Adoption in Islam and
History of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) Marriage to Zainab Bint Jahsh.
By
Syed Kamran Mirza
Adoption
in Islam:
Islam prohibits
adopting children. Period. Adoption
in the technical sense is not allowed in Muslim Shriah law. This
is because Allah does not like this gesture of adopting orphan
children. Muhammad Rushed Ridha states, "Allah prohibited
adoption in Islam and annulled all the judgements pertaining to
adoption. The most important one of which was the prohibition of
the wife of the adopted son to the fostering father as though he
is the natural father. So Allah commanded his prophet to marry
Zainab Bint Jahsh in order to abolish pagan custom (Fatawa
al-Imam)." Al-sabuni states, "As to Zainab Bint Jahsh,
the Messenger of Allah married for no higher wisdom than to
abolish the heresy of adoption (A-sabuni)."
I don't know, how in
the world Allah could dislike such noble deeds. I am not sure
what percentage of Muslims actually knows this divine law. I do
admit that I never knew this and, I was stunned when I first
learnt this from a real Mullah. How and why was this noble
custom among human being prohibited? We shall learn this history
later in this essay.
Pre-Islamic
Arab Custom: Adoption of
orphan/helpless child was a very popular and moral practice
amongst pre-Islamic Arabs. By adopting orphan/helpless child,
they used to consider adopted child as their own. And they used
to pass onto them the adopter's genealogy and name, his
investment of them with all the rights of the legitimate son
including that of inheritance and the prohibition of marriage on
grounds of consanguinity.
Post-Islamic
Custom: The all-wise legislator
of Islam willed to undo the above mentioned Arab practice of
adopting children. The divine legislator willed to give the
adopted son only
the right of a client and co-religionist. For that
reason a verse was revealed: "God
did not make your adopted son as your own sons. To declare them
so is your empty claim. God's word is righteous and constitutes
true guidance. (Q.33:
4)."
It follows from this revelation that the adopter may marry the
ex-wife of his adopted son and vice-versa. Thus Muhammad married
Zainab in order to provide a good example of what the All-wise
legislator was seeking to establish by way of rights and
privileges for adoption. In this regard God further said: "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 has already been divorced. That is God's
commandment which must be fulfilled
(Q.33:
37)."
Who, among the Arabs, could implement this noble legislation and
thereby openly repudiate the ancient traditions? The truth is,
however, that Muhammad was the exemplar of obedience to God; his
life was the implementation of that which he was entrusted to
convey to mankind. His life constitutes the highest ideal, the
perfect example, and the concrete instance of his Lord's command
(M.H. Haykal, page-296-297).
Those who are Muslims
and are obedient to the Qur'an will not have adopted sons.
Muhammad's
Marriage to Zainab Bint Jashsh
Muhammad's marriage
to Zainab, who was the wife of his adopted son, led to many
accusations against Muhammad. The dissimulators said,
"Muhammad prohibits the wives of the son while he himself
marries the wife of his son Zaid." These incidents are not
in harmony with the ethics and conventions that Muhammad
introduced to mankind, as Muslims claim. Abdullah Ibn Umar
narrated: "We have always called him [namely Zaid] Zaid Ibn
Muhammad." Abdullah Ibn Umar said, "We only called him
Zaid Ibn Muhammad till the verse "Muhammad is not the
father of any of your men' was revealed.""
Historical
views: There are many
conflicting stories about this scandalous happening and all
these stories are based on Sahih Hadiths and Muslim biographies
and books. It is worthwhile to quote here what
Ibn Sa`d and al-Tabari said concerning this story:
Muhammad Ibn Yahya
Ibn Hayyan narrated, "The Messenger of God came to Zaid Ibn
Haritha's house seeking him. Perhaps the Messenger of God missed
him at that time, that is why he said, 'Where is Zaid?' He went
to his house seeking him and, when he did not find him, Zainab
Bint Jahsh stood up to [meet] him in a housedress, but the
Messenger of God turned away from her. She said, 'He is not
here, Messenger of God, so please come in; my father and mother
are your ransom.' The Messenger of God refused to come in.
Zainab had hurried to dress herself when she heard that the
Messenger of God was at her door, so she leapt in a hurry, and
the Messenger of God liked her when she did that. The heart of
the Prophet was filled with admiration for her He went away
muttering something that was hardly understandable but for this
sentence: 'Praise be to God who disposes the hearts.' When Zaid
came back home, she told him that the Messenger of God came.
Zaid asked, 'You asked him to come in, didn't you?' She replied,
'I bade him to, but he refused.' He said, 'Have you heard [him
say] anything?' She answered, 'When he had turned away, I heard
him say something that I could hardly understand. I heard him
say, "Praise be to God who disposes the hearts." '
Zaid went out to the Messenger of God and said, 'O Messenger of
God, I learned that you came to my house. Did you come in? O
Messenger of God, my father and mother are your ransom. Perhaps
you liked Zainab. I can leave her.' The Messenger of God said,
'Hold on to your wife.' Zaid said, 'O Messenger of God, I will
leave her.' The Messenger of God said, 'Keep your wife.' So when
Zaid left her, she finished her legal period after she had
isolated herself from Zaid. While the Messenger of God was
sitting and talking with `A´isha, he was taken in a trance, and
when it lifted, he smiled and said, 'Who will go to Zainab to
tell her that God wedded her to me from heaven?' The Messenger
of God recited; 'Thus you told someone whom God had favoured and
whom you yourself have favoured: "Hold on to your
wife." ' `A´isha said, 'I heard much about her beauty and,
moreover, about how God wedded her from heaven, and I said,
"For sure she will boast over this with us." ' Salama,
the slave of the Messenger of God, hurried to tell her about
that. She gave her some silver jewellery that she was
wearing."
More
help from Allah:
So, this charge that
the dissimulators, among others, leveled against Muhammad (pbuh)
necessitated the revelation of more Qur'anic verses:
(Sura al-Ahzab
Q.33:
40): "Muhammad is not the father of any of
your men, but [he is] God's Messenger and the Seal of the
Prophets. God is Aware of everything!"
(Sura
al-Ahzab Q.33:
37): "We married her off to you so that there
would be no objection for believers in respect to their
adopted sons' wives once they have accomplished their purpose
with them. God's command must be done!"
In the verse (33:37)
there is stated a particular purpose for this revelation and
action of Muhammad. It is not for himself, but it is for the
future of the Muslim community. It is so that in future there
may not be a problem if anybody (father-in-law) wants to marry
the divorced wife of an adopted son. “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.” Without
adoption, there cannot be any adopted son either. Therefore, the
explicitly stated reason for the revelation of this verse does
not exist. Muhammad himself dissolved the original adoption of
Zaid when the above revelation came. Also,
it is a mystery why in the world, any father-in law will need to
marry his adopted son's wife.
Critical
(Orientalist) version:
Muhammad fell in love
with Zainab, daughter of Jahsh, while she was the wife of Zayd
bin Harithah, his own adopted son. Once, when he passed by the
house of Zayd in the latter's absence, he was met by Zainab
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 he repeated this expression at the time of his
departure from her home. Zainab heard him say this and noticed
desire in his eye. Zainab proudly reported this happening 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." Thereafter, Zainab was no longer a docile wife
and Zayd had to divorce her. Prophet Muhammad married Zainab
Bint Jahsh who was his daughter-in-law. 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. They also relate that when Muhammad saw her she was
half-naked, that her fine black hair was covering half of her
body, and that every curve of her body was full of desire and
passion. Others relate that when Muhammad opened the door of the
house of Zayd the breeze played with the curtains of the room of
Zainab, thus permitting Muhammad to catch a glimpse of her
stretched out on her mattress in a nightgown.
Apologetics
views:
Muhammad Husain
Haikal, for one, in the course of "refuting" the
claims of V. Vacca in the Encyclopaedia of Islam regarding
Zainab, speaks about a "glorious deed" of Muhammad,
which the orientalists and missionaries have turned into a
romance. He says, "As to Zainab Bint Jahsh, who has been
wrapped up by orientalists and missionaries in an imaginary
picture of romance and infatuation, true history judges that
[Muhammad's act with] her was one of the glorious deeds of
Muhammad. Being the perfect example of faith, he applied to her
the Hadith that says, 'Man's
faith is not made perfect till he loves for his brother what he
loves for himself'.
Apologists conclude
that it is one of the truly great facets of Muhammad's
personality. It proves beyond question that Muhammad was the
perfect exemplar of his own legislation, especially of such laws
as were intended to replace the tradition and customs of
pre-Islamic Arabia. He was the exemplar of the new system that
God revealed through him as a mercy and guidance to mankind.
On the other hand,
Arab custom and tradition demanded that the adopted son inherit
from his adopted father, like the latter's legitimate children.
And since this custom too was the object of Muhammad's attack,
his choice of Zayd as the spear point of the first reform, would
actually make of him -- if he were prepared to give up the
inheritance to which Arabian custom gave him title -- the
spearhead of another Islamic
legislation prohibiting inheritance to any but the blood heirs
and relatives of the deceased. This indeed furnished
the revelation: "No believer, whether man or woman, has the
freedom to choose otherwise than as God and His Prophet have
resolved in any given case. To do so is to disobey God and His
Prophet, to err and fall into manifest misguidance (Q.33:
37)”
Comments:
There is a
considerable moral problem with such a self-serving revelation.
It is quite clear that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was attracted to
Zainab before Zaid divorced her and it might well have been the
true reason for the divorce itself. And Qur'anic verses do make
clear that there was something going on before Zaid divorced
Zainab. The entire melodrama: Zaid's divorce of Zainab,
Muhammad's marriage with Zainab and subsequent revelations of
several Qur'anic Ayats from Allah to purify this scandalous
happening is something to ponder very seriously. There is more
in this strange story. That this action is immoral and this
revelation/justification of it self-serving and not fitting for
a true word of God is an important aspect, but not a
contradiction within the Quran - even though contradicting the
true character of God, who is moral purity. Prohibiting
adoption is no way a moral action. Prohibitions of alcohol
drinking, smoking, gambling, sorceries, killing, etc., could be
a moral action.
But why was there prohibition of adoption?
To summarize, the
logical difficulty is that Allah (?) causes a scandal and then
sends Gabriel to officially justify the scandalous action of
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) with Qur'anic revelations is morally
incorrect and too much of a coincidence.
Some
after thoughts: Prophet
Muhammad (pbuh) cannot get away from the culpability of this
salacious behavior of his with Zainab. If he had this
forthrightness in his mind, he would have vigorously fight with
his conscience and not allow this marriage to go through. But
the reality was quite the opposite. He had surrendered to his
passion and thus had marred his "unblemished"
character. If all the Muslims in the present-day world follow
Muhammad's inglorious example, seduce theirs daughter-in-law,
and then cause a divorce and then to add insult to the injury
marry her, what would happen then? Just think the consequences.
In more enlightened society if a man does what Mohammad (pbuh)
did with Zainab he would be looked up as a lascivious character.
Not all the Qur'anic Ayats of this world will be able to change
that. To have faith is
one thing, but to have a blind faith is another matter,
altogether!
References
1. Holy Qur'an , translated by
A,. Yousuf Ali, Amana corp., 1983
2. The life of Muhammad By: M. H. Haykal, 8th ed.
1982
3. Annals of al-Tabari 2:563, 453
4. ibid 4:43
5. Fatawa al- Imam, 5:1910
6. Tabaqat, 8:103
7.Nisa' al-Nabi, 13th ed.
Mr. Syed Kamran Mirza
writes from Virginia, USA. His E-mail is: Syed_mirza@hotmail.com
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