Question and answer details | |
| Laila | |
| 2012/07/17 | |
| As-Salamu `alaykum, Dear brothers and sisters at Onislam! Before I start my question I would like to thank you for providing such a wonderful and accessible Web site for your fellow Muslims! Thank you! I find that most of the questions, fatwas and cyber counselor answers are written with such compassion and postivity that I never feel overburdened with the answers, but in fact uplifted, as things never seem as strict or frightening as they once did before I knew the truth. So, this brings me on to my question, that I'm hoping—in sha’ Allah—will bring me the same kind of happiness, understanding, and conviction that the other answers to other questioners have. Okay, my question is about Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). In many seerahs (biographies) of the Prophet there are details of how the marriages were arranged and many of them seem to state that beauty was the motivating factor, e.g, in his marriage to Juwairiya. Now I have read another answer to a similar question but was not satisfied by the answer. It was by Kamal Badr. I was not satisfied because I always thought that there were 10 wives only out of compassion, not outward beauty. I really appreciate Kamal Badr's answers most of the time, but this time I felt unsatisfied because there was no explanation of why or where such sources come from. And, if they were untrue, why in the Qur'an would Allah Almighty mention to Prophet Muhammad to not *{take any more wives even if their beauty should please you}*? Because this would back up those biographies that state that this was the motivating factor in the marriages, not social reasons or care for widows. This part just doesn't make sense to me, since a prophet would surely not think like this. I really think that a kind and knowledgeable brother or sister should write a book on all these controversial issues, so that wherever these questions arise from study they can be cleared up and proved false through intelligence and evidence, in sha’ Allah. I hope and pray that you can help me in this matter and that I will in turn be able to help other brothers and sisters who have asked me these questions in sha’ Allah. | |
| Kamal Badr | |
|
Answer
Salam Laila, Let’s answer this question together. Before his first marriage: he was famous for noble character and decency, to the extent that he was called The Most Trustworthy. Would it be logical for a womanizer or a lust-craving youth to be given such a beautiful and magnificent name?
Any man craving for women’s beauty would never do this. Now coming to the important point in your question, why in the Qur'an would Allah Almighty mention to Prophet Muhammad to not *{take any more wives even if their beauty should please you}*? First of all, the whole verse should be read completely in order to understand its full meaning and the rationale behind it. Allah says what means: According to the prominent Qur’anic exegetes, this verse was revealed for certain purposes, part of which was to secure the rights of the Prophet’s wives, especially after they had renounced the material world and chosen Allah and His Messenger. So the normal reward for them was to remain his wives and to keep the privilege of being the Mothers of the Believers. So the verse was revealed, according to Ibn `Abbas and others, to make it clear that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) should never think of divorcing them nor exchange them with other women. This brings us to another reason for the revelation of the verse: to eradicate the habit of exchanging wives, which was prevalent among the Arabs of the pre-Islamic era. You seem to lay much focus on the phrase *{even if their beauty should please you}* taking this to mean that beauty factor must have had a role to play in the Prophet’s plural marriages. No sister, the phrase does not imply such connotation. It’s just a way of emphasizing a rule. Just as in another surah Almighty Allah addresses all Muslims with what means:
You see, it’s just an emphatically instructive message here, i.e., you should never think of doing such- and-such even if there is an alluring factor in it; you should resist this factor because the danger beneath doing that is much greater. Allah then mentions the danger: *{Unbelievers do [but] beckon you to the Fire. But Allah beckons by His grace to the Garden [of bliss] and forgiveness}*
The Beautiful Wives of the Prophet |
|
Watch & Listen
Most Read
Most Rated
Most Commented
In-Depth
Editor's Choice
Rohingya Muslims...An Open Wound
Described by the UN as one of the world's most persecuted minorities, Burma’s ethnic-Bengali Muslims, generally known as the Rohingyas, are facing a catalogue of discrimination in their homeland. 
