Muhammad's Marriages: Difference between revisions

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According to Anas ibn Malik, the Prophet [[Muhammad]] used to visit all eleven of his wives in one night; but he could manage this, as he had the [[Sex|sexual]] prowess of thirty men.<ref>{{Bukhari|||268|darussalam}}. See also {{Bukhari|||5215|darussalam}}.</ref> The historian Al-[[Tabari]] calculated that Muhammad [[Marriage|married]] a total of fifteen [[Islam and Women|women]], though only ever eleven at one time; and two of these marriages were never consummated.<ref>{{Tabari|9|pp. 126-127}}.</ref> This tally of fifteen does not include at least four concubines. According to Merriam-Webster, a concubine is “a woman with whom a man cohabits without being married”,  and has a “social status in a household below that of a wife.”<ref>[{{Reference archive|1=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/concubine|2=2011-09-28}} Concubine] – Merriam-Webster, accessed September 28, 2011</ref> All of Muhammad’s concubines were his [[Slavery|slaves]]. Al-Tabari also excludes from the fifteen several other women with whom Muhammad had some kind of marriage contract but who, due to legal technicalities, never became full wives. It is fairly certain, however, that none of these legally-stifled unions was ever consummated. They were the cultural equivalent of a broken engagement. Finally, there were several other women whom Muhammad wished to marry, or whom he was invited to marry, but for various reasons he did not.

|She was a daughter of Abu Sufyan, the Meccan chief who led the resistance against Muhammad, but she had been a teenaged convert to Islam. This marriage offset some of Muhammad's political humiliation in the Treaty of Hudaybiya by demonstrating that he could command the loyalty of his adversary's own daughter. Ramlah was devoted to Muhammad and quick to pick quarrels with people who were not.

|She was a cousin of Asma bint Al-Numan, and the Yemenites sent her to Muhammad as a substitute bride. He signed the marriage contract but he died before Qutayla arrived in Medina. As soon as she heard that he was dead, she apostated from Islam. Soon afterwards she married an Arab chief who was a leader in the Apostasy Wars.

|According to some sources of varying authenticity, Muhammad said that Allah had wedded him in Heaven to the Queen Asiya. Authentic sources quote Muhammad describing her as one of 'the four perfect women'.<ref>{{Quran-range|28|4|13}}; {{Quran|66|11}}.</ref><ref>{{Muslim||2431|reference}}.</ref> The Qur'an tells how Asiya rescued the infant Moses from the evil Pharaoh, and how Pharaoh later tortured his wife to death for her monotheism. The scriptures describing their marraige state that Asiya's palace in Heaven was on the other side of Khadijah's.

|Muhammad originally believed that Maryam the sister of Moses and Maryam the mother of Jesus were one and the same. When he realized his mistake, he (perhaps over-)corrected himself by stating that Moses' sister was not named Maryam. He renamed her Kulthum ("Chubby Cheeks") and, according to some sources of varying authenticity, said that Allah had wedded him to her in heaven. However, he did not say that she was a perfect woman or that she lived next to Khadijah.<ref>{{Quran-range|19|27|28}}.</ref><ref>{{Muslim||2135|reference}}.</ref>

By contrast, Muhammad could not afford to keep his wives. Aisha claimed that they never ate bread for more than three successive days, and sometimes the family did not light a fire for a month on end because they had nothing to cook but lived off dates and water.<ref>{{Muslim||2970c|reference}}; {{Muslim||2970a|reference}}; {{Muslim||2970d|reference}}; {{Muslim||2970b|reference}}; {{Muslim||2970e|reference}}; {{Muslim||2972a|reference}}; {{Muslim||2972c|reference}}; {{Muslim||2974|reference}}; {{Muslim||2976a|reference}}; {{Muslim||2976b|reference}}.</ref> By marrying Muhammad, it then seems, Hafsah was accepting a significant cut in her standard of living. In fact, Umar later warned her never to ask her husband, Muhammad, for money: “If you need something, come and ask me.”<ref>{{Bukhari|||5191|darussalam}}.</ref>

There is therefore at least some justification for the claim that, from 627 onwards, Muhammad was in a position to provide a home for the “excess women” who were unable to marry monogamously. This does not, tho, mean that all the following women were necessarily destitute or suffering.  

Once Muhammad had decided that Safiyah was his hostage, he had to feed and shelter her, and there was no welfare-related reason to marry her; he had to provide for her material needs regardless. The idea, as some put it, that “this marriage protected her from humiliation”<ref>[http://www.al-islam.org/muhammad-yasin-jibouri/8.htm/ Al-Jibouri, Y. T. “Marriages of the Prophet” in ''Muhammad''. Qum, Iran: Ansariyan Publications.]</ref> shows a strange perception of what is “humiliating”. Safiyah might not have liked to be a domestic slave or a commoner’s concubine, but she surely would have found these options less humiliating than being married to the man who had just killed her husband. Safiyah’s husband was not, as is sometimes claimed, “killed during the battle of Khaybar”;<ref>E.g., [http://www.al-islam.org/muhammad-yasin-jibouri/8.htm/ Jibouri].</ref>  rather, his torture and execution had been specifically ordered by Muhammad and, this too, ''after'' the declaration of truce.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 515.</ref>

Maymunah was never poor; she was born into the bourgeois Hilal tribe.<ref>Ibn Hisham note 918; {{Tabari|9|p. 135}}.</ref> After her husband died, she became the house guest of her married sister, Lubabah.<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:94: “Al-‘Abbas ibn al-Muttalib married her to him. He took care of her affairs.”</ref> Lubabah’s husband was Muhammad’s uncle, Abbas ibn Abdulmuttalib, who was “one of the richest of the Banu Hashim.”<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 114.</ref> He “used to go often to the Yaman to buy aromatics and sell them during the fairs”<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 113.</ref> and was also apparently a banker: “he had a great deal of money scattered among the people.”<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 309-310.</ref> Maymunah offered to marry Muhammad without taking any dower.<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:97: “Maymuna bint al-Harith was the woman who gave herself to the Messenger of Allah.” Also: “‘Amra was asked whether Maymuna was the one who gave herself to the Messenger of Allah. She said, ‘The Messenger of Allah married her for 500 ''dirhams'' and the guardian for her marriage was al-‘Abbas ibn al-Muttalib.’”</ref> Muhammad agreed, but this was not acceptable to Abbas, who unexpectedly provided Maymunah with a dower anyway.<ref>Ibn Hisham note 918 says the dower was 400 ''dirhams'', like that of all Muhammad’s other wives. Bewley/Saad 8:97 says it was 500 ''dirhams'', in keeping with Ibn Saad’s other traditions that Muhammad’s wives received 12½ ounces of silver. The higher sum is from the later histories, suggesting that the chroniclers adjusted it for inflation.</ref>

Prophet [[Muhammad]] taught others to "run away from the leper as one runs away from a lion."<ref>"''Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Apostle said, '(There is) no 'Adwa (no contagious disease is conveyed without Allah's permission). nor is there any bad omen (from birds), nor is there any Hamah, nor is there any bad omen in the month of Safar, and one should run away from the leper as one runs away from a lion ''" - {{Bukhari|||5707|darussalam}}</ref> He also put an end to two of his relationships with women on account of them being afflicted with leprosy. Amra bint Yazid, whom he divorced in circa 631 before consummating the [[marriage]] when he saw she had symptoms.<ref>Ibn Ishaq, cited in Guillaume, A. (1960). ''New Light on the Life of Muhammad'', p. 55. Manchester: Manchester University Press</ref><ref>Ibn Hisham note 918 (here he has apparently confused her with Asma bint Al-Numan).</ref><ref>{{Tabari|9|p. 139}}; {{Tabari|39|pp. 187-188}}.</ref><ref>Bewley/Saad 8:100-101.</ref> And Jamra bint Al-Harith, whose own father informed Muhammad in circa 631 that she suffered from the disease, whereupon Muhammad broke off the engagement (later chroniclers claim her father lied but arrived home only to find that she really had been afflicted with leprosy).<ref>{{Tabari|9|pp. 140-141}}</ref>