The Islamic prophet Muhammad is said to have had thirteen wives in total (although two have ambiguous accounts, Rayhana bint Zayd and Maria al-Qibtiyya, as wife or concubine). As a sign of respect, Muslims refer to each of these wives with the title "Umm al-Muʾminīn" (; ), which is derived from of the Quran.
Sources give different numbers (11-19) based on narrations about Muhammad's marriages. Ali Dashti lists 23 wives of Muhammad, which he divides them into three categories. Two of these were concubines, and four were women who gave themselves to Muhammad, other than concubines and wives permitted for him by the last part of verse 49 of surah Al-Ahzab.Omm Sharik, of the Daws tribe, was one of four women who gave themselves to Muhammad. In addition to contractual wives and concubines, there were some women in Muhammad's harem who fell into this third category. Marriage to contractual wives, up to the limit of four, requires formalities such as the provision of dower, the presence of witnesses, and the approval of the woman's father or other guardian. Concubinage with slave-women is permissible to Moslems if the woman's husband was a polytheist or other unbeliever. For Muhammad only, marriage to a woman who gave herself was permitted by the last part of verse 49 of sura 33 (ol-Ahztib). The other three women who gave themselves to Muhammad were Maymuna, Zaynab, and Khawla. https://1400years.com/books/twentythreeyearsEN.pdf Nine of Muhammad's wives survived after him.Barbara Freyer Stowasser, Wives of the Prophet, Encyclopedia of the Quran. Aisha, who became known as Muhammad's favorite wife in Sunni tradition, survived him by decades and was instrumental in helping assemble the scattered sayings of Muhammad that form the hadith literature for the Sunni branch of Islam.
Muhammad's first marriage was to Khadija bint Khuwaylid in 595, when he was 25 and she was either 28 or 41. She was his only wife until her death in 619 (the Year of Sorrow) ended their 24-year-long marriage. After Khadija, Muhammad went on to marry ten women: Sawdah bint Zam'ah in 619; Aisha bint Abi Bakr in 620; Hafsah bint Umar, Zaynab bint Khuzayma, and Hind bint Abi Umayya in 625; Zaynab bint Jahsh in 627; Juwayriya bint al-Harith and Ramla bint Abi Sufyan ibn Harb in 628; and Safiyya bint Huyayy and Maymunah bint al-Harith in 629. Additionally, the statuses of Rayhana bint Zayd and Maria al-Qibtiyya are disputed, as there has been disagreement among Muslim scholars on whether they were concubines or wives. With the exception of Aisha, all of these women were previously widowed or divorced. The common view among Sunni Muslims is that Muhammad had seven biological children (three sons and four daughters) and all but one of them were produced with Khadija between 598 and 611 or 615. Maria bore Muhammad a son in 630 (his seventh child), but none of his sons survived to adulthood.
Traditionally, two epochs delineate Muhammad's life and career: pre-Hijrah Mecca between 570 and 622; and post-Hijrah Medina between 622 and his death in 632. "Hijrah" refers to Muhammad's migration, alongside the early Muslims, from Mecca to Medina due to the Meccans' persecution of the early Muslims. All but two of his marriages were contracted after this migration.
Objectives
Khadija, Muhammad's first wife, was his employer and a woman of considerable wealth who reportedly supported him financially and emotionally, and she also became his first follower when he began preaching the message of Islam. Both her age and marital history at the time of her marriage to the 25-year-old Muhammad remain unclear; she was either 28 or 41 and may or may not have been a virgin, with the existence of any previous children also being disputed. Nonetheless, this marriage was the most significant by all accounts: six of Muhammad's seven biological children were produced with Khadija and the couple remained monogamous for the entirety of the 24 years that they were together. Khadija's death in 619, at the age of either 52 or 65, brought an end to the first marriage and the monogamy of Muhammad, who was 49 at this time. Upon his migration to Medina, he began actively practicing polygyny and acquired about one wife per year. Although Muslim men are religiously limited to having only four wives at the same time, Muhammad was exempted from this ruling and was allowed to have an unlimited number of wives due to his status as an Islamic prophet and messenger.Phipps 1999, p. 142. Additionally, Muhammad's wives were not allowed to remarry after his death; all men of the contemporary era were strictly warned against attempting to marry these widowed women, with this intent being classified as "a major offence in the sight of Allah" in the Quran.
Scottish academic William Montgomery Watt states that all of Muhammad's marriages had the political aspect of strengthening friendly relationships and were based on the Arabian custom.Watt (1956), p. 287 American professor John Esposito points out that some of Muhammad's marriages were aimed at providing a livelihood for widows;Esposito (1998), pp. 16–18. he noted that remarriage was difficult for these women in Arabian society, which emphasised and was hyper-focused on female virginity and sexual purity.John Esposito, Islam: The Straight Path, Oxford University Press, pp. 17–18. American academic Francis Edward Peters says that it is hard to make generalisations about Muhammad's marriages; many of them were political, some compassionate, and some perhaps affairs of the heart.F.E. Peters (2003), p. 84 American historian John Victor Tolan writes that Muhammad's marriages were mainly attempts at forging political alliances.
Thus, the objectives of Muhammad's marriages have been described as: Creating family bonds between him and his companions (Muhammad married the daughters of Abu Bakr and Umar, whereas Uthman and Ali married his daughters. He therefore had family bonds with all of the Rashidun). Spreading the message of Islam by uniting different Arabian tribes and clans through marriage.
Terminology "Mother of the Believers" is a term by which each of Muhammad's wives came to be prefixed with over time. It is derived from Quran 33:6: "The Prophet is closer to the believers than their selves, and his wives are (as) their mothers" is applied to all of these women.
Family life Muhammad and his family lived in small apartments adjacent to the mosque at Medina. Each of these were six to seven spans wide (1.7metres) and ten spans long (2.3metres), and the height of the ceiling was equivalent to that of an average man standing. Blankets were used as curtains to screen the doors.Numani, pp. 259–260 According to an account by Anas ibn Malik, one of Muhammad's companions: "The Prophet used to visit all his wives in a round, during the day and night and they were eleven in number". I asked Anas, "Had the Prophet the strength for it?" Anas replied, "We used to say that the Prophet was given the strength of thirty (men)". And Sa'id said on the authority of Qatada that Anas had told him about nine wives only (not eleven).: Narrated Qatada: Anas bin Malik said, "The Prophet used to visit all his wives in a round, during the day and night and they were eleven in number". I asked Anas, "Had the Prophet the strength for it?" Anas replied, "We used to say that the Prophet was given the strength of thirty (men)". And Sa'id said on the authority of Qatada that Anas had told him about nine wives only (not eleven)".
Although Muhammad's wives had a special status among the early Muslims, he did not allow them to use his status as a prophet and messenger to obtain special treatment in public.Ramadan (2007), pp. 168–169
Marriages Khadija bint Khuwaylid Around the age of 25, Muhammad wed his wealthy employer, Khadija, the 28- or 40-year-old widow, and daughter of a merchant. Muhammad used to manage her caravans; and Khadija, being impressed by the skills of Muhammad, sent a proposal to the Islamic prophet. Around 595, the couple married, and this marriage, his first, would be both happy and monogamous; Muhammad would rely on Khadija in many ways, until her death 25 years later.Esposito (1998), p. 18Reeves (2003), p. 46 They had two sons, Qasim and Abd Allah (nicknamed al-Ṭāhir and al-Ṭayyib respectively), both died young, and four daughters – Zaynab, Ruqaiya, Umm Kulthum and Fatimah. Some Shia scholars dispute the paternity of Khadija's daughters, as they view the first three of them as the daughters from previous marriages and only Fatimah as the daughter of Muhammad and Khadija.Muhammad al-Tijani in his The Shi'a: The Real Followers of the Sunnah on Al-Islam.org note 274 During their marriage, Khadija purchased the slave Zayd ibn Harithah, then adopted the young man as her son at Muhammad's request.Muhammad Husayn Haykal, The Life of Muhammad : "From Marriage to Prophethood", translated by Isma'il Razi A. al-Faruqi Muhammad's uncle Abu Talib and Khadija died in 620 and Muhammad declared the year as Aam al-Huzn ("Year of Sorrow").
Hijrah (migration) to Medina
Sawda bint Zam'ah Before he left for Medina, it was suggested by Khawlah bint Hakim that he should marry Sawdah bint Zam'ah, who had suffered many hardships after she became a Muslim. Prior to that, Sawdah was married to a paternal cousin of hers named As-Sakran ibn Amr and had five or six children from her previous marriage. She along with her husband migrated to Abyssinia due to persecution of Muslims by Meccans. Her husband died in Abyssinia and hence Sawdah had to come back to Mecca. There are disagreements in Muslim tradition whether Muhammad first married Sawdah or Aisha, but Sawdah is usually regarded as his second wife and she was living with him before Aisha joined the household. Sawdah was about 30 years old at the time.Watt,"Aisha bint Abu Bakr", Encyclopaedia of Islam Online
As Sawdah got older, and some time after Muhammad's marriage to Umm Salama, there are reports that Muhammad was neglecting Sawdah and had planned to divorce her. But Sawdah stopped him in the street and begged him to take her back, offering to give up her turn for his nightly conjugal visits to Aisha, whom he was very fond of. Sawdah pleaded that she was old anyway and did not care for men; her only wish was to be resurrected as Muhammad's wife on the Day of Judgment. Muhammad agreed to her proposal, and Qur'an 4:128-129 was revealed. Other traditions say that Muhammad did not really reject her, but that she was afraid that he would, and it was not rejection that was considered in the revelation of the verse, but rather a compromise on divorce so long as she could remain his wife in name. The tradition stablished the style of marriage Nikah Misyar.
Aisha bint Abu Bakr
Aisha was the daughter of Muhammad's close friend Abu Bakr. She was initially betrothed to Jubayr ibn Muṭʽim, a Muslim whose father, though pagan, was friendly to the Muslims. When Khawlah bint Hakim suggested that Muhammad marry Aisha after the death of Muhammad's first wife (Khadija), the previous agreement regarding Aisha with ibn Mut'im was put aside by common consent.
Muhammad converted friendship of his four friends who later became the four Islamic rulers or successors, into relationship through marriage. He married Aisha and Hafsa, daughters of Abu Bakr and Umar, and he gave his daughters to Uthman and Ali. Aisha was the only virgin he married according to tradition.
The majority of traditional sources state that Aisha was betrothed to Muhammad at the age of six and consummated at the age of nine or ten with Muhammad, then 53, in Medina., , , , , , , , ,
Both Aisha and Sawdah, his two wives, were given apartments adjoined to the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi mosque.Nomani (1970), pp. 257–259