Why Did Prophet Muhammad Marry More Than One Woman?

God ordered the Prophet to marry multiple women for many wisdoms, and because of the religious benefits that this entailed. Among these benefits was the spread of the religious knowledge. Every one of his wives learned the religious rules from him, especially the rules pertaining to women’s issues, like menses and pregnancy, and conveyed this knowledge to other women. Not only did they teach the women, at times they also imparted their knowledge onto the men and answered their questions pertaining to religious matters.

The Prophet’ heart was not attached to women. Rather, his heart was attached to the love of God. To start with, Prophet Muhammad married Lady Khadijah the daughter of Khuwaylid, a twice-widowed woman, when he was 25 and she was 40. It was his first marriage and her third one. He did not marry any other woman until after she died and he was about 50 years old. This attests to the fact that his heart was not attached to the pursuit of women; otherwise, he would have married other women during her lifetime. Prophet Muhammad was the most beautiful, chaste, and honorable person ever created. Any woman would have wished to marry him given the chance, yet he did not marry other than Lady Khadijah in his youth. Lady khadijah was the best of the wives of Prophet Muhammad. During their marriage of 24 years, she would prove to be instrumental in supporting the Prophet in his call to Islam.

The Prophet was not attached to women nor was he attached to wealth. His heart was attached to the obedience of his Lord. Had the Prophet been attached to women, evidence of that would have appeared before he received the revelation, and he received the revelation when he was 40 years old. If he had been attached to women, a vice involving a woman would have appeared from him. Instead, he was known for his integrity among his people to the extent that they used to nickname him “the trustworthy” because no immorality, lie or cheating in his dealings has ever occurred from him. Also, he was the most beautiful creation and despite that, an immorality never occurred from him during that entire time, 40 years. He received the revelation at 40 years of age, then after his first wife Khadijah died, he married a widowed woman named Sawdah, then Aishah, then the other women. All of that was for a religious wisdom and that is to spread the rules of the religion by way of men and women, among other wisdoms.

Angel Gabriel came to the messenger with a picture of Aishah on a parchment and said “This is your wife.” After that, he asked for her hand in marriage from her father and consummated the marriage a few years later. This custom was common and not a strange matter to the Arabs living in the Arabian peninsula . The Prophet, peace be upon him, did not pursue Aishah from himself, rather, he sought her in marriage after it was revealed to him. He did not seek her hand in marriage because she was pretty or young, nor it was because his heart was attached to women.

What also indicates that Prophet Muhammad’s heart was not attached to women is that when it was time for him to spend the night with Lady A’ishah, who was the youngest and most beautiful of his wives, he would not spend the entire night at her place. Rather, he would go out alone to the cemetery and make supplication for the Muslims buried there. Lady A’ishah was the only virgin that the Prophet married. All the other women he married were either widowed or divorced. Lady A’isha’s turn would come around about once a week, yet the Prophet would choose not to spend the entire night with her. This indicates the purity of the Prophet’s heart.

Lady Aisha benefited the nation a lot. She is the best woman after Maryam (the Virgin Mary), Fatimah the daughter of Muhammad, Khadijah, and Asiah, Pharaoh’s wife. Lady Aisha is the best wife of the Prophet after Lady Khadijah and the most knowledgeable woman ever. No woman after her will reach her status in religious knowledge. She was endowed with a great intellect, and though she lived with the Prophet for only about nine years, but she learned a lot. She lived long after the Prophet died and spread the knowledge that she acquired from him. She is among the companions who narrated the most ahadeeth from the Prophet. She taught women and men as well. She reached the status of absolute Ijtihad, meaning she reached a level where she could extract judgments to matters for which there is no explicit text. This is a great consequence of this blessed marriage!

Prophets have the best manners and are the best creations and Prophet Muhammad is the best among them. The best biography is that of our Prophet.

Prophet Muhammad was not the only prophet that married many women. Prophet Solomon, the son of Prophet David, did so as well. It is mentioned in the hadith that he was married to 100 women at once. For a wisdom, God did not restrict the number of women Prophet Solomon was permitted to marry. Prophet Solomon married not for fulfilling a desire, but for religious benefits, among which was to produce numerous offsprings that would support and spread the religion of Islam.

To object to this matter or to belittle Prophet Muhammad or any other Prophet by attributing them with being attached to the pursuit of women takes a person out of Islam. May God raise the rank of our Prophet Muhammad and all other Prophets.

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