ʿĀʾishah said: “I never felt jealous of any woman married to the Prophet ﷺ as I did of Khadijah, even though she had died before he married me, because I so often heard him speak of her, and because Allah had commanded him to give her the glad tidings of a house in Paradise built of hollow pearls. Indeed, he would sometimes slaughter a sheep and send enough of it to her intimate friends to satisfy them.” (This is the wording recorded by al-Bukhārī.)

In another wording she said: “I never felt jealous of any woman as I did of Khadijah, owing to how frequently the Messenger of Allah ﷺ mentioned her. He married me three years after her death, and his Lord—or Gabriel—ordered him to give her the glad tidings of a house in Paradise made of hollow pearls.”

A further narration reads: “I never felt jealous of any of the Prophet’s wives as I did of Khadijah—though I never saw her—because the Prophet ﷺ used to remember her so often. At times he would slaughter a sheep, cut it into pieces, and send it to Khadijah’s friends. I would occasionally say to him, ‘It is as though there were no woman in the world but Khadijah!’ and he would reply, ‘She was who she was, and I had children from her.’ ”

Al-Bukhārī then said: Ismāʿīl ibn Khalīl related to us; ʿAlī ibn Mus-hir narrated to us; from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, from ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her), who said: “Hālah bint Khuwaylid—the sister of Khadijah—once asked permission to enter upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Her manner of seeking permission resembled Khadijah’s, so he was startled and said, ‘O Allah, Hālah!’ I became jealous and exclaimed, ‘You go on remembering that old woman of Quraysh, one of the toothless crones of long ago! Allah has given you someone better than her.’ ”

Muslim likewise transmitted it through Suwayd ibn Saʿīd from ʿAlī ibn Mus-hir.

On its face, this seems to affirm that ʿĀʾishah was superior to Khadijah, whether in merit or in companionship, since he ﷺ did not censure her words, as al-Bukhārī’s wording suggests. However, Imam Aḥmad said: Muʾammal Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us; Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated to us; from ʿAbd al-Malik—namely ibn ʿUmayr—from Mūsā ibn Ṭalḥah, from ʿĀʾishah, who said:

“One day the Messenger of Allah ﷺ mentioned Khadijah and praised her at length. I felt the jealousy that women feel and said, ‘Allah has replaced that old woman of Quraysh, with the reddish gums, for you, O Messenger of Allah.’ Thereupon the face of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ changed in a way I had never seen it change except when revelation was descending upon him, or when threatening clouds gathered and he waited to see whether they would bring mercy or punishment.”

The same report was also transmitted by Bahz ibn Asad and ʿAffān ibn Muslim, both of them from Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn