Khadijah bint Khuwaylid

c. 555–619 CE Mecca First Muslim, Wife of the Prophet
Contribution: The first person to accept Islam. A successful businesswoman who employed and later married Muhammad. She supported him financially and emotionally during the earliest and most vulnerable period of his prophethood.

Khadijah bint Khuwaylid was one of the most respected and wealthy merchants in all of Arabia before she became the first person to embrace Islam. Born into the Quraysh tribe of Mecca around 555 CE, she inherited her father's trading business and expanded it into one of the largest commercial enterprises in the region. She employed trusted agents to conduct trade on her behalf across the Arabian Peninsula and beyond, and it was in this capacity that she first engaged Muhammad ibn Abdullah as a trading agent.

Impressed by his honesty, integrity, and skill, Khadijah proposed marriage to Muhammad when she was around forty years old and he was approximately twenty-five. Their marriage was one of deep partnership and mutual respect. They had six children together: two sons (who died in infancy) and four daughters — Zaynab, Ruqayyah, Umm Kulthum, and Fatimah.

When Muhammad received his first revelation on Mount Hira in 610 CE and returned home trembling with awe and uncertainty, it was Khadijah who consoled him, wrapped him in her cloak, and declared: "By Allah, Allah will never disgrace you. You keep good relations with your kith and kin, help the poor and the destitute, serve your guests generously, and assist the deserving calamity-afflicted ones." She immediately became the first person to believe in the message of Islam — before any man, woman, or child.

Khadijah used her considerable wealth to support the early Muslim community during a period of intense persecution by the Quraysh. She freed enslaved believers and provided financial resources that sustained the nascent community through its most vulnerable years. When the Quraysh imposed a trade boycott on the Muslims, forcing them into a valley for three years, Khadijah's resources helped the community survive.

The Prophet Muhammad expressed his profound love and gratitude for Khadijah throughout his life. He said: "She believed in me when no one else did; she accepted Islam when people rejected me; and she helped and comforted me when there was no one else to lend me a helping hand." Even years after her death in 619 CE, he continued to honour her memory by sending gifts to her friends and speaking of her with deep affection. The archangel Jibreel (Gabriel) conveyed to the Prophet that Allah Himself sent Khadijah salutations of peace.

Khadijah is revered in all traditions of Islam as one of the four greatest women in Islamic history. She passed away in 619 CE, the same year as the Prophet's beloved uncle Abu Talib — a year the Prophet called "the Year of Grief."