When discussing the life of the Prophet (sall Allahu ‘aleyhi wa sallam) with kuffar, the issue of his marriages comes up now and then. Some people accuse the Prophet (sall Allahu ‘aleyhi wa sallam) of, audhubillah, faking Prophethood in his desire for women. I actually found a Swedish translation of a part of al-Baghawis tafsir that deals with this issue, but before I share that with you I’ll just quote Dr. Laurence B. Brown:
To begin with, had Muhammad been a voluptuary with regard to women, we would expect his desires to have been evident in his youth, when a man’s sexual drive is at its hormonal peak. However, throughout Muhammad’s youth he only had one wife, Khadijah. They were married for twenty-five years, and throughout that period he was unwaveringly faithful, despite the fact that she was fifteen years his senior. Yet Muhammad’s detractors propose that, at the age of fifty, with the energy of his youth behind him, he set a flock of wives as his goal in life?
Unlikely.
And even if that premise were true, never in history did a man suffer so much for something he could have had anyway. For if this is what Muhammad had wanted, he could have had any number of wives, concubines, sex slaves and prostitutes, even from his youth. The laws of the society in which he lived were that … well … were that there were no laws. He could have fornicated freely and let his lusts run wild in the pasture of sexual permissiveness. But he didn’t. Despite the sexual freedoms which must have tempted any man of youth and vigor, Muhammad remained chaste until his first marriage, at the age of twenty-five. His reputation was one of temperance, not trampishness. (God’ed, page 237)
Now, back to al-Baghawi’s tafsir. The ayah in question is 4:54. I’ll just mention one of the opinions about this ayah and that is that it deals with an accusation by the Jews about the Prophet’s (sall Allahu ‘aleyhi wa sallam) marriages. Note that there are other opinions as well.
Here is the English translation of the ayah:
Or do they envy men for what Allah has given them of His Bounty. Then, We have already given the family of Ibrahim the Book and Al-Hikmah, and conferred upon them a great kingdom.
Here is the interpretation by al-Baghawi (I’m only quoting the relevant opinion and this is a translation from Swedish):
Or do they envy men – That is, the Jews envy the people. “The people” is a reference to the Prophet (sall Allahu ‘aleyhi wa sallam). They envied him because of the women Allah had allowed for him. They said: “He thinks only of marriage.” This is the meaning of: …what Allah has given them of His Bounty.
Then, We have already given the family of Ibrahim the Book and Al-Hikmah – “The family of Ibrahim” is a reference to David and Solomon. “The Book” means revelation and “al-Hikmah” means prophethood.
and conferred upon them a great kingdom – The one that interpreted “His Bounty” to mean many women interpreted “great kingdom” to refer to the many women of David and Solomon. Solomon had a thousand women, seven hundred of whom were free and three hundred of whom were slaves, and David had a hundred women whereas the Prophet (sall Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) only had nine. When he pointed this out to them, they became quiet.
Again, there are other interpretations but this is a great methodology in Da’wah (particularly when discussing this with people of the Book). Just point out that people have one standard for Muhammed (sall Allahu ‘aleyhi wa sallam) and another one for the Biblical prophets. What was okay for them to do wasn’t for Muhammed (sall Allahu ‘aleyhi wa sallam). It was okay for them to practice polygyny but not for Muhammed (sall Allahu ‘aleyhi wa sallam). It was okay for Moses (‘alayhi salam) to engage in warfare, but not for Muhammed (sall Allahu ‘aleyhi wa sallam). On that topic, read this:
After Moses had taken a census of the people, he sent an army to avenge the perceived evil brought upon the Israelites by the Midianites. Numbers 31 says Moses instructed the Israelite soldiers to kill every Midianite woman, boy and the non-virgin girl, although virgin girls were shared amongst the soldiers. Source
I’m not even going to get into the cases of, audhubillah, drunkeness and incest that the Bible claims some of the Prophets engaged in.
