Throughout modern media, there is a stereotype that Muslim women are quite restrained and subdued. This stereotype leads many to believe that in Islam, women are not to be empowered. However, history tells us a very different story, and it all starts with the first believer in Islam, a woman who stood at the center of society, not in the margins. Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (ra) was a force. She was an accomplished businesswoman, a respected intellectual and a moral authority whose reputation commanded trust across Arabia. While she was a dutiful wife, I doubt anyone would refer to her as restrained.
In an era when literacy was rare, Khadijah was a woman who understood commerce, contract law, negotiation and diplomacy. She oversaw trade routes that stretched across regions. She hired and managed agents and was capable of assessing risk. She was educated and continued to educate herself into adulthood.
She led with such integrity that her reputation became a guarantee others relied on to do business. Men were proud to work under her contract because she guaranteed fairness. This already challenges today’s misguided narrative: Muslim women did not start on the sidelines of their own history. Khadijah was one of the most powerful public figures in pre-Islamic Mecca. The first believer was a leader in the world of ideas and commerce. She was educated and used that education to distinguish herself in society.
Khadijah’s leadership was kind, steady and discerning. It was built on credibility, not spectacle. When she hired Muhammad (pbuh) to handle one of her caravans, people saw it as a sign of his virtue because her trust carried significant weight in society at the time. Her judgment held public weight as a sign of integrity.
Later on, when she proposed marriage to him, she shattered another misconception that is still projected today, that Muslim women are historically passive in their personal decisions. She did not wait to be chosen. She chose, confidently and intentionally.
When the first revelations came, the Prophet was shaken, but he did not seek counsel from tribal leaders or elders. He went to Khadijah because she grounded him emotionally and intellectually. Islam’s first believer was a woman. She used her wealth to protect a persecuted minority, and her funds were integral to Islam’s survival in its most vulnerable years. Most of her wealth was used in support of Islam.
Khadijah’s story makes something very clear: empowerment was already there for Muslim women, embedded in the earliest chapters of Islamic history. The first Muslim woman was educated, a leader and a pillar of integrity. Reclaiming Khadijah’s story is not about rewriting tradition. It is about remembering what was always there. Her life shows that Muslim womanhood has never required shrinking to be faithful. She actively normalised and embodied the idea that women should be educated and intellectually engaged in society. She was both a leader and a believer, a strategist and a nurturer.
Muslim women’s history does not start with a veil of silence. It begins with a woman whose clarity was so powerful that an entire faith took its first steps through her help. There is no modern debate about whether women can lead. They have been leading since the time of Khadijah (ra).