Monday, April 13, 2020

Apostate prophet is stupefied; Who were the prophet's wives and how did he handle them all?

In answer to the video "Islamic Polygamy"

The prophet died having united with 10 of his wives: Khadija, Aisha, Hafsah, Umm Salamah, Ramlah, Zaynab, Maymunah, Safiyyah, Juwayriyah and Sawda. He also married Aliyah and Qutaylah daughter of Qays whom he both divorced before consuming the marriage. Qutaylah remarried after the Prophet's death. Other similar divorces were those of Fatimah, Mulaykah and Layla.

He also married Sana who died before consuming the marriage. Some have also included among his wives, Rayhana bint Zayd. She was a Jewish woman from the Bani Nadir who had married into the Bani Qurayza. After the defeat of the Qurayza, the execution of the male warriors, many women were left helpless. She was among them and the prophet proposed marrying her, which she rejected, in addition despising Islam
"so the messenger of Allah put her aside and felt some displeasure".
These are not the words describing a concubine relationship. He let her under his care as a right hand possession without her being his concubine. After some time she accepted the mariage proposal. Other reports say the prophet manumited her and set her free to go among her people upon her rejection of the initial marriage proposal.

Tukana was similarily taken under his care until he died. She lived in his household under the status of right hand possession without becoming his concubine. After her death, she married Abbas, the prophet's uncle. This indicates that the prophet would not have had intercourse with her during her years as a right hand possession in his household.

Further, had any of the 2 been taken by the prophet as concubines, then we would have read of the kind of tension which is abundantly found in the history books between the prophet's wives and the prophet's only concubine, Maria the Copt. The prophet would have also settled them in seperate houses as he did with Maria.

There were several such right hand posessions that lived in the prophet's household, side by side with his wives, as maids only. Such assistance was certainly needed and justified, given the number of guests constantly entering, day and night, and who were always kindly hosted to such an extent that they would overstay. The very fact that the history books speak of only one such right hand posession, Maria, as having had issues with the prophet's wives on account of her concubine relationship with him, the only right hand posession that was settled in her own house, while there is complete silence regarding his other right hand posessions, means that the burden of proof is upon those leveling the claim, to establish that the prophet was intimate with other women than those that are known, whether from his wives or right hand posessions.

The only right hand posession that was in addition his concubine was the noble Maria the Copt, who wasnt even a war captive, meaning the prophet didnt even go out of his way to find a woman that pleased him. She was given to him out of reverence by an Egyptian notable. It is interesting to note that there are at least 2 similar precedents in prophetic history, of a prophet's union with the Egyptian daughter of royalty. First Hagar who was given to Abraham, and then Solomon's unnamed Egyptian wife 1Kings3. The Egyptian notable wanted to establish political relations with the prophet, and this gesture was considered normal as per the decorum of ancient societies. Some reports say that two women were given, Maria and Sirin. The prophet freed Sirin whom he married to a close follower and took Maria as his concubine and lodged her in one of his followers' houses temporarily, Haritha.

With such a large household combined with his prophetic duties and the turmoil of these early days in which he was involved in on a daily basis, he could not be expected to divide his time so as to satisfy each of the wives and potential concubines equally. But as the Islamic history books explicitly denote, he tried to observe equality among them as much as possible. He used to visit sometimes his 9 wives at once. In that report, the Arabic doesnt denote sexual intercourse, on the part of that humble man in his late 50s who had in addition to balance his household duties with his extraordinary responsibilities as a spiritual leader and statesman.

Some of his male companions might have assumed so, but it did not have to be the case. And to further corroborate that the prophet, despite visiting all his wives, would only have intercourse with the one whose turn had arrived
"Narrated ‘Urwah: ‘A’ishah said: “O nephew! The Messenger of Allah would not prefer any one of us to another with regards to spending time with us. Hardly a day would go by without him visiting all of us. He would come close to each woman, without touching her, until he reached the one whose turn it was, then he would spend the night with her".
The flexibility of the law as regards the division of time is of course not speaking of the sustenance and rightful material needs of every wife. In this area, the prophet had to divide his resources among every household, in addition to the financial burden of taking care of the indebted of the community and the incessant guests who would be received at all moments. He is known to have been left with very little to spend on himself and his wives, leading to them often complaining about the relative ease in which other companion's wives were living. And this at a time where the community had grown more prosperous in Medina, an ease which was not reflected in the prophet's household 
33:28-9"say to your wives: If you desire this world´s life and its adornment, then come, I will give you a provision and allow you to depart a goodly departing".  

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