In answer to the video "Muhammad did it. Therefore it is not sinful."
The prophet was at first reluctant to publicly announce the command to marry her and concealed it in his heart, fearing public reaction, until Allah brought it to light and definitely ended the notion that adopted children were blood children
33:37"and you concealed in your soul what Allah would bring to light, and you feared men, and Allah had a greater right that you should fear Him. But when Zaid had accomplished his want of her, We gave her to you as a wife, so that there should be no difficulty for the believers in respect of the wives of their adopted sons, when they have accomplished their want of them; and Allah's command shall be performed. There is no harm in the Prophet doing that which Allah has ordained for him; such has been the course of Allah with respect to those who have gone before".And the 3rd repercussion of this marriage was to lift the burden which society put upon divorced women who were degraded and often couldnt remarry. The degradation of divorced women is still present in the Bible Matt5:31-32 and many societies throughout the world.
That marriage, to a divorced woman, ex-wife of an adopted son, who in addition was now considered of far lower rank than the prophet because of her previous union with a manumitted slave brought down all theses social stigmas, unjust notions and illogical practices. So deeply were these customs anchored that to counter balance them the prophet, in addition to having practically exposed their falsehood with his marriage, according to history further stressed the psychological reform by giving the most public and generous marriage ceremony to his guests than he had done with all his other marriages.
Now we get to the juicy part which the malicious critics try misrepresenting as the truth. Besides serious defects in its transmission chain and the untrustworthy, sometimes entirely rejected persons that related it, one version of the story of Zayd and Zainab as reported in some traditions including in Tabari's tafsir, presents several absurdities that led it to be criticized by specialists in hadith and completely rejected. For instance Zaynab was the Prophet's cousin, he knew her through familial relations going back to Mecca.
He saw her and interacted with her 100s of times in his aunt's house, and it was the Prophet that arranged the wedding to Zayd in the first place. Besides the fact the Prophet was repeatedly providing marriage counseling to prevent the union from breaking up, what did he miss during all these years that he suddenly noticed during that short period during which Zaynab was married to Zayd? The idea that he suddenly noticed her "beauty" is an absurdity, because he had already seen that "beauty" multiple times before she was even married.
In pre-islamic times the dresscode for both men and women was much more liberal. There is nothing that the prophet would have missed from her appearance that he suddenly discovered now. He had plenty of opportunities to approach her without creating any polemic or transgressing any taboo. The prophet Muhammad isnt the biblical David who saw a woman's beauty for the first time and decided to forcefully take her for himself by setting up the assassination of her innocent husband. You dont suddenly have a heart change based on seeing something you have already seen multiple times before and neither do you secretly desire someone whom you had just arranged to marry with another and in addition provide not one or two, but repeated counseling to make the union work despite the difficulties.
How could there exist any lust when the Prophet is trying to prevent the marriage from falling apart, and when the marriage occured right after the divorce meaning there is no way he could have lusted for her while trying to make her marriage work? It is interesting to further note that even those reports saying the prophet had a sudden heart change upon seeing Zaynab's beauty, depict him as hiding his feeling from Zayd and repeatedly denying his desire for her, urging Zayd over and over to keep his wife despite the troubles in their marriage. The prophet could have covered up his "scheme" by using Zayd's own pretext to his advantage, when he came to the prophet complaining of her being "arrogant and hurts me with her words". Instead he would tell him to fear God and preserve his marriage. He uses neither direct nor indirect ways, not even the furthest hints and suggestions that could influence Zayd to break his marriage apart.
The Quran therefore expressly contradicts the story-telling of the seera writers who collected it. Not only because of its depiction of the incident that leaves no room to such polemics, as just shown briefly, but also due to the fact the verse is narrating a past event, prior to the verse's revelation. This unequivocally cancels the claim the prophet used the revelation to achieve a secret desire. The prophet did not go around reciting this verse, which wasnt yet revealed, nor any other verse in relation to Zaynab, prior to making his intentions towards her known publicly. After he was ordained to marry her, the Prophet feared the reaction of the people once he would make the announcement
The story of Muhammad's sudden crush for Zaynab isnt integrated in the prophet's biography prior to Tabari's time. That is 300 years after the the prophet's passing away. It doesnt appear in Ibn Ishaq's biography which precedes it, and neither is it found narrated by the early authorities in the field, such as Urwa bin al Zubayr, ibn Shihab al Zuhri and others.
The story could have entered the exegetical tradition through the channel of the qussaas, the story tellers, notorious for their elaborations upon the lives of the prophet's wives. In that case, recent scholars argue that the inspiration is the Biblical account of the prophet David's encounter with a naked Batsheba, followed by his lusting for her.
Now we get to the juicy part which the malicious critics try misrepresenting as the truth. Besides serious defects in its transmission chain and the untrustworthy, sometimes entirely rejected persons that related it, one version of the story of Zayd and Zainab as reported in some traditions including in Tabari's tafsir, presents several absurdities that led it to be criticized by specialists in hadith and completely rejected. For instance Zaynab was the Prophet's cousin, he knew her through familial relations going back to Mecca.
He saw her and interacted with her 100s of times in his aunt's house, and it was the Prophet that arranged the wedding to Zayd in the first place. Besides the fact the Prophet was repeatedly providing marriage counseling to prevent the union from breaking up, what did he miss during all these years that he suddenly noticed during that short period during which Zaynab was married to Zayd? The idea that he suddenly noticed her "beauty" is an absurdity, because he had already seen that "beauty" multiple times before she was even married.
In pre-islamic times the dresscode for both men and women was much more liberal. There is nothing that the prophet would have missed from her appearance that he suddenly discovered now. He had plenty of opportunities to approach her without creating any polemic or transgressing any taboo. The prophet Muhammad isnt the biblical David who saw a woman's beauty for the first time and decided to forcefully take her for himself by setting up the assassination of her innocent husband. You dont suddenly have a heart change based on seeing something you have already seen multiple times before and neither do you secretly desire someone whom you had just arranged to marry with another and in addition provide not one or two, but repeated counseling to make the union work despite the difficulties.
How could there exist any lust when the Prophet is trying to prevent the marriage from falling apart, and when the marriage occured right after the divorce meaning there is no way he could have lusted for her while trying to make her marriage work? It is interesting to further note that even those reports saying the prophet had a sudden heart change upon seeing Zaynab's beauty, depict him as hiding his feeling from Zayd and repeatedly denying his desire for her, urging Zayd over and over to keep his wife despite the troubles in their marriage. The prophet could have covered up his "scheme" by using Zayd's own pretext to his advantage, when he came to the prophet complaining of her being "arrogant and hurts me with her words". Instead he would tell him to fear God and preserve his marriage. He uses neither direct nor indirect ways, not even the furthest hints and suggestions that could influence Zayd to break his marriage apart.
The Quran therefore expressly contradicts the story-telling of the seera writers who collected it. Not only because of its depiction of the incident that leaves no room to such polemics, as just shown briefly, but also due to the fact the verse is narrating a past event, prior to the verse's revelation. This unequivocally cancels the claim the prophet used the revelation to achieve a secret desire. The prophet did not go around reciting this verse, which wasnt yet revealed, nor any other verse in relation to Zaynab, prior to making his intentions towards her known publicly. After he was ordained to marry her, the Prophet feared the reaction of the people once he would make the announcement
"you feared the people, when you should have feared God".Aisha reportedly said that his fear was such that if any divine command were to be covered up by the Prophet, concealed and never made known, this would have been it. The verses points to the exact opposite of the hatemongerers' claims who think what the prophet was concealing in his heart was his lust for Zaynab while the verse says the Prophet concealed something that God wanted to bring to light. This paints God, or more absurdly Muhammad himself whom they say fabricated the Quran to suit his needs, as wanting to bring to light his own secret lust for Zaynab, in other words God wanted to humiliate his prophet, or more absurdly, Muhammad who invented the Quran explicitly issued a statement to expose and humiliate himself. Reason and truth are found elsewhere of course than this tangled web weaved by people who arent interested in truth nor reason. God "brought to light" not a secret lust, but a command to marry Zaynab for a social reform as regards adopted children
"so that there should be no difficulty for the believers in respect of the wives of their adopted sons".These words show that the consequence of what Allah "would bring to light", would stop the believers from having any "difficulty" ie repercussions or pressures in their society. How does the supposedly bringing to light of the prophet's secret lusts create this reform, as opposed to the bringing to light of the command to marry her, which the prophet already knew about but concealed due to his fear of the people's reaction? That is why, as a side note, Zaynab used to pride herself in the fact that the ordinance to marry her was purely divine, while there was always a human element that brought about the prophet's other unions.
The story of Muhammad's sudden crush for Zaynab isnt integrated in the prophet's biography prior to Tabari's time. That is 300 years after the the prophet's passing away. It doesnt appear in Ibn Ishaq's biography which precedes it, and neither is it found narrated by the early authorities in the field, such as Urwa bin al Zubayr, ibn Shihab al Zuhri and others.
The story could have entered the exegetical tradition through the channel of the qussaas, the story tellers, notorious for their elaborations upon the lives of the prophet's wives. In that case, recent scholars argue that the inspiration is the Biblical account of the prophet David's encounter with a naked Batsheba, followed by his lusting for her.
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