revelations. Subsequently the Prophet embarked upon a
series of marriages — as many as fourteen, although not all
fourteen women were alive at the same time. He contracted
many of these marriages for political reasons.[23]
Muhammad even married the exwife of his adopted
son. It is said that Zaynab bint Jahsh possessed remarkable
beauty; Muhammad chanced upon her not fully clothed and
went away overcome. Zaid, his adopted son, offered to
divorce her so that the Prophet could marry her. Muhammad
told him to go back to his wife, but then Allah is said to
have intervened, and He commanded Muhammad to marry
Zaynab (see Sura 33:37). So Muhammad took Zaynab as his
wife, protected by Allah’s own words from the appearance
of scandal.
Most notoriously, Muhammad married the nine year old
Aisha. While this would be a scandal today, in
Muhammad’s time marriages with girls this young were not
uncommon. The problem is that Muhammad’s example
makes it extremely difficult today to stamp out child
marriage in the Islamic world. Lest there be any whisperings
about Muhammad’s large number of wives, Allah gave him
special permission to have more than the ordinary
Muslim.[24]
- What does the Koran teach about slavery?
The Koran assumes the existence of slavery. This
appears particularly in marriage law, which allows a man to
amass slave girls in addition to his four wives: ‘‘Forbidden
to you are your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your