EVENTS OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR AFTER THE BIRTH OF THAT LORD OF FELICITY; HIS GOING TO SYRIA ON COM­MERCIAL AFFAIRS, AND KHODAIJAH’S BEING EXALTED BY BECOMING ASSOCIATED WITH HIS LORDSHIP—U. W. B.

Khodaijah, the daughter of Khoilad* —may Allah reward her—was distinguished, and stood alone among the Qoraish ladies by the extent of her property, the adorn­ments of her beauty, and her high perfection. She was accustomed to entrust men with goods to trade with, and afterwards shared with them the profits, which kind of partnership is by lawyers called Sharkat mazârabah.* During this year Abu Tâleb complained about the scanti­ness of his property and about the extension of his family to the lord of this world—u. w. b.—saying: ‘Khodaijah, the daughter of Khoilad, gives her wares, on condition of sharing in half the profit, to several individuals. If thou requestest her to send thee to trade, she will, considering thy great honesty, probably not refuse thee.’ His holy and prophetic lordship, whose enlightened mind was a treasury of the secrets of the invisible world, and whose wonderful tongue was the interpreter of sacred truths, replied: ‘She will receive the message, and send word on this matter.’ Abu Tâleb continued: ‘I fear lest she prefer another man to thee, and appoint him to this business.’ When the conversation and intention of Abu Tâleb, and of the prince of the victorious family [of Musalmân nations], had been brought to the notice of Khodaijah, she sent the following message to the apostle—u. w. b.: ‘I have heard that thou art inclined for commerce, and on account of thy truthfulness, good behaviour, uprightness, and perfect honesty, I shall give thee double the property which I entrust to other men of the Qoraish to trade with.’ His lordship the apostle communicated on this subject with Abu Tâleb, who exclaimed: ‘Verily this is a provision which Allah has made for thee.’ Accordingly his sacred and prophetic lordship—u. w. b.—made arrangements for the journey, and Khodaijah sent one of her slaves, Misarah by name, with him. Some books have it that Khodaijah despatched one of her own relatives, called Khozaimah, the son of Hakim, in the company of the leader of the caravan of Law [i.e., Muhammad]. In short, when they started to Missr, the camels of Khodaijah, unable to bear the load of prophecy, halted. Khozaimah informed his lordship of this misfortune, whereon the latter, having placed his blessed hand upon the feet of one of the animals, and uttered a supplication; they all began to move, and took the lead of all the riding camels of the caravan. When Khozaimah had witnessed this strange event, he said that Muhammad would find a great friend. Arriving at the frontiers of Missr, the people alighted near the hermitage of the monk Nasttûr, who was also called Nasttûz. His lordship sat down under a tree, which became immediately green and flourishing, throwing its shadow upon that river of prophecy. Nasttûr, seeing what had taken place, descended from the roof of the hermitage, and said to the apostle of Allah: ‘I adjure thee by Lût and U’zza to tell me what thy name is.’ His holy and prophetic lordship replied: ‘May thy mother be childless! Begone from me; for the Arabs have not uttered any words more disagreeable to me than thine.’ Nasttûr had a piece of white silk cloth in his hand, at which he looked occasionally, and also at the face of the apostle—u. w. b. After having cautiously finished his observation, he exclaimed: ‘I swear by him who sent the Enjil [Gospel] to I’sa [Jesus] that this is he!’ Khozaimah, whom friendship for his lordship the last of prophets had overpowered, imagined that the hermit was meditating some treachery; he accordingly drew his sword and shouted for his companions. When the people arrived running, the monk retired to his cell, locked it, and, having ascended to the roof, exclaimed: ‘Why do you mistrust me? I swear by Allah that no caravan dearer to me than yours has ever halted at this place. I find it on this silk, that the indi­vidual who had alighted at the foot of this tree is a prophet of Allah and the last of seers. Whoever obeys him will be saved, and who opposes him will perish.’ He further asked Khozaimah in what connection they stood to each other, and the latter replied: ‘I am his servant,’ and narrating how the camels had stopped, he mentioned how they had obtained strength. The monk continued: ‘I shall confide a secret to thee, and hope thou wilt keep it.’ Khozaimah assented, and Nasttûr said: ‘I find on this silk that this man will prevail over all countries, and will conquer all servants [of God?], nor will anyone be able to resist him; neither does anyone know how great he will be. Know thou that the Jews will be most inimical to him; guard him, therefore, from their evil intentions.’ After Khozaimah had heard these words he hastened to wait upon the prince of the world, and said: ‘I perceive in thee several charac­teristics not discernible in others, and I think thou art the prophet who will be sent from Tahamah. I see the people bear a wonderful affection for thee; I also shall consider thy friends as mine, and thy enemies as mine.’

It is related that during this journey his sacred and pro­phetic lordship had, on account of some transaction, a dis­pute with a Jew, who said: ‘I adjure thee by Lût and U’zza.’

Muhammad: ‘Whenever I pass near [the statues of] Lût and U’zza I turn away my face from them.’

Jew: ‘Thou art right, and thy words are true!’

Then the Jew left off quarrelling, and said to Khozaimah: ‘I swear by Allah that this is the prophet whose description our U’lâma have found in the Torathah.’

In fine, after profitably terminating the commercial journey they returned, and having on a hot day arrived in Mekkah, that guide of the companions of the right side was riding on a camel, and Misarah* on another. Two birds overshadowed the favourite of the Almighty to ward off the ardour of the sun, and when Khodaijah, who was with a number of women sitting in an apartment, beheld the scene, she pointed it out to her companions, all of whom were amazed thereat. When Misarah came in to Khodaijah and complained of the hardships of the journey, she asked him about the circumstance of the birds projecting their shadow [over Muhammad]. He informed her, however, that from the time they had left the exalted threshold they had always been present, whether the caravan was resting or starting. He further related the strange and wonderful events he had witnessed in connection with his sacred and prophetic lordship from the time of their departure till their return, and narrated also the conversations with the Jew, and of Nasttûr the monk.

Khodaijah, who was a most intelligent woman, wished, after she had heard everything that had taken place, to become the spouse of the Prince of Beings; and it is on record that on account of her excellent character, high intellect, and great wealth, most of the Qoraish princes had at that time been making to her offers of marriage, and had presented her with gifts of various kinds, but that she manifested no desire to become the wife of any one of the rich and noble Arabs. When she had obtained information concerning all the circumstances of his apostolic lord­ship —u. w. b.—and the desire to marry him had over­powered her mind, she confided her secret to a woman called Nafisah, who was extremely handsome and intelligent; she concurred with the opinion of Khodaijah, went to his lordship the apostle—u. w. b.—and elicited from him with much dexterity a favourable reply to her question whether he would be inclined to ally himself to Khodaijah, and, returning to that happy lady, brought her the glad tidings. Hereon Khodaijah selected a propitious hour and assembled in her house her uncle A’mru Bin Asad, with Waraqah, the son of Naufil, who was her near relative and a Christian theologian. On the other hand, his holy and prophetic lordship had, with Abu Tâleb and several others of his uncles, arrived during the same hour at her invitation. On that occasion Abu Tâleb delivered the following elegant and eloquent speech: ‘Praise and adoration to Allah, who has made us the children of Ebrâhim and of Esma’il, brought us forth from the family of Moa’d and Mazar, has made us the guardians of His house, the princes of His sanctuary, and has presented us with the Ka’bah, which is the place of circumambulation and the Qiblah of mankind, and the safe asylum of every­one who flees to it for refuge. But after [the preliminary remarks I state that] my brother’s son Muhammad, son of A’bdullah, son of A’bd-ul-Muttalleb, is a man who prepon­derates over every one of the Qoraish with whom he may be compared, and though his property is slender, it matters not, because possessions may decrease and vanish. Muhammad is an individual whose relationship to me is well known to you. Now he weds Khodaijah, the daughter of Khoilad with a wedding gift of twenty camels of my property, which is the marriage settlement, including all claims. By Allah! a high destiny and great events are awaiting Muhammad.’ When Abu Tâleb had terminated this discourse, Waraqah Bin Naufil also delivered a speech, beginning with praise and adoration to the Most High, confirming what Abu Tâleb had said, and stating that he gave away Khodaijah for a wife to Muhammad with a dowry of four hundred mithqâls of gold. Then Abu Tâleb said to Waraqah: ‘I request A’mru Bin Asad, the uncle of Khodaijah, to give his consent likewise.’ A’mru therefore replied: ‘I also give away Khodaijah to be the wife of Muhammad.’ According to a correct tradition, the father of Khodaijah was no longer alive, and [at the completion of the just-mentioned meeting] she ordered her female slaves to beat drums and to sing songs. On the same day the lovely Venus was in conjunction with Jupiter of sunlike aspect. One of the best authors of later times relates in one of his books that, as it appears from the speech of Abu Tâleb, Khodaijah’s dowry consisted of twenty camels, and from that of Waraqah, the son of Naufil, that it amounted to four hundred mithqâls of gold; but according to some chroniclers the dowry consisted of five hundred dirhems. All the three statements may be reconciled with each other if we assume them to have existed in separate traditions, and to have been thus copied by several writers, because at that time twenty camels, five hundred dirhems, or four hundred mithqâls may have represented one and the same value, and that consequently the traditions have rendered it, and not the special sums and articles constituting it. The author of these pages objects, however, to this equaliza­tion, on the ground that the three traditions may be reconciled to each other only with reference to a period of time during which five hundred dirhems, the value whereof amounts to three hundred and fifty mithqâls of silver, were equal in price to four hundred mithqâls of gold, which is most improbable, and therefore the equalization can by no means hold good.