By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz
      
“Allah made for you mates from among yourselves and appointed for you, from your mates, children and grandchildren, and We provided you with all the good things.” (Holy Qur’an 16:72) 
“And of His signs is that He created for you mates from among yourselves that you may take comfort in them, and He ordained affection and mercy between you; there are indeed signs in that for a people who reflect.” (Holy Qur’an 30:21)
Marriage has a special status in Islam. It is the foundation for a sound family unit whose blessings are children groomed to be virtuous members of a healthy society free of social ills and psychological traumas.
An ideal family life revolves around a loyal wife whose fruits are morally sound offspring (children and grandchildren).
As the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger to mankind with the universal message of Islam, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) long before public proclamation of his monotheistic mission, took the dynamic step of starting a family. 
God Almighty granted him with the most excellent lady of his times, a distant cousin and the richest merchant of Arabia, Hazrat Khadija (SA), as his soul companion. 
At 25 years, he was in the prime of his manhood and she was also around the same age, to share a quarter century of marital bliss, during which the husband never took another spouse.
The blessed day was the 10th of Rabi al-Awwal, when the parentless son of Abdullah and Amena (peace upon them) was married in a grand ceremony that caught the attention of all the people of Mecca and beyond, since after three days of Walima meals organized by the groom’s uncle Abu Taleb, they were fed for three months by the family of the wealthy and virtuous monotheist bride.
It was a marriage made in heaven. The groom was the noblest man of his time, and the bride was an equally pure and chaste lady – a virgin who had spurned all suitors of Jahiliyya, although their social status vastly differed. Neither he wedded her for her wealth, nor did she marry him because for expansion of her trade caravans through such an able manager. 
What attracted them to each other was virtue, honesty, integrity of character, and above all shared monotheist faith in the One and Only Creator in an Arabia submerged in polytheism and sins.
As the Best of creation, and as the Most Perfect Offspring of Adam and Eve – his light had descended, generation after generation, through spotlessly clean wombs and pristinely pure backs.
This meant he had to marry the noblest lady of his days so as to start the pristinely pure progeny, whose unsullied cleanliness God would eventually vouch in Ayah 33 of Surah Ahzaab of the Holy Qur’an by virtue of their Immaculate Daughter Fatema az-Zahra (SA) – the Noblest Lady of all times:
“Allah desires to keep away uncleanness from you Ahl al-Bayt and preserve you thoroughly purified.”   
Acclaimed as the Tahera or the Chaste for remaining virtuously single so far, the nikah or nuptials of the lady destined to be the “Omm al-Momineen” or the One and Only Mother of all True Believers, was solemnized by that primordial Muslim, Abu Taleb (AS), who along with his wife, Fatema bint Asad (SA), had brought up his orphaned nephew as his own son. 
The two were the ideal made-for-each-other pair, and were blessed with a son named Qassem, from whom the Prophet’s agnomen (kunya) of Abu’l-Qassem (Father of Qassem) became universally famous for all time. 
God Almighty, however, decided to take away the soul of the infant. As a form of trial, God granted the pair another son who also died in infancy. Both husband and wife were content with God’s Will, because the All-Wise certainly had His Own Plans for ensuring eternity for the progeny of His Most Chosen Servant (“al-Mustafa”).  
It was thus Divine Providence that five years after this blessed marriage, when Abu Taleb (AS) was blessed with his youngest child, son Ali (AS), the future Prophet and his loyal wife decided to take under their care the boy destined to be the son-in-law and eventually Vicegerent on God’s commandment (Holy Qur’an 5:67).  
Fifteen years after marriage, when God formally entrusted the message of Islam to her husband, the loyal monotheist wife immediately testified to his mission as the Prophet, and thereafter spent all her wealth on the feeding, clothing, and sheltering the neo Muslim community. 
So firm was the faith of First Lady of Islam that Archangel Gabriel conveyed to the Prophet a special message for her, saying: “O Messenger of Allah! When Khadija comes to you, greet her from Allah and give her the good tiding of a house made of precious stones in Paradise.”
The greatest blessing for the pair, and an everlasting one indeed – both in the life of this transient world and in the Hereafter – was God’s granting to them of the blessed daughter named Fatema (SA) whom the Holy Qur’an has hailed as “Kowthar” or the “Fountain of Perpetual Abundance”.
The unrivalled status of the One and Only Omm al-Momineen is crystal clear for all Muslims, who very well know that whenever Islam was in danger, it was her progeny, through her two grandsons Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS) – the Leaders of the Youths of Paradise – that that rose to the occasion.
The Ahl al-Bayt always gave Islam the kiss of life through their lifeblood, with the heartrending tragedy of Karbala and the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS) being the supreme example. 
It is also needless to say that the Redeemer of mankind, the Awaited Imam Mahdi (AS), who will fill the world with justice, is the direct offspring of the Immaculate Khadija (SA). 
Years after her death, when the middle-aged Prophet had taken several wives out of social necessity in order to break the taboos of the days of ignorance, one of his spouses (name need not be mentioned) objected to his constant remembrance of Khadija (SA). The Prophet was upset and replied (as mentioned in “Sahih Bukhari” – the principal Sunni book of Hadith):
“By God, the Almighty did not grant me a better wife than her. She believed in me when the people used to mock at me and she acknowledged me when the people denied me. She shared her wealth and property with me and she bore me children which I was not destined to have through other women.”