The Quran

Preface

يا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ قُل لِأَزواجِكَ إِن كُنتُنَّ تُرِدنَ الحَياةَ الدُّنيا وَزينَتَها فَتَعالَينَ أُمَتِّعكُنَّ وَأُسَرِّحكُنَّ سَراحًا جَميلًا

Yusuf Ali

C. 188 | [33:28-52] The Prophet’s household is not for worldly
Ends: his consorts have a place
And dignity beyond ordinary women
They must recite and proclaim the Signs
Of God. For women have spiritual virtues
And duties like into men. God decrees
No unhappy wedlock: fear not
To dissolve such and provide what is right
And fitting for the service of God. High
Is the Prophet’s position, and he must order
His household as best befits his work
And duties. God doth watch all things.

O Prophet! Say to thy Consorts: “If it be that ye desire the life of this world, and its glitter,—then come!¹ I will provide for your enjoyment and set you free in a handsome manner.

We now come to the subject of the position of the Consorts of Purity (azwāj muṭahharāt), the wives of the holy Prophet. Their position was not like that of ordinary women or ordinary wives. They had special duties and responsibilities. The only youthful marriage of the Prophet was his first marriage—that with Ḥadhrat Khadīja, the best of women and the best of wives. He married her fifteen years before he received the call to Apostleship; the married life lasted for twenty-five years, and their mutual devotion was of the noblest, judged by spiritual as well as social standards. During her life he had no other wife, which was unusual for a man of his standing among his people. When she died, his age was 50, and but for two considerations, he would probably never have married again, as he was most abstemious in his physical life. The two considerations which governed his later marriages were: (1) compassion and clemency, as when he wanted to provide for suffering widows, who could not be provided for in any other way in that stage of society; some of them, like Sauda, had issue by their former marriage, requiring protection; (2) help in his duties of leadership, with women, who had to be instructed and kept together in the large Muslim family, where women and men had similar social rights. Ḥadhrat ʿĀisha, daughter of Ḥadhrat Abū Bakr, was clever and learned, and in Ḥadīth she is an important authority on the life of the Prophet. Ḥadhrat Zainab, daughter of Khuzaima, was specially devoted to the poor: she was called the “Mother of the Poor”. The other Zainab, daughter of Jaḥsh, also worked for the poor, for whom she provided from the proceeds of her manual work, as she was skilled in leather work. But all the Consorts in their high position had to work and assist as Mothers of the Ummat. Theirs were not idle lives, like those of Odalisques, either for their own pleasure or the pleasure of their husband. They are told here that they had no place in the sacred Household if they merely wished for ease or worldly glitter. If such were the case, they could be divorced and amply provided for.