10-19-2003, 05:37 PM
Praise be to Allah, a praise which is adequate to Your graces and favors, Praise be to Allah abundant and special gratitude, we send prayer and peace on the best Messenger to the worlds our Prophet Mohamed, his family members, companions and whoever followed them until the day after. “They said: Glory to thee: of knowledge We have none, save what it is thou who art perfect in knowledge and wisdom.” “of knowledge it is only a little that is communicated to you, (O men)”. We invoke upon Allah to teach us what may be of benefit to us and allow us benefit of what He taught us. I really hope that Allah supports me in presenting the following verses and credit first and last is to Him only. I also seek His forgiveness and to Him I apologize for any fault at my side.
In response to a question around why did our beloved Prophet (PAPBUH) marry several times, and specially Aysha (may Allah be pleased with her) who was at a very young age. Allah (S&T) sent Prophet Mohamed from among the people of Quraish and made him exposed to all situations a human being may face in life in order to establish the Sunnah in each given situation. It was meant that he encounters different situations for us to know what to do when. So he married, divorced, had his children die while he is alive, was ill, subjected to unjust and oppression, and many other circumstances.
Matter of fact, Prophet Mohamed (PAPBUH) never married out of his own will, at each case Allah (S&T) almost made the marriage happen. In other words, each situation had its own relevant circumstances, which made it mandatory for several purposes. For example, he married Khadija fourteen years before he received the message. He was fourteen years younger than her; however, at that stage he needed a woman in her wisdom, strength and attitude. She supported him during the first stages of spreading the message. From this marriage case, for example we derive that a man may marry an older woman in age with no reservation. Also he never took a second wife until she died. After that, every case of marriage had a certain issue to establish. For instance, marrying Aysha, whom he actually did not come to union with until she reached the age of maturity, established the fact that a man may on the other hand marry a much younger woman. This marriage had also another aspect (and this is my own perspective). Allah (S&T) Knows how much Abou Bakr loved Prophet Mohamed (PAPBUH). He was the first man to believe in him as a Messenger of Allah, he was his companion during Hijra and many other aspects that we don’t want to bring up here. So in return Allah Meant to enhance the relation even more by honoring Abou Bakr to have Mohamed (PAPBUH) as a son in law. Similar case was when Prophet Mohamed (PAPBUH) married Hafsa (Omar’s daughter). She lost her husband and became very sad. Her father grew very concerned for her sadness over her loss. He tried to offer Othman and Abou Bakr to marry her, but they both turned his offer down. At that time, Prophet Mohamed (PAPBUH) proposed to marry her. It was of course a reason for establishing stronger ties between Mohamed (PAPBUH) and Omar. On other cases, such as the case of Zainab Bint Jahsh. The marriage was ordained in order to set a rule of prohibiting adoption. Matter of fact, she was married to Zayd Ibn Haritha (Prophet Mohamed PAPBUH slave), whom Prophet Mohamed (PAPBUH) in an effort to reward his loyalty when he refused to be freed and return back with his real father, adopted him and named him Zayd Ibn Mohamed. So Allah revealed Quran prohibiting adoption in Islam. And for further stressing of the fact, instructed Prophet Mohamed to marry Zainab.
As for Maria the Copt (the word means Egyptian in ancient language) and Safia Bint Hoyay. The first was originally an Egyptian Nasrania sent to Prophet Mohamed (PAPBUH) as a present from Moqawqas, head of the Copts in Egypt at that time and the latter was a Jew. At in this situation Allah made it clear for Muslim men to be allowed marrying women of the book. Yet both mothers of the believers (Safiya and Maria) embraced Islam. Take another example of Om Salama whose husband martyred during a battle and she loved him so much. People told her say:” Ina lelah waina elayhe raje`aoon Allahuma ajerni fee museebaty wakhlufnee kharian menha: which translates as To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return. Oh Allah assist me with my crisis and compensate me with a better alternative) she replied how could I supplicate for a better alternative, is there any better man than Abu Salama. Only when the Prophet (PAPBUH) proposed to marry her that she realized that the Quranic supplication bear fruit and of course there is a man who is better than Abou Salama. Here Allah Willed to establish the fact of using this supplication with a sincere certainty of Allah’s acceptance. As for his wife from Beni Mustaleq, he married her after her tribe was defeated in a battle and became all war prisoners. With her marriage to the Prophet, in consideration to the blood ties, Muslims freed her tribe. Her marriage actually brought good to her family. On another occasion, a woman immigrated to Habasha (Ethiopia) with her husband who denounced Islam immediately as he arrived there leaving her alone in a strange country.
Prophet Mohamed received the news and sent for Najashy, king of Habasha at the time asking him to conclude his marriage to her. Of course the reason is very clear, she would not feel alone, abused or weak.
Well as you can see, Prophet Mohamed (PAPBUH) had valid reasons for marrying each of them, we can actually say that his marriages were mandatory. Even when Allah ordained permission for polygyny with a maximum of four, companions were instructed to divorce their wives in case they had more than four. Unlike Prophet Mohamed (PAPBUH) he was neither allowed to divorce or take anymore wives even if he wanted to. Simply because Allah made it prohibited for his wives to remarry another man. That is why they were called mothers of the believers (Omahatl muo`emneen).
On another case, he married a woman, and at the night of marriage, the minute he went into the house, she said I seek refuge to the Almighty from u. He told her go join your family. From this situation we learnt that this statement could be used as a form of divorce.
As for him going around his wives, he needed to establish the rule that it is necessary for a man who is in polygyny to treat his wives equally in terms of time, sexual relation, financial matters, and all aspect of marriage.
Again to further explain, Prophet Mohamed (PAPBUH) was a role model for all Muslims. We had to see him go through everything we may encounter in order to realize how to handle different situation. And Allah Knows best.
Abundant gratitude to Allah who guided us for this and if was not for Him we wouldn’t have been guided and prayer and peace be upon His Messenger Mohamed.