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Muhammads Marriages of Political Necessity: Difference between revisions
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Muhammads Marriages of Political Necessity (view source)
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This reasoning does not convince many critics. No matter how urgent the needs of state, they argue, nothing justifies having more than one wife at a time. If [[Muhammad]] could not see any way around his political problems except [[Polygamy in Islamic Law|polygamy]], that simply proves he was not a "prophet". | This reasoning does not convince many critics. No matter how urgent the needs of state, they argue, nothing justifies having more than one wife at a time. If [[Muhammad]] could not see any way around his political problems except [[Polygamy in Islamic Law|polygamy]], that simply proves he was not a "prophet". | ||
You might take the line that polygamy was normal in seventh-century Arabia, and Muhammad was not doing anything wrong by the standards of his own culture. That may convince some of them that he was a decent person by the standards of his day. In that case, however, it would contradict [[Uswa Hasana|Islamic theology]], and there's still the question as to why Muhammad limited other Muslims to four wives each, yet at one point in his own life, he had [[Muhammad's | You might take the line that polygamy was normal in seventh-century Arabia, and Muhammad was not doing anything wrong by the standards of his own culture. That may convince some of them that he was a decent person by the standards of his day. In that case, however, it would contradict [[Uswa Hasana|Islamic theology]], and there's still the question as to why Muhammad limited other Muslims to four wives each, yet at one point in his own life, he had [[Muhammad's Marriages|eleven wives]] plus the intention of adding more. When Ghaylan ibn Salama became a Muslim, he had to divorce six of his ten wives – even though this was in early 630, when Muhammad himself had exactly ten wives. | ||
Why did Muhammad pick the apparently random number of four and enforce this as the maximum number of wives, yet break this rule himself? If the answer is that it was politically necessary, we would expect some exceptional political situation that, in order to ensure the future survival of [[Islam]], required Muhammad to [[marriage|marry]] all those women. | Why did Muhammad pick the apparently random number of four and enforce this as the maximum number of wives, yet break this rule himself? If the answer is that it was politically necessary, we would expect some exceptional political situation that, in order to ensure the future survival of [[Islam]], required Muhammad to [[marriage|marry]] all those women. | ||
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==See Also== | ==See Also== | ||
{{Hub4|Muhammad's | {{Hub4|Muhammad's wives and concubines|Muhammad's wives and concubines}} | ||
[[Category:Muhammad]] | [[Category:Muhammad]] | ||