For many years I had heard the Prophet Muhamed had several wives, but I was never sure how many and was very unaware of the details surrounding this fact.
Having recently posted: MASS WEDDINGS in which the speaker (see 1:05) suggests the Prophet Mohammed married Aisha when she was 6 and consumated the marriage when she was aged 9, I thought I would check this out further (it appears to be true).
However discussing his marriage to Aisha is not the purpose of this posting - the aim is to simply list the names of the Prophet's wives - for those of us who are unsure about whom he married and in which order:
1 -Khadija bint Khawilad (aged 40, twice widowed before)
2 - Sauda bint Zama (aged 50, widow)
3 - Aisha bint Abu Bakr (aged 9)
4 - Hafsa bint Umar bin Khattab (aged 22, widow)
5 - Zainab bint Khuzaima (aged 30?)
5 - Umm-I-Salma bint Abu Umayia (aged 26, widow)
6 - Zainab Bint Jahash (aged 38, widow)
7 - Juwaeria Bint Harith (aged 20, widow)
8 - Umm-I-Habiba bint Abu Sufyan (aged 36, widow)
9 - Marya Qibtiya bint Shamun (aged 17, Egyptian)
10 - Safia bint Hayi bin Akhtab (aged 17, widow)
11 - Raihana bint Umru bin Hanafa (no details given)
12 - Maimuna bint Harith (aged 36, widow)
Here are some relevant Koranic quotes regarding marriage:
4:3
"And if you be apprehensive that you will not be able to do justice to the orphans, you may marry two or three or four women whom you choose. But if you apprehend that you might not be able to do justice to them, then marry only one wife, or marry those who have fallen in your possession."
33:52
"It is not lawful for thee (to marry more) women after this, nor to change them for (other) wives, even though their beauty attract thee, except any thy right hand should possess (as hand maidens) and Allah doth watch over all things."
33:53
"Nor is it right for you that ye should annoy God's Apostle, or that ye should marry his widows after him at any time. Truly such a thing is in God's sight an enormity."
Qasidah Adab Al-Tariq
10 hours ago
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4 comments:
Its interesting that most of them are widows... is there some commandment to look after relatives widows and their families or similar?
Interesting post. Keep posting:)
I must disagree with your comment regarding the age of Aisha at the time of her marriage. This misconseption is incredibly damaging to people's perceptions of Islam (including those of lazy and ill-educated Muslims) but unfortunately is increasingly common and based on two oral traditions that are largely ignored as untrue by Islamic scholars. In fact, there are a number of facts surrounding this issue that make clear Aisha was in fact well into her late teens prior to the consummation of her marriage:
1. She was placed on the list of the first people to accet Islam, and given that she is estimated to have married the prophet in the 13th year of his calling this would place her at least as an infant at the time of his call.
2. She recounted her childhood memories of the prophet visiting her father's house daily to check on her family's wellbeing at a time in the earliest days of islam when the first muslims were under continual threat of attack. Again, this would make her at least a young girl in the very earliest years of islam.
3. There are several traditions that recount Aisha (soon after her marriage) riding with the prophet to a battle, accompanied by a number of other muslims. The prophet turned back all non-adults for being too young to endanger themselves in this manner. However, he allowed Aisha to continue as she was an adult.
4. Islamic rules on marriage are explicit in demanding consent from adult males and females prior to the completion of the marriage contract. Therefore Aisha would have been unable to conclude such a contract were she not an adult at the time.
5. The prophet's enemies at the time used every possible opportunity to try to discredit or attack him (as they would surely have done if he married a child bride) yet there are no recorded instances of any such attack in connection with Aisha's age at the time of marriage or her move into the prophet's household.
6. In addition, there is some argument amongst scholars regarding the original "corrupt" tradition in which Aisha is thought to have recounted her age at the time of consummation to be 9 years old. Classical scribes often ommitted tens, hundreds and thousands when writing and so it is argued by a great many scholars that in fact her statement was that she was 19 at the time of consummation.
Thank you Samir^^^^^I couldn't have said it any better.
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