What items did Muhammad (peace be upon him) carry with him to Busra, and what items did he buy from there? Meccans were not known to be skilled craftsmen, nor did they excel in any profession besides trade, but young Muhammad (peace be upon him) might have carried with him a cargo of hides, raisins, perfumes, dried dates, light weight woven items, probably silver bars, and most likely some herbs.


He bought what he was instructed by his employer to buy: these items may have included manufactured goods, clothes, a few luxury items to sell to wealthy Meccans, and maybe some household goods. Gold and silver currency accepted in Mecca included Roman, Persian, and Indian coins, for Arabs during those times, including those who were much more sophisticated than the ones among whom Muhammad (pbuh) grew up such as the Arabs of the southern part of Arabia (Yemen, Hadramout, etc.), did not have a currency of their own; so, barter was more common than cash. The first Arab Islamic currency, by the way, was struck in Damascus by the Umayyad ruler Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (697-698 R.) in 78 A.H., 36 years after the establishment of the Umayyad dynasty (661-750)


The profits Khadija reaped from that trip were twice as much as she had anticipated.
Maysarah was more fascinated by Muhammad (peace be upon him) than by anything related to the trip. Muhammad (peace be upon him), on the other hand, brought back his impressions about what he had seen and heard, impressions which he related to khadija. You see, those trade caravans were the only links contemporary Arabs had with their outside world: they brought them the news of what was going on beyond their drought-ridden and famine-stricken desert and sand dunes.


The trip's measure of success encouraged Khadija to employ Prophet Muhammad (May Allah raise his rank) again on the winter trip to southern Arabia, i.e. Yemen, the land that introduced the coffee beans to the rest of the world, the land where the renown Ma'rib irrigation dam was engineered, the land of Saba' and the renown Balqees, the Arabian Queen of Sheba (Saba') of Himyar, who married King Solomon (Sulayman the wise, peace be upon him), (after the completion of the construction of the famous Solomon's Temple , the land of natives skilled in gold, silver and other metal handicrafts, not to mention their ingenuity in the textile industry and domestic furniture Yemen, at that time, was being ruled by an Ethiopian regent.


This time Khadija offered Prophet Muhammad (May Allah raise his rank) three times the usual commission. Unfortunately, historians do not tell us much about this second trip except that it was equally profitable to both employer and employee. Some historians do not mention this trip at all.

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