A merchant of Quraysh
Khadija bint Khuwaylid (a) was one of the most respected and prosperous traders of Makkah. She engaged the young Muhammad (s) to conduct a caravan to Syria for her, and the honesty and success of that journey led her to propose marriage. The wedding is traditionally placed fifteen years before the beginning of the prophetic mission, when the Prophet was about twenty-five, and Shia almanacs commemorate it on 10 Rabi al-Awwal.
The first believer
When revelation came, Khadija was the first to believe. She put her whole fortune at the service of the new faith, stood beside the Prophet through the years of ridicule and the boycott of Banu Hashim in the ravine of Abu Talib, and bore him his children — among them Fatima (a), through whom the Prophet's line continues. He married no one else while she lived, and long after her death he spoke of her with a devotion that his later wives remarked upon.
Why the day is marked
The marriage is remembered as the foundation of the household of the Prophet (s): from Khadija and Muhammad came Fatima, and from Fatima and Ali the Imams. The day is a quiet celebration, often paired with recollections of Khadija's character and sacrifice.
Written for Shia Online Community. Dates and facts are checked against the references listed under Research & books; where the tradition records more than one date, all are given.
