ones to be punished.
For a wronged woman, there could have been no
better outcome, yet the form of it would be cruelly
turned around and used by conservative clerics in
centuries to come to do the opposite of what Muhammad
had originally intended: not to exonerate a woman but
to blame her. The wording of his revelation would apply
not only when adultery was suspected but also when
there had been an accusation of rape. Unless a woman
could produce four witnesses to her rape—a virtual
impossibility—she would be considered guilty of slander
and adultery, and punished accordingly. Aisha’s
exoneration was destined to become the basis for the
silencing, humiliation, and even execution of countless
women after her.
She had no idea that this would be the case, of course.
What she knew was that the accusations against her had
been declared false, and by no less than divine authority.
Her accusers were publicly ɻogged in punishment, and
the poets who had composed the most scurrilous verses
against her were now suddenly moved to compose new
ones in lavish praise of her. She returned to her chamber
in the courtyard of the mosque and resumed her role as
the favorite wife, though now with the added status of
being not only the sole person in whose presence
Muhammad had received a revelation but also the only
one to have had a revelation specifically about her.