Khadijah's Caravan

Khadijah bint Khuwaylid was a merchant of wealth and rank, twice widowed, who hired men to trade with her money for a share of the profit. She was known in Makkah as at-Tahirah, the pure one. The suitors among Quraysh's chiefs she had turned away were many.

Hearing what all Makkah said of the truthfulness of Muhammad ﷺ, she offered him her caravan to Syria on better terms than she gave others, and sent along her servant Maysarah. The journey prospered beyond any she had known; her goods sold, the returns nearly doubled.

But it was Maysarah's report that changed history. He had watched the young merchant ﷺ through the weeks of the road: his honesty in every exchange, his gentleness, the dignity of his dealing. Khadijah listened, looked at the profits, and understood that the rarest wealth she had encountered was the man himself.

She sent a trusted friend, Nafisah, to sound him out delicately: why do you not marry? And when the way was opened, Khadijah, the woman who had refused the lords of Quraysh, proposed marriage to her honest agent. He ﷺ was about twenty-five; she was older, the sirah most famously says forty, though other reports say less. The uncles of both houses gathered, Abu Talib spoke the marriage speech with pride, and the best of women entered the house of the best of men.