Refuting Claims regarding the Prophet's Multiple

Marriages

Prophet Muhammad (peace and

blessings be upon him) had
eleven wives in all and nine at
the one time. However, a Muslim
is allowed a maximum of four
wives. How is that?
In his response to the question
in point, the eminent Muslim
scholar, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi ,
states:

"Before the advent of Islam, it

had been the habit of men to
marry an unlimited number of
women. The Old Testament
states that David had 100 wives
and Solomon had 700 wives and
300 concubines. However, Islam
nullified marriage to more than
four women.

If a man became a Muslim and

he had more than four wives, the
Prophet (peace and blessings be
upon him) would say to him:
“Choose only four and divorce
the rest.”

Polygyny is permissible in Islam

on the condition that the man
treats all his wives equally,
otherwise he should marry one
only. Allah Almighty says, “And if
ye fear that ye cannot do justice (to
so many) then one (only).” (An-
Nisa': 3)

However, Allah Almighty granted

Prophet Muhammad (peace and
blessings be upon him)
something that is not allowed to
any other Muslim. He Almighty
allowed him to keep the wives
that he had married and did not
order him to divorce, replace any
of them, or to marry anymore
women. Allah Almighty says: “It
is not allowed thee to take (other)
women henceforth nor that thou
should change them for other wives
even though their beauty pleased
thee, save those whom thy right
hand possesses.” (Al-Ahzab: 52)

This is because the wives of the

Prophet (peace and blessings be
upon him) have a special status:
they are mentioned in the
Qur`an as Mothers of the
Believers. Allah Almighty says,
“The Prophet is closer to the
believers than their selves, and his
wives are (as) their mothers.” (Al-
Ahzab: 6)

Due to this honorable position,

they were forbidden to remarry
after the Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him). Allah
Almighty says, “And it is not for
you to cause annoyance to the
Messenger of Allah, nor that ye
should ever marry his wives after
him.” (Al-Ahzab: 53)

This means that if they were

divorced, they would have been
deprived of marriage for the rest
of their lives, and they would
also be deprived of the honor of
being part the Prophet’s family,
which is considered an unjust
penalty when they had not done
anything wrong.

Suppose that Allah had enjoined

the Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) to
choose only four of his wives and
divorce the rest. This would
mean that four of them would
have been chosen to be the
Mothers of Believers and the
other five would have been
deprived of the honor. This
would have been a very awkward
situation since none of those
exemplary women deserved to
be dismissed from the Prophet’s
family and be denied the honor
that she had gained.

Therefore, it was Allah’s will for

them to remain as the Prophet’s
wives as an exception to him
only. This is based on Allah’s
saying: “Lo! the bounty is in Allah's
hand. He bestoweth it on whom He
will. Allah is All Embracing, All
Knowing.” (Al `Imran: 73)

As for the answer to the

question: why did the Prophet
(peace and blessings be upon
him) marry nine women in the
first place? We can say that this
is well known. He did not marry
any of them for the reasons that
the Orientalists falsely claim. It
was not carnal desires, which
made the Prophet marry any of
his wives. If he were as they
claim, he wouldn’t have been the
young man married to a woman
15 years his senior. He was 25
when he married Khadijah who
had been married twice before
and had many children.

The Prophet (peace and

blessings be upon him) lived all
his youth with her in happiness.
When she died, he called that
year "The year of grief". He
loved, respected and kept
praising her so much even after
her death to the extent that
`A’ishah (may Allah be pleased
with her) used to be jealous of
Khadijah despite her having
been dead.

At the age of 53, after the death

of Khadijah and after Hijrah
(emigration to Madinah), the
Prophet (peace and blessings be
upon him) began to marry his
other wives. He married Sawdah
bint Zam`ah, who was an elderly
lady, in order to be his
housewife. He married the
daughter of Abu Bakr, who was
his friend and Companion, in
order to strengthen their
relationship although she was
still too young to be married.
Then he married Hafsah, `Umar’s
daughter, so that both of his
Companions, Abu Bakr and
`Umar, would be granted the
same honor, even though Hafsah
was a widow and was not pretty.

He also married Umu Salamah

who was a widow. When her
husband, Abu Salamah, died, she
thought she would never find a
better husband. They had both
emigrated and suffered a lot for
the cause of Islam. She said in
her grief as a widow: “Lo! We are
Allah’s and Lo! unto Him we are
returning.” (Al-Baqarah: 156) She
prayed to Allah to help her and
recompense her with a better
husband, but she wondered
whether she could ever marry
someone better than her late
husband. So Allah recompensed
her for her grief and bestowed
on her a far better husband who
was Prophet Muhammad (peace
and blessings be upon him). He
married her and rewarded her
for the loss of her husband and
her abandoning her family in
order to emigrate to Madinah.

Prophet Muhammad (peace and

blessings be upon him) married
Juwayriyah bint Al-Harith in
order to encourage her family to
be Muslims. In the expedition of
Bani al-Mustaliq, the Muslims
captured a lot of Juwayriyah's
kinsfolk, and when the
Companions of the Prophet knew
that the Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) had
married her, they set the
captives free because they had
become kin of the Prophet
Muhammad. And so kin must not
be captured.

The other woman was Um

Habibah, the daughter of Abu
Sufyan and who was the
bitterest enemy of Islam. She
had left her father and preferred
to emigrate with her husband to
Abyssinia (Al-Habashah) for the
sake of Islam. But then her
husband died and she became
alone in a foreign land. What
was the Prophet supposed to do
in such case? Would he leave her
without help? Of course not! So
he sent his proposal to Negus
(An-Najashi), the king of
Abyssinia , and authorized him to
pay her the dowry and to make
the marriage contract while he
was in Madinah. Another good
reason for this marriage is that
marrying the daughter of Abu
Sufyan would make him less
hostile to Islam due to the new
kinship.

Therefore, he did not marry any

of his wives for lust or worldly
desires, but for the good of
Islam in order to strengthen the
ties between the people and the
new religion, especially because
kinship and blood relations were
well respected among the Arabs.

In conclusion, by marrying those

women, the Prophet aimed at
unifying the Arabs and solving
many problems. His wives
became the Mothers of the
Believers, teachers of the
Muslim Ummah in family and
women’s affairs, and related a
lot about his family life even in
the most private situations.

Everybody has private matters

except the Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) who
asked people to relate
everything concerning his life in
order to teach the Muslim
Ummah and guide them to what
is right.

The most important point is that

the Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) set a
good example for Muslims in all
aspects of life including family
life. A Muslim man can draw very
good lessons from the life of
Prophet Muhammad (peace and
blessings be upon him) and in
the way he treated his wives."