3 of 5 · c. 610 CE · the first days of Islam · Makkah
Khadijah bint Khuwaylid رضي الله عنها
The First to Believe
When the revelation began, the first person on earth to accept it was not a scholar or a chief, but the woman who knew the Prophet ﷺ best. The scholars of the seerah agree that Khadijah was the first of all people to believe in him.
She did not simply comfort him and wait. She took him to her cousin Waraqah, who recognised the angel as the one who had come to Musa (Sahih al-Bukhari 3). Ibn Ishaq also reports that when the angel came again, she asked her husband to tell her when he saw him, and moved him to sit beside her, then uncovered her hair; when he said the angel had gone, she said, "Rejoice — by Allah, this is an angel, not a devil."
From then on she prayed with him in the house, among the very first in Makkah to do so. Her faith was not borrowed from anyone; she was the one others would follow.
Faith sometimes begins at home, in the person who has watched our character most closely.
Who has believed in you when you were unsure of yourself — and have you thanked them?
- Sahih al-Bukhari 3 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Ibn Hisham, al-Sirah al-NabawiyyahHistorical report
- Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-GhabahHistorical report
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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