The Prophet Muhammad صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم and his marriage to Syeda Zainab سلام اللہ علیہا: Answering the Critics
Did the Prophet marry his own daughter in law?
Did the Prophet ask his adopted son, Zaid, to divorce his wife because he was attracted to her?
These accusations are not new: they date back to the time of the Prophet himself.
Fortunately a quick look at the Quran and clear historical evidence, demonstrates that all three noble personalities- Prophet Muhammad, Lady Zainab and Hadhrat Zaid ibn Harith– acted entirely righteously and fairly.
The allegations are at worst, little more than Islamaphobic propoganda, and at best, based on spurious and unreliable sources.
A False Narration
Opponents rely upon a hadith that supports their slander, in a most scandalous and disgraceful manner:
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) came to visit Zainab and while he saw her standing she attracted his admiration. At this the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: ‘Praise be to Allah who turns the hearts.’ Zaid observed that the Prophet (ﷺ) desired for Zainab and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah! Allow me to divorce her for she is arrogant and hurts me with her words.’ The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to him, ‘Fear Allah and hold on to your wife.’ Zaid kept her for as long as Allah willed and then divorced her. Thereafter, when her ‘iddah ended, Allah sent a revelation from heavens regarding her marriage with the Prophet.
Yahya b. Salam, al-Tafsir, (Beirut: DKI, 2004) Vol.2, 721-722 cited here
Reports similar to the above are found in several books of tafsir, yet are absent from any of the major collections of hadith.
Imam Abu Bakr ibn al Arabi (d.1148 CE) explains how every single chain of these reports which claim Prophet Muhammad and Zainab were taken with each in this way, is utterly weak and totally unreliable from a historical perspective:
Abū Bakr ibn al-ʿArabī argues, not a single one of the narrations that mention this event is free of considerable narrative weaknesses. None has a chain of narrators (isnād) that actually extends continuously back (muttaṣil) to the Prophet ﷺ. Only one traces back to a Companion (ṣaḥābī), and that too a Companion who did not witness the event in question. Additionally, not one is devoid of at least one impugned narrator in the isnād, and many have no isnād at all. This would render all of the hadiths at best severely weak (ḍaʿīf) and inapt for cumulative validation (taṣḥīḥ li-ghayrihi), if not entirely fabricated (mawḍūʿ)
cited here
It is also noteworthy that Lady Zainab was the Prophet Muhammad’s paternal aunt’s daughter and the Prophet (pbuh) had seen her his whole life. She was some 38 years old at this time, and well past her prime.
The sudden ‘attraction’ scenerio makes no sense, especially since he himself had married her to Zaid in the first place.
The Three Honourable Ones: A Brief Profile
In reality, the marriage of the Prophet Muhammad to Zainab, occurred in the most decent and honourable manner conceivable.
Hadhrat Zainab bint Jahsh, had emigrated to Medina with the Prophet, and suffered the loss of her first husband.
A noble woman of the Quraysh she was known as ‘the mother of the poor’ for her generous and charitable acts.
She so respected the Messenger that she agreed to marry his freed slave, whom the Prophet had adopted as a son.
She did this without the slightest complaint, despite not being inclined to marry Zaid whatever.
Zaid bin Harithah was freed from slavery and declared to be the adopted son of the Prophet.
The Prophet loved him immensely and honoured him by marrying him to a noble woman of the Quraysh.
He found it difficult, and the marriage was loveless. Yet he persisted with it, out of obedience to the Prophet (pbuh).
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was so committed to human equality, that he adopted Zaid, and then gave his own cousin to him in marriage.
So why did the Prophet Muhammad and Zainab marry, after Zaid divorced her?
The Qur’an itself is the oldest, mass transmitted source of Islam. In this unique case, the Qur’an itself explains what happened, and why:
1. Zaid came to the Prophet expressing his wish to divorce Zainab.
2. The Messenger had already received revelation from Allah, that the Lord would marry Zainab to him and Zaid would divorce her, but the Prophet did not disclose this and asked Zaid to continue the marriage.
3. The Messenger did not want to announce this divine decision, because he did not want opponents to scandalise Islam by accusing him of marrying his ‘daughter in law’ . Moreover, he dreaded to hurt his beloved Zaid by ‘demoting’ him , from his position as his son.
4. The Prophet (saw) would marry his adopted son’s former wife by divine command, to abolish an unnatural restriction and only after Zaid divorced her of his own volition. It was important that Prophet Muhammad did this himself, as he was the seal of the Prophets. As such he needed to set this precedent himself, given no future Prophet would come to do so. Bear in mind that Quraysh allowed a son to ‘inherit’ his real Father’s wives (step-mother), yet still had this strange taboo when it comes to ex-wives of adopted children.
5. It was also important that the Prophet set this example, given the fact that he could not have any family inheritors or successors, giving anyone a claim over his political or spiritual authority. It was the very same divine will, that meant none of his male children survived infancy.
Dr Hasan Ashraf, explains:
The Prophet’s ﷺmarriage to Zaynab bint Jaḥsh (rA) is distinguished from his other marriages in that it is directly referenced within the Qur’an, where it is not only endorsed but contracted. The underlying objectives of this marriage are also immediately explicated unequivocally after its contraction. The Qur’an offers a twofold raison d’être for the marriage. The first was to abolish the pre-Islamic practice of the ascription of one’s patronym to an adopted child. As Zaynab (rA) had previously been married to Zayd ibn Ḥārithah (rA), then recognized as the Prophet’s ﷺadopted son and identified by his patronym, the Prophet’s ﷺsubsequent marriage to Zaynab (rA) nullified the pre-Islamic proscription of marriage with the spouse of one’s adopted child in the event of their divorce. This prohibition had been founded on the conflation of an adopted child with a biological one, and this marriage annulled any legal basis for such a conflation. Second, it established the nonexistence of any male offspring ascribable to the Prophet ﷺ, at that juncture and in the future, and as such the conclusion of prophethood with the death of the Prophet. After the death of the Prophet ﷺ, none of his progeny could lay a hereditary claim to his prophethood or indeed his political leadership. Instead, it was vested in Abū Bakr (rA), a man whose only political and spiritual authority stemmed from his personal qualities, as he was born of comparatively humble ancestry which only united with that of the Prophet’s seven generations before. The Qur’an’s declaration that the Prophet ﷺ was not, and would not be, the father of any male offspring was particularly prescient as none of the Prophet’s many biological sons lived to maturity despite the excellent health of all of his daughters. Indeed, one of his sons passed away during childhood after the revelation of this verse.
The Prophet’s ﷺ Marriage to Zaynab bint Jaḥsh: A Reexamination from a Historiographic Perspective
How God Honoured Zaid
One of the obviously emotionally difficult aspects of this matter, was that Hadhrat Zaid could no longer claim to be the son of the Prophet, in a literal sense.
Yet such is the mercy and greatness of Allah that he compensated this loss, with the greatest honour of all:
Zaid is the only person of that era, other than the Prophet himself to be mentioned by name by God, in the Qur’an.
Moreover Allah declared that Zaid – a humble freed slave – enjoys the favour of both Allah and the Prophet, what could be more inspiring and beautiful!
The verses of the Qur’an itself put an end to all slander and insinuations surrounding these three holy personalities, upon whom be peace:
AND Lo, [O Muhammad,] thou didst say unto the one to whom God had shown favour and to whom thou hadst shown favour, “Hold on to thy wife, and remain conscious of God!” And [thus] wouldst thou hide within thyself something that God was about to bring to light – for thou didst stand in awe of [what] people [might think], whereas it was God alone of whom thou shouldst have stood in awe![But] then, when Zaid had come to the end of his union with her, We gave her to thee in marriage, so that [in future] no blame should attach to the believers for [marrying] the spouses of their adopted children when the latter have come to the end of their union with them. And [thus] God’s will was done.
[Hence,] no blame whatever attaches to the Prophet for [having done] what God has ordained for him. [Indeed, such was] God’s way with those that have passed away aforetime – and [remember that] God’s will is always destiny absolute; –
[and such will always be His way with] those who convey God’s messages [to the world], and stand in awe of Him, and hold none but God in awe: for none can take count [of man’s doings] as God does!
[And know, O believers, that] Muhammad is not the father of any one of your men, but is God’s Apostle and the Seal of all Prophets. And God has indeed full knowledge of everything.
(Surah 33: 37-40)