Assalamu alaikum peace Tmu Welcome to another episode of Islam and focus. I’m your host, Ahmed Rashid. Today we have our 47th program in our series on Muhammad, the last messenger of Allah, and our sixth program on the prophets, marriages. I have joining me on the program as usual, Dr. Jamal better we have segments University of Iowa Jamal, assembled.
Before we get into the meat of today’s program, could I have you very quickly summarize the main points that we touched on last week in our fifth program, and we spoke about the marriage of the Prophet Marissa,
that was giving her the gift today the status of Egypt and how she was automatically freed after she gave birth to his son.
And we also talked about two other marriages that were not consummated, and the reasons behind them.
And then we began to analyze in some detail in the marriage, the last marriage that
was not covered with his marriage to them. Daughter of Joshua was a diversity of his formally adopted son zite.
And we began first by giving the orientalist version which took some elements of an authentic historical report and added a great deal to it, and presented the motive as if the Prophet really loved her and wanted to marry her and then divorce, you know, after they divorced her, he married her. We indicated First of all, from the historical standpoint that the story is unauthentic and give authorities in history and said it’s never mentioned in the oldest and most reliable source of the biography of the Prophet, I would say the
Sierra sham.
And then we said that even from the analytical standpoint, the story as presented by missionaries and oriented This is totally
inappropriate and doesn’t seem to fit, non historical facts that the Prophet knew Zeinab as his cousin, that they presented as if it was stuck all of a sudden with His deity, which is certainly relevant. And we indicated that the Prophet actually who pressured vanina to get married to today. And if he was interested in how Why should he get someone else to get married to her first,
but missing the sense of home? And then your last question was, if there’s any version, which
is considered to be more accurate, and what are the sources, we have time on the program to mention that the most important source, of course, is the Quran itself. And that there is no difference between Muslims and non Muslim scholars that this is the most authentic document we have on device for the public. So that’s where we stopped. But we didn’t get time to describe the actual event. More or less, we did not notice methodology. And now that we sort of have that methodology, what was the social and cultural background that existed, which would help us to better understand and appreciate the nature of this marriage to Skynet by the prophet, okay, we mentioned in a previous
program that they kind of have it was formerly a slave. And then the Prophet freed him, and honored him to the point of adopting him. At that time, there was no law in Islam to prohibit adoption. And it was accepted as a custom heavier to the point that then was referred to as the son of Mohammed was not actually by that,
that status of zite. And his study of marriage from diamond, was a very good example, actually, of two customs that were common among the herbs that Islam came to challenge, and to correct, and there was no better way to start than the household of the Prophet himself.
The first custom was the obsession among the Arabs of the nobility of stack, the family, our tribe, from which a person come, the attitude to evaluate people, but on the basis of whose children they are, rather than who they are, in terms of their own innate quality, this custom and this aristocracy, it came into conflict with a basic principle that Islam established, and that is the Brotherhood of all mankind, male and female, rich and poor, colors, times and all that which is very aptly reflected in the verse in the Quran in surah 49 verse 13, which plays the best of you in the sight of God is the one who’s more treacherous. So righteousness is the only basis of superiority
and that came into conflict with this
aristocracy and too much emphasis on nobility of
this kind of aristocracy was also reflected in marriage of necessity, that when a person presents himself or asked for a hand of a lady, he has nothing
debated as to who he who he is or what characters we may have, but rather on the basis of his family, Where is he from? Was his parents what is driving?
The question he was this if these two customs are the custom of the elders versus the principle of university, Sam came into conflict, where to start in changing this attitude, guided by divine inspiration, or revelation Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him was directed to initiate
the marriage of his former slave
to his cousin, the northern crochet woman designer. That obviously, was shocking designer. As I mentioned in a previous program, in one relation, she might have thought first that the Prophet wanted himself to marry her. But she was shocked her family was shocked. How could
as a northern crocheted woman coming from this famous tribe, get married to someone who used to be a former slave,
doesn’t really fit their pattern of thinking.
But the prophet peace be upon him,
realize that they,
whatever his status was, was a person of excellent stretch human and human qualities. So he pressed Zenit, first are too hard, you might say,
until she finally accepted actually, some scholars say that there was a verse in the Quran in surah, 33. That comment on this marriage, apparently by saying it is not befitting for a believing man, or believing woman, when Allah and His Messenger has decided any matter, that they should have any choice that he realized, even though it was not just the command of the Prophet, but it is a divine command that she should actually accept marriage designed to break this kind of aristocracy to break this kind of thinking that was rampant among the Arabs and many others.
It might be appropriate in this country to interject a bit of a side question. I’m sure some of our viewers are probably wondering whether or not
what you just said, means that there doesn’t have to be consent. Consent is not necessary to manage. I’m glad that you know, the question. The answer to that is no does not imply that, by necessity, no, actually the basic rule in Islamic law, that without the continuance of the wife, marriage could be declared null and void to the consent and approval of both sides is absolutely necessary. And they can see each other, but not in full privacy, before marriage to get to know each other and so on.
So the answer is no, no, consented, absolutely required. But that particular case really was the exception. And not anyone can make that exception. It was exceptional, because God wanted as an example, to break with an old habit.
And not anyone that can do that the Prophet was receiving revelation was directed by God, or by Allah, to relieve pressure. They never ask us to agree to get married to his foreman, freed slaves.
And nobody else after the Prophet can claim to receive revelation and have that authority. So that was an exception. And
and this is why diverse actually did not say it’s not be fitting for a believing man or woman. If the Prophet decided something, yes, it says, God, and the Prophet had decided something which means that it was originally a command from God, the commands of the Prophet was derived from divine command that she should accept marriage to
die. So it was something by way of sacrifice, in one individual case for public good, or for establishing an important precedent, to teach people and to change this notion of ethnic superiority and to remember that
you we should always look at people who they are rather than where they can come.
Did they agree in any event, because the marriage did take place between Shannon and Zion as died?
How did the How did the marriage go? Well, why in the vein of consensus, finally were accepted based on this
revelation and the
pressure applied on her by the prophet to accept
she’s found it too difficult for her even though she might have the intention and missions and like I’ve had the intention to try to make up she could not fully rid herself of this very deep rooted such a custom that existed, head treatment of the sea to have reflected this kind of aristocracy the feeling that she’s, you know, she’s going to hire somebody This is where the former slaves so there’s, she couldn’t ever come back, even though she might have tried.
complaint the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon when he says you know, this, you know, our relationship with
Getting strange, it doesn’t have to be, you know, as she should, and compiled it with the passage that he really wanted to divorce her.
Even though Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, and that’s another person
testify to, even though the Prophet received revelation later on,
that this marriage probably will not succeed, and that they will end actually divorcing Venus and that God will call the prophet to marriage and not after, you know she is divorced from even though the Prophet had this revelation, he did not feel
feel free to, to divulge this information to dispose of his marriage, he kept advancing
data as any good mediator would do.
That you should keep your wife You should literally divorce your wife actually the reference to that
53 especially in verse 37. With the foodie levy anomala
mc collectors of the kryptos behaved you that’s a prophet Muhammad.
You did say to one who had received the grace of God, and your favors that you’re favored by friesians retain you in wedlock, your wife and clear cut.
So that was the advice given by the prophet. However, the relationship between his length and his wife became more and more strained, it became really intolerable, and finally became impossible for them to live together. And he decided that he would divorce her
that actually
raised another issue of another debt custom. I mentioned that we go to bed custom one of them is this aristocracy, but there was another bad customer that is tempting to change, that the Arabs consider it horrible.
Terrible, it’s almost like incest to them, that anyone can get married to the group of sins of his adopted son, even though that might have not necessarily been natural. And that’s kin can also in conflict with other standard features.
Before we turn to some examination of that custom
question, I’m sure that comes must be coming in the mind of our viewers is, if the Prophet discusses by the new revelation that
happens, I would eventually break down. Why did the property’s value so not to divorce is a good question. But if you have to make a distinction between resolution or knowledge of something that is going to happen, or is bound to happen, and between giving the appropriate advice, for example, if someone come and consult with me, and it says I want to divorce my wife,
even though I may have inflammation is and of course my information. Definitely inferior to the information and defense attorney for sure. But suppose I have some indication for my study, and in my experience, that this marriage probably is not very compatible, and there are lots of problems. I would not jump the gun and say, Oh, yeah, divorce I see, as any good mediator or family counselor, we do feel that it is necessary to try something to give the chance for the marriage to succeed to give a chance. And counsel for both sides rather than to say, Oh, yeah, yeah.
So definitely the process, the balancing under the circumstances, you know, that’s one thing. Secondly, to clarify the point, as the grits could have
indicated, he said that, for example, God knows in advance that some people will never believe there was an unbeliever, that still a prophet after Prophet, a scripture after scripture is coming to invite all of them to believe in God. So why would that repeat that even though he knows that they will not respond, that there’s a difference here between knowledge of God’s knowledge of something to happen yet, and between the convenience of the message and to say that I think under the circumstances. And the other hand, we have to keep in mind also that
even if the Prophet knew
that certification that this marriage will not continue.
Still, I cannot be blamed for giving advice and counsel to wait to try and actually try again, so that every means must be exhausted before the marriage is like
to fall apart.
Let’s come back now to some discussion of the customers were mentioned just before this last answer.
Can you shed some light on that particular customer? Okay, this is basically we can say embrace the customer adoption. I’m sure many of our viewers are not familiar with this, then might immediately ask what is wrong with adoption is just not a humanitarian thing to do. To care.
give love to those who are orphans or homeless?
The answer from an Islamic standpoint, nothing wrong at all. There’s absolutely nothing wrong, as far as the stand is concerned, to give love and care to those who need it, especially the orphans. There’s no problem with that. In fact, there are three surah in the Quran that speaks about praise for people who look after the orphans. You know that Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him himself, was raised as an orphan is that his father died before his birth, it was going to be one of his mother. And his mother died when he was six years old.
And the competence that echoes the teaching of the Quran about kindness and looking after the vulnerable and needy children. When the Prophet said me, and the one who looks after the orphans of Moses and paradise, he pointed with his two fingers, as close to me as this fingers are. So as far as giving love and care for needy children, there’s absolutely no problem with that, as far as that’s concerned. But the issue here is not love and care. The issue is the distinction that should be made legally, between fostering and adoption. Fostering in a sense of giving care and love to a needy child to raise him in one’s household as one is looking after his own metric children is
something acceptable, even praiseworthy.
But, like many people, also in contemporary society,
went beyond that.
They falsified the identity of the foster child, and that’s what it was called adoption by giving him the name of the adoptive father.
And as such, it became difficult to distinguish between a natural child Yes, and no but the child.
Also, there was another implication that the adopted child became illegitimate. in a state of the of the deceased, adopting father has exactly the same shape and inheritance as the natural children.
Furthermore, it became forbidden also,
among the customs in or among the Arabs, that adopting father would marry the devotion of his adopted son because his adopted son was put on equal footing exactly, legally, with the natural child. And that’s that’s if the adoptive father is married his diversity, the diversity of his son, it’s almost like getting married to his stepdaughter, which of course, was regarded as harder, but instead it’s relevant, if it is, if the descriptor of the superpower
matches this kind of customs and he was contrary to the teachings that the Prophet received and the establishment of the principle that Islam came to
the judgment of the customer from Islamic standpoint that you perhaps had some information as to why objected to Yes, okay. There are four basic objection to this system, the legalistic past practice, not given.
First thing is that Islam insists that each person should be given his real identity, and not be given any false identity this club is described in Arabic as an asset or message should be known. And that is the route of every human being, even though he may be still pushing a child.
Every person is expected to know or to be identified with his natural product, another natural ones, not adopted ones, and to be given the true name of his natural father.
In case it is difficult, and impossible to trace the natural father and there are many cases, as you know, the child is to be regarded as the Quran says, as a brother in faith and an ally. But it can begin in any name, but not to be given a false identity
that establishes that true identity of each individual and remove the hangups.
Even if the person is born out of wedlock,
remove the Hancock because in Islam, it was not his fault of sin is that he was born this way he’s given his foot right. In the meantime, we always hear about the shock and psychological trauma that many people have children face when they grow up all their lives believing that this is their natural father only to discover it was not their natural product. And you hear those stories, many times of this. So why put them into this check because sooner or later they may realize or discovered that they are not the natural children of best adopting father and mother and that their identity has been falsified. So I would like it’s a very painful thing for them to go through rather
than to face reality, simple and pure.
The second objection is that as mentioned earlier, the adopted child
Was equated legally in terms of inheritance with the natural children. And in a special clause, the method of inheritance is neutral. That’s why the class has elected inherits more, because it’s useful because if that person who inherited, has to have died first would have inherited also from his relatives. So it’s a neutral thing. Now, if you have a stranger outside of the family, giving the same equal footing and inheritance with other metric children, this metric turns into not have equal rights. In other words, if the natural product of that child was adopted dies, they have no clean legally on his inheritance. So it’s not really a mutual and that could also give rise to
conflict. Because obviously, the natural children coming from the same mother and father has
an inheritance than somebody who was a stranger and simply being given care and love understanding. Now, I’m not saying
we should not be doing anything at all, but in a static label something called a lasagna or well, that, that this is before he tested the next one, that also he is adopted, or more accurately foster children should be given something, he can specify that and there should be no problem with that, but in terms of the legal share of intelligence specified in the plan should be only for the immediate family in the natural children, mother and father and so on. So so as not to hurt their interest.
I think objection today, system adoption, is that when the adopted child was taken, in the same level,
as a natural child, he was regarded just like a brother or sister of the female members of the family. And that gives him access to the inner circle of females in the family. Now, a natural child would obviously have a natural aversion to having any sexual feelings towards his sister, a mother, that is naturally
a stranger, even though he may be called an adult, the child may not necessarily have this kind of aversion. And that resulted in some sort of moral laxity that existed
among the people who adopted that system, which is not appropriate, it doesn’t have the same feeling instinctively like connect to the child.
The first objection is that this system of adoption,
established artificial barriers, in terms of marriage. For example, an adopted child would not be qualified to marry the birth of his adoptive father, because he’s the guy with almost the same as the blood brothers of that system that established unnecessary restriction in marriage because he’s a stranger, after all, why not?
There’s mutual consent and acceptance and compatibility between both. In the meantime, if an adjusted son also divorce
his wife, it was totally forbidden for his adoptive father. And again, why not? It was not his daughter in law, by instance.
See, she’s just no stranger
to the family. So let’s establish barriers in marriage. And this relates specifically to the legislative elements in the marriage of 250. upon him some date, as a divorce, you have a son who was regarded at one time as an adopted
child.
For most nations, it’s been quite reasonable. But they may ask the question or wonder why did the Prophet peace be upon him?
simply getting copies of this custom wrong and leave that that’s why it wasn’t necessary for him to take the lead in in terms of
what you see in the circumstances and cultures of the time in that particular society. It wasn’t really sufficient simply to tell them that from now on discuss them. Is
there isn’t is that the idea of adoption and the legal nature of that adoption has existed among the freestanding herbs, and even in the early days of Islam was it’s very deep rooted such as customs.
And that I mentioned earlier, a marriage of the adapting product from the diversity of his adopted tribe was present tantamount of someone getting married to his daughter in law. Yes, sir. Mr. Montana, I think I mentioned step one is actually just a law.
Now, this kind of deep rooted customs was not possible to change by merely preaching people that it is wrong God that there is a needle now that they needed something more than that they needed some examples to break to take the first step.
Give a good example that this habit, or custom is no longer acceptable, according to the divine law.
And there could be no better example that would make people dead break with that habit, except when the Prophet himself is commanded to take the first step in removal of that particular artificial barrier. So he was actually directed for that purpose, to take the first step to encourage people to get rid of that custom because it was regarded as a big shame to get involved in this kind of
selection.
Understand the problem wasn’t be directed by the Quran. In fact, it was not his research that he was directed by the client to do so.
What I’d like First of all, to say that my statement that the Prophet was commanded to do this is not meant to remove any accusation against profit or anything, because even if it’s assumed, which is not true, that the profit was not commanded to do this. And that his decision to marry was his own decision, even though she was at the mercy of someone
that except for not
cause any problem at all. Because after all, if this was true, wish to not want to. And it was the Prophet himself who pressured designer to accept marriage design. And she accepted reluctantly. Now the marriage broke down and a sort of compensation for her and her family would have been for him to get married. Even if we take it on that basis, there’s nothing shameful or bad about it. But the reason I said he was commanded to do this is to live up to the standards that he has tried to observe in these kinds of programs, to give the facts as they are to document them as fully as comprehensively as possible. And the reason for saying that he was commanded to do this is that the
Quran itself, which is the ultimate final source,
in terms of the standard teaching, and those of the Prophet, it says, clearly indicates that it was not the choice of the Prophet that he was indeed commanded to do so. On that note, I think our time for today is exhausted. So let’s cut it off. Thank you all for watching and I invite you back next week to continue our series Assalamu alaikum peace
