5,490
edits
Muhammad's Marriages: Difference between revisions
fixing language
| [checked revision] | [checked revision] |
(fixing language) |
(fixing language) |
||
| Line 528: | Line 528: | ||
In addition, Hafsah was one of only four Muslim women in the whole of Medina who knew how to write.<ref>Baladhuri, ''Conquest of the Lands'', cited in [http://english.sahartv.ir/media/pdf/The%20Unschooled%20Prophet.pdf/ Mutahhari, S. A. M. ''The Unschooled Prophet''. Tehran: Islamic Propagation Organization.] There were also eleven Muslim men who could write. The other seven names on Baladhuri’s list are of people who did not convert to Islam until after Hafsah had married Muhammad.</ref> If she had wanted (or been permitted, for Umar was famously opposed to this line of work for women) to set herself up as a career woman, she would have been in demand as a clerk. | In addition, Hafsah was one of only four Muslim women in the whole of Medina who knew how to write.<ref>Baladhuri, ''Conquest of the Lands'', cited in [http://english.sahartv.ir/media/pdf/The%20Unschooled%20Prophet.pdf/ Mutahhari, S. A. M. ''The Unschooled Prophet''. Tehran: Islamic Propagation Organization.] There were also eleven Muslim men who could write. The other seven names on Baladhuri’s list are of people who did not convert to Islam until after Hafsah had married Muhammad.</ref> If she had wanted (or been permitted, for Umar was famously opposed to this line of work for women) to set herself up as a career woman, she would have been in demand as a clerk. | ||
By contrast, Muhammad could not afford to | By contrast, Muhammad could not afford to support 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> | ||
However, Muhammad did not marry Hafsah for her father’s money, for it seems he already had virtually unhampered access to Umar's wealth, since Umar was one of the most willing to spend his wealth "in the way of Allah".<ref>Guillaume/Ibn Ishaq 216.</ref> | However, Muhammad did not marry Hafsah for her father’s money, for it seems he already had virtually unhampered access to Umar's wealth, since Umar was one of the most willing to spend his wealth "in the way of Allah".<ref>Guillaume/Ibn Ishaq 216.</ref> | ||
| Line 574: | Line 574: | ||
The massacre of the Banu Qurayzah had substantially fattened the Muslim treasury, a large portion of which Muhammad was personally entitled to,<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 466.</ref> and he thus would have had no trouble maintaining his family at this point. Although Aisha claims, as noted above, that he failed to be consistent in doing this even hereafter, he would have, at least in theory and per his own law, had the means to support his wives. It is also nearly certain that the Muslim men no longer outnumbered the women, as the acquisition of hundreds of female slaves<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 466.</ref> should have amply redressed the gender imbalance. | The massacre of the Banu Qurayzah had substantially fattened the Muslim treasury, a large portion of which Muhammad was personally entitled to,<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 466.</ref> and he thus would have had no trouble maintaining his family at this point. Although Aisha claims, as noted above, that he failed to be consistent in doing this even hereafter, he would have, at least in theory and per his own law, had the means to support his wives. It is also nearly certain that the Muslim men no longer outnumbered the women, as the acquisition of hundreds of female slaves<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 466.</ref> should have amply redressed the gender imbalance. | ||
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, | 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, necessarily imply | ||
that all the following women were necessarily destitute or suffering. | |||
====Juwayriyah bint Al-Harith==== | ====Juwayriyah bint Al-Harith==== | ||
| Line 665: | Line 667: | ||
}}</ref> | }}</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> | The 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> | ||
==See Also== | ==See Also== | ||