One
of the most common themes in attack
against Islam is on the Prophet Muhammad’s many wives. A muslim man can marry
four women, and have sexual relations with an unspecified number of slaves as
well. We wish first to discuss the
concept of polygamy in Islam followed by the marriages of the Prophet.
Quran
(4:3) - "Marry of the women, who
seem good to you, two or three or four; and if you fear that you cannot do
justice (to so many) then one (only) or (the captives) that your right hands
possess."
Marriage in Islam is a sign of God’s power and glory. Generally
speaking, there are two types of marriages in Islam:
1.
Monogamy: one man married to one
woman;
2.
Limited polygyny: one man married to
two, three or at the most four wives.
In Islam, the ideal marriage is the monogamous form of marriage.
Quran (66:5) - "Maybe, his Lord, if he divorce you, will give him in your place wives better than you, submissive, faithful, obedient, penitent, adorers, fasters, widows and virgins"
Islam did not invent the system of
polygamy. Study the life of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)
and you will see that the Prophet was a man of highest character even long
before he started preaching Islam.
1.
From birth
to age 25: single.
2.
From age
25 to age 50: married to one wife, Khadija.
3.
From age
50 to age 63: married ten wives.
During the last thirteen years of his life, the Prophet married ten wives. All the marriages of the Prophet, other than that with Lady Khadija, had a good political or religious rationale.
1. Lady Sawdah bint Zam‘ah: a Muslim
lady whose husband had died in Abyssinia.
2. Lady Zaynab bint Khuzaymah: a widow
for the second time when her second husband ‘Abdullah bin Jahsh was martyred in
the Battle of Uhud.
3.
Lady Umm Salamah. This marriage had
the element of forging the link of kinship with his opponents in Mecca.
4.
Lady Juwayriyyah bint al-Hãrith. After
the Battle of Banu Mustaliq in the 5th year AH, the Muslims took two hundred
families of that tribe in slavery. Juwayriyyah, the daughter of the chief of
that tribe, had become a widow.
The Prophet set her free and married her.
5.
Lady ‘Ãisha bint Abu Bakr. This
marriage sealed the alliance with Abu Bakr so that he would be on the side of
Muslims during the confrontation against the idol-worshippers of Mecca.
6.
Lady Hafsah bint ‘Umar ibn
al-Khattãb. The Prophet married her in the 4th year AH. This marriage was also
done to seal the Prophet’s alliance with ‘Umar.
7.
Lady Umm Habibah, daughter of Abu
Sufyan. She was married to ‘Ubaydullah ibn Jahsh and had migrated to Abyssinia.
He became a Christian; while she continued the Islamic faith and separated from him. Her father, Abu
Sufyan, was a bitter enemy of Islam and planned battles after battles against
Muslims. When she returned to Medina, the Prophet married her in order to
provide protection for her and also to soften the heart of Abu Sufyan.
8. Lady Safiyyah bint Huyaiy ibn Akhtab. She was taken as a
captive by the Muslim forces. The Prophet married her in the 7th year AH to
maintain her noble status and also to establish marriage ties with her Jewish
tribe.
9.
Lady Maymunah bint al-Hãrith
al-Hilaliyyah. She only desired the honour of being called “the wife of the
Prophet”. The Prophet accepted her as his wife.
10. Lady Zaynab bint Jahsh. She was a cousin of the Prophet; and
she was a widow and a divorcee. The
circumstance of her marriage to the Prophet was very unusual.
When Prophet Muhammad was young and wealthy, he had only one wife. It is a fact that even when Prophet Muhammad had these other wives, his love for his first wife, Lady Khadija, never diminished.
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