Zaynab Story and Orientalists

Hasa A. Yahya, Professor of Sociology

When Muhammad-pbuh was 58-59 years old, he married Zaynab, daughter of Khuzaymah, Umm Salamah daughter of Umayyah ibn al Mughirah, and Zaynab, daughter of Jahsh, after she had been divorced by Zayd ibn Harithah. The last named is the same Zayd, the adopted son for Muhammad and set free after he was bought by Maysarah for Khadijah. It is here that the Orientalists offer their highest condemnation, in chorus with the Christian missionaries. Glowing with vindictiveness, they say  without any respect to the Prophet of Islam who changed the world by his teachings:

"Muhammad who in Makkah called men to asceticism and contentment, to monotheism and abstinence from the pleasures of this life, has now become a man of lust whose appetite every woman could whet. He is not satisfied with three women whom he has so far taken into marriage but has now taken the three additional wives just mentioned. Indeed, he was to marry three more yet in addition to Rayhanah. Nor was he to be satisfied by marrying the widow. He fell in love with Zaynab, daughter of Jahsh, while she was the wife of Zayd ibn Harithah, his own client. Once, when he passed by the house of Zayd in the tatter's absence, he was met by Zaynab wearing clothes which exposed her beauty. Muhammad's heart was inflamed. It is reported that when his eyes fell upon her, he exclaimed, `Praise be to God who changes the hearts of men!' and that he repeated this expression at the time of his departure from her home. Zaynab heard him say this and noticed desire in his eye. Proudly, she reported what happened to her husband. Zayd immediately went to see the Prophet and offered to divorce his wife. Muhammad answered, `Hold to your wife and fear God.” Does this answer means lust for women?

Anyway, Orientalist continues, “Thereafter, Zaynab was no longer a docile wife and Zayd had to divorce her. Muhammad did not marry her immediately despite his love for her. He waited until an express revelation came which permitted him to do so. Addressing Muhammad, God said: `You said to Zayd, to whom God gave of His bounty and you gave of yours, "Hold fast to your wife and fear God." Would you hide, 0 Muhammad, that which God was going to bring to light? Would you fear the gossip of the people? Isn't God more worthy of being feared? After a term of married life with her husband, We permitted you to marry her so that it may hence be legitimate and morally blameless for a believer to marry the wife of his adopted son provided that wife had already been divorced. That is God's commandment which must be fulfilled”[Qur'an, 33:37]. Thereupon, Muhammad married this woman and satisfied his desire and lust.”

Without any respect for the Prophet of Islam-pbuh, Orientalists continue disrespect and wonder:

“Now, what kind of Prophet is this? How could he permit himself that which he forbade to others? How can he violate the law which he himself had said had come to him from heaven? How would he amass this harem which calls to mind the behavior of the old lustful and pleasure seeking kings rather than the righteous reforming prophets? How could such a prophet fall prey to lust and desire in the case of Zaynab that he would force his adopted son to divorce her only so that he might marry her thereafter? That was definitely taboo in pre-Islamic Arabia, and the Prophet of Islam lifted this taboo in order to satisfy his own lust and fulfill his own desire."

Thus appears the Western Orientalists' claim. The above paragraphs are misleading and misinterpreting the full vent according to their resentment and imagination. Muslims when they talk of Jesus, they only talks with respect and admiration. They add peace be upon him, (pbuh)after Jesus name mentioned.

Some orientalist add imaginative description as she (Zaynab) “was half-naked, that her fine black hair was covering half her body, and that every curve of her body was full of desire and passion.” While others go more in description that “when Muhammad opened the door of the house of Zayd the breeze played with the curtains of the room of Zaynab, thus permitting Muhammad to catch a glimpse of her stretched out on her mattress in a nightgown. They then tell their readers that this view of her stormed the heart of Muhammad who was extremely passionate in his love and desire for women.” They tell the readers about Muhammad –pbuh, that this view of her stormed the heart of Muhammad who was extremely passionate in his love and desire for women. They relate that Muhammad had hidden his secret desire, though he could hardly bear to conceal it for long! This and many like pictures have been painted arduously by Orientalists and missionaries and may be read in the work. of Muir, Dermenghem, Washington Irving, Lammens, and others. It cannot be denied that these stories are based upon reports in fanciful Muslim biographies and Hadith books. But these books are questionable. And it is extremely regrettable that our authors have used them without scrutiny. It is inexcusable that these scholars had built "Castles in Spain" regarding Muhammad's relations with women, castles which they thought were sufficiently justified by the fact that Muhammad married a plurality of wives, probably nine, or even more according to some versions.”

According to Islamic interpretations the story goes as this by many Muslim scholars such as Fethullah Gulen and others. In their discussion of the matter of the Prophet's marriages and his wives. Briefly, the story says that Zaynab was of noble birth and descent and a close relative of the Prophet. She was very pious, fasted a great deal, kept long vigils, and gave generously to the poor. When the Prophet asked Zaynab to be married to Zayd (his adopted African son), her family and Zaynab herself were at first unwilling, for they had hoped to marry their daughter to the Prophet. Naturally, when they realized that he wanted Zaynab to marry Zayd, they consented out of deference to their love for the Prophet and his authority. The two were married. Zayd had been captured as a child during a tribal war and sold as a slave. His master, Khadijah, presented him to Muhammad when they were married. He immediately freed Zayd and shortly afterwards adopted him as his son according to pre-Islamic culture. Through this marriage, the Prophet wanted to establish and fortify equality, to make this ideal a reality by ending the ancient Arab prejudice against a slave or even a freedman marrying a free-born woman. The Prophet therefore was starting this hard task with his own relatives.

The marriage was unhappy. The noble-born Zaynab was a good Muslim of a most pious and exceptional quality. The ex-slave Zayd was among the first to embrace Islam, and also was a good Muslim. Both loved and obeyed the Prophet but they were mutually incompatible. Zayd sought permission to end this marriage several times, but always was told to be patient and remain married to Zaynab.

Once when the Prophet was talking with someone, Gabriel revealed to him that he should marry Zaynab (Bukhari). This new marriage was announced as a bond already contracted as related in the verse: "We have married her to you" (Al-Ahzab 33:37). This command was one of the severest trials for the Prophet up to that time. It was a un-islamic rule to adopt person who’s not your own son. To correct to be Islamic he had to marry Zaynab, and thereby violate a tribal taboo, because God had commanded it. Aishah later said: "Had the Messenger of God been inclined to suppress anything of what was revealed to him, he would surely have suppressed this verse." It was not easy to change a habit, Zaynab proved herself a most worthy wife. She was always aware of her responsibilities as well as the courtesies expected of her, and fulfilled them to universal admiration.

Before Islam, an adopted son was regarded as a natural son, and his wife was therefore regarded as a natural son's wife. According to the Qur'an, those "who have been wives of your sons proceeding from your loins" (An-Nisaa' 4:23) fall within the prohibited marriages.

But this prohibition does not include adopted sons, with whom there is no real consanguinity. This deep-rooted pagan taboo was ended by God's command that the Prophet marry Zaynab.

Orientalists interpretation is more imaginative literary and full of imagination which present the holy as unholy, where Muslims consider Muhammad-pbuh as the exemplar every one follows with respect and admiration. (1460 words)