a query!

[macerana]

dear all,

Internet is a queer medium. All this while,i knew very little about islam, But thanx to internet, today, i have visited lotsa sites, islamic as well as unislamic...and gained quite a bit of understanding about the faith. One of the things that constantly remained inconsistent is Prophet of Islam's marriages.

I want to know how many times did he really marry and why?

Some sites say-9 times, some say 12 times, some say 13 times, and few say 23 times.

whats the right number? and why had he to marry so many times?

thank you

[rehman1]

Re: a query!

Originally posted by macerana:
dear all,

Internet is a queer medium. All this while,i knew very little about islam, But thanx to internet, today, i have visited lotsa sites, islamic as well as unislamic...and gained quite a bit of understanding about the faith. One of the things that constantly remained inconsistent is Prophet of Islam's marriages.

I want to know how many times did he really marry and why?

Some sites say-9 times, some say 12 times, some say 13 times, and few say 23 times.

whats the right number? and why had he to marry so many times?

thank you

You have visited so many websites. why don't you email them
and find the answer.

[macerana]

yeah, i have visited number of sites, but they all show different number of wives of the prophet...even amongst the islamic ones, there is no consistency....some say four, other say nine, while rest say 12 or 13!!

i just asked, if anyone here knows exactly how many times the prophet had married!!

[CorruptAngel]

From what I have read, he married 13 times(correct me if I'm wrong)...why? because God ordered him to marry them. By the way, out of all his wives only one was a young virgin which is hazrat Aisha...All the rest including his most beloved wife Khadija :ra: were old and either widows or divorcee.

[armughal]

the prophet had 11 (eleven) wives....
they r...

1) khadijah bin khuwailid
2) sawdah bint zamah
3) aishah biont abu bakar
4) hafsah bin umar
5) zainab bint khuzaima
6) umm salamah
7) zainab bint jahash
8) juwairiyah bint al-haris
9) umm habiba bint abu sufyan
10)safiyah bint huyai
11) maimunah bint al-haris

two of them, khaidja and zainab bint khuzaimah died during the prophet's life....

these r the wives that the prophet consummated marriage with....

besides these he had 2 more wives whom he left in the first night (one had a disease and was divorced because it had been hidden from the prophet before mariage and the other asked the prophet not to touch her so he divorced her)....

besides these he had 2 female slaves....
1) mariyah qibtiya, who gave birth to the prophet's son ibrahim....
2) rehanah bint zaid, a captive from bani quraizah....

[macerana]

thank you currupt angel and ar moghal.

Currupt angel, all marriages are made in heaven. However, God allows only four marriages for muslim men.

armoghal, I did read, that prophet of islam kept concubines [female slaves] with whom he had relationships. Just wondering, isn't it forbidden to have relationship outside marriage?

Anyway, thanx again.

As a nonmuslim, i am just curious.

[Pakis_Rock]

The below link replies to your question.

http://islam.tc/ask-imam/view.php?q=10684

[macerana]

thank you, pakis rock i went through it.

Islam ensured that the slave girl's duties were not restricted merely to domestic chores but also gave her master permission to copulate with her. This concession created an atmosphere of love and harmony between the slave girl and her master. Islam thereby raised the status of the war captive-maidens close to that of wives. It was a psychological cure to her grief-stricken heart, being deprived of her family and thrown into the hands of a strange society.

To have a better working relationship, a servent has to sleep with with her boss?? its sick!! which way you see it!!

You may decorate it as much as you want, but it still remains a sexual exploitation of bonded labourers. Whats worst is it has legal sanction for it.

By no way, it is a psychological boost to any self respecting woman to become a forced sex slave, on the contrary its a major psychological setback for the wife too, to see her man having such relationships.

Can't these ppl, ever put themselves in such situations before making random judgements, that make them look stupid!


No! i am not trying to bash islam. Slavery prevailed in all soceities, so no surprises, it was acceptable in Islamic soceity too. The only thing that worked me up was a lack of sensitivity and futile attempt to cover up a misdeed. That was and is so apparrent and foolish.
Encouraging slavery and prostitution under a grab of religion, doesnot make it any more better.

[Code_Red]

I want to know how many times did he really marry and why?

If you really gone through many sites, you must have came across the detailed answer to your question. Both from islamic point of view and other.

For you to understand why prophet of islam :saw: married more then four women, you should first understand that it was not for sexual purposes(as prophet Mohammad in his prime age, married one lady 15 year older then him and did not marry any other women in her life)

Prophet had all the children from this lady and their marraige lasted for 20 years(roughly).

Now the above mentioned fact make all the allegation go down the drain.

Now the question arises that what was the need for many more marraiges.

You may or may not know the fact that prophet Muhammad, After settling in madeena. Established an institute, in which he gave education to muslims about basic Beilefs, Ethics, law, and almost all subjects which were related to daily life of a man. The students were all male.

The need to educate woman about their resposibilities and rights, ethics and morality was very much the same.

Islam does not allow men to have close relationship with Na-mehram* women.
*Na-mehram=A person you can marry

As husband and wife have an intimate relationship, that they can talk about any thing without much hessitence. So Allah ordered prophet Muhammad :saw: to marry more women so that they can get first hand knowledge about him, his habits and tell other muslim women about it. so that they can get the knowledge about islam from the source.
And it is a fact that a very high percentage of information about islam and prophet came to muslims through his wives.

If you want to understand, then you are most welcome to question.
If you want to bash islam or prophet then I think it would be useless to waste my time in answering.

p.s I will reply about your question about girl slaves in my next post

Take care

[Pakis_Rock]

Islam does not encourage slavery and strongly forbids prostitution. There are rewards for a person who frees a slave and Prophet Muhammad p.b.u.h. encouraged people to free slaves.

Islam does not allow or ever permitted anyboyd to capture a free person and make him/her a slave as was done in America when they captured free people from West Africa, made them there slaves and kept them in harsh conditions and mistreated them.

The case is not a question on keeping a slave or a slave girl, it is a part of treating the prisoners of war. In Islam a slave is a prisoner of war, who had fought against the Muslims and got captured. It is not any free being captured and made as slave.

Now what do the Non-Muslims do/did to the captives of war. They kill them in large numbers as they canno provide for all of them. Put them in inhumane conditions, lock them in cells and use the captured women as prostitutes for there army. This has been done by the non-muslims for 100s of years, in many wars and is what happened during/after the world war II. e.gs in Japan the captive women were put up for prostitution for there army and in Germany the conditions were so bad that the women were left in the streets who had to offer themselves for a piece of bread. Read the history.

According to Islam captives are treated humanly. Many captives were freed by the Prophet Muhammad p.b.u.h. and some were distributed as slaves among the army. He also told that the captives should be treated kindly and humanly.

Once the captives were distributed they are the responsibility of that person. He has to provide for the captives food, clothing and living. He cannot force himself on a women slave. Only he is allowed to have a rel ationship with her and not any other person. Islam also encouraged to marry these women and or set them free and a Muslim will be rewarded for freeing of their slaves.

At certain times, a Muslim is also advised to free a number of slaves in order to repent to a sin he/she might have committed. For example (I dont remember the Hadith correctly) if a Muslim breaks his oath, in repentence, Islam commands him to feed the poor for a number days or fast for a number of days or set free a number of slaves.

I belive that Islam has taught the better way of dealing with the prisoners of war and if you consider every aspect of War now and in the earlier days you could not come up with a better way of treating the slaves(prisoners of war).

[Yogi]

Originally posted by Pakis_Rock:
Islam does not encourage slavery and strongly forbids prostitution. There are rewards for a person who frees a slave and Prophet Muhammad p.b.u.h. encouraged people to free slaves.

Islam does not allow or ever permitted anyboyd to capture a free person and make him/her a slave as was done in America when they captured free people from West Africa, made them there slaves and kept them in harsh conditions and mistreated them.

The case is not a question on keeping a slave or a slave girl, it is a part of treating the prisoners of war. In Islam a slave is a prisoner of war, who had fought against the Muslims and got captured. It is not any free being captured and made as slave.

Now what do the Non-Muslims do/did to the captives of war. They kill them in large numbers as they canno provide for all of them. Put them in inhumane conditions, lock them in cells and use the captured women as prostitutes for there army. This has been done by the non-muslims for 100s of years, in many wars and is what happened during/after the world war II. e.gs in Japan the captive women were put up for prostitution for there army and in Germany the conditions were so bad that the women were left in the streets who had to offer themselves for a piece of bread. Read the history.

According to Islam captives are treated humanly. Many captives were freed by the Prophet Muhammad p.b.u.h. and some were distributed as slaves among the army. He also told that the captives should be treated kindly and humanly.

Once the captives were distributed they are the responsibility of that person. He has to provide for the captives food, clothing and living. He cannot force himself on a women slave. Only he is allowed to have a rel ationship with her and not any other person. Islam also encouraged to marry these women and or set them free and a Muslim will be rewarded for freeing of their slaves.

At certain times, a Muslim is also advised to free a number of slaves in order to repent to a sin he/she might have committed. For example (I dont remember the Hadith correctly) if a Muslim breaks his oath, in repentence, Islam commands him to feed the poor for a number days or fast for a number of days or set free a number of slaves.

I belive that Islam has taught the better way of dealing with the prisoners of war and if you consider every aspect of War now and in the earlier days you could not come up with a better way of treating the slaves(prisoners of war).

It is a shame when people talk about this issue in such a high esteem. Same person will shout foam out of his mouth if someone tells them to leave scarf outside the building.

[Code_Red]

Originally posted by Yogi:


It is a shame when people talk about this issue in such a high esteem. Same person will shout foam out of his mouth if someone tells them to leave scarf outside the building.

It is a shame when people dont want to listen to logical explanation. Instead they just want maintain their pre-emptive idea of some issue, no matter how much logical the explaination is.

You are free to to criticise, but do it with reasoning.

Islam has provided the wisest sollution for many evils of the society. We take prostitution and girl slavery.
Please note that both are very difficult to handle let alone abolish.

If you know about the early days of Islam. Their were lot of wars and many conquests. many captives both men and women. There are three way any govt at that time would treat those captive women

1. Set them free. Then most of them wont find any shelter and any means to earn living. As a result most would be forced to be prostitutes and they will be molested by many men. No one will be responsible for a child born as a result.

2. Take them as a prisoner, then they most probably will serve as a pleasure tool for army. And they will be molested by many men repeatedly. No one is resposible for a child born as a result.

3. Give one captive women to one man(or women) as a servent(slave).
So that she will be provided with shelter, bread and protection. And she will serve in the house and her capter may have sexual relationship with her. In that case she will have sex with only one man. And he will be resposible for the child born as a result of this relationshilp

Now any sensible person can judge what is the best solution.

Islam emphsised so much on the well being of slaves and gave them so many rights which were never given to them before. And encouraged people to free slaves.So to gradually eliminate this evil.

[PurelyAvgGirl]

Originally posted by CurruptAngel:
From what I have read, he married 13 times(correct me if I'm wrong)...why? because God ordered him to marry them. By the way, out of all his wives only one was a young virgin which is hazrat Aisha...All the rest including his most beloved wife Khadija :ra: were old and either widows or divorcee.

I am not speaking fact, however, I think marriage was applauded in olden days. Women back then..needed a husband to survive pretty much...and it was a mans duty to provide.

I think often marriage was encouraged in order to provide for widows.