When Muḥammad had reached his twenty-fifth year, on the recommendation of his uncle, Abū T̤ālib, he entered the service of K͟hadījah, a rich widow of Makkah. She was of the Quraish tribe, the daughter of K͟huwailid ibn Asad. With Maisarah, her servant, Muḥammad was placed in charge of the widow’s merchandise, and he again travelled the same route which he had traversed thirteen years before with his uncle. His journey again extended as far as Buṣrā, a city about sixty miles to the east of the river Jordan. He visited Aleppo and Damascus, and was doubtless brought in frequent contact with both Jews and Christians, and had another opportunity of obtaining that superficial acquaintance with the Jewish and Christian faiths, which enabled him in after years to embody so much of the teaching of the Bible in the verses of the Qurʾān. “The mutual animosity of Jew towards Christian,” says Mr. Stobart, “though they professed to worship the true God, though they appealed to the old Testament, and both equally revered the name of Abraham, and professed to abhor that idolatry in which he had been bred, may have led Muḥammad to think that possibly more divine truth lay hid in both these systems of belief, though covered and concealed by human inventions, and may have suggested to him the possibility of forming out of these conflicting elements one single simple catholic creed, and of thus uniting mankind in the worship and love of the great Father of all.” (Stobart’s Islām, p. 56.)
Muḥammad having proved himself faithful in the commercial interests of his mistress, was soon rewarded with her hand in marriage. When Muḥammad married her she was a widow of forty years of age, and had been already twice married, and had borne to her former husbands, two sons and a daughter. The house of Muḥammad and K͟hadījah was a bright and happy one, and their marriage fortunate and fruitful. Two sons and four daughters were its issue. Their eldest son was al-Qāsim, who died at the age of two years, whence Muḥammad was sometimes called Abū ʾl-Qāsim, or the father of al-Qāsim. The other son, ʿAbdu ʾllāh, surnamed at̤-T̤āhir and at̤-T̤aiyib, died in infancy. The four daughters were Zainab, Ruqaiyah, Umm Quls̤ūm, and Fāt̤imah. [[FATIMAH].]
During her lifetime, K͟hadījah was Muḥammad’s only wife, and he always looked back to this period of his life with fond remembrance. When the world called him an impostor and a cheat, K͟hadījah was the first to acknowledge him to be the “Apostle of God.” Indeed, so much did he dwell upon the mutual love of K͟hadījah and himself, that the envious ʿĀyishah declared herself more jealous of this rival, who was dead, than of all the living rivals who contested with her the affection of the Prophet.
As yet Muḥammad was almost a stranger to the outside world, but he now obtained some reputation among his fellow men, by taking a prominent part in the resuscitation of an old league, called the Federation of the Fuẓūl [[HILFU ʾL-FUZUL]], formed in ancient times for the repression of acts of lawlessness within the walls of Makkah. A new compact was formed between four or five of the chief families of Makkah for the protection of the weak and oppressed, and Muḥammad was one of the most prominent movers in this federation, the revival of which resulted mainly from his efforts.
In his thirty-fifth year, he settled by his decision a grave difficulty, which had sprung up during the reconstruction of the Kaʿbah, regarding the placing of the sacred stone, and which almost threatened to plunge the whole of Arabia into another of their oft-recurring wars.
The Kaʿbah was too low in the building, and the Quraish wished to raise it higher, and so they demolished it. When it was rebuilt as far as the position of the Black Stone, the question arose, who should be the honoured instrument of raising the sacred relic into its place, for each tribe claimed the honour. Then the oldest citizen arose and said, “My advice is that the man who first entereth by the gate of the Banū Shaibah, shall be selected umpire in this difficult question, or shall himself place the stone.” The proposal was agreed upon, and the first man who entered the gate was he who was known as al-Amīn, “The Faithful,” Muḥammad, the son of ʿAbdu ʾllāh. Muḥammad decided upon an expedient, which served to satisfy the contending parties. The stone was placed on a cloth, and each tribe shared in the honour of raising it, by taking hold of the cloth. The stone being thus deposited in its proper place, the Quraish built on without interruption, and the great idol Hubal was placed in the centre of the sacred edifice, and around were ranged the various other idols of the Arabian people. “This circumstance,” says Sir William Muir, “strikingly illustrates the absence of any paramount authority at Mecca at this time. A curious story is related of an attempt made about this period to gain the rule of Mecca. The aspirant was Othmân, first cousin of Khadîja’s father. He was dissatisfied, as the legend goes, with the idolatrous system of Mecca, and travelled to the court of the Roman Emperor, where he was honourably entertained, and admitted to Christian baptism. He returned to Mecca, and on the strength of an imperial grant, real or pretended, laid claim to the government of the city. But his claim was rejected, and he fled to Syria, where he found a refuge with the Ghassânide prince. But emissaries from Mecca, by the aid of gifts, counteracted his authority with the prince, and at last procured his death.”—Muir’s Life of Mahomet, new ed. p. 31.
Shortly after the rebuilding of the Kaʿbah, Muḥammad adopted ʿAlī, the son of his friend and former guardian, Abū T̤ālib. ʿAlī was at this time only six years old. About this period he admitted to his closest intimacy another person, unconnected with him by family ties, but of more equal age. This was Zaid, a slave-boy belonging to K͟hadījah, who, to gratify her husband, made him a present of the slave. Zaid was the son of Ḥāris̤ah, of the Banū ʿUẕrah, a tribe which occupied the region of South Syria, and had been taken captive and sold to K͟hadījah’s grandfather as a slave. When Ḥāris̤ah heard that Muḥammad possessed Zaid, he came to Makkah and offered a large payment for his release. Muḥammad summoned Zaid, and gave him the option to go or stay. Zaid elected to stay, and Muḥammad, delighted with his faithfulness, gave him his liberty, and adopted him as his son. The freed man was henceforth known as Zaid ibn Muḥammad.
“Muḥammad was now approaching his fortieth year, and increased contemplation and reflection engaged his mind. The idolatry and moral debasement of his people pressed heavily upon him, and the dim and imperfect shadows of Judaism and Christianity excited doubts without satisfying them; and his mind was perplexed with uncertainty as to what was the true religion.” (Muir’s Life of Mahomet, new ed. p. 35.)
It is probable that it was at this time Muḥammad composed those Sūrahs of the Qurʾān which express the anxious yearning of an inquirer rather than the more positive teaching of an Apostle, and we would assign to this period the following verses of the Qurʾān, which, according to Muḥammadan commentators, are admitted to be of a very early date. (See Jalālu ʾd-dīn’s Itqān.)
Sūratu ʾl-ʿAṣr (ciii.):—