Assalamu alaikum peace biagio Welcome to another episode of Islamic focus. I’m your host Hamad Rashid. Today we have our 40 program in our series dealing with Mohammed, the last messenger of Allah. And today’s program is our fourth program on the topic of the profits, marriages. I have joined me on the program as my guests usual, Dr. Jamal battery.
Before we get into today’s program, could you very quickly highlight the main points we touched on in our third program talking about natures? Sure, first of all, we spoke about the marriage of the prophet to Marsha Babak. And we mentioned that the marriage was not consummated until about three years later, when she was close to 12 years old. we described the difference in age and some of the considerations in his marriage to her,
particularly keeping a close relationship with the companions who were very faithful, like combobox.
Similarly, also, we mentioned that his choice of Ayesha was very appropriate because she was of great intelligence and memory. And she had conveyed to us a great deal about the family life of the Prophet and his teachings and various aspects of life. We spoke about his marriage from another, the daughter of another very close companion, the daughter of Omar,
especially after her husband was martyred in the Battle of bed.
And also in the method of bedroom. Also, there was another martyr by the name of albedo, who left behind him when he was an elderly woman, known as the mother of the destitute because of his love and help to the poor. And finally, we began to speak about the circumstances leading to his marriage of thelema, the mother of Selma. And we said that she and her husband became Muslims. And on the way back, when they were trying to migrate away from the persecution in Mexican Makkah, yes, she was stopped by his family and her family.
Her family tried to prevent her from growing, the family of her husband tried to put the little boy selama until they dislocated his arm.
To pick up on that I recall, we had to leave that story in the middle, a lot of hate, actually could continue with what happened to her and what that did profit to ultimately offer marriage to her when the two families seem to be quite insistent in preventing them from migrating to practice their faith freely.
And what they did is that to the family of the husband, took away her son, Salim and they said, you know he belongs to us because he’s
from our descent. So they took her son from her, and her family took her away, she said, you can go out and she was confined for a period of almost eight years as some history, it’s a weeping day and night, of course, her husband left, she was left behind.
And some people noted this kind of suffering, you know, crying all the time. So they felt some pity, even though they were not Muslim. They’ve had some pity for her and tried to convince her family to release her. So after some time, she was released, and her son was given to her to she joined her husband, in Medina with the Prophet. And then her husband participated in the famous veterans have offered her he was severely injured, and that happened but he was cured. But he participated in another veteran afterwards, his ones were orphaned again, and actually he passed away, leaving behind his aged wife, and four orphans.
Following this example, that we have seen of the Prophet peace be upon him of looking after the orphans, some of his companions offered marriage to that old lady. Abu Bakr went to her, she declined, Ahmad went and offered her knowledge, she also declined. And basically the reason she gave is that she doesn’t want to be a burden on anyone. She’s all she had a number of orphans. And they she felt somehow that the companions of the Prophet offered marriage to her as an act of sympathy, compassion, and she didn’t really feel that she would accept that.
So when Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him of her plight, and her dignity also trying not to be a burden on anyone.
He said that if he himself offered marriage to her, she probably would accept because of the honor of being the wife of the Prophet. So he offered marriage to her. She
declined. And to give the reason three. First of all, she said I am aged, she probably was around the 60 or above. I’m an old woman already. Number two, I have a number of orphans, I have four orphans.
Three, I am also a jealous woman,
especially a man who’s married to more than one wife, you know, I’m a jealous woman. So the capitate Alright.
First of all, as far as the age, I am older than you, not much older, it might have been a couple of years or one year before, but he just wanted to console her. As far as the age, I am older than you are, as far as the orphans are like, I take them in my household. That means like my children, and don’t worry about them.
And as far as the jealousy, I will pray that Allah will remove this jealousy from your head.
Obviously, almost Helena found it quite advantageous for her to get married to the Prophet, and that old age to look after the orphans. So the orphans may find someone to somewhat compensate them for the loss of their father, somebody to look after their upbringing. The question again, that I’d like to raise, which was also previous programs. Is this really a kind of marriage for passion, or compassion? What’s interesting, the Prophet were marrying something because of desire in women to get married to a woman who’s 60 years old, over with four orphans.
And take the responsibility of the whole family. So it’s obviously the motive is quite phenomenal and commendable. Indeed, the
marriages that the Prophet was engaged in, and I’d like to ask you about those, particularly if there were other marriages that fall within this particular character category that we’ve been talking about, in other words, compassionate widows who had lost their husbands and support. Yes, yes, this will not the only one, for example, there was the case of Habiba, the daughter of Abu Sufyan. This lady also, along with her husband became Muslim, her husband was named Abdullah.
And they went to Ethiopia in the first migration, because of the persecution and Mecca.
In Ethiopia, after that suffering and leaving her country, her husband, unfortunately,
renounced his faith.
And he tried to encourage her, because, of course, US defendant tried to encourage her to also renounce her faith, and join him. So she refused. And shortly afterwards, her husband died after, you know, announcing his faith. Now, she was in a very critical position, she has gone against the desires of her family by becoming Muslim. And now her husband died. Her father was abusive Yan, who was at that time and ash enemy, Mohammed, peace be upon him. And she was really in a very precarious position. Knowing that Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, sent a messenger to the negus was the ruler of Ethiopia, who was hosting the Muslim the persecuted Muslims there, and actually asked him
to ask for her hand on behalf of the Prophet. So that marriage actually achieved at least three purposes. One
is somewhat compensated on Habiba for her sacrifice, and her firmness for her faith. Secondly, it established a good relationship with the Christian or he was used to be Christian, because there are lots of reports that the negus Kingdom actually became Muslim. So that was to strengthen relationship with him as he received Muslims give them refuge, and he himself accepted Islam. And that was like giving him the honor to act as an agent on behalf of the prophet in seeking the hand of Habiba.
And the third possible reason that could be added, besides compassion, purely compassion, Jesus is that this did indeed help to soften the heart of Abu Sufyan as an enemy of the Prophet, in fact, the spite of his resistance to Islam, when Abu sufian heard that his daughter was now a widow, on Have you been
married to the Prophet. He was really happy and actually said, who will fabula used our hand for that means, you know, he’s a, he’s a really perfect man who should not be or cannot be rejected, and he was happy with that. And later on, as we know, Abu Sufyan actually ultimately embraced Islam.
There is a similar case in terms of reconciling the house
Other since we’re talking about the consigning pack of enemies,
and that was the manager of the profit from the owner and hilarya. This was again and ended the woman who was married twice before. And she came from the area of Nigeria in Arabia.
She was, she was also the Auntie of the one of the heroes of Islam.
Now, her people were among the greatest enemies of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. In fact, they were part of a conspiracy that resulted in the massacre of 17 memorizers of the Quran, they asked the prophet to send people to teach them the Quran pretending as if they wanted, you know, to study them or accept Islam. He sent them 70 memorize the Quran, the Kingdom Hall. So this is the, this was the state of affairs with with her people.
Now, when the Prophet matted, one of the women, somehow they felt that they became in most of the profits of Islam. And as such, the enmity was reduced a great deal. And historians say that a lot of them actually embraced Islam as a result of this gesture on the part of the Prophet.
Muna, by the way, also was known
to be a very pious woman who was not very obsessed with the joys of this life. And she was really a very pious woman in the bedroom of taboo, she was quite instrumental in helping nursing for the wounded people. And it was said that she was the first woman to establish an organized group or organization of women to help people in the world
10s of nursing, taking water to the injury and
giving logistical support as opposed to pay for the, for those who were in the in the battlefield. In fact, in one occasion, it was said that while she was taking water to an injured person, an arrow hit harsh, which almost killed the hash, it was a serious injury. So this was the kind of motive and the kinds of persons that the Prophet peace be upon you want to honor them and establish good rapport with them, people.
always talks about
widows that have been married for crispy for compassionate reasons. Yes. Other yet others. Yes, there are others also you can classify under compassionate reasons, even though they were not necessarily quitters. And perhaps, I should give some background of this because the other cases or that category of cases we’ll come to are those were in bondage that people used to say, slave women, for example.
But I think I need to make some sort of explanation to begin with, even though this topic was covered in more detail in the first portion of the social system of Islam, the issue of slavery and how I approach that problem and try to resolve it.
But basically, what you said that the institution of slavery was a very deep rooted, economic, social type of institution. And we talk about the seventh century, and any object, immediate ability, you know, abolishment of that institution could have possibly resulted in a very serious backlash, which would have set the process of their liberation backward, even Of course, we are all familiar with the experiment in the US men contains so they needed a more smooth and short program for abolition.
Now, we also explained in this programs in the past, how the Prophet peace be upon him with divine guidance, the various stages, for full liberation of people in bondage. One was to restore their humanity, to indicate that this bondage should not really be called slavery because all human beings are the slaves or servants of God alone. So that gives them equal human status with those who are called masters, that there’s only one master now. Secondly, Islamic law moved towards the notion of legal protection by considering them as persons, not things as they used to be regarded.
Thirdly, the encouragement and inducement that they should be treated in a humane and kind way. And then one of the things the faculty said that goes like your servants and your servants are your brothers, however, they are good brothers and he said, If Allah wanted, you could have made you their servants.
Firstly, the encouragement that you find in the Koran and the teachings of the Prophet peace be upon him, to liberate them and give them their full freedom as an act of charity in the pursuit of the pleasure
Guide fifthly there was another major by actually requiring deliberation as an act of atonement for certain things that the Muslim might do and all of us do. So that will open the door, you have more excuses sixthly, requiring that they should be liberated, and given their freedoms if they ask for it, provided that they make a sort of arrangement for financial compensation with the master again called known as macatawa. But he has no right, the Masters to refuse in the are prepared for freedom
as seven measures to women, for example, who were in bondage,
that if they give birth to a child for the master, then automatically they become free after the birth, and he has no right to know. For example, them as they used to do becomes free and her child becomes a free.
Another visual and it’s measured, it was the case exceptional case of the war captors, to begin with Islamic law forbade that you would take a free person and enslave him to start with regardless. In fact, in one of the things that he says that among those who will never enter into paradise, one who sells a free person and its price, in other words, just to catch them on and sell him. So that means that they stomach Lord dry the sources of any new sources of captivity. But of course, you have the exception of case of war captives. But even in the case of what captures
the spirit of Islamic law, really, as one discern from the Quran is that in the absence of any other means, of exchange of prisoners, of course, they may be more or less like in bondage. But otherwise, the Quran, for example, speak about feeling even more captives as an act of charity, that in some cases, this could not be practical. In the state of war, you don’t know whether those people you’re going to see are going back to carry arms and come back to to fight against is limited, it could be cases where this is serious. This case,
there is a problem also, the even if you want to exchange prisoners, that the enemy might not
reciprocate this kind of arrangement, which means that Muslims will be releasing the pow, while the enemies is escaping them, which would not be, of course a third kind of treatment. But in any case, like I said, one thing he certainly studied, and what it says about this issue, even though prisoners of war, but the spirit of it is either to release them by way of charity, to transcend them or exchange them for other
prisoners of war. Now, I tried to cover that in a very quick way, as you might recall, this was covered in a full hour, that’s two half hour programs. But this background, perhaps might be useful to understand the northern waters.
Behind the manager of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was one of those people in bondage, which are actually four of them. One of them was actually in bondage without war, three, word and bondage as a result of war, that’s prisoners of war. And in all three, the they were fried first, and then he made it to them, and we’ll talk about this. And the case of the first one, maybe or Maryam, the Coptic woman, should be country after giving birth to Ibrahim, his son.
So this was sort of also not an innocence, not because they were with us, but not because it was raising of the status of those people that were regarded more or less like, you know, bandits or slaves, to such a status in society, that they are even wives and concerts of the head of the second Center and the prophet of God.
Do we have information available regarding the specifics of these marriages? Can you comment on indeed, in fact, there’s plenty of information on them. And I think it would be relevant in view of the fact that from my humble view of some of the works of some orientalist, when they speak about the marriages of the prophet in general, or his marriage to this former POW as
they try to create certain stories, but they leave it in their own imagination, which doesn’t have any support neither from
authentic historical background nor reasonable and fair interpretation.
They try to present it as marriage only for the sake of, you know, desire in women. Let me give you an example. First with joy, urea. This lady
came from a northern Jewish family. You know, there were some Jewish
communities in Medina, her father was the head of that particular tribe known as Daniel masala.
And this tribe, in fact, got itself into a conflict with Muslims. We’ll get into this as we discuss the various developments in the life of the Prophet. But there was a conflict that they initiated, in fact, with Muslims,
eventually leading Muslims to get into
fighting with them.
The tribe, tribe was defeated. And among the prisoners of war was joy as she was captured,
according to the narration of ignition, the most dependable and the most ancient biography of the Prophet.
He says that her father
came with a number of canons, in order to offer this kind of the profit as a ransom to take his daughter, liberate his daughter,
but on his way, to meet the Prophet, and the desert, he knows that he’s coming. And he likes to have them to come and look very good in his eyes, he brought with him as an answer.
So he took these two, and hid them in some Valley, I don’t know might have tied them there or like them, you know, so that on his way back, he can, you know, take them,
there was nobody else with him, at least can communicate that to the Prophet. So he came and met the Prophet.
And as soon as he entered, to speak to Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, the Prophet told him, Where are those to come in, that you hid in such and such Valley
demand was that the father of joy area, was really stumped, because he knew that nobody could have possibly communicated that to the person who just done to Intuit that secrecy, secrecy and just, he just arrived. So he immediately say, I bear witness, that you are indeed, the Messenger of God. He knew that this information could not come to the Prophet from any source other than revelation, divine revelation, nobody else saw he said, I bear witness that you are indeed the Messenger of God for nobody, but God, have seen what I have done. So he became Muslim. And later time, even two of his children embraced Islam, and a number of people from history, that Jewish tribe also became a
part of the Muslim community.
Now, the prophet obviously, returned,
Julia, so she herself embraced Islam. So the Prophet offered her marriage. And she agreed, at that time, the prophet was about 68 years old. So that sounds more like a symbolical, a goodwill gesture towards the Jewish community was very effective with indeed, to soften the heart of those who treated Muslim as enemies. And it also gave sort of fish saving opportunity after they were defeated. After they defeated the kindness of the Prophet, now, I’m even getting married from one of your ladies. So it’s really established a poor relationship. Even those who did not embrace Islam from his tribe, at least, became neutral, instead of being fighting and hostile, and fighting
against the Muslim community. Indeed, we can say that this kind of marriage did Americans it did what armies could not do with bloodshed. So marriage, one marriage like this, a great deal has been achieved. And,
in fact, there was another side to this kind of marriage, because as soon as Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, made her Muslims who had other Jewish babies as captives, immediately released them. They said, how could we keep as captives in our hands, that in most of our profits, that means the type of so all of them were freed. And that’s why the life of the Prophet once said about joy, Leah, and her marriage to the Prophet, she said, I know of no other person who brought so much blessing to have people as joy did. She means that all capitals from her tribe were liberated just because of her marriage to the Prophet. Of course, in spite of the conflict between Muslims, and Jews that were
taking place in the early period of spam
actually was not the only woman from a Jewish background that became Muslim and married to Israel. So there were I conclude from your last statement that there are other women of the Jewish faith who were also married to the property to tell us something about Yes, indeed, there were two more actually one of them was known as suffering he had been to Hawaii.
And this came from again, a Jewish tribe known as Ben in Algiers, who also lived in
Medina, after the Panama deal with were exiled from Medina and again this would be explained later, she lived in Hyderabad with another Jewish community, but again,
broke between Muslims and the
Jews, in which Muslim again what it actually was. And Sophia actually was among those who were taken as captives in that particular war. Some historians say that actually, even before that she was hiding her interest in Islam, she had some inclination, but it wasn’t, of course, quite
conducive atmosphere was a condition perhaps, to declare that. But the point here is that as a woman coming from another family, the prophet probably felt that it would be humiliating for her to simply be a captive in the hands of any ordinary soldiers in the army. So the Prophet actually asked her captors to release her. And then he gave her the choice between either maintaining her religion to remain as Jewish, and to go back to our family in dignity, or to accept this man and get married to the Prophet.
In fact, the choice of Sophia was to embrace Islam. And she accepted marriage to the Prophet. In fact, one narration say that she said, Actually, I was interested and inclined towards Islam, even before you asked me this before you asked her to get married to me. Again, this was sort of softening of hearts, and pursuit of peace and guidance of her people in her tribe without necessarily getting into warfare and conflict. This reconciliatory attitude was also
apparent in an incident where at one time the Prophet enters, and he found that Sophia was crying.
He said, Why are you crying? She said, Well, some of your other wives are bursting like her ish and Sophia, they boasted that they, they are the children of your close companions. And they told me, whose daughter are you? And the Prophet said, Oh, don’t worry about that. If they ask you tell them. My father is Aaron, that is the brother of Moses. And my uncle is Moses and my husband is Mohammed. So that shows again the attitude of the prophet to try to reduce this enmity between people who came from various religious backgrounds. In the second case, and the disadvantage with this is the equivalent to ethnic atheists. There was another Jewish woman, also known as Rihanna,
who also came from the tribe of Benny Medina, this woman also, even though she was captured, she embraced Islam, and the Prophet
freed heart, offered her marriage and get marriage to her.
There are some other narration about the same lady that in fact, she became Muslim, but she preferred to go back to her people. But whichever the case, it was obvious that it was an act of good gesture towards people who are really in conflict with with Muslims and help a great deal in soothing this enmity and bring these people together. On that note, we’ll have to conclude today’s program and thank you for another easy program about the demo. I want to thank you all for watching and invite you back next week. Assalamu alaikum
