Their vigorous attachment to the Sunnah makes some people incline to giving ʿĀʾishah precedence, since she was the daughter of al-Ṣiddīq and more learned than Khadījah. Indeed, no woman among past nations equalled ʿĀʾishah in memorisation, knowledge, eloquence, and intellect. The Messenger ﷺ loved none of his wives as he loved her; her exoneration was revealed from above the seven heavens; and after his passing she conveyed an abundant, wholesome, and blessed body of knowledge about him. Many even cite the famous saying, “Take half of your religion from al-Ḥumayrāʾ.” (1)

The truth, however, is that each of the two ladies possesses such merits (2) that anyone who studies them is left awestruck and perplexed. The preferable stance is to withhold judgment and consign the matter to Allah Almighty. Whoever possesses clear proof—or a strong preponderance of evidence—in this question is obliged to speak according to the knowledge he has, but whoever remains undecided, in this or any other issue, should follow the soundest and safest course and say, “Allah knows best.”

Imāms Aḥmad, al-Bukhārī, Muslim, al-Tirmidhī, and al-Nasāʾī (3) have related—through Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Jaʿfar, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, may Allah be pleased with him—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The best woman of her time was Mary the daughter of ʿImrān, and the best woman of her time was Khadījah bint Khuwaylid,” meaning each was the foremost in her own era. (4)

Shuʿbah likewise narrated—from Muʿāwiyah ibn Qurrah, from his father Qurrah ibn Iyās, may Allah be pleased with him—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Many men have attained perfection, but among women only three did so: Mary the daughter of ʿImrān, Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh, and Khadījah bint Khuwaylid; and the excellence of ʿĀʾishah over all women is like the excellence of tharīd over all foods.” Ibn Mardawayh recorded this in his Tafsīr, and its chain is sound up to and including Shuʿbah.

They add: What the three women—Āsiyah, Mary, and Khadījah—share is that each of them cared for a divinely-sent prophet, treated him well in her guardianship, and believed in him. Āsiyah raised Moses, showed him kindness, and affirmed him when he was commissioned; Mary cared for her own son with the greatest possible care and believed in him when he was sent; and Khadījah desired to marry the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, spent her wealth to that end as mentioned earlier, and believed in him when revelation descended upon him from Allah Almighty.

As for the statement, “The excellence of ʿĀʾishah over all women is like the excellence of tharīd over every other dish,” it is also authentically established in the two Ṣaḥīḥs (6), through Shuʿbah, from ʿAmr ibn Murrah, from Murrah al-Ṭayyib al-Hamdānī, from Abū Mūsā.