Muhammad marries his adopted son's wife

[ush]

The following verse is about the story of Muhammad marrying Zainab, the wife of Muhammad's adopted son.


Behold! Thou didst say to one who had received the grace of Allah and thy favour: "Retain thou (in wedlock) thy wife, and fear Allah." But thou didst hide in thy heart that which Allah was about to make manifest: thou didst fear the people, but it is more fitting that thou shouldst fear Allah. Then when Zaid had dissolved (his marriage) with her, with the necessary (formality), We joined her in marriage to thee: in order that (in future) there may be no difficulty to the Believers in (the matter of) marriage with the wives of their adopted sons, when the latter have dissolved with the necessary (formality) (their marriage) with them. And Allah's command must be fulfilled.
-- Sura 33:37

There is a considerable moral problem with such a self-serving revelation. It is quite clear that Muhammad was attracted to Zainab before Zaid divorced her and it might well have been the true reason for the divorce itself. There are Muslim traditions which indicate this, but the Qur'an verse itself does make clear that there was something going on before Zaid's divorce from Zainab. In any case, this marriage with Zainab, wife of his adopted son seemingly caused quite a scandal in the Muslim community as this was looked upon as incest [the wife of the son]. Therefore it was necessary that a revelation will exhonorate Muhammad for his action. What better step can be taken than declaring that this was a step of obedience to Allah's will and command? Who wants to question Allah's command?

But there is more in this strange story. That this action is immoral and this revelation / justification of it self-serving and not fitting for a true word of God is an important aspect, but not a contradiction within the Qur'an - even though contradicting the true character of God, who is moral purity.

In this verse in Sura 33:37 there is stated a particular purpose for this revelation and action of Muhammad. It is not for himself, but it is for the future of the Muslim community. It is so that in future there may not be a problem if anybody wants to marry the divorced wife of an adopted son. And that is the logical difficulty: Adoption is forbidden in Islam ([1, 2]). This prohibition is based for example on these two verses from the same sura:


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.
-- Sura 33:4-5
Without adoption there cannot be any adopted son either. And so the explicitely stated reason for the revelation of this verse does not even exist. Muhammad himself dissolved the original adoption of Zaid when the above revelation came.

To summarize, the logical difficulty is that Allah(?) causes a scandal and then sends Gabriel to officially justify the action with a revelation and the express purpose for this revelation is "so that there will be no problem in future" with a situation that is not even possible under Islam. Those who are Muslims and are obedient to the Qur'an will not have adopted sons.

This logical problem is a further indication that this revelation was really not from God, but from Muhammad who wanted to justify his action before the community. It was not for the future (even though that certainly sounded better) but it was to calm down the emotional upheaval and resulting doubts about his integrity because of this action which was considered indecent.

[Abdur_Rahman]

you have nothing better to do than to cause evil and mischiefs.
All your claims are rejected and are totally wrong.
You never seem to read the context of a verse and just take it out to suite your false arguements.
A adopted son is not a son like the one your wife gives birth, biologically its unrelated. In Islam a adopted son is not exactly like your own son hence they can not inherit like the real sons.
In ISlam when a divorce takes place, then the divorcee is at right to marry whom they wish as long as they are not blood related closely eg, father, mother, brother, sister, aunts, uncles...so on. Therefore the Prophet (Pbuh) has done no wrong whatsoever.

If you had read history and were sincere you would not have made such a mischevious claim ( of course its not your claim, you have just copied and pasted it form some wired christian site).
Zaid the adopted son of the Prophet was having real serious problems with his wife, they were not compatible with each other. the Prophet of God tried his best to mediate between them so that their marriege does'nt break, but to no avail, they were not simply meant for each other. So the divorce took place.
Now that she was divorced the arabs who at that time still had some of their pagan customs started to make funn of Zaid's ex wife since she was ex-wife of a slave ,( Zaid was a slave previously). So the God Almighty decided to tell the world that all peopel are equall in the eyes of God and what best way to prove that than to do it through the Prophet of God.
So the Almighty said to the Prophet (Peace and Blessing on him)do not fear the people of what they might say, but fear Me because I Know whats in their hearts, and so the Noble Prophet (Pbuh) made an example to us by marrying the ex-wife of a slave and an adopted son.

More to come Evil spirit!

[Abdur_Rahman]

To Ush and rest of the Hypocrites and evil mongers, just to reiterate what I said above.

These are not new accusations but words that were generated by the hypocrites and backed by the pagans from the beggining. The verses referred to vindacated the prophet s.a.w. and did not come to cause an embarrassment to him rather, a shame on the hypocrites and the faint hearted.

Zaid was a slave who was freed and the proohet s.a.w. took the responsibilty of his guardianship from the early age. he favoured zainab a.s. and as she was from a wellknown family and zaid was a freed slave there
was opposition to the marriage. the prophet intervened and on the basis of equality and brotherehood in islam and the fact that unlike the era of jahiliyya(ignorance) no longer the family strata was to be considered as a merit in marriage supported zaid'a case for marriage. zainab and her family accepted and they were married. However, the problems
lingered on and people continued to torment the couple, on the one hand zaid was married to a higher than himself, as the hypocrites saw it, and zainab was married to a slave and had lowered herself.

A slave was a slave be it freed or not. Zaid could not tolerate the situation and evetually divorced Zainab. A woman divorced by an ex slave was not fit to be the
wife of anyone and as a result she had no hope of remarraige.

The prophet (Saw) who had been instrumental in the marriage interviened and married zainab at a time when no man would have married her, just like most of his
wives. This is history however, the hypocrites made a soup with their own desire that was more favourable to their taste. they came with several stories some of
which i mention here:

1-they said that zaid was the adopted son of the prophet and he cannot marry his son's ex-wife, which was true in the arabian custom.

2-that he had favoured zainab and that is why she was divorced so that he could marry her.

The answers to these allegations are:

1-qur'an clearly states that an adopted son can never be a son and rules applied to sons do not apply to adopted sons. therefore, the idea of the arabs of jahiliya (ignorance) was not valid in Islam, as most of their
ideas never are.

2-if he really favoured her he could have married her from the beggining. she was his cousin and he knew her long before zaid and with his influence, which he used to marry her to zaid he could have asked for her hand
himslef. He was a prophet (Saw) and highly loved and respected by all and any muslim girl would have loved to be his wife, to a muslim girl there would have been no honour higher than being the wife of the prophet
s.a.w. he married her not at her peak but when she was the divorced wife of an ex-slave and abondaned by her family.

Qur'an referes to the bickering of the people and tells the prophet , in support, that his action is correct and not to think or fear the people. Ofcourse he knew that anyway but the ayas of qur'an are evidence for those who were bickering rather than clarification of allah's s.w.t position.

[Kodus_Ali]

Abdur bai - should i have this guy banned for his lies?
he's getting me angry........

[Abdur_Rahman]

No not yet, Let his treachery and evil intentions come to the surface...

[Kodus_Ali]

That's cool with me.......but let him know that as a 'man of religion', one of the most fundamental aspects of being such a person, would be to 'promote' goodwill amongst the 'children' of Allah (God)

[muhammad]

Originally posted by Abdur Rahman:
To Ush and rest of the Hypocrites and evil mongers, just to reiterate what I said above.

These are not new accusations but words that were generated by the hypocrites and backed by the pagans from the beggining. The verses referred to vindacated the prophet s.a.w. and did not come to cause an embarrassment to him rather, a shame on the hypocrites and the faint hearted.

Zaid was a slave who was freed and the proohet s.a.w. took the responsibilty of his guardianship from the early age. he favoured zainab a.s. and as she was from a wellknown family and zaid was a freed slave there
was opposition to the marriage. the prophet intervened and on the basis of equality and brotherehood in islam and the fact that unlike the era of jahiliyya(ignorance) no longer the family strata was to be considered as a merit in marriage supported zaid'a case for marriage. zainab and her family accepted and they were married. However, the problems
lingered on and people continued to torment the couple, on the one hand zaid was married to a higher than himself, as the hypocrites saw it, and zainab was married to a slave and had lowered herself.

A slave was a slave be it freed or not. Zaid could not tolerate the situation and evetually divorced Zainab. A woman divorced by an ex slave was not fit to be the
wife of anyone and as a result she had no hope of remarraige.

The prophet (Saw) who had been instrumental in the marriage interviened and married zainab at a time when no man would have married her, just like most of his
wives. This is history however, the hypocrites made a soup with their own desire that was more favourable to their taste. they came with several stories some of
which i mention here:

1-they said that zaid was the adopted son of the prophet and he cannot marry his son's ex-wife, which was true in the arabian custom.

2-that he had favoured zainab and that is why she was divorced so that he could marry her.

The answers to these allegations are:

1-qur'an clearly states that an adopted son can never be a son and rules applied to sons do not apply to adopted sons. therefore, the idea of the arabs of jahiliya (ignorance) was not valid in Islam, as most of their
ideas never are.

2-if he really favoured her he could have married her from the beggining. she was his cousin and he knew her long before zaid and with his influence, which he used to marry her to zaid he could have asked for her hand
himslef. He was a prophet (Saw) and highly loved and respected by all and any muslim girl would have loved to be his wife, to a muslim girl there would have been no honour higher than being the wife of the prophet
s.a.w. he married her not at her peak but when she was the divorced wife of an ex-slave and abondaned by her family.

Qur'an referes to the bickering of the people and tells the prophet , in support, that his action is correct and not to think or fear the people. Ofcourse he knew that anyway but the ayas of qur'an are evidence for those who were bickering rather than clarification of allah's s.w.t position.

Salaam to AR and all the believers,

Excellent points AR! The example left by prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was a perfect example. These class systems still exist all over the world today...people look down on other people because of there race, education, etc. What these people don't realise is at the end Almighty Allah will judge and punish them for it! This attitute towards other people is not acceptable in Islam.

[This message has been edited by muhammad (edited 26 July 2000).]