Learn from Khadijah, the Prophet Mohammed’s first wife, worshippers to be told

Khadijah, known as the Mother of the Believers, was the first woman to embrace Islam and was the Prophet Mohammed’s first wife.

She was said to be noble and intelligent, with a business-savvy mind that led her to become a successful merchant.

When she needed someone to travel to Syria to conduct business on her behalf, she chose the Prophet Mohammed, then 25. Although he had not yet become a prophet, his reputation as an honest person preceded him.

Upon his return from Syria, the two married. Khadijah was said to be about 40 years old. Fifteen years later, the Angel Gabriel appeared to the Prophet Mohammed as he prayed in a cave and asked him to recite the first verses of the Quran. At first he feared for himself, but Khadijah supported and reassured him, telling him: “Allah will never disappoint you.”

The Prophet Mohammed was known to love his wife dearly, saying he was “blessed with love for her”. The pair had two sons together, although both died at a young age, and four daughters.

Khadijah cared for her family deeply and was described as an immensely compassionate and generous woman. When she neared her death, the Angel Gabriel descended from Heaven to assure her of the glorious home that awaited her in the afterlife.

“Give her the glad tidings of having a Qasab palace in Paradise wherein there will be neither any noise nor any fatigue,” the angel said.

The Prophet Mohammed said her name first when listing the best women of Paradise. When he would remember her, he would say “she was the one who believed in me when no one did, she was the one who said I was truthful when the people said I lied, she was the one who spread her wealth for me when others deprived me and she was the one I was blessed by Allah to have my children with when Allah gave me no children through other women”.

Friday’s sermon will tell worshippers to see the example set by the Prophet Mohammed in his love and respect for his wife, to whom he was monogamously married until her death, and the example of Khadijah as a strong, kind and dedicated woman.

Worshippers will be told that women are counterparts and true partners of men and that Khadijah was a model of excellence for what it means to be a distinguished woman in her social and practical affairs, a good wife, mother and businesswoman. History books have recorded the achievements of many women who were pioneers in their work and Khadijah is the greatest of them, the sermon will say.

It will then direct parents to teach their children about these women and learn from their lives to help develop a society with good ethics and behaviour.