Amr ibn Al-Aas adopted Islam after having opposed it for nearly 20 years. Yet when he became a Muslim, he was close to the Prophet. Amr was given important assignments and was regularly consulted by the Prophet. He wanted to compensate for his years of hostility to Islam by becoming one of its foremost advocates. He cherished being close to the Prophet and wanted to know more about him as a person. Amr once asked the Prophet: “Who of all people do you love most?” The Prophet answered: “Aishah.” Amr asked again: “And who of all men?” The Prophet said: “Her father.”
Aishah’s special position in the Prophet’s heart is well-known. When she came into the Prophet’s home, there was one more wife already there. The Prophet married Sawdah in Makkah, nearly three years earlier. The two could not be more different. Sawdah was a mature woman who had five children by her earlier marriage to Al-Sakran ibn Amr, a Muslim who joined the immigration to Abyssinia and died on his return to his hometown. Aishah was a young woman, full of vigor, and endowed with beauty, sharp intelligence and a fine memory. She realized that her husband, God’s last messenger, is assigned the task of changing human life and putting it on the right course that brings happiness to all people in this life and in the life to come. Therefore, she was keen to learn, and she memorized whatever she heard the Prophet saying that was related to the new faith.
Polygamy was the accepted norm in Arabia at the time. Prior to Islam there was no limit to the number of wives a man could marry. Islam established a maximum of four at the same time, but the Prophet was exempt from this limit, due to his special position and the need to provide practical example in certain aspects of social life. Jealousy is always expected among women competing for the attention and emotions of the same man. Aishah accepted the presence of Sawdah and felt that she had nothing to worry about from her side. Yet her keen jealousy targeted the wife that was no longer there, Khadijah, whose memory was keenly present in the Prophet’s mind.
There was nothing exceptional in that. She was aware that she was married to the one man whose name is often mentioned together with God’s own name. She wanted to be the one who occupied the pivotal position in her husband’s heart. Yet how could she erase the memories of 25 years of exceptional happiness the Prophet experienced with Khadijah? Yet to Muhammad (peace be upon him), Khadijah was more than that. She was the one who gave him the best support in the days when resistance to his cause was at its strongest, when the danger of eradicating his message and its followers present at every moment. Nothing could weaken his tender feelings toward the departed mother of his six children, whose support through thick and thin was instrumental in every success he achieved. Not even the intelligent young woman, with all her love, could replace Khadijah. Yet of all people alive, Aishah was the one he loved most, as he clearly stated to Amr ibn Al-Aas in an authentic Hadith.
