, so this would be two three months journey. When the Prophet Sal Salam returned back to Makkah. shanita was so surprised because this caravan had made the biggest income of any other journeys before she made a huge income, the profits would

have made a huge income for her and she wanted to she wanted to know what happened. So she's told her servant Lisa, I need to speak to you you need

Tell me exactly how Muhammad what happened. So Mesa says to her, to his colleagues, that I swear by Allah, I have never seen a manager. I've never seen a man quite like this man, that he is the most competent, honest, kind, trustworthy, manager employee we've ever dealt with. He even takes the time when we journeying through the desert, they'd be a time for the for the slaves were part of the caravan, they would get the issue of race, even the animals, even the camels, he would respect them, he would care for them, he would personally look after all of them. And when he came to business, he was very smart. He was very quick to understand opportunity. He never lied. He never cheated

anybody. He never inflated prices. He never, you know, sold defective goods. He was very open and honest. Yet at the same time, he was very quick and smart. When it came to take an opportunity when he saw a good opportunity, he was able to take it. And every single cent of course that he earned nothing leading to his pocket, it was returned to hernia completely. So this was the beginning that you know, this was the first arrow that was shot into the heart of Khadija. She now found a very competent, very, you know, a rising star basically, amongst her staff, a young manager was now perhaps the most competent and trusted employee. And as time went on, and I imagined our mother

Khadija she started spending more time with a young manager. She started having business meetings, more than was perhaps required. And slowly but surely, in her little heart, something clicked in Allah subhana wa, tada, you know, put that that fiction for the prophecy in her heart. And how do you do the kind of woman that she was? She was, you know, she was very smart and very astute as recognizing potential. And she she was a good woman. And she was she was recognized the goodness in others. And she obviously she was perhaps the first person that truly recognized that the problems alone was not an ordinary man that there was something very special about him, and she found herself

unable to, to resist being near to him. So you know, as our sisters, all of you, you have what we call a BFF. Best Friend, a very, very close close confidant. We tell all our secrets to Khadija had a friend like this Nafisa, and Khadija could not hide from her friend that she had some feelings for the prophets of Salaam. She began to smile maybe a little more, she began to daydream a little more, she began spending more time with her manager. So Nafisa noticed this and he said to her, deja, what's going on between you and your manager? Mohammed, right. And Khadija she's obviously in her 40s almost his late 30s the process from being in his mid 20s hadiza basically confessed to a friend

that look, I'm beginning to develop feelings for this man. Yes, I'd say I'm never gonna marry again. I was done with a mane of maca. But here I find myself thinking about this man. And you know, so behind Allah I feel like like he's something very special. So Nafisa, you know and we always have this frame that encourages us to do things. Sometimes it's you know, to be brave. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's not so good. Nafisa encourage Khadija. Well, if this is what you want, why don't you go for it? Why Why? Why should you be worried? You are a DJ, you don't answer to anybody. If you want this man, then go ahead and be brave and speak to him. So Khadija says icon, you know,

she's still a lady at the end of the day. She's still shy. Even though she's the boss. He says, I'm not gonna I'm not able to speak to him directly like that. I can't tell him that I have feelings for him. What he doesn't have feelings. For me. It's kind of law we see that this is, you know, these are the greatest people on earth, but they still people. They still feel feeling rejected. They still feel you know, she's, she's almost 40 she's got she's a millionaire basically in her context, but the fear of rejection is normal. So she told her friend Nafisa, would you go and speak to him? Find out how he feels about me. And if he does feel the same way about me, then it really be

interested in getting married. So the FISA, this lady, she goes to the gym, and she speaks, you know, hypotheticals, hypothetically. Mohammed.

Why are you and she actually asked him was you 25? Why are you not married? This is another another problem that we have today. You know, a sister, for example, she'll be looking for a husband. And, you know, she finds the guy. He's like, perfect age. He looks good. He's successful. He's got good qualities. Everything ticks the box. And now you even more concerned because why is he not meant if everything is right, and he's still single, that's even more concerning. So in the time of Arabia, you probably got married when you're about 1514. This was normal marriage, marriage age. The rules asylum is 25. And he's still not married. So it's like, what's wrong with you is the some issue. So

Nafisa asked him, you know, put her in a very, very frankly, why are you still not married? mahamadou 25 you've, you know, you've got a good family. You've got an

Come, you've got a business. I mean, you you've got a job while you're not married. So the Prophet says, I'm sick to her that, you know, I don't feel I'm yet ready by the means to look after a wife. Now pause for a minute here. in Arabia, there were no rules, there was no such thing as nataka, where you had to maintenance, you married a woman and you treated how you wanted to, in fact, the atoms of that time, they would eat first, and whatever was left before the wives and the kids. So there was no minimum requirement to get married, rather, the promises, felt in himself that if I'm going to marry a woman, I would like to care for her. And he felt he was not ready to give her the

kind of care that was deserving to a wife. So when he said that Nafisa said, well, hypothetically, what if it is somebody that doesn't need you to financially look after her? Would you be interested in someone like that? The prophets of Salaam said, you know, Don't beat around the bush, if you've got something to say, oh, tell me what what exactly are you talking about? So Nafisa says, What do you think of her ninja? promises? I was quite surprised and quite shocked. He's like a ninja. Is she really interested in me? And if he says, Yes, he is quite interested in you. And of course, Khadija being a a wealthy woman, she doesn't need you to physically financially golf. But are you interested

in profitability, of course, I would be that you can do better than Khadija. She's got everything you would want in a wife. She's the perfect, basically as as perfect as a woman comes. And that if he really was interested in him, then he also spent time with her. He was also naturally got to know her. He's also enjoying a company, that he would be very keen in marrying her. Perhaps the reason why the profit from them was not yet married, was because he felt also would he be good enough for Khadija. And here she proposes to him basically. So it's, you know, in today's day and age, it's very, very odd for a woman to propose to a man. And that time it must have been even most mean even

stranger. But as we get to know her deja, she is the train sitter. She is the one that is not afraid to, to go off the things that she wants. She's not afraid about what family pressure would do. What would be if it's good for her. If it's the right thing to do, then she's willing to do it. And therefore she basically proposes asylum. And the Prophet peace upon him says, Yes, I accept the proposal on condition that I can just, you know, I want the blessings of my uncle Abu Talib, who raised me and when he spoke to Abu Talib, Abu Talib, of course, was more than happy to bless the marriage. And he said, of course, this is what, you know, Khadija is a good choice. She's a noble

woman, that, you know, with all my blessings, my son, please, you know, go ahead and get married. So now at Hamdulillah, the prophets of Salaam at the age of 25, he marries Khadija who is now 40 years old. So there's a 15 year gap between the two of them, the prophet, this would be the first of these wives for detail Yolanda Khadija, of course, this is her third husband, the prophets, Allah is a third husband. She already had as we see two kids from a previous marriage holla me her son, and she had a younger daughter. And just something in terms of timeline, the properties is 25 years old. Khadija is 40 years old, according to the most, most most accepted in the nation. And they would be

married, you know, they would be married for another 25 years, they would be married together for 25 years, just exclusively the two of them, the purpose of them would never ever marry another woman along with Khadija. So for 25 years, the two of them would be married of their 25 years. The first Christine, maybe you should write this down. The first of the 25 years they were married. The first 15 was before then Abby became a prophet SAW Selim. So he was he was just a husband to have deja for those first 15 years, the last 10 years of the marriage, he will be a prophet. And it's in these 15 years. So we'll talk about that's our topic of the next discussion. The years in which the Prophet

married Khadija, until just before he received revelation, before he was selected to be an AVI, those 15 years were perhaps the happiest, most joyous, most loving years of his life. It was being those 15 years with the promises alum who would have his seven children he had seven children Khadija he would be a father, he would run a household he would you know hardage and him would be in such a such a deep and romantic bond throughout his life up until basically the moment he died, he would always remember how deja Khadija would be the one that really really he has a special place in his heart which belong Khadija it'd be nice 15 years that they would live in happiness, enjoy these

would be the happiest years of his life. His house would be filled with, with children. Most of them being goes to the house is really busy. He would see one of his daughters growing up and being married, he would also raise a few other kids had he just he skipped kids basically for each his previous marriage. And of course there will be two special young men that also got the opportunity to be raised by the professor lamb. So we'll talk about those 15 years in the household of Khadija, the best years of the life of the prophets of Salaam in our next clip inshallah Jazakallah

Thank you for joining us. We hope to speak to you soon Ciao Allah Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh