Muhammad the Prophet, peace and blessing be upon
him, is often depicted as a sex maniac who used his power to enjoy women at
will. Having multiple women as his wives
was not enough for him. On top of that,
he had to have a child as his wife as well.
It would be of no use to point out to these people
that Muhammad actually married a widow 15 years his senior, Khadija, who had
been married twice before; that he did not take any other wife as long as she
was alive thereafter, living together with her for 25 years; and that when she
died, Muhammad was not looking for a young beautiful maiden to replace her, but
an old widow of his age to take care of his household.
Neither would it be useful to tell them that when Muhammad
did marry multiple women thereafter, it was not for lust, but for practical (if
not altogether for noble) reasons: that his marriages with Aisha and Hafsa were
to cement relationship with his two close companions; with Juwairiya to honor
the tribe he conquered; with Umm Habibah to honor the daughter of his archenemy
who had been abandoned by her husband; with Zaynab his cousin to nullify the
prevailing practice regarding the status of adopted son. And so on and so forth.
It would be a waste of time because these people would
be quick to point out that Muhammad remained a one woman’s man because he had no
power when Khadija was alive; that he was grateful to her for uplifting the
shackle of poverty from his back. But as
soon as he migrated to Madinah, and assumed the role as the absolute and
undisputed leader, he began to accumulate women in his harem one by one. All those practical reasons are therefore mere
excuses. He did not marry all those
women for noble reasons. He married them
because he was an amorous man.
These are typical views that the Christians had
about Muhammad's private life in the Middle Age, a period when they had a very
strict view on sex and marriage. One
would think that since their perspective on sex and marriage has changed 360
degrees since then, as we have seen in the last episode, one would no longer find those views to be prevalent among the
Christians.
Such, however, is not the case. Browse the Internet, and you surely will
encounter such views.
Among these views, the favorite one is the charge the
Muhammad was a pedophile. Simply put, he
preferred a girl instead of a grown up woman for sex. Because of this attack, some well-meaning Muslims
theorize that Aisha was 18 when she was married to the Prophet, not nine as
generally believed.
But the Muslims need not be apologetic about the
Prophet having many wives, or that one of them was only “a child.” Islamic worldview is not similar to other religions’
worldview. Islam came as a complete
package as other religions were not.
Islam came with a written scripture, that is the Quran, and a “living
scripture,” namely Muhammad the Prophet himself. It also came with complete and practical accessories,
namely the Companions. Muslims’ lives
are to be molded based on these written scripture, living scripture and
practical accessories.
Other religions do not have such luxuries.
Hinduism does not have practical human examples to
be followed. It has scriptures, but the
founder of this religion is not known, much less the examples he left
behind. The founder of Buddhism is known,
but the life he left behind was not practical.
One has to be a monk to follow his footstep.
As for Christianity, its founder is considered a
God. Too little about Jesus Christ is
known; too few examples left by him to be followed. We do not know about his married life because
he was said to live a celibate life. We
do not know how he ruled the country because he never managed to form a
government. All we know about him is
that he was born miraculously without a father, and that towards the end of his
life, he lived like a wandering teacher.
The only examples for the Christians to follow
would be the Jewish prophets, because they accept Jewish Scripture to be part
of their Bible. But the Old Testament
(Jewish Scripture) is replete with stories about men having multiple
wives. King David had 100 wives; Solomon
had one thousand (700 wives and 300 concubines).
Islam came to limit the number of wives one may
have, unlike the Old Testament which put no limit to it. When the verse limiting the number of wives
was revealed, a number of companions who had married more than four had divorced
some of their wives, to comply with the rules.
But the wives of the Prophet automatically became the Mothers of
Believers. Once married to the Prophet,
they were no longer lawful for others to marry them, should the Prophet decide
to divorce them. Special provision was
therefore granted to the Prophet, in that the limit was not applicable to him.
Muhammad the Prophet had led a complete and
practical life with more than adequate practical examples to be followed. There is no example that a Muslim finds missing in him, including the matter regarding sex, marriage
and parenthood.
Had the Prophet led a celibate life, like his
counterpart Jesus, he would have left a grim example to be followed.
Had polygamy was not allowed at all, many widows
would be left unprotected during his time and many other times thereafter.
If he did not marry the young Aisha, then we would
not know that women are eligible for marriage once they reach puberty.
After all, it was from Aisha that we know about his
bed manners, not from Khadija.
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