I have been reading some blogs from ex-muslims who have left islam. This was not even the whole story of the bad deeds Mohammed did that led to terrible practices in the islamic world. He married the wife of one of his adopted sons.
Zaynab, wife of Zayd bin Haritha.
His reasoning behind why that was OK has led to the fact that now it is not permited to adopt kids in Islam. That is pretty evil, don't you think?
Adoption is indeed permitted in Islam. It's done all the time, and is called
kafalah. But under Islam, adoption does not change the rules of blood relation. An adopted child isn't renamed with the name of his/her adoptive family, but instead they retain the name of their biological family. The adopted child is not considered related by blood to his/her brothers and sisters, and is still considered related by blood to his/her biological brothers and sisters. This applies even through marriage and inheritance rules: an adopted child cannot marry their biologically-related siblings (naturally) but can marry their non-biologically-related adoptive siblings. And an adopted child still gets whatever inheritance his/her biological parents left to him or her.
In other words, you can take in and raise a child (considered a charity to orphans), but they still are considered part of their birth family and don't leave their old identity and heritage behind to become part of your family. Essentially, you're acting as a guardian and caretaker for the child, raising them in lieu of their own parents, until the child is old enough to take care of himself (and inherit from his biological parents).
The only exception to any part of the above is if the adopted child is younger than two years of age, and is breast-fed by the adoptive mother. This is called
riza'i (fostering), and while it doesn't alter any of the above regarding an adopted child's name or inheritance rights, it does make the adopted child's parents and siblings
mahram, just as if they were blood relatives instead of adopted relatives. A
riza'i child, unlike a normally adopted child, can't marry their siblings or foster parents...the familial relationships created by
riza'i are considered too close for that, even if there's no actual blood relationship.
All of this appears, from the chronology of
ayat concerning orphans and inheritance in the Qur'an, to have come about in an effort to prevent families from "adopting" orphans to get their hands on said orphans' inheritance, and most of it was revealed several years before Muhammad's marriage to Zaynab.
Most of the rules concerning adoption and the relation of the adopted to their adoptive families are found in Sura 4, revealed shortly after the Battle of Uhud in March of 625 AD (AH 3). Specifically (Yusuf Ali's translation):
4:2 "To orphans restore their property (When they reach their age), nor substitute (your) worthless things for (their) good ones; and devour not their substance (by mixing it up) with your own. For this is indeed a great sin."
4:6 "Make trial of orphans until they reach the age of marriage; if then ye find sound judgment in them, release their property to them; but consume it not wastefully, nor in haste against their growing up. If the guardian is well-off, Let him claim no remuneration, but if he is poor, let him have for himself what is just and reasonable. When ye release their property to them, take witnesses in their presence: But all-sufficient is Allah in taking account."
4:10 "Those who unjustly eat up the property of orphans, eat up a Fire into their own bodies: They will soon be enduring a Blazing Fire!"
4:23 "Prohibited to you (For marriage) are:- Your mothers, daughters, sisters; father's sisters, Mother's sisters; brother's daughters, sister's daughters; foster-mothers (Who gave you suck), foster-sisters; your wives' mothers; your step-daughters under your guardianship, born of your wives to whom ye have gone in,- no prohibition if ye have not gone in;- (Those who have been) wives of your sons proceeding from your loins; and two sisters in wedlock at one and the same time, except for what is past; for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful;"
Per the hadith, this was done due to Muhammad being questioned by his followers as to what to do with all the children left fatherless by the battle, and their inheritances being usurped by the unscrupulous.
The only addition to the above rules regarding adoption came two years later, shortly before the Battle of the Trench in 626 AD (AH 5), when Muhammad married the divorced wife of his adopted son, and that addressed the naming of adopted sons (Yusuf Ali has translated the Arabic '
Ad`iya'akum 'Abna'akum, "those you call/claim to be your sons", as "adopted sons", though the original Arabic makes more sense with the line about "such is only your manner of speech" since there was no actual separate adjective for "adopted sons" - other translations like Pikthall's make this distinction clear):
33:4-5 "Allah has not made for any man two hearts in his (one) body: nor has He made your wives whom ye divorce by Zihar your mothers: nor has He made your adopted sons your sons. Such is (only) your (manner of) speech by your mouths. But Allah tells (you) the Truth, and He shows the (right) Way. Call them by (the names of) their fathers: that is juster in the sight of Allah. But if ye know not their father's (names, call them) your Brothers in faith, or your maulas. But there is no blame on you if ye make a mistake therein: (what counts is) the intention of your hearts: and Allah is Oft-Returning, Most Merciful."
There was also a mentioning of Mohammed being so honorable to have married women whose husbands had died. But then, if you dig deeper you find out that these women were not exactly old maids. They were, in fact stunningly beautiful and Mohammed had had their husbands heads cut off.
Let's see. Muhammad's first wife was actually his employer, when he worked as a merchant in Mecca long before he claimed to have received his first revelation. Khadijah bint Khuwaylid was actually pretty close to being an "old maid", being forty years old when she married Muhammad (Muhammad himself was only 25 at the time). She was a wealthy and successful caravan manager, and while most traditions say she had been married once and left a widow before she met Muhammad, some say she was married and widowed twice before her marriage to Muhammad, and a few say she had never been married at all. However many there were, Muhammad had none of them beheaded. They were married for 24 years, until Khadijah's death at the very respectable (for 7th century Arabia) age of 64. All but one of Muhammad's children were born to Khadijah, and he never married another woman as long as she was alive.
After Khadijah's death, he married Sawda bint Zamʿa. Sawda was one of the early Muslims who fled to Abyssinia in 615 AD, during the period of persecution in Mecca in the years before the
hijra. Her husband Sakran, with whom she had several children, died during the return journey to Mecca - Muhammad did not have him beheaded. Muhammad married her a few years after Khadija's death, shortly before he fled to Medina in 622 AD. Sawda herself was also not a "pretty young thing", described by
ibn Kathir as "middle-aged, rather plump, with a jolly, kindly disposition", and was somewhere between 50 and 55 when she married Muhammad (traditions differ). She had no children with Muhammad, but did outlive him.
At around the same time, he married Ai'sha, the daughter of his closest companion Abu Bakr. Bill and I have already had a...er,
discussion regarding Ai'sha, so I'll just refer readers to that. Despite a marriage lasting ten years (even if you accept the Buhkari tradition that she was nine at the time of marriage, this stretched into her childbearing years), she and Muhammad had no children. She was not, in any tradition, previously married.
Muhammad's next two wives, Hafsa bint Umar and Zaynab bint Khuzayma, both were widowed during the early Medinan battles against Mecca. Hafsa's husband was Khunays bin Hudhaifa, one of the early converts to Islam. Sources are unclear as to what specific battle he was mortally wounded in, Badr or Uhud, but all agree that he was injured in battle with the Quraysh while fighting on the side of the Muslims, and died of those wounds. Muhammad didn't have him beheaded. Ibn Kathir says she was widowed at 18 and married at 20, meaning there was a gap of two years between the time her husband died and the time she married Muhammad. She and Muhammad didn't have any children together, though she was young when she married him and long outlived him.
Zaynab, on the other hand,
might have been married as many as three times before she married Muhammad, with her second and third husband killed at Badr and at Uhud, respectively. Ibn Kathir only notes that she was widowed when her husband was killed at Badr, and that she was 30 years old at the time of marriage. None of her reputed husbands were beheaded by Muhammad, but (like Hafsa's husband) died fighting on the side of the Muslims against the Quraysh. Not a lot is known about her, since she died (according to ibn Kathir) only 8 months after the marriage (the above linked PDF says she died after only
three months!).
The next woman Muhammad married, Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya, was also widowed by the early battles when her husband Abdullah ibn Abdul Asad died from wounds suffered at Uhud. Again, Muhammad didn't have him beheaded, and ibn Kathir relates that his wound was actually healing when it was reopened during the
Expedition of Qatan, and that when he died after being bedridden "the Prophet closed the eyes of his dead Companion and then raised them in prayer. "O Allah, grant forgiveness to Abu Salama; elevate him among those who are near to You; take charge of his family at all times; forgive us and him, O Lord of the worlds; make his grave spacious for him and fill it with light. Amin."" She was 29 at the time of her marriage, and had several children, and after she had rejected Abu Bakr's marriage proposal, Muhammad proposed, and as ibn Kathir writes:
"O Messenger of Allah," Umm Salama replied, "I have three main characteristics: I am a woman who is extremely jealous and I am afraid that you will see something in me that will make you angry and cause Allah to punish me; I am a woman who is already advanced in age; and I am a woman who has many children."
"As for your jealousy," answered the Prophet, "I pray to Allah the Almighty to take it away from you. As for your age, I am older than you. As for your many children, they belong to Allah and His Messenger."
Muhammad's next wife was Zaynab bint Jahsh, originally the wife of his adopted son Zayd as mentioned above. Muhammad actually went to Zaynab's family to ask for her hand in marriage for his adopted son Zayd, around 626 AD. Ibn Kathir wrote "When the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) asked for her hand on behalf of Zayd, Zaynab and her family were shocked at the idea of her marrying a man who in their eyes was only a freed slave." At first she and her brothers refused, until Muhammad revealed 33:36, "It is not fitting for a Believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Messenger to have any option about their decision: if any one disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong Path."
According to Maududi's
tafsir of that verse,
Ibn 'Abbas, Qatadah, 'Ikrimah and Muqatil bin Hayyan say that this verse was sent down at the time when the Holy Prophet proposed Hadrat Zainab for Hadrat Zaid, and Zainab and her relatives did not agree. According to Ibn 'Abbas, when the Holy Prophet made the proposal, Hadrat Zainab said, "I am better than him in lineage." Ibn Sa'd says that she also said, "I do not approve him for myself. I am a Quraishite by birth. " The same sort of disapproval was expressed by her brother, 'Abdullah bin Jahsh, because Hadrat Zaid was a freed slave of the Holy Prophet and Hadrat Zainab was the daughter of his paternal aunt, Umaimah bint 'Abdul Muttalib. They did not like the Holy Prophet to propose a girl of a noble Quraishite family, who was none other than his own first cousin, for his freed slave. At this, this verse was sent down and on hearing it Hadrat Zainab and all her relatives yielded to the proposal at once. Then the Holy Prophet married them, paid ten diners and 60 dirhams from his own pocket as dower on behalf of Zaid, provided the bridal dress and sent some articles of food for domestic use.
According to ibn Kathir, though, "The marriage, however, was not a success. Although both Zaynab and Zayd were the best of people, who loved Allah and His Messenger, they were very different and in the end they could not overcome their incompatibility. Zayd asked the Prophet's permission to divorce Zaynab more than once, and although he was counseled to hold onto his wife and to fear Allah, in the end the divorce took place."
Then, and only then, did Muhammad marry Zaynab himself (she was 35 years old at the time). And, it goes without saying, Muhammad didn't have his own adopted son beheaded (Zayd was killed three years after the marriage of his ex-wife to Muhammad, at the
Battle of Mu'tah).
Muhammad's next wife was Juwayriyya bint Harith, 20-year-old daughter of the chief of the Banu Mustaliq tribe, which the Muslims had defeated in battle in 628 AD. Juwayriyya was one of the captives taken in battle, and according to ibn Kathir, "By marrying Juwayriyya, the Banu Mustaliq would be able to enter Islam with honor, and with the humiliation of their recent defeat removed, so that it would no longer be felt necessary by them to embark on a war of vengeance that would have continued until one of the two parties had been annihilated. As soon as the marriage was announced, all the booty that had been taken from the Banu Mustaliq was returned, and all the captives were set free, for they were now the in laws of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Thus A'isha once said of Juwayriyya, "I know of no woman who was more of a blessing to her people than Juwayriyya bint al-Harith."" Muhammad didn't behead anyone in order to marry her - she hadn't been previously married.
Muhammad's next wife was Ramlah bint Abi Sufyan. She and her first husband, like Sawda and her first husband, were among the early Muslims who fled to Abyssinia in 615 AD. Upon arrival, however, her husband converted to Christianity, and she was automatically divorced from him. She lived alone and divorced in Abyssinia with her daughter for several years, until one day someone showed up at her door saying Muhammad wanted to marry her in 623 AD. She was actually married to him via a long-distance ceremony, though she wasn't able to actually travel back to Arabia to be with her husband for another six years. Ibn Kathir says that when she finally returned, she was 35 years old. Muhammad didn't behead her former husband either, who stayed in Abyssinia and eventually died there.
Rayhana bint Zayd ibn ʿAmr may or may not have been Muhammad's next wife. She was supposedly a member of the Banu Qurayza, a Jewish tribe of Medina that was supposed to have turned traitor to the Muslims. After being defeated in battle, all male members were beheaded, and the women taken as slaves - Rayhana was one of these, chosen by Muhammad as his slave. Conflicting tradtions and reports disagree as to whether she died a slave, set free and left Medina, set free and married to Muhammad and later divorced, or set free and married to Muhammad and died his wife. Ibn Kathir doesn't mention her at all. While if she were married to a member of the Banu Qurayza it would be true that Bill's accusation that Muhammad had his wives' husbands heads cut off, it's not known if she was married or not, nor her age.
Safiyya bint Huyayy is described by ibn Kathir and other sources as Muhammad's next wife, married to him at the age of 17. She was one of the Banu Nadir, one of the Jewish tribes defeated at the Battle of Khaybar and the daughter of the tribe's chief. Ibn Kathir mentions no previous husband, though other traditions say she was married to
Kinanah, whom
Ibn Ishaq said Muhammad had had tortured, and he was later beheaded by
Muhammad ibn Maslamah, though this story and Ibn Ishaq's transmission of it have been much criticized by other scholars.
Of all of Muhammad's wives, this is the
only one that fits the criteria of the accusation leveled by Bill, that she was young and pretty and Muhammad had her husband beheaded so he could marry her.
Muhammad's next wife was the not-young Maymuna bint al-Harith, who was 36 years old at the time of her marriage to Muhammad. Zaynab bint Khuzayma, one of the war-widows that Muhammad married, was her half-sister. Although she was middle-aged, ibn Kathir doesn't mention any previous husbands. Certainly none that were beheaded, at least. He does, however, say that Maymuna proposed marriage to
Muhammad, and not the other way around. The husband of another of Maymuna's sisters conveyed the proposal to Muhammad, which he accepted.
Muhammad may have had one last wife, Maria al-Qibtiyya, a Coptic Christian. Ibn Kathir doesn't say why she left Egypt and the court of
Muqwaqis and traveled to Mecca to become Muhammad's wife. Tabari says she and her sister were sent by Muqawqis along with a bunch of other loot as a sort of diplomatic offering to Muhammad. Sources conflict as to whether Muhammad actually married her, though as ibn Kathir notes, "certainly everyone gave her the same title of respect as the Prophet's wives, 'Umm al Muminin' 'Mother of the Believers'". Her age at the time of marriage is not known, but what is known is that Muhammad didn't behead anyone to get her, least of all a previous husband. Wife or not, she was the first to bear a child to Muhammad since Khadija a decade earlier. Muhammad's infant son, Ibrahim, fell ill and died at only 18 months of age.
Ibn Kathir writes: "Even though he knew that his small son would go to the Garden, the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) could not help shedding some tears. When some of his Companions asked him why he was weeping, he replied, "It is my humanness.""
This story was taken from one of the web sites I have been reading from people who have left Islam.
Maybe this will serve as an abject lesson as to why that's not such a good idea if you're really interested in the facts.
