Essay
Islam,
My Islam
Should God punish
men for their perverse doings, He would not leave on
earth a
moving thing! But,
to an appointed term doth he respite them; and when
their term is come,
they shall not delay or advance it an hour.
Sura “The
Bee” 16:63
Upon the Prophet’s return
to
Muhammad sat daily in the courtyard
of the mosque in
He
used none of the wealth which now poured into his treasury for himself
On the
other hand, he order that the members of the tribes of the Hashim and
the
Abdelmottalibs, who has stood by him in parlous times, were to have
free access
to the State treasury—that is, to the treasury of the
messenger of God. He was
also accustomed to give lavish gifts to his other friends, and the
ansar and
mohajirun received country places, money and cattle. Begging from the
Prophet
had become a constant habit on the part of most of the participants in
the
battles of Badr and Ohod.
It
is true that all the Muslims were equal. But the ansar and mohajirun,
who were
now assembled in
It was the irrefutable pre-eminence of the Prophet which allowed these dichotomies to exist—and to move forward in tandem—within the Muslim state: both the Meccan-centred, Kaaba-centred tribal worship of the hajj alongside the monotheism represented by the One God, by the Koran and by the universal acceptance in the Arabian Lands Muhammad as God’s Last Messenger. Bloodthirsty Arabs and genuine Muslims—after the conquest of Mecca and the destruction of the three hundred and sixty idols— were united in belief in Muhammad: the latter out of sincere religious conviction and the inspiration of faith and the former out of the irrefutable evidence .of Muhammad’s temporal power, his efficacy as a military and political ruler to whom all neighbouring military and political powers came to pay homage, acknowledging their subservience to him. This on-going duality of practical, worldly considerations wedded to subtler and more esoteric concerns of the spirit within Islam were amply demonstrated when
the Pentagon released the videotape of Osama Bin Laden in mid-December of 2001 wherein he declaims, “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.” To say the least, this is an alien viewpoint to the Judeo-Christian mind and spirit whose own experiences (including their experiences with Islam itself) have inculcated a profound suspicion of the “strong horse” whether that “horse” was the Babylonians, Persians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the various Caesars, Herod, Pontius Pilate or the legions under their command. Only in Islam is faith and temporal power unashamedly united as two sides of the same coin. To the Christian, temporal power is reserved for Christ alone upon his promised return. Which is not far from the Judaic viewpoint, differing only insofar as the Orthodox Christian view holds that the Messiah will return and Judaism’s conviction that Meschiach hasn’t come yet. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.
In the year 630,
Muhammad—having heard rumours that the
Christian Byzantine Emperor was contemplating a military campaign to
wipe out
Islam and annex the Arabian lands—mounted his own expedition
of thirty thousand
warriors. Upon reaching Thabouk, on the borderland of the Byzantine
Empire,
Muhammad declared, “There lies the
bordertowns, the Muslims returned to
I think it worth noting that, at the
time of this
expedition,
Less than two years after the
expedition to the boundaries
of the
The
malady began thus. He had given orders for an expedition to set out to
the
borders of
According
to Aisha, “The Apostle of God returned from the cemetery to
me. I had a
headache and complained ‘My head! My head!’ And he
replied, ‘No, Aisha. My
head!’ Then he said, ‘Wouldst thou be distressed to
die before me, that I might
stand over thee and enshroud thee, and pray for thee, and bury thee?
‘But I
exclaimed, ‘If that were to happen, I can see thee no sooner
bury me than
return to my house, to celebrate thy wedding with some other
woman!’ The
Apostle smiled, and, though the malady began to develop, he continued
to make
the round of his wives until, in the house of Maymuna, it overcame him.
Then he
called his wives to ask their permission to spend in my house such time
as he
was ill, and permission was granted to him.”
Part IV
I’m going to interrupt the telling of the last days of the Prophet to address the matter of his thirteen wives (fourteen, if you include Khadija, who died before his mission had been fully undertaken). Polygamy—and particularly polygamy on such a scale—is certain to raise the hackles of feminists everywhere, which is one of the reasons that I’ve chosen this late point in the recounting of the early history of Islam to address the issue. On the one hand, the Prophet’s wives, particularly Aisha, play a role of great significance in Islam. On the other hand, their role is a minor one when compared to that of, say, God or of the archangel Gabriel, or the Koran and the secular-humanist-feminist sensibility which so widely infects our present society can be catered to (in my view) only so far before proportion and perspective become so skewed as to obliterate what I see as the Genuine Meaning of God’s Revelation through his Last Messenger and Seal of Prophets. I wanted the important masculine qualities of that revelation to be fully addressed before giving the minor feminine chords their due: in complete violation of our degraded western feminist approach to any subject—which is to always trumpet and magnify whatever meagre feminine accomplishment can be attached to any story and only then to address its central, masculine considerations. First, an overview of the Prophet’s marital situation—to which Aisha referred (to Muhammad’s rare amusement) in the excerpt above:
At
the eastern entrance to the mosque in
It
was in these huts that the “mothers of the faithful,
“the numerous wives of the
Prophet, lived. Muhammad had more wives than were allowed by the laws
of Islam,
for only four wives were permitted to each of the faithful. The
Prophet, whose
life was filled with work and prayer was allowed to have as many wives
as his
strength permitted inasmuch as he was a favorite of God. Other Prophets
like
Solomon, David and Abraham, had enjoyed a similar privilege. Solomon
had a
hundred wives. God allowed him to have them, for superhuman virility is
the
sign of the Prophet. Muhammad was the seal of the prophecy. His
strength was
incommensurable. But Muhammad was an ascetic and although his strength
was
greater than that of Solomon, he only had fourteen wives.
Muhammad
was married to fourteen wives. Fourteen women had the title,
“mother of the
faithful. “ But countless were the number of women who came
to Muhammad and
asked for his love. To all of them Muhammad gave his love, for his
heart was
filled with sympathy and great was is inclination for the weakness of
women.
One
desire burned in Muhammad’s heart, and drove him from one
woman to another;
from one slave to the next. Muhammad wished for a son who would be
worthy of
his father inheritance. A son who could take over God’s state
and complete
Muhammad’s work. But his wish was never fulfilled and until
he was an old man
Muhammad wandered through the flower garden of his harem, sought out
beautiful
slaves, embraced countless women and prayed to God, the Creator of man.
But no
son was given to him. The last of the Prophets was not to have any
heirs.
If
Aisha was the favourite wife of the Prophet, then Sanda was certainly
the least
beloved. She was a widow of
merely
did so because he thought it was his duty. When Sanda learned of
Muhammad’s
love for Aisha, she did an amazing thing and probably something which
had never
occurred before. She officially gave over her night to Aisha. She
gained a good
deal through this. She remained in her hut until the end of her life,
regularly
received presents from the Prophet and was looked upon aka
“mother of the faithful”
Muhammad knew how to be grateful. “Even on the day of the
resurrection she will
be my wife, “Muhammad said of Sanda.
Khasar
bint Omar the daughter of Omar, was also not among the favourite wives
of
Muhammad. She had been married to a Muslim warrior. After the death of
her
husband, Omar was on the lookout for a suitable marriage for his
daughter.
Despite his great power, he could not force anyone to marry his
daughter for
she was both old and ugly. Omar felt humiliated and did not know what
to do.
When Muhammad heard of this, he had pity on his friend and did what but
few men
would have done, he married the daughter because of his friendship to
her
father He was also a good husband to her visited her regularly, gave,
her
presents and did not neglect the nights which were allotted to her.
On
the other hand, his love for Zainab was both gentle and genuine. She
had had a
very romantic past. Zainab had been the wife of Zaid, the former slave
and
adopted son of Muhammad. Muhammad had seen her and was pleased by her
appearance, her seriousness and her piety. He visited her a number of
times and
talked with her One day Zaid came to Muhammad and said, “0
Prophet, Jam but a
simple Muslim but you are the messenger of God. Your deeds are greater
than
mine and your wish is stronger than mine. Take my wife for you need her
more
than I do. “And the slave Zaid divorced his wife and gave her
to the Prophet.
Zainab was pious and very beautiful. She loved the Prophet because he
was a
Prophet, and did not wish to accept any money or presents from him.
Before she
had married Zaid, she had been a shoemaker and had sold her wares in
the
bazaars. Even as “mother of the faithful” she did
not stop her work. The money
she made was divided among the poor of the city. After Muhammad death,
when all
the wives of the Prophet were presented with gold by the caliphs, she
alone
remained poor and without demands. The Caliph Omar gave her a huge
fortune
which she distributed among the poor Each of the wives of the Prophet
were
entitled to choose something from the treasury of Islam, but Zainab
took
nothing but a lovely dress in which she wished to be buried. When she
died she
was carried on
Muhammad’s
bier to her grave, for next to Aisha, she was Muhammad v favourite wife.
Muhammad
wives were numerous and he loved them all ardently. He devoted much of
his time
to his harem and there are many provisions in the Koran concerning the
wives of
the Prophet. For example, they had to hide their faces modestly behind
veils in
the presence of strange men. At first this fashion was copied by the
upper
classes and then came into general usage. This was the origin of the
Muslim
practice of wearing veils. The wives of the Prophet were also forbidden
to
remarry after his death.
The
harem was made up of the nine huts around the mosque. Muhammad himself
did not
possess a hut. Even in the days of his grandeur when he ruled over all
in
succession.
Whenever
he brought a present to one of his wives, a similar g/i was given to
all the
members of the harem. On the other hand, he did not spoil his wives and
it was
considered a great event when, returning from a successful battle, he
gave each
of them eighty measures of figs, corn, and wheat. He did not permit
gossip or
jealousy among his wives and they were forbidden by means of severe
punishments.
Aisha
was not exempt from these punitive measures, for Muhammad was just to
both his
subjects and his wives. He was also quick Jo defend and protect any
woman who
had been dealt with unjustly.
On
one occasion Muhammad set out against a rebellious Jewish tribe. He
destroyed
the tribe and brought back with him a pretty Jewish maiden. The girl,
whose
name was Safiya, became his eleventh wife. The harem was annoyed upon
the
arrival of each of Muhammad new wives and Aisha, the most temperamental
of them
all, did not cease insulting the Jewess Safiya because of her faith.
One day
Muhammad heard them quarrel and said to Safiya: “Safiya, say
to this woman, my
father name was Aaron, my uncle was Moses, and who were your fathers?
Heathen!”
Thereupon he banished Aisha for two months.
An
Oriental conqueror battles the world with his sword, but he assures his
possession of it by means of the tender ties of marriage. if an eastern
people
is to obey its ruler then it wishes to be related to him. Even in our
day the
harem of an Oriental ruler contains women from all the provinces of his
country. The people fuel themselves related by blood with the children
of the
ruler; and this assures unity within the country. A similar fate was
not spared
Muhammad. The noblest families and tribes sent their prettiest women to
him so
that he might marry them.
Once
Muhammad received the news that the head of the royal tribe Kindit
wished to
send him his daughter for a wife. The nobler an Arab is the longer his
name.
One can have some idea of the nobility f this particular bride from her
father
name which was: Noman ibn Abi Djadu Aswad ben Kharits ben Djadu ben
Akul el
Merar The daughter of this famous man was considered one of the most
beautiful
of all the Arab women. Asma was brought to
At
the height of his power; when he ruled over all
The
Prophet took one of them but did not marry her. She
was a light skinned, curly-haired Copt,
Maria. Muhammad loved her passionately, she became his favourite
concubine and
he visited her frequently despite the objections of his wives. Maria
was the
only one among all the women who fulfilled his dearest wish, she bore
him a
son—Ibrahim, the heir of his empire. But his happiness was
short-lived for the
boy died when he was one year old.
Years
passed by. The youthful prowess of the Prophet began to wane. When he
was sixty,
the Prophet found it difficult to maintain the schedule of visits to
his wives.
Muhammad was a wise man and he had pity upon his wives. He knew that
women
ranging from seventeen to twenty years of age could not love a
sixty-year-old
man wholeheartedly, even f he was a Prophet. In his wisdom and
mildness, he
decided to extend freedom to his wives. He assembled them about him and
revealed the words of God in the 28th and 291k verses of sura 33,
“The
Confederates”:
0 Prophet! Say to thy wives: If ye desire this
present life and its
braveries,
come then, I will provide for you, and dismiss you
with an honorable
dismissal. But if ye desire God and His Apostle, and a home in the next
life,
then, truly, hath God prepared for those of you who are virtuous, a
great
reward.
‘Reflect
upon the words of God,” said the Prophet, “and
answer according to your conscience.”
All the women replied: “We love God, His messenger and that
which comes after death.”
Only one of the women, Fatima of the tribe of Kilab, preferred the joys
of her
youth. The Prophet gave her many presents and dismissed her Later on
she became
so poor that she was forced to collect camel dung to be used for fuel
She died
in dire poverty and was called Chkyka, the miserable one.
The
“mothers of the faithful,” the first wives of the
Prophet, lived modestly and
in retirement, Little provision was made for their person and nearly
every
comfort was lacking in their huts. There was not even a place where
they could
satisfy their needs, so that they were often forced to retire to the
desert at
night for this purpose. It was only during the last years of his life
that the Prophet
caused conveniences to be erected, for he suspected that their
nocturnal
excursions were
for
purposes other than those they claimed
The Prophet’s deeply-rooted suspicion of what might or might not transpire when a wife goes out into the desert to answer a call of nature had its origin in a particular episode, which we will see momentarily.
The
wives of the Prophet owned nothing and they were overjoyed at the
smallest gift.
Their entire fortune consisted of twelve ounces of gold which the
Prophet had
paid for them.
Later,
when the Prophet was dead and Islam has already encircled an entire
world, the
women were richly provided with gold The treasuries of the caliphs were
constantly at their disposal. The widow’s pensions were small
fortunes and more
money was offered for the lowly huts than had ever been possessed by
all
Safiya
left a fortune of one hundred thousand gold dirhems.
All
the treasures of the orient were now at the disposal of the
Prophet’s wives.
Their relatives “were given the highest positions in Islam.
Selma, who at first
did not wish to marry the Prophet because she had children for whom
Muhammad would
have had to provide, lived to see Ali appoint her sons as governors of
entire
provinces. For generations, the blood relatives of the wives of the
Prophet
together with his own relatives, made up the aristocracy of Islam. The
wives themselves
were given all honours up to the time of their death and not a single
caliph
dared deny them any wish.
In
this fashion posterity honoured the women who had loved God and His
messenger
more than they did all the joys of existence, the women who lived in
narrow
huts in which the Prophet spent his nights, and who never had wheaten
bread to
eat for two successive days.
Moving now from an overview of the Prophet’s marital situation, I anticipate the feminist ballistic level to escalate several notches in addressing the circumstances under which the marriage to his favourite wife, Aisha (who is always so designated despite the fact that it is a centerpiece of polygamous marriage in Islam that each wife is to be treated equally and that no favouritism is to be shown) took place:
The
nicest—that is to say, the least lowly of the
huts—belonged to the favourite
wife of the Prophet, the daughter of Abu Bakr the friend and
well-wisher of
Muhammad, the beautiful Aisha. Aisha was six years old when Muhammad
had first
seen her in
“I
sat,” recounted Aisha, “on a rocking chair and I
was playing with other girls. My
mother called me. I went although I did not know why she had called me.
My
mother took me by the hand and led me to the door of the house. My
heart began
to beat but gradually I again became quiet. I washed my face and hair
and my
mother dressed me up and led me into the house where there were many
women.
They received me with good wishes and they also decorated me. When they
were
finished, they gave me over to the Prophet.”
Aisha
was the favourite wife of the Prophet, and of the many who were his,
she was
the only one who had come to him as a virgin. Following the ancient
Arabian
custom, he had paid her father Abu Bakr twelve ounces of gold. Later on
this
was also the price Muhammad was willing to pay for a wife. He never
paid more.
During the first year of the great flight it was impossible for
Muhammad to
raise twelve ounces of gold. But since tradition had to be maintained,
the fat
her of the bride, Abu Bakr, lent the gold to his friend Muhammad who in
turn
solemnly offered it as the purchase price for Aisha. Memories of the
first hard
years in
When
Aisha married she was still a child and she had brought her toys with
her to
the house of her husband. She played with dolls and amazed the
faithful, for
dolls are representations of human beings. They are strictly forbidden
in
Islam. But Aisha was permitted to do much which was forbidden to others
of the
faithful. ‘he was very pretty, witty and playful, liked to
wear gold rings and
anointed her hair so much that the ointment oftentimes ran down her
forehead.
The central episode in Ibn Ishaq’s biography of Muhammad which concerns Aisha takes up a whole chapter, under the (somewhat) odd—but, to me, entirely suitable—title of “Aisha and the History of the World”. It takes place when Aisha is a teenager—anywhere from twelve to sixteen years old, depending on whose math you’re using:
According
to Aisha, “When the Apostle of God was about to depart on a
journey, he used to
throw lots to decide which of his wives he would take with him. Before
an
expedition against the Banu Mustaliq, my lot came out, so the Apostle
of God
took me with him. In those days women used to eat only the necessities
of life,
and did not become strong and heavy on meat. When my camel was ready, I
would
seat myself in the howdah, which my attendants would then lift on to
the back
of the camel; then they would attach it to the beast and we could set
off.
“During
our return from the Mustaliq expedition we paused to rest for a night.
Before
the company set off again, I withdrew for a moment, but I was wearing a
string
of Yemeni beads and when I returned I found they had fallen from my
neck.
Although the people were about to start I went back to the place where
I had
been and searched until I found them. The attendants who were in the
habit of
saddling my camel had meanwhile done so and had taken up the howdah
(thinking
that 1 was in it as usual) and tied it upon the camel; then they had
led the
camel off When I returned to the camp not a soul was there, so I
wrapped myself
in my cloak and laid myself down, for I knew that they would miss me
and come
to seek me.
“While
I was thus reclining, Sufi van—who had fallen behind the
company for some
reason, and had not spent the night with them—passed by and
observed me. He
exclaimed, “To God we belong, and to Him we must return! This
is the wife of
the Apostle of God!” and he brought his camel near and said,
“Mount!” He
withdrew a little and I mounted, then he took hold of the camel head
and
advanced rapidly, being anxious to overtake the company; but we neither
overtook them, nor did they miss me, until they again encamped. When
Sufwan
arrived, leading me on his camel, slander was uttered against me
although I
knew nothing of it.
What is omitted (in my view, rather significantly) from this version of the story is that Muhammad had taken another wife or a concubine from among the captives of the Mustaliq campaign, who occupied his attentions on the return journey as Aisha had done on the outbound part of the expedition.. .leaving Aisha, presumably, largely abandoned and to her own devices. It seems to me not altogether unlikely that the Prophet’s teenaged wife had gotten up to some kind of mischief as a result. Adultery with Sufwan seems an extremely remote possibility, given that the punishment in Islam is death by stoning. At the same time, in the vast expanse of the desert, how did Sufwan happen upon little Aisha in the midst of an abandoned camp? What was he doing, lagging so far behind the others? Leaving that aside, I don’t think it possible to underestimate the significance of Aisha’s own words: “. . .for I knew that they would miss me and come to seek me,” in searching out an ulterior motive on the part of a vain, teenaged wife who has been abandoned by her husband for the company of another.
“I
became very ill when we arrived in
“At
that time we still lived like true Arabs and had no privies in our
houses as
the Persians did, because we despised and disliked such luxuries.
Instead, ‘we
went out to an open plain in
imputations
and slander’
“Meanwhile,
unknown to me, the Apostle of God addressed the people, gloried and praised God, and said,
‘How do you dare to
insult me by insulting my family, and by saying things about them which
are not
true? By God, I know nothing but good of them. ‘[The lies
were spread by some of
the Khazraj and the sister of another wife of the Apostle.] When the
Apostle of
God had finished, Usayd, one of the Aws, rose and said, ‘If
the slanders are
spoken by the Aws, we shall silence
them;
and f they be spoken by our brothers, the Khazraj, say the word and we
shall
punish them!’ Then one Sad b. Ubada, who had hitherto seemed
a true Believer
said, ‘You lie. By God, you have suggested this punishment
only because you
know the slanderers are of the Khazraj; had they been of your tribe you
would
not have suggested it.’ Usayd retorted, ‘You lie,
by God! You are a
Hypocrite
and give your support to the Hypocrites!’ Then the people
assailed each other, and
it would have taken little for evil to come to pass between the two
tribes.
“The
Apostle of God now consulted Ali and Usama, and Usama spoke only what
was good,
saying, ‘0 Apostle of God. We know only good of Aisha, and
thou knowest only
good of her, and these are merely false and idle rumours!
‘But Ali said, ‘There
are many women! Thou canst take •another! Ask her slave and
she will tell thee
the truth. ‘So the Apostle of God summoned my slave to
examine her Au rose and
struck the woman a violent blow, and said, ‘Tell the truth to
the Apostle of
God and she replied, ‘1 know only what is good; and I cannot
say ill of Aisha,
save that one day I was kneading my dough and asked her to watch it,
but she
fell asleep and a sheep came and ate it up.’”
Considering that this version of events was, presumably, being related by Aisha to Ibn Ishaq or one of his predecessors decades after the fact (Aisha outlived the Prophet by almost fifty years), you have to admire the scrupulous bits of detail like the sheep eating her slave’s dough. Although it would take many years for the full impact of Ali’s lack of faith in Aisha’s virtue to be felt in Islam, the fact that he didn’t support her version of events effectively doomed his chances at being Muhammad’s successor, despite the fact that Muhammad himself had declared him to be “my satrap, my vizier” when Ali was only ten, Here the seeds were planted for the schism between Shiite Muslims (who believed—and still believe to this day—in the intended succession through Ali and his sons) and Sunni Muslims (who believe in the succession through the Caliphs, beginning with Abu Bakr, coincidentally—or not-so-coincidentally, depending on your viewpoint—Aisha’s father).
Meanwhile, back at the Muslim version of As The World Turns:
“After
this, the Apostle came to me, while both my parents were with me; and I
wept.
He sat down, gloried and praised God, and then said, ‘Thou
must have heard what
the people are saying. Fear God! If thou hast done wrong, then repent,
for God
accepts the repentance of his servants. ‘While he spoke thus,
my tears ceased
to flow. I waited for my parents to reply to the Apostle, but neither
of them
spoke; and l entertained too low an opinion of myself to hope that God
would
reveal verses of the Koran about me. But I hoped the Apostle might have
a
vision in his sleep, in which God would expose the liars, or justify
me, or
tell the Apostle the truth. When I saw that my parents did not speak, I
asked,
‘Will you not reply to the Apostle of God? ‘They
said, ‘We know not what to say
to him!’
“When
I saw my parents thus estranged from me my tears flowed once more, and
I cried,
‘I shall never repent to God for what I am accused of because
God knoweth I
should be repenting something which did not occur, and thus I should
speak
untruth. But f I deny the charges, you will not believe me.’
“And
the Apostle of God had not yet left us when he lost consciousness, as
always
happened before a revelation; then I neither feared nor cared, for I
knew that
I was innocent, and that God would do no injustice to me. But my
parents seemed
about to die for fear lest God might send a revelation confirming the
words of
the slanderers.
“The
Apostle of God came back to consciousness and sat up, and the
perspiration
trickled like pearls from his forehead, although it was a winter day.
Then he
wiped it away, and said, ‘Allah has revealed thy innocence,
‘and I replied,
‘God be praised! ‘After that, he went out to the
people and recited to them
verses of the Koran revealed to him by God, and he ordered the
slanderers to be
scourged.”
Sufwan,
who had been slandered with Aisha, met one of the worst slanderers, the
poet
Hassan, and struck him with his sword. Another man, Thabit, hastened to
assist
Hassan, grasping Sufwan, and tying his hands to his neck with a rope;
he then
took him to the dwelling of one of the Khazraj, where Abdullah b.
Rawaha met
them. He asked, “What is this?” and Thabit replied,
“Are you displeased? He
struck Hassan with a sword and, by God, he might have killed him.
“Abdullah
asked, “Does the Apostle of God know of this?” and
when Thabit said he did not,
Abdullah told him, “You have been presumptuous! Let the man
go.”
When
the Apostle heard of this, he had Sufr’an and Hassan brought
before him, and
Sufwan explained, “He offended and mocked me; anger overcame
me, and I struck
him. “ Then the Apostle said to Hassan, “Why do you
malign my people when God
has given them enlightenment? I think you deserved the blow
“However the
Apostle soothed the poet by presenting him with a fortress in
Quite a roller-coaster ride for all concerned. I consider myself a pretty dispassionate individual, but you can’t help but have great empathy for this weepy-eyed teenager whose parents are, if not “hanging her out to dry” at least not exactly putting their necks on the line on her behalf. It does seem significant to me that Muhammad—who made no secret of his complete antipathy for poets of all kinds, and particularly for those who offend and mock others with their verses—effectively rewarded Hassan with a fortress and a Coptic slave girl for casting aspersions on Aisha’s virtue. Or, perhaps more accurately, who bribed the poet with these materialisms to change his tune on the same subject. In both instances, describing either possibility as “significant” dramatically understates the case, in my view.
[Parenthetically, on a subject
related only tangentially to
the above, I think it also worth noting that Islamic tradition holds
that it
was Aisha who introduced the idea of Muslim women “taking the
veil” and by the
same tradition that it was at her instigation that all of the
Prophet’s wives
began to do so, covering themselves from head-to-toe in public so as to
prevent
any eyes but those of the Prophet from beholding their unadorned
beauty. Given
Aisha’s own well-documented adolescent vanity, it would not
surprise to find
that she did so specifically to try and win back Muhammad’s
favour and to
assist in the restoration of his faith in her wifely honour and virtue.
Whether
her purpose was accomplished or not, it is irrefutable that the
prestige which
attached itself to the Prophet’s wives covering themselves in
this fashion
quickly gained favour with the aristocratic ladies of Arabia as a sign
of a
husband’s high station in life and persists in all areas of
the Muslim world as
a demarcation between the upper and lower classes. So, unfortunately
for
feminists everywhere who insist on seeing the veil—and the
burqa—as a sign of patriarchal
dictatorship, neither is likely to disappear from the Muslim world
anytime
soon. Because of the prestige attached to being a “woman of
cover,” attempting
to legislate against the veil or the burqa has about as much chance of
success
as would an attempt to pass a law in
Okay, now that you have a little better idea who Aisha is, we can return to Muhammad’s last days as the fatal illness continues to sap him of his strength:
Part V
At
the time of his illness, Aisiw said, “The Apostle of God came
walking between
The
Apostle went out with his head bandaged, and sat upon the pulpit. The
first
words he spoke were words of prayer for those who had fallen at Uhud;
for them
he implored pardon and again prayed at some length. Then he said,
“God has
given one of His servants the choice between this world and the next,
and he
has chosen to be with God. “Abu Bakr understood these words
and knew that he
meant himself so he wept, saying, “Nay. We shall give our own
lives and those
of our children for thine.” But the Apostle said,
“Look to these doors which
open into the mosque, and close them all save those which lead to the
house of
Abu Bakr because I have known no better companion than he.”
While
the Apostle was sick the people delayed the expedition he had
commanded, but he
said, “Carry out the expedition to the Syrian border
“and the people hastened
their preparations.
He
commanded the Emigrants to treat the Helpers well, saying,
“Other groups
increase, but the Helpers must remain the same in number and cannot
increase.
They were my asylum and gave me shelter Be kind to those who are kind
to them,
and punish those who injure them. “Then the Apostle entered
his house, and the
sickness overcame him so that he fainted.
The
wives of the Apostle gathered to consult, and all agreed that they
ought to
pour medicine info his mouth. The uncle of the Apostle, al-Abbas,
offered to
pour it himself When the Apostle recovered from his swoon he asked,
“Who has done
this to me?” and they replied, “Thy
uncle!” He said, “This is a medicine
brought by women from
According
to Aisha, “When the Apostle had become very ill, he said,
‘Order Abu Bake to pray
with the people! ‘And I replied, ‘Abu Bake is a
tender-hearted man with a weak
voice, and he weeps much when he reads the Koran. ‘But he
said, ‘Order him to
pray with the people! ‘I objected only to spare my father,
because I knew the
people would never wish another man to stand in the Prophet’s
place, and would
blame my father for any evil which might occur.”
Speaking as someone who tries as much as possible to steer a middle course between Shia and Sunni Islam—in much the same way that I try to recognize the validity of both Protestant and Catholic Christianity—while still keeping a critical eye on the texts which support both views, I must confess that I have always found Aisha’s recollections of events of the Prophet’s last days.. .opportune (to use a charitable term for it). It seems to me of no small value to the Sunni version of events that those last conversations with the Prophet, to which only Aisha was privy within the confines of her hut, favour—so vehemently—the perception of the Prophet being possessed of an ardent inclination towards Aisha’s father. I’m not saying it wasn’t so, but my suspicions are somewhat aroused. Had the Prophet actually been that emphatic in his declaration, it seems likely to me that—not only wouldn’t the sixteen-year-old Aisha have had the nerve to object to the Prophet’s order, but that she would, in fact, have flown to the Prophet’s Mosque as fast as her little sixteen-year-old feet would have carried her to have the order implemented. The sexagenarian Aisha, on the other hand, long grown used to her every utterance and whim being “carved in stone” in Islam (a subject on which both Shia and Sunni texts fall strangely mute, apart from acknowledging that, yes, Aisha implemented hundreds of different shariat laws, of which only a small percentage were not revoked after her death) would probably have remembered the episode as having occurred in just that fashion, decades after the death of both the Prophet and her father, the first Caliph.
On
the Monday on which God took His Apostle he went out to the people at
their
morning prayers. The curtain at Aisha door was 4fied, the door opened,
and the
Apostle of God came out and stood in the doorway. When the Muslims
caught sight
of him they were almost diverted from their prayers through joy at his
presence. He signaled them to continue their devotions, and smiled with
pleasure as he watched them pray; never had the watchers seen him wear
a more
beautiful expression than then. After the prayers he addressed the
people in a
voice loud enough to be heard outside the door of the mosque. He said,
“The
fire is kindled, and confusion descends like darkness. But ye have
nothing to
reproach me for I have allowed only what the Koran allows, and have
forbidden
what the Koran forbids.” When the Apostle had finished
speaking Abu Bakr said,
“Apostle of God! I see thou hast risen this morning, by the
favour and grace of
God, in the state of health we love to see thee in!” Then the
people went to
their homes, satisfied that the Apostle was recovered from his illness.
But
al-Abbas had said that morning to Ali, “I swear by God that I
have seen death
in the face of the Apostle. “And he was not mistaken.
Aisha
said, “When the Apostle of God returned that morning from the
mosque he rested
on my lap.” Usama, in command of the Syrian expedition, had
camped outside
Medina, but when he heard the Apostle was dangerously ill he went down
to
According
to Aisha, “a man of the family of Abu Bakr happened to enter
with afresh
toothpick in his hand and the Apostle of God looked at it in such a way
that I
knew he wanted it. I asked, ‘Shall I give thee this
toothpick? ‘and he replied,
‘Yes’. So I took it and chewed it until it became
soft and gave it to him. He
rubbed it against his teeth, more sharply than I had ever seen him do,
and then
he laid it down again. Then I found that he was becoming heavily in my
lap, and
I looked at him and saw that his eyes were turned upwards; and he said,
‘Nay!
Rather the companion in paradise!’ I had often heard the
Apostle say, ‘God
takes no Prophet away without giving him a choice,’ and when
he died his last
words were, ‘Rather the companion in paradise’.
Then I thought, ‘He has not
chosen our companionship. ‘And I said to him, ‘The
choice was thine, and I
swear by Him who sent thee that thou host chosen what is right.
‘Then the
Apostle of God died, at noon on Monday.
“The
Apostle died on my breast, despite my foolishness and youth. I placed
his head
on a cushion, and then I rose and began to strike my face and beat my
breast
with the other women.”
And then.. .and then.. .when I read Aisha’s confession of the Prophet’s last words, knowing what a toll that would exact on any wife—let alone a teenager who had been the undisputed favourite of God’s Last Messenger and Seal of Prophets—my faith in her is restored, at the very least to the extent of acknowledging that Aisha was a woman unlike other women, even granting her self-admitted foolishness and youth.
In the immediate aftermath of the end of the Age of Prophets:
Now
Omar rose before the people and said, “Some Hypocrites say
that the Apostle of
God is dead! He has not died, but has departed to his Lord, just as
Moses left
his people for forty days, and returned to them when it was rumoured he
was
dead. By God! The Apostle will return just as Moses did, and the hands
and feet
of the men who have said that the Apostle is dead will be cut
off!”
Abu
Bakr arrived, and alighted at the door of the mosque while Omar was
talking
thus. But he took no notice, and went in to see the body of the Apostle
in the
house of Aisha. It was laid out and shrouded with a striped mantle.
This he
removed from the face of the Apostle and, kissing it, said,
“Thou art to me as
my father and mother! Thou hast tasted the death which God decreed for
thee;
but after it, no death will ever come to thee again.” Then he
covered the face
of the Apostle and went out. He went to Omar and said,
“Gently! Listen to me!”
but Omar paid no attention, and continued his speech.
When
Abu Bakr saw that he would not listen he himself turned to the people,
who left
Omar and came to him. Then he gave praise to God and said,
“Let all who adored
Muhammad know that Muhammad is dead, and let all who adore God know
that God is
eternal and never dies.” Then he recited the verse
“Muhammad is but an Apostle.
Other Apostles have passed away before him. If he die or be slain will
ye turn
back? He who turns back does no injury to God; and God will surely
reward those
who give thanks. “And it was as f the people had never heard
this verse until
Abu Bakr recited it then.
Omar
told thereafter how “When God had caused His Apostle to die,
the Helpers
disagreed with the Emigrants about what should next be done, and they
gathered
to discuss it. I said to Abu Bakr ‘Let us go to our brethren
the Helpers, ‘and
we went, and sat down with them. Then their orator pronounced the
Confession of
Faith, uttered due praise to God, and said, ‘We are the
Helpers of God and the
army of Islam, and you Emigrants are apart of us. ‘And they
intended thus to
take dominion away from us. When he ceased to speak I prepared to reply
and had
already thought out an oration which pleased me when Abu Bakr said,
‘Gently,
Omar! ‘And I was unwilling to anger him. -
“Then
he spoke and he was more learned and dignified than I. There was not a
sentiment I had intended to use which he did not express in the same or
even in
a better way than I could have done. He said, ‘Whatever good
qualities you
claim, you are possessed of! But the Arabs concede supremacy only to us
of the
Koreish, who are the centre of the Arab world by heredity and position.
I
propose to you one of these two men as leader and you may pay homage to
whichever you prefer! ‘Then he took hold of my hand and that
of Abu Ubayda.
This was the only sentiment in his speech which displeased me, for I
would
rather have had my head struck off than govern over a man so great as
Abu Bakr.
“Then
a Helper rose and said, ‘Let there be one Amir selected from
the Helpers, and
one from the Emigrants, ‘and many voices were raised and
there was confusion.
So, fearing dissension, I cried to Abu Bakr to stretch out his own hand
and I paid
him homage. Then all paid him homage.”
And—evidently——in
just so effortless a fashion, the
succession of the Prophet was decided, not on the basis of piety, not
on the
basis of the close friendship to the Prophet of the would-be successor,
but
rather on the basis of the pre-eminence of the Koreish, as the centre
of the
Arab world by heredity and position. This is the reason, in the last
installment,
that I questioned whether the merging of Islam with
Finally,
Abu Bakr spoke again. He said, “I am appointed to govern you,
although I am not
the best of you. If I act well you must aid me, and if I act unjustly
you must correct
me. Truth is faithfulness and falsehood is treachery! No nation has
failed to
fight for God but God has punished it with abasement; nor has
wickedness become
widespread without God sending calamity. Obey me as long as I obey God
and His
Prophet! But should I rebel against God and His Prophet you will owe me
no obedience!
Rise to your prayers and may God have mercy on you!’
On
Tuesday, after allegiance had been paid to Abu Bakr the people made
preparations for the burial of the Apostle of God, Ali, al-Abbas and
his sons
al-Fadl and Qutham, with Usama and Shuqran, took it upon themselves to
wash the
corpse. Au leaned the body against his own breast, while al-Abbas,
al-Fadl and
Qutham helped to turn him. Usama and Shuqran poured the water whilst
Ali washed
him. Ali said, “Thou art my father and my mother! How
beautiful thou art, alive
and dead! “And there was nothing distasteful, as with other
dead bodies, in the
corpse of the Apostle of God,
Aisha
said, “When they were about to wash the Apostle, they
disagreed and said, ‘By
God! We do not know whether we ought to strip the Apostle of God as
corpses are
usually stripped or whether to wash him in his clothes. ‘As
they are
discussing, God sent sleep upon them so that there was not a man among
them who
did not slumber; and they heard a voice which they knew not, saying,
‘Wash the
Prophet in his garments!’ They rose and washed the Apostle of
God in his shirt,
pouring water over it, and rubbing it with their hands, so that the
shirt was
between their hands and the body” After the washing had been
completed, the
Apostle was wrapped in three garments.
When
the body had been arranged and laid out on the couch in his own house
the
Muslims knew not where to bury him. One said, “Let us bury
him in his mosque.
“Another said, “Let us bury him with his
companions. “And Abu Bakr said, “I
have heard the Apostle of God say that every Prophet should be buried
on the
spot where he died “Accordingly the bed on which the Apostle
had been resting
was lifted up, and the grave dug under it. But there was doubt about
the form
of the grave.
Abu
Ubayda was accustomed to dig graves plainly, according to the fashion
of Mecca,
but Abu the grave digger of Medina, dug them in a vaulted shape.
Al-Abbas
therefore called two men, and said to one of them, “Go to Abu
Ubayda,” and to
the other “Go to Abu Talha. “ He added,
“God, choose for Thy Apostle. “Abu
Ubayda could not be found, but the man who went to Abu Talha found him
and
brought him; so he dug the grave of the Apostle in the
Then
the men entered in throngs to pray for him. When they had completed
their
devotions the women came in; and when they had finished the children
came. Yet
no one had directed the people to visit the corpse of the Apostle of
God.
The
Apostle of God was buried in the middle of the night on Wednesday.
Aisha said,
“We knew nothing about the burial of the Apostle until we
heard the sound of
pickaxes in the middle of the night.” Those who went down
into the grave of the
Apostle were the same men as washed the corpse. When the Apostle had
been laid
in the grave and it was to be built up, his freed slave, Shuqran, took
a
wrapper which the Apostle had used often and worn out; and, burying it
in the
grave, he said, “No one shall wear it after thee.
“It remained interred with
the Apostle.
According
to Aisha, the Apostle had said when he was dying, “The curse
of God is on a
nation which makes the graves of its Prophets into places of worship.
“But, he
knew that his own followers would do this.
Abu Bakr became the successor to the
Prophet, Ruler of the
Faithful, Shadow of God on Earth, Governor of the Messenger of God and
became
the first to hold these exalted titled as Caliph of Islam. Abu Bakr
ruled for
only two years. Not long, but long enough to launch successful military
campaigns against