The House of Khadijah

The marriage of Muhammad ﷺ and Khadijah (ra) lasted a quarter of a century, until her death, and for all of it she was his only wife. Every one of his children was born in her house except Ibrahim (as): al-Qasim and 'Abdullah, who died small; and the four daughters, Zaynab, Ruqayyah, Umm Kulthum, and Fatimah (ra).

It was a house of mutual honour. Her wealth freed him from need, and the Qur'an would gesture to it: He found you in need and enriched you. His company was her delight; Makkah's most discerning woman had chosen him over every chief in the city and never looked back. Into that household too came Zayd ibn Harithah, a kidnapped boy sold into slavery whom Khadijah gifted to her husband; he ﷺ freed him, and when Zayd's own father came to ransom him, Zayd chose to stay with Muhammad ﷺ over his own family, a fact that says more about the man of the house than volumes could.

The depth of the bond shows most in how he ﷺ spoke of her years after her death, in Madinah, to wives who had never met her. She believed in me when the people disbelieved, he said; she affirmed me when they called me liar; she shared her wealth with me when they cut me off; and Allah gave me children by her. He would send portions of any slaughtered sheep to her old friends, and a voice resembling her sister's once made him tremble with memory.

When the angel came to him in the cave years later and the whole weight of heaven fell on his shoulders, there was one place on earth he ran to, and one person whose first words were not doubt but: never; by Allah, Allah will never disgrace you. The house built in this story is the house that would catch revelation when it came.