always thought about helping the poor and sharing their sorrow and
difficulties, and solving their problems.
For this reason, Khadijeh (Khadijah Bint Khuwaylid, Bibi Khadija,
Hazrat Khadija) ordered her servants to never close the doors of her
house to any poor personand to always have readyat hand the things the
poor needed. She commanded her servants to inform her whenever a poor
person wanted to talk to her or wanted something from her during the
day or night. She could not bear the thought that a poor leaves her
house in sorrow, not having received something from her.
So the deprived and poorknew the way to Khadijeh's house and called
that house, "The house of hope and security." More than any other, the
orphans sought refuge in her house, because Khadijeh (Khadijah Bint
Khuwaylid, Bibi Khadija, Hazrat Khadija) sympathized with them alot
and she would care for them in a motherly way. So they called
her"Ummul Yatama", meaning, "Mother of the Orphans".
Having talked about Khadijeh's (S.A.) house, the following lines will
help you gain a conception of her house.
The house where lived Khadijeh (S.A.) and from where she performed all
the benevolent tasks for the poor, was one of the nicest in Makkah. It
had two floors, each one of which was decorated by a small balcony.
The northern section of the house so faced the Holy Kaaba (House of
Allah) that the latter could be seen from its small windows. In
addition to this, the visitors to Allah's house could be seen too. The
windows of the other three sides faced three of Makkah's roads and
every passenger entering Makkah could be seen from those windows.
There was a green dome at the top of the building, which madeit look a
hundred times more beautiful. The interior of the house wasdivided
into two sections, one of which Khadijeh (S.A.) kept for private usage
and where no one was allowed without her permission.
Khadijeh (Khadijah Bint Khuwaylid, Bibi Khadija, Hazrat Khadija) chose
thenorthern section of the house, which faced the Holy Kaaba as her
living quarters, and from there she stood in front of the house of
Allah and prayed to Him everyday.
The other section of Khadijeh's (S.A.) house was for the guests.
Special servants entertained the guests, looking after their
needs.Everybody was satisfied when they left Khadijeh'shouse. This is
why all the people living in the region would call Khadijeh's house,
"the house of generosity and kindness". In hard times, people would go
and come back, hands full and happy. We can say that the section of
Khadijeh's house open tothe public was home to many homeless, the
poor,refugees, orphans and the oppressed. If anyone was looking for
shelter, people would send him to Khadijeh's house.
A famous writer described Khadijeh's house as follows:
Every orphan who didn't have anyone to depend on,
Every father who couldn'tget food for his children,
Every woman who was homeless,
Everybody who suffered and became shelter less,
All of them knew the wayto Khadijeh's (S.A.) house and went there.
They took refuge in her kindness and wealth.
The sore hearts of those people were treated withher favour and grace.
This was why Khadijeh's house was always full of people. Whole day and
night, there were comingand going activities there. Khadijeh (S.A.)
would come to that section accessible to the public a few hours
everyday. She would sit with her poor and homeless guests, talk
andlisten to their distress and difficulties. She would caress the
childrenand wipe the tears of themothers. Then she would call her
private servant and he would bring somebags of money. Khadijeh (S.A.)
would then distribute the money amongst the people.
Kind Khadijeh (S.A.) would always sit with theorphans at dinner and
eat with them. She wouldherself feed the delicious food to them. She
would place her hands around their faces, caress and kiss them,
saying: "My dear children! Don't feel like orphans. (I am your
mother). I will support and love you like my ownchild."
Khadijeh's (S.A.) support and protection was not only for the orphans
whodidn't have any parents, but also for those who had parents. During
those days, known as Al-Jahiliya (The age of Ignorance), some fathers
who were narrow-minded and foolish would bury their own daughters
alive, for different foolish reasons. They were proud of this ugly and
indecent act. Onevery opportunity, they would boast about what they
had done. However, they never thought about the day of Judgement and
that Allahwill judge them:
"When the female (infant) who was buried alive will be asked for what
sin was she killed."(Noble Qur'an, 81:8-9)
During those days, this ugly and indecent act was common amongst some
Arab tribes. They would kill their innocent daughters because of
poverty and believed that having a daughter issomething to be ashamed
of. They would cowardly bury their daughters alive.
Then glowed the light of Islam forbidding such a practice. Allah says
in Noble Qur'an:
"And do not kill your children for fear of poverty; We give them
sustenance and yourselves (too); surely tokill them is a great
sin."(Noble Qur'an, 17:31)
As a result, when some mothers gave birth to a girl, their husbands
would get angry at them.They either had to give their daughter to
their cruel husband, who was free to do whatever he wanted to do to
the innocent baby, or send the baby to Khadijeh's (S.A.) house from
where it could be supported and saved from being buried alive. Now we
are going to tell you one of those stories.
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