chapter 4

THE SEEDS OF DIVISION HAD BEEN SOWN. MUHAMMAD’S WIVES, fathers-in-law,

sons-in-law, cousins, daughters, aides, closest
companions—everyone would be drawn into it as the
seeds took root. But as Muhammad lay dying, it was the
wives who were in control. It was they who guarded the
sickroom, who determined if he was well enough to
receive visitors or so weak that even the closest
companions should be turned away; they who had
argued about whose chamber he should be taken to until
he insisted that it be Aisha’s; and they who now argued
over which medicine to give him, even about whether to
give him any medicine at all.

As the life slowly seeped out of the Prophet, the
disputes increased over who should be allowed in to see
him and who not. The few times he mustered the
strength to make it clear exactly whom he wanted to see,
they argued also about that. Even as he was helpless to
prevent it, the dying man could see his worst fears
coming true.