169aod he tried to respond to his wives' many expectations. \,\/ith time, the
situation changed, because the various victories, the truce, and the accu-
mulating booty had brought some degree of wealth into the P rophet's
household, and his wives were beginning to a~k for more goods, which
seemed to them fair compensation for the restrictions on their public
appearance and movements that their st.'ltUS entailed.
Events were to accelerate with the arrival of the slave girl Mariyah, gift-
ed to the Prophet by l'vluqawqis.6 Mariyah was exceptionally beautiful, and
the Prophet visited her frequently. Jealousy took hold of the Prophet's
wives, and Aishah aod Hafsah did not hesitate to criticize Mariyah and the
Prophet's attitude when they talked together in his absence. The Prophet
first decided to move Mariyah's dwelling further away, since those atracks
were painful to her, Some time later, with the situation worsening, he
promised to part from her, But Revelation contradicted the decision the
Prophet had forced himself to take, and demanded th at the women
choose \vhether they wanted to stay with him or wished to divorce.? T his
crisis situation alarmed the wives, as well as many Companions, including
Umar, as the Prophet isolated himself and refused to see his wives for
nearly a month, until they had made their choice, as the Quran ordered.
They all chose "God and His Messenger," according to the fo rmula
Aishah had used when the Prophet questioned her (quoting the Quranic
verses that had been revealed to him about his wi\'es and their future) .8
The slave girl1hriyah had been a trial for all the P rophet's wives. In
private life, as noted, they could differentiate between Muhammad's sta-
tus as a prophet and the fact that he remained a human being who co uld
be advised and with whom they could debate or even argue. But they
could not try to use his starns as a prophet in public life to obtain special
fights or treatment from rhe community. Revelation moreover reminded
them that being the wife of a prophet or of a pious man was not enough
to claim to have acquired the qualities of faith and implicitly consider one-
self as elect: thus, Noah's and Lot's respective wives were lost, whereas
Pharaoh's wife was saved for her piety, even though she had lived with an
arrogant, prideful man who denied God.') Within a couple, each spouse's
responsibility, choices, and behavior determine his or her fatc. In this
respect, the Prophet's wives could claim no privilege, and humility was
required. The wives' trial was to be intensified by the fact that Mariyah
became the mother of dlC onJy boy born to the Prophet after Qasim and