Saturday, June 27, 2020

Acts17apologetics are suspicious; convenient revelations?

In answer to the video "Muhammad Was Known as a Womanizer! (Fun Islamic Fact #18)"

Here is again the verse exempting the prophet from the 4 wives limit
4:3,33:50-1"specially for you, not for the (rest of) believers; We know what We have ordained for them concerning their wives and those whom their right hands possess in order that no blame may attach to you; and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful".
Here, the women made lawful to him are spelled out, outside of which he could not marry, and each with a specific purpose that he might discharge his duties of prophethood and moral reformer without any hindrance, blame and difficulty:

1. Those whom he was already married to

2. Those whom were captured in war, meaning for the pacification of tribes

3. Cousins from paternal and maternal sides that had migrated with him and left everything behind, meaning close family ties should not impede him from coming to such women's help.

4. Women that wanted to gift their souls to the Prophet, if he so desired to marry them. These women knew the difficulties that awaited them, spiritually due to their religious burdens and social role, emotionally due to the prophet hardly being available for them. In addition they knew they could not re-marry following his death, besides the major fact that financially, the prophet's household lived a very basic lifestyle relatively to others in the comunity. These selective criteria allowed for only the most pious, disinterested elements to be associated to him. 
Here, the women made lawful to him are spelled out, outside of which he could not marry, and each with a specific purpose that he might discharge his duties of prophethood and moral reformer without any hindrance, blame and difficulty:
1. Those whom he was already married to
2. Those whom were captured in war, meaning for the pacification of tribes
3. Cousins from paternal and maternal sides that had migrated with him and left everything behind, meaning close family ties should not impede him from coming to such women's help.
4. Women that wanted to gift their souls to the Prophet, if he so desired to marry them. These women knew the difficulties that awaited them, spiritually due to their religious burdens and social role, emotionally due to the prophet hardly being available for them. In addition they knew they could not re-marry following his death, besides the major fact that financially, the prophet's household lived a very basic lifestyle relatively to others in the community. These selective criteria allowed for only the most pious, disinterested elements to be associated to him. This ordinance was so revealing of their piety that Aisha used to say 
"I used to feel jealous of those women who offered themselves to the Prophet and I said, `Would a woman offer herself'"
And yet the noble prophet never took advantage of that rule as reported from ibn Abbas 
"The Messenger of Allah did not have any wife who offered herself to him". 
Ibn Kathir relates on such situations involving Khawlah bint Hakim
 "a woman came to the Messenger of Allah and said, "O Messenger of Allah, verily, I offer myself to you (for marriage).'' She stood there for a long time, then a man stood up and said, "O Messenger of Allah, marry her to me if you do not want to marry her.'' The Messenger of Allah said: (Do you have anything that you could give to her as a dowery) He said, "I have only this garment of mine.'' The Messenger of Allah said: (If you give her your garment, you will be left with no garment. Look for something.) He said, "I do not have anything.'' He said: Look for something, even if it is only an iron ring.) So he looked, but he could not find anything. Then the Messenger of Allah said to him: (Do you have (know) anything of the Qur'an) He said, "Yes, Surah such and such and Surah and such,'' he named the Surahs. So, the Messenger of Allah said: (I marry her to you with what you know of the Qur'an.)"

The verse made it clear that the prophet's marriages were primarily motivated by his religious, social and moral obligations, and no blame was attached to him ever by his contemporaries for him marrying more than 4 in order to fulfill these duties, from within the categories allowed to him and with the special procedures cited in the verses. This shows that his contemporaries, enemies an followers alike, were perfectly aware and could not deny his motivation for having more wives than other Muslims.

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 vision 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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