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The widows whom Prophet Muhammad married after Khadijah’s death do indeed fall into two distinct age-groups. But to label these two groups as “the middle-aged” and “the elderly” gives atypical definitions to these terms. The “elderly” group would refer to those brides between 28 and 40 while the “middle-aged” group would mean the teenagers. | The widows whom Prophet Muhammad married after Khadijah’s death do indeed fall into two distinct age-groups. But to label these two groups as “the middle-aged” and “the elderly” gives atypical definitions to these terms. The “elderly” group would refer to those brides between 28 and 40 while the “middle-aged” group would mean the teenagers. | ||
Muhammad loved Khadijah, who was the same age as himself, when they were both young. He rejected Sawdah, who was a little younger than himself, when they were both middle-aged. All his other wives were young enough to be his daughters and several were young enough to be his granddaughters. He divorced one woman before consummating the marriage<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:111</ref> and broke off another courtship<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:113</ref> solely because he decided that these women were “too old” for him, and he continued to pursue teenagers until the day he died.<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:105</ref> Nor does he seem to have been embarrassed by his own preference.<ref>"''Nothing was dearer to the Prophet of Allah than a horse. Then he said: “O Allah! Excuse me, no! The women!” (i.e., not dearer than women).''" - [http://www.soebratie.nl/religie/hadith/IbnSad.html#Book 90.6/ Ibn Saad, ''Tabaqat'' Vol. 1 Chapter 90:6].</ref> | |||
The inevitable conclusion is that Muhammad preferred younger women, and the widely repeated claim that almost all of his wives were elderly has no basis in historical fact. | |||
==See Also== | ==See Also== |