We like to conjecture as to who is the most important person in our societies at certain times. “Who is the man of the year?” “Who was our greatest president?” “Who was the man of the century?” “Who was the greatest ruler of all time?” Most of that conjecture surrounds men, that in itself being a sad omission. We probably should devote more of our attention to giving credit to females where credit is due. There have been a multitude of fantastic women throughout human history. Women are the backbone of our societies. They hold everything together when everything else is falling apart. Men go off to work or to war, flexing their muscles and their pride, leaving their women to take care of the house, take care of the children, and find food to put on the table. We should probably routinely be asking the question, “Who is the person of the year,” and feature women in that quest. And if we concentrate on the importance of women in our society, that eventually leads us to ask that ultimate question, “Who was the most influential woman of all time?”
There are, of course, several candidates that immediately come to mind. Biblical scholars will say that the most important woman of all time must be Eve. After all, God started this world creating light and darkness, the sun, moon and stars, then earth and water, following these magnificent achievements by creating Adam and Eve. Although the Bible has many other highly important women in the history of the Jewish tribe, if it all started with Eve, then she is the trump card. She is the beginning of all women, and therefore has to be the most important. Although this argument may be ironclad to religious creationists, it holds no water for anyone else. There was not a sudden appearance of a modern woman. The human species began about 4 million years ago, according to the archeological record, and gradually evolved to Homo sapiens, beginning about 400,000 years ago. Eve is a mythological character created several thousand years ago, in one of the earliest efforts of humans to explain good and evil. It is a fun and instructive fairy tale, but it has no archeological veracity.
Archeologists may well make the case that the most important woman of all time was Lucy. No earlier skeleton representative of the Homo species has been found, and the current consensus of opinion is that the differentiation of the human species from chimpanzees first occurred in Africa, where Lucy was discovered. If Lucy is the first known woman in the archeological record to be a part of our species, have we not all descended from her? Does this not give her the right to be called the most important woman of all time? The difficulty is that Lucy may not be the first of our clan. Others may be found that date back even earlier. Being the first of several species gradually evolving to Homo sapiens doesn’t seem to carry much weight as far as our species are concerned. We simply don’t know who the first male and female Homo sapiens were, beginning some 400,000 years ago. Precise definition of exactly when our species began will probably always elude us.
Christians will certainly make the case for Mary, mother of Jesus, or Mary Magdalene, the consort of Jesus. These women were highly revered in the first two centuries of the Christian church, and worshiped in some sects with more reverence than that shown for Jesus or God. Even though both these women were denigrated by the Nicean Council in 325 AD, in order to produce a male dominated, priest intermediary religion, both of these women have been the subject of constant veneration by all Christians. Since the Christian faith claims more the one billion followers in the world today, either of these two could be said to be the most important woman in human history. Their influence extends over all Christians everywhere, to all corners of the earth. Yet having said as much, we have no evidence that Mary Magdalene altered to any great degree the teachings and character of Jesus. We have no certainty that Mary, mother of Jesus, was more than a carpenter’s wife, who had many children. We will assume, with great security, that she had them all after sexual intercourse. We have to believe that the virgin birth story is a wild myth, created by the early writers in order to make the hero of this new religion look good. Although both these women may have significantly influenced the life of Jesus, the accounting of either of them profoundly changing his thoughts and philosophy is missing. In spite of that lack, we have the lingering feeling that Mother Mary was a terrific woman.
This leaves us with a candidate as the most influential woman of all time, whose influence is documented, resulting in the birth of a new, dynamic, emotional religion which now claims more than 500 million true believers. Had she not existed at the time and place that she existed, it is doubtful that this new exciting religion would have been born. That religion is Islam, and that woman was Khadijah. Without her loving and solid support, it is doubtful that Muhammad would have had the opportunity, or the means to begin the religion of Islam. And there is no more important religion in the world today than Islam. The whole world is shaking and in disarray because the Islamic faithful truly believe it is their most important mission in life to convert all others to their faith, by whatever means are necessary, and to fight with their lives against the Great Satan, whoever and whatever he may be. Their faith demands these sacrifices of them, which includes not only their lives, but the lives of others as well.
Khadijah was an Arab woman who married into money. She had been married twice and had born children from each of those marriages, but both those husbands died early. Her last husband had been a wealthy trader, and she inherited that wealth at the time of his death. In 595 AD, she was trying to run a caravan business and was desperately looking for someone to manage that business for her. Muhammad, the nephew of one of her business contacts, Abu Talib, was placed in charge of one of her caravans. She was immediately enchanted by this young man. He was energetic, walked fast and talked fast, had an engaging smile, solved problems easily, was firm but gentle, and quickly convinced other people to follow his directions. He was charismatic. Before she knew it, she had fallen in love. The attraction must have been mutual. Both of them had what the other one wanted. He made her feel young again, and was an astute manager of her business. She had wealth. Without it, Muhammad had no chance of becoming the great leader he felt he should be. Although he was 25 and she was 40, they were married within that year. Their sex life must have been frequent, if not torrid. She bore 6 children from that union, in spite of her advanced age. Two sons died young, but 4 girls survived, and were later pivotal in the Sunni/Shia fracture that has violently affected the Islamic religion since that time.
Muhammad, fatherless at birth, had been farmed out to a wet nurse in the desert by his grandfather, when he was an infant. He grew up poor, dispossessed, a virtual orphan. Although he was by 610 prospering in family and trade, he was a troubled man. He often, with Khadijah’s blessing, went to a cave near Mecca to meditate at night. Why did the wealthy traders of Mecca not see the needs of the people? Why were they unwilling to share their wealth? Why were there many idols in the Kabah, rather than worship of the one true God, Al-Lah? Was there no one who could show Arabs the errors of their ways? One night, after a particularly troubled sleep, he had a vivid dream and/or hallucination. The Angel Gabriel appeared to him and told him that he would be the messenger of God. Muhammad awoke sweating and pale, as if still in a trance, frightened, insecure, and changed forever. He desperately sought the advice of the one person in the world he trusted the most, Khadijah.
Khadijah could have told him he was crazy. She could have told him to seek attention for his hallucinations and/or God seizures. She could have left him and organized support against him. She could have become angry and bitter because her husband had now become insane. She chose none of the above. She chose to support him with all the love and sustenance she could give him. She enlisted the help of her Christian cousin, Waraqah, to teach Muhammad about that religion, the life of Jesus, and the Christian God. She encouraged him, if he believed that he was receiving messages directly from God, to begin teaching those messages to others. Muhammad remained hesitant, but by 613 had a group of 75 young believers who met with him regularly for prayer. By 618, he was receiving threats from the wealthy traders, who did not like his increasing influence, and criticism of their unwillingness to share their wealth. Soon, there were also death threats. In 619, his two main support systems, Khadijah and his uncle Abu Talib, died. He was sure to be killed if he stayed in Mecca. In 622, in the dead of night, he escaped to Medina, where he had followers. This was the hijrah, the emigration, and the beginning of the Islamic religion.
Muhammad remained a thorn in the side of the Meccan merchants. He raided their caravans, and succeeded in overcoming other desert tribes, demanding their allegiance to Islam. It was clear to Mecca that Muhammad was gaining in power, and had to be eliminated. After successive battles in 624, 625, and 627, they failed to accomplish that goal. Muhammad entered Mecca in triumph in 628, threw out the idols in the Kabah, and demanded allegiance to Islam in return for saving their lives. He did not live much longer to enjoy his victory and the multiple wives he had taken after Khadijah’s death. He died in 632. Soon thereafter, his message of deep reverence for the one true God, missionary zeal, search for wisdom, and compassion for the disadvantaged had spread throughout the Arabian states, the Near East and the Mediterranean. Under that Muslim influence, that entire region flourished in culture and prosperity. That flowering of civilization did not come to an end until the depraved Christian crusades.
Although Muhammad is described as being courageous, resolute, impartial, gracious and charismatic, he was also trembling in fear when he began to receive his visions. In doubt, anxiety and alarm, he turned to the greatest support any man who is in trouble can have – a loving woman. It is doubtful that he would have been able to establish this new, vibrant religion without the deeply loving support of that remarkable woman – Khadijah. Without her, Muhammad would most likely have been killed before he had an opportunity to begin his new religion. Khadijah may arguably be considered, for that reason, the most influential woman of all time.