On a general note first, the marital history of the Prophet reveals that all of the women he married were either divorced or widowed with the exception of Aisha. Although the prophet willfully chose this despite having had the full power and Quranic right to have much more women that were much younger, yet he did not necessarily push his followers to shoulder the same responsibilities and self-restraint.
For example when the prophet learned that his young companion Jabir, who had lost his father in battle, married a woman older than him, in addition previously married, he told him he could and should have chosen among the virgins, who would playfully interact with someone like minded and of similar age. Virgins tend to be young, especially in ancient societies where girls married early. Girls still lose their virginity young today, but for the wrong reasons as compared to older times. Also, for a young girl to be infertile is very uncommon, under normal circumstances. Jabir's purpose was to have someone care for his younger siblings, and thus thought that marrying an experienced woman would help him from that perspective. The prophet was a fatherly figure to the community and was here giving a common sense advise to a young man who should be looking for a more cheerful, playful female companion.
Similarly, most of the prophet's marriages were childless. He had in total 7 children, 6 from his first wife Khadijah out of whom 4 girls survived beyond infancy, and 1 from his right hand possession/mulk yamin Maria who died in infancy. He married divorcees that didnt have children before and after marrying him. But he neither stigmatized nor separated from them on that basis. Yet among the criteria he advised his followers to look for in a woman, which include the known Quranic principles that the best quality of a spouse and of a human being in general lie in his/her uprightness and nobility of character 2:221,66:5,49:13, were love and fertility
“Marry one who is loving and fertile, for I will boast of your great numbers to the Prophets on the Day of Resurrection.”
Anyone would agree that fertility is a justified criteria for one seeking a spouse, although not the main one. And of course the prophet and any Muslims should and would be proud in seeing the members of his/her community increase in numbers. When someone asked the prophet if he could marry a wealthy and noble woman despite her infertility, he said no. That is because wealth and social status should not be the main reasons for marriage. Had there been other justified reasons, such as love and uprightness in character, the prophet wouldnt have advised against such marriage, despite the woman's infertility, as he himself did.
The prophet thus had no children by any wife other than Khadijah, except Ibrahim born in Medina to Maria the Copt in 8AH and died in Medina at the age of one year. After so many years without children, in addition losing 2 of his boys in infancy, one can imagine the prophet's profound joy, bordering on disbelief when his son Ibrahim was born. A narration by ibn Kathir, although unreliable as given without isnad, reflects that state of mind
"When Maria give birth to Ibrahim, something would have almost fell upon the prophet's mind but Jibril came down and said "Peace be upon you, father of Ibrahim".
Doubt was not permitted to enter the prophet's mind the moment Ibrahim was born. Not only that, but his birth was greeted by the angel Gabriel. Later however, the prophet came to know of the people's slander against Maria, which he demonstrated were totally baseless. (see link below).
One interesting incident related to the young Ibrahim's death, revealing once more the prophet's sincerity, humility is that, according to several reports a solar eclipse occurred on that day. Instead of taking advantage of the situation to enhance his claim to prophethood, Muhammad declared that the celestial bodies are all signs in God's Hands. Their condition isnt affected by the life or death of any human. God had already decreed, for a wisdom and foresight known only to Him, that Muhammad's male child would never reach a mature age
33:40"Muhammad is not the father of any of your rijal/men".
This is yet another demonstration of the Quran's surgical use of words.
As a side note, it is worthwhile contrasting Muhammad's view of eclipses as a purely natural phenomenon and the rabbinic, talmudic tradition that explicitly says "Eclipses happen because people sin". Both lunar and solar eclipses are understood as a form of divine punishment - a curse to be dreaded and feared, rather than a miraculous wonder of nature. Later rabbis would argue that though the eclipse in itself is predictable yet the weather conditions were not necessarily, so the visibility of the eclipse could still be viewed as dependant on non scientific factors.
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