By Magdy Abdalshafy
The Prophet Muhammad never shared any parties while he was still not appointed a prophet, he never practiced any illicit anything and if he had done, his enemies, who sought to find anything to discredit him, would have used that against his.
In the following page you will read about:
Polygamy in the Testament
The prophet didn’t sake marriage for the sake of marriage.
Please note that all the prophet practiced polygamy limitlessly in the Old Testament.
In Exodus 21:10, a man can marry an infinite amount of women without any limits to how many he can marry.
In 2 Samuel 5:13; 1 Chronicles 3:1-9, 14:3, King David had six wives and numerous concubines.
In 1 Kings 11:3, King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
In 2 Chronicles 11:21, King Solomon’s son Rehoboam had 18 wives and 60 concubines.
In Deuteronomy 21:15 “If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other and both bear him sons….”
Also note the New Testament never banned polygamous, it just banned divorcing. Polygamy was practiced in the Christian world and only banned by Augustine as this would be a strange practice in the Roman world. There are still some Christian cults who still practiced polygamy.
Here are a list of the wives of the prophet and the reasons why he married them
Sawda bint Zam’a
Sawda bint Zam’a was fifty-five years, old and not known for any beauty. After the death of lady Khadiga, The prophet remained lonely but never slackened to preach among people. Seeing the bad conditions the prophet was undergoing, people thought of convincing the prophet of marrying another women but who dares?
Only one lady could do that, she went to the prophet and offered him to marry but she found her words not fruitful, she kept asking the prophet to marry as he needed her help and that his children were still young. He asked her whom she recommended him to marry. The lady mentioned a long list of beautiful noble lady, only among them was a lady who was miserable because she had to migrate to Abyssinia to escape the never ceased persecution of the infidels.
It was when false rumors reached those immigrants that the enemies of the prophet embraced Islam that she and her husband decided to come back to Mecca but he died on his way back to Mecca.
She had to face the sever persecution again at the hands of the infidels, she was living with her old weak father who could not defend her. Soon she was a victim of the persecution of the infidels. Guess what? The prophet refused all the noble young beautiful ladies and chose the old miserable lady. He married her to save her from the unbearable torture of the idolaters.
If the prophet was as some spiteful people described, he could have married the most beautiful lady and if he had done, no one with sound mind could ever have blamed him.
Aisha Bint Abu-Bakr
Lady Aisha was the daughter Abu-Bakr, the closest companion of the prophet. Abu-Bakr was always helpful to the call of Islam, he was the first man who followed the prophet; he bought slaves by his money and set them free. He spent his wealth on the call to Allah. the Holy Prophet himself remarked, “I called people to Islâm, everybody thought over it, at least for a while, but this was not the case with Abu Bakr, the moment I put Islâm before him, he accepted it without any hesitation“. He was titled As-Siddiq by the Prophet because his faith was too strong to be shaken by anything.
Reasons for marrying lady Aish
The prophet wanted to honour his close friend and strengthens his ties with him, so he proposed to his daughter, moreover; the prophet said that he saw in a dream what urged him to marry A’isha. She played a great role in conveying most of the prophet teachings that benefit women.
Her age when she married the prophet is still controversial, some narration says that she was 15 and others says that she was eighteen. There is another narration that says she was around ten.
Anyway the idolaters, who always sought to find faults with the prophet and made many attempts to debauch his name, never critiqued this marriage.
Even if we that narration was right, no one could blame the prophet as this habit was followed at that time.
Please note that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is reported to have betrothed to Joseph, who was converged 90 years old while she so young, Mary gave birth to Jesus (PBUH) while she was still fourteen years old. ( Catholic Encyclopedia)
So the reason is clear….honouring his closest friend
Hafsah bint Umar
Hafsah was the daughter of Umr, a close companion of the prophet who did many efforts for the Islamic call. Hafsah was married to Kanyas ibn Houzafa, who met his martyrdom in one of the battle(Uhud) against the infidels leaving her.
Her father was so grieved because was widowed and left destitute. So, he decided to find her an honorable husband. he went to Abu-Baker offering him to marry his daughter but Abu-Baker uttered no word, then he went to Osman ibn Affan offering the same thing but he, too, refused.
Being so disappointed and grieved, Umr went to the prophet complaining about his two friends. The prophet, seeing the grief in his friend’s heart, solaced him saying “ Don’t worry….she will marry who is better than Abu-Bakr and Osman….” The prophet meant himself.
So the reason for marrying this lady was to solace and to honour his friend, moreover the prophet always wished to strengthen the ties with adherents and to care about the destitute lady. He could have married young virgin beautiful woman.
Zrinb bint Khouzima
Zrinb bint Khouzima lost her husband in one of the wars and was left with no one to care about her. The prophet married her to give her solace and to give her care. She was thirty when she married the prophet; she died only two months after her marriage.
Um-Salama
Um-Salam was seventy-five years old, she lost her husband in Uhud war, she was left alone and her tribe was among the enemies of Islam.
They once kidnapped her after the death of her husband and tortured her psychologically ; she was burdened with so many children. The prophet, to alleviate her burdens, sent to her proposing for marriage. Seeing that she was old enough for men, she declined the proposal saying she was old and a mother of many children. The prophet explained that he was even older and just wanted to give her children the due care…so where is the passion in this marriage?
Lady Zeinb Bint Gahsh
The prophet’s marriage to this great lady was criticized by the Christian missionaries because, as they falsely propagate, the prophet divorced this lady from her husband in order to marry her.
The reason for this marriage was to put into effect one of the Islamic legislation. Some Quranic legislation could have been met with disapproval unless they were put into effect by the prophet himself.
The story in brief began when the prophet married his niece to Zeid, who was a slave in the prophet’s house but the prophet emancipated him and adopted him.
Islam annulled adoption because it caused customs that were against the Islamic teachings, among these was adopting sons but Islam didn’t prohibit caring and bringing them up.
So this marriage was to fulfill a new legislation into effect.
Gourya ( Bara)Bint AL-Harth
The prophet always tried to win more Moslem to his side by strengthening the social relation with whomever he could do.
In Bani AL-Mustalek invasion, an invasion that the prophet launched to circumfoil an attempt by them to invade his city, many people fell prisoners, among them Gourya ( Bara)Bint AL-Harth. Gourya was the daughter of the chief of the tribe.
She was among the war spoils of one of the Muslim soldiers. She offered to pay him a ransom to free herself. She had nothing to pay him. So, knowing how generous the prophet was, she went to him to ask for his help.
Seeing that she was the daughter of the chief master, he thought a little and said that he would pay her ransom and to strengthen his relation with him, he offered marriage to her.
So happily she accepted and the Muslims ,when they knew of that, set all the war prisoners free.
A little time passed and her father came to the prophet offering him his ransom to set free his daughter. The prophet asked him to make her choose; either to come back with his father or to remain with the prophet, she at once chose the prophet and declared her Islam.
The man, being affected by the tolerance of the prophet, he, too , said “ I testify that there is no god but Allah and that you are his apostle of Allah, Soon all the tribe declared their Islam and the prophet won a lot of Muslims“.
It was the prophet’s intelligence that made a lot of people embrace Islam at one go.
The prophet can’t be said to have married her for any passion because if he wanted that he could have take her as a slave.
Safya Bint Hayey
Safya Bint Hayey was the daughter of one of the chief Jews who was killed in a battle, Being from the elite in her tribe, the companions let her be in the share of the prophet. Seeing the grief in her eyes and knowing that she was among the noble in her tribe the prophet asked her either to come back free to her family or to marry her.
Amazingly enough, she said “It was my wish to marry you when I was an infidel—how can I miss the chance.” She told the prophet about a dream that she saw on the eve of her marriage; she saw as if the moon fell in her lap, when she told her husband about that, he slapped her leaving a permanent sign on her face. He said to her” Do you wish to marry the king of the Arab- meaning Muhammad.“
So the marriage of the prophet was a solace and comfort to a woman who lost her husband in the war and to get the Jews to know more about Islam.
Um Habiba
Um Habiba was among the poor helpless women who migrated with her husband to Abyssinia and there her husband embraced Christianity after forcing her to embrace Christianly . There she was alone helpless.
The prophet, seeing the troubles she would face at the hands of her family who was still idolaters, sent to the King of Abyssinia to marry him to her ( as a sign of respect towards him).
After two years she came back to the prophet.
It is clear now that the prophet was not after marriage for the sake of marriage, he married a woman though thousands of kilometers separated him. Also, he knew well that she would come back after two years. He just wanted to save her.
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