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Muhammad’s wives: Background you need to know-A debate!  

Syed Kamran Mirza

[email protected] 

On the above title Mr. Parvez Ahmed from Florida wrote an essay in his desperate quest to damage control for the so-called Islamophobia and defamation of Prophet Muhammad. His utter lie, lots of wishful disinformation and deceptive tactics to hide the truth has drawn my attention to comment.  Mr. Pervez talked about background (“Background you need to know”) but he has given no background or any reference at all. This is an utter deception and intellectual dishonesty by Mr. Pervez. Readers have already learned a lot about how Mr. Pervez has distorter the facts of the history from an eloquently written rebuttal by Mr. Abul kasem from Australia which was posted in NFB on December 24, 2002.

 

Islamic apologists (like Mr. Pervez Ahmed) usually bring some ludicrous logic and justification to defend Prophet Muhammad’s sexual/polygamous adventures, and they mostly fail to bring any prudent scriptural supports in favor of their assertion.  We are dealing with the history of more than thousand year old and nobody among us was present there at the time of these happenings. Therefore, to claim something about any happenings in the 6th or 7th Century, we need to cite references. In this business of Islam, we need support from: Quran, Hadiths and various books/biographies written by Islamic scholars. History always consists of two sides--positive and negative sides. We should judge both sides of the history to know the actual truth.

 

Most apologists usually blame authors (who brought untold stories of Islam on the discussion) by saying: (a) Lack of knowledge/ignorance, (b) Misinterpretation or mistranslation of scriptures or by (c) Some lame excuses, such as the Prophet had to marry due to political reasons and not for sex, or he was forced to marry, simply wanted to rescue widows etc. There are sahih Hadiths available today to prove clearly that Prophet Muhammad married many women for his personal lusts and had sex daily with most of his wives who stayed with him.

 

(1) Sahih Bukhari Hadith: Katadha'ha said, Hazrat Anash Ibn Malek (ra) narrated, "Nabi Karim (pbuh) used to have sex with all his wives in the same night. At that time the Prophet had eleven wives".

 

(2) Sahi Bukhari: Aisha used to scent Muhammed to have intercourse with other wives...1.5.270; Volume 1, Book 5, Number 270:

Narrated Muhammad bin Al-Muntathir:  on the authority of his father that he had asked 'Aisha about the saying of Ibn 'Umar(i.e. he did not like to be a Muhrim while the smell of scent was still coming from his body). 'Aisha said, "I scented Allah's Apostle and he went round (had sexual intercourse with) all his wives, and in the morning he was Muhrim (after taking a bath)." 

 

The above sahi Bukhari hadiths have clearly disproved what most Islamic apologists/scholars tried to portray with their futile attempt of deception again and again. Fatwa should not be one sided game as Mr. Kasem has opined in his essay. We should declare fatwa also for those Islamists who intentionally and deliberately try to distorting the real history!

 

However, in this rebuttal of mine let me prove one by one how Mr. Pervez has deliberately distorted the historical facts to fool the honorable readers. Below are my comments against some selective distorted comments made by Mr. Pervez Ahmed:

 

Mr. Pervez Ahmed said:

 

“Muhammad's 12 wives, although not all married to him at the same time, were modest, courageous, independent, outspoken, righteous, patient and loyal. They were not known for their physical beauty -- certainly not the kind that is flaunted in public. In fact, all but one of Muhammad's wives! were widows, and many of them were over the age of 40 when they married him.”

 

My Comments:

 

Untrue statement by Mr. Pervez Ahmed. Shafiyya was paragon beauty and was very young (in her teen) when she was forcibly married by Prophet Muhammad after killing her all relatives including her newly married husband. Shafiyya was first distributed (booty from the battle of Khyber)) to other Islamic soldiers, but when Prophet Muhammad heard about her paragon beauty then he took her for his wife.  Aisha was only 6 when she was married and she was extremely beautiful. Reyhana was very beautiful and young Jewish girl (Booty from Banu Quryza). Zainab Bint Jahsh (Muhammad’s adopted son’s wife) was also very young and extremely beautiful for what Muhammad married her by sheer lust. This scandalous story will probe the real truth, which I will describe later in this rebuttal.

 

 

Mr. Pervez Ahmed said:

 

Why did Muhammad marry 12 women? John Esposito, in Islam: The Straight Path, writes, "As was customary for Arab chiefs, many were political marriages to cement alliances. Others were marriages to the widows of his companions who had fallen in

combat and were in need of protection."

 

My comments: Well well, if some one wants to help any widow then he must marry her to render his help to her! What a simplistic logic and shameful argument by John Esposito! That means, if President Bush wants to help some widows—he should first marry them all! Is it not a fantastic idea? To help all the widows of America—President Bush will need to build thousands of giant-sized Harems throughout the entire state of Texas. I wonder, was it possible that there were only 7 or 8 widows ( whom Prophet Muhammad married) in the 7th century Arabia? What a hilarious logic!

 

Mr. Pervez said:

 

“The current charge that Muhammad took his third wife, Aisha, when she was a minor is based on apocryphal traditions. The preponderance of evidence suggests that Aisha was between 16 and 19 years old when she married Muhammad.”

 

My Comments: This is an utter lie by Mr. Pervez! Where is the so called “evidence” (reference), if you got any? Can you give us any Hadiths (Sahi or non sahi) or any prudent opinion by a famous Islamic scholar? How can you bring such lie in the civilized forum like NFB? The claim by you that Aisha was 16 or 19 year old when Prophet Muhammad married her is simply ludicrous.  Below are some rock-hard proofs (Sahi hadiths) that Mr. Pervez simply lied to protect Prophet Muhammad in order to achieve heavenly pleasures (72 Huries and wine) in his after life. Let us examine some Sahi hadiths to know the real truth:

 

About Aisha’s age: History as per Sahih Hadiths from the source of Hazrat Aisha Bint Abu Bakr:

 

(1) `A´isha Bint Abu Bakr was Prophet Muhammad's third wife. `A´isha herself narrated, "The Messenger of God married me in Shawwal in the tenth year after of his prophet hood, three years before the Migration as I was six years old. I was nine years old when he consummated the marriage with me.

 

(2) Ibn Hisham narrated that, "Muhammad (pbuh) married Aisha Bint Abu Bakr when she was seven years old and consummated the marriage with her when they were in Medina when she was nine years old (Sahih Hadiths)".

 

(3) Another Sahih Bukhari Hadith: Hazrat Aisha (RA) narrated, " when Prophet (pbuh) married me I was only six year old at that time. After that we traveled to Medina where I got sick and my hairs were shed due to fever. After I got rid of my sickness my hairs were grown back again. One day while I was playing with my friends in a swing-sets (dolnas) I was called on my mother and when I reached to her she (Mother) held my hand and took me to the door. At that time I was breathing rapidly because I was still tired of swinging with my friends. And I did not understand why I was called here. Then , my mother took me to a room where I saw three helping maids (ansar) who immediately decorated me and handed me over to the Prophet (pbuh), and they left the room. At that time I was only nine- year old. Prophet (pbuh) consummated our marriage that day".

 

(4) Sahih Bukhari hadith: According to Muaallah Ibn Ashad, Hazrat Aisha narrated: "when I (Aisha) asked why he married me ? Messenger of Allah said, I saw you in dream twice. I saw (in a dream) you are covered by a silk chaddar and Angel Gabriel told me, here is your wife'. When I removed the silk-chaddar I found you were the woman under the silk chaddar. After that I (Messenger of Allah) said to Angel Gabriel , if this is the wish of Allah then it is of course shall be fulfilled."

 

 

In the quest of rationalizing Prophet Muhammad's marriage to A'isha some apologists like to claim that,: "It was Hazrat Abu Bakr who insisted the Prophet to have a permanent relationship in the history of Muslims through his daughter."

 

In this essay, let us examine what the history actually tells us, and how Hazrat A'isha Bint Abu Bakr was married with the Prophet:

 

Sahih Bukhari Hadith: Uroowaa (ra) narrated, " Nabi Karim (sa) himself proposed to marry Aisha Bint Abu Bakr while Aisha was only six year old girl. Then, Abu Bakr said, O Messenger of God, I am your brother, how can you marry my daughter ?' On reply Nabi karim (sa) said, you are my brother only in the religion. Therefore, Ai'sha is halal for me to marry".

 

Sahih Bukhari Hadith: There is another tradition by `Atiyya (ra): "The Messenger of God proposed to marry `A´isha Bint Abu Bakr while she was a little girl. Abu Bakr said, 'O Messenger of God, can a man marry his brother's daughter?' Muhammad replied, 'You are my brother in my religion.’  Poor Abu Bakr (ra) had no other choice but to accept the proposal and sacrifice his little girl of six in exchange of the chattel of a house, fifty [dirhams] worth, or so.

 

Other numerous Sahih Hadiths: In the Bukhari Sharif (recently translated in Bengali) there are hadiths (dealing sexual life of Prophet) which could surprise all readers, but to keep this essay reasonably short, I am not going to describe them in this article. In those Sahih hadiths: one can learn how Prophet Muhammad encouraged his disciples to marry (young) virgin girls ; fact that, Prophet Muhammad was having sexual strength equal to 50 or (according to some) 100 man ; Or. How Angel Gabriel brought from heaven a "miraculous-drink" for Prophet Muhammad, which made him so strong in sexual power, etc. etc. We can find more interesting untold story by careful delving of those existing Sahih Hadiths.

 

Now that I have given some authentic irrefutable historical evidences to substantiate my claim; could Mr. Pervez also give some references to substantiate what he has claimed in his essay? If he can not give any reference then we shall take it guaranteed that Mr. Pervez simply lied with the readers.

 

 

The issue of Marrying adopted son’s wife:

 

Mr. Pervez said:

 

 “Another marriage that has raised current scrutiny is his seventh wife, Zaynab. This marriage, as with most of Muhammad's actions, was done to instruct the nascent Muslim community by setting personal examples. At issue was the relationship of an adopted child to his new parents. Modern Westerners may disagree, but Islam's position is that adopted children are not equivalent in legal or biological status to children out of natural birth. To illustrate this, God commanded Muhammad to marry the wife of his adopted son following their divorce.”

 

My comments:

 

What a weird logic by Mr. Pervez Ahmed! Is adoption a bad practice? Why Allah does not like such a universal noble practice? Is it really very bad or harmful if an adopted son is given equal status of a real biological son? Is it really immoral or unethical by any standard? If I want to give my adopted son equal rights just like my biological son then where is the problem? This is utterly nonsense! This mentality of Allah and Prophet Muhammad reminds me the famous ‘Fox-tail’ story. Readers perhaps remember the story of that wicked fox that lost his tail while stealing a chicken from the farmer’s house. After loosing his own tail the cunning fox came to his peers to advise that everybody should cut their tail since the tail is so ugly looking. So, because Prophet had to marry Zaynab (by any means) to satisfy his own lust; therefore Allah jumped on a noble idea (?) that adoption should be prohibited. What a merciful Allah!

 

Prohibiting adoption is no way a moral action. Prohibitions of alcohol drinking, smoking, gambling, sorceress, killing, etc., could be a moral action. But why was this prohibition of adoption necessary?  I don't know how in the world Allah or any God could dislike such noble deeds. I am not sure what percentages of Muslims actually know this unethical divine law. I do admit that I never knew this and, I was stunned when I first learnt this from a real Mullah. How and why was this noble custom among human being prohibited? I wonder why millions of Muslims do practice adoption of an orphan child? Do they know that Allah will punish them for adopting an orphan child? I urge Mr. Pervez or any other Islamists to make us convinced how the practice of adoption can be harmful business to anybody!

 

Pre-Islamic Arab Custom: Adoption of orphan/helpless child was a very popular and moral practice amongst pre-Islamic Arabs. By adopting orphan/helpless child, they used to consider adopted child as their own. And they used to pass onto them the adopter's genealogy and name, his investment of them with all the rights of the legitimate son including that of inheritance and the prohibition of marriage on grounds of consanguinity.

 

Post-Islamic Custom: Dr. M.H. Haykal writes: “The all-wise legislator of Islam willed to undo the above mentioned Arab practice of adopting children. The divine legislator willed to give the adopted son only the right of a client and co-religionist. For that reason a verse was revealed: "God did not make your adopted son as your own sons. To declare them so is your empty claim. God's word is righteous and constitute true guidance. (Quran: 33:4).  Question is why Allah had to this nonsense for?

 

Actual history of this scandalous marriage--Critical (Orientalist) version:

 

“Muhammad fell in love with Zainab, daughter of Jahsh, while she was the wife of Zayd bin Harithah, his own adopted son. Once, when he passed by the house of Zayd in the latter's absence, he was met by Zainab wearing clothes which exposed her beauty. Muhammad's heart was inflamed. It is reported that when his eyes fell upon her, he exclaimed, "Praise be to God who changes the hearts of men" and he repeated this expression at the time of his departure from her home. Zainab heard him say this and noticed desire in his eye. Zainab proudly reported this happening to her husband. Zayd immediately went to see the Prophet and offered to divorce his wife. Muhammad answered, "Hold to your wife and fear God." Thereafter, Zainab was no longer a docile wife and Zayd had to divorce her. Prophet Muhammad married Zainab Bint Jahsh who was his daughter-in-law. That was definitely taboo in pre-Islamic Arabia, and the Prophet of Islam lifted this taboo in order to satisfy his own lust and fulfill his own desire. They also relate that when Muhammad saw her she was half-naked, that her fine black hair was covering half of her body, and that every curve of her body was full of desire and passion. Others relate that when Muhammad opened the door of the house of Zayd the breeze played with the curtains of the room of Zainab, thus permitting Muhammad to catch a glimpse of her stretched out on her mattress in a nightgown.”

 

Help from Allah:

 

Immediately after this scandal of Prophet Muhammad marrying his adopted son’s wife Merciful Allah did not delay to jump on the business of helping out His favorite prophet. Allah’s Oohi (revelation) started to arrive with some necessary Quranic verses:

 

 (Sura al-Ahzab 33:40): "Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but [he is] God's Messenger and the Seal of the Prophets. God is Aware of everything!"

 

(Sura al-Ahzab 33:37): "We married her off to you so that there would be no objection for believers in respect to their adopted sons' wives once they have accomplished their purpose with them. God's command must be done!"

 

In the verse (33:37) there is stated a particular purpose for this revelation and action of Muhammad. It is not for himself, but it is for the future of the Muslim community. It is so that in future there may not be a problem if anybody (father-in-law) wants to marry the divorced wife of an adopted son. “We permitted you to marry her so that it may hence be legitimate and morally blameless for a believer to marry the wife of his adopted son.” Without adoption, there cannot

be any adopted son either. Therefore, the explicitly stated reason for the revelation of this verse does not exist. Muhammad himself dissolved the original adoption of Zaid when the above revelation came. Also, it is a mystery why in the world, any father-in law will need to marry his adopted son's wife. Could Mr. Pervez or any other Mullahs give us any good reason why in the world any father-in-law should need to marry his son’s wife? Is it anyway a respectful or ethical practice to marry the adopted son’s wife?

 

Allah’s interference in such an un-ethical/immoral practice of Prophet Muhammad:

 

There is a considerable moral problem with such a self-serving revelation. It is quite clear that Prophet Muhammad was attracted to Zainab before Zaid divorced her and it might well have been the true reason for the divorce itself. And Qur'anic verses do make clear that there was something going on before Zaid divorced Zainab.

 

The entire melodrama: Zaid's divorce of Zainab, Muhammad's marriage with Zainab and subsequent revelations of several Qur'anic Ayats from Allah to purify this scandalous happening is something to ponder very seriously.  To summarize, the logical difficulty is that Allah (?) causes a scandal and then sends Gabriel to officially justify the scandalous action of Prophet Muhammad with Qur'anic revelations is ridiculous, morally incorrect and too much of a coincidence. No wonder why Muhammad’s youngest wife Aisha once teasingly said: “You (Prophet) are so lucky that every time you are in a mess Allah immediately jumps on rescuing you from the mess.”

 

Some after thoughts: Prophet Muhammad cannot get away from the culpability of this salacious behavior of his with Zainab. If he had this forthrightness in his mind, he would have vigorously fight with his conscience and not allow this marriage to go through. But the reality was quite the opposite. He had surrendered to his passion and thus had marred his "unblemished" character. If all the Muslims in the present-day world follow Muhammad's inglorious example, seduce theirs daughter-in-law, and then cause a divorce and then to add insult to the injury marry her, what would happen then? Just think the consequences. In more enlightened society if a man does what Mohammad did with Zainab he would be looked up as a lascivious character. Not all the Qur'anic Ayats of this world will be able to change that.

 

Muslims are repeatedly told (By Allah) that Prophet Muhammad is the “ideal” person and all Muslim should pattern their lives using his life as a blueprint. Muslims are required to accept and adhere to all of "the Codes Of Life" that were set by the last Prophet (pbuh). As Allah told in the Quran: O you who believe ! Answer Allah (by obeying Him) and His messenger when he calls you to that which will give you life .(8:24).  Shall we then follow his footprints?  I am certain about one thing that is if all Muslim men would follow in the Prophet’s footstep (to quench the organic thirst), there would be scarcity of marriageable Muslim women in the entire world.  Sometimes I wonder - Why the perfect person in the entire Ashraf-ul-Moklukat had to set up such a bad example!  Any comments?      

 

 

References

1. The Holy Qur’an, Translated by A. Yousuf Ali, Published by Amana Corporation, Brentwood, Maryland, 1983

2. Buchari Sharif, Bengali Translation by Maulana Muhammad Mustafizur Rahman, Sulemani Printers and Publishers, Dhaka, Second edition-1999

      3. Holy Qur’an, Bengali translation by Maulana Muhiuddin khan, Khademu Harmain              Sharifain, Saudi Arabia, Madina Mannwara, 1413 Hijri.

  1. Annals of al-Tabari 3:173

      5. Ansab al-ashraf-1:407

      6. Tabaqat Ibn Sa’d 8:50

      7. Al-Sira al-nabawiyya 4:296ff.

      8. Al-Nasai Khail 2

      9. A-Tirmidsi, Janna

     10.Muslim, Radha,59

     11. The life of Muhammad By: M. H. Haykal, 8th ed. 1982
     12. ibid 4:43
     13. Nisa' al-Nabi, 13th ed.

 

 

 

 

 

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