Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 367
! ! 367 nurse was willing to take him. When the Holy Prophet Muhammad ’s sa mother passed away, he went to live with his uncle. That entire period also passed in deprivation. At mealtime , his uncle’s children would make noise, but he sa would sit quietly to one side , for the uncle’s children knew they were the real owners and he sa lived off their remnants. H is uncle would often ask him why he did not laugh or play. From this, one can presume that his aunt did not show much affection to him. On the other hand, Haz rat Khadija h ra was a very wealthy woman. S he owned many slaves and traded in far - off areas. S he would have her slaves report to her a fter trade expeditions. The Holy Prophet Muhammad sa began working for her and was sent on one tra de expedition. When he returned having made much profit, Haz rat Khadija h ra inquired about him from her slaves. The slaves told her that those people she had previously sent on expeditions had kept much of the profit for themselves, but they found the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa t o be very t rustworthy. She was so impressed upon hearing this , that she sent for his uncle and requested a proposal of marriage to the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa. The Holy Prophet Muhammad sa replied that he would agree to the marriage if his uncle approved. Consequently , he married Ha z rat Khadija h ra with his uncle’s approval. H is sa honesty and trustworthiness were so great that Haz rat Khadija h ra very quickly recognized these qualities within him, and she handed over the entirety of her business and property to him. When s he said to him that from now on all her assets would belong to him, he sa responded that if that was truly what she desired, was he permitted to control [the property] as he wished? He continued to say that the first order of business would be to release all the slaves and set them free. His piety ha d made such an impression upon Hazrat Khadija h ra that s he readily agreed. Among these slaves , was a slave by the name of Zaid ra. He was the son of a rich man and had been kidnapped and sold as a child. His father had been searching for him this whole time and had finally reached M ecc a , with a large amount of money. He offered a vast amount of money for his son’s return. He said that he had searched for