The Life of Mohammad, the Prophet of AllahDinet, Etienne
Religion
The Life of Mohammad, the Prophet of Allah
Dinet, Etienne
Muhammad, Prophet, -632
This cry filled Zainab with boundless pride. When poor Zayd returned,
he was received with more scornful haughtiness than ever, and she
hastened to let him know the effect produced upon Allah's Apostle by
her radiant beauty. Zayd began to feel that life with his spouse,
already hard to please, would soon be unbearable. He made up his mind
to see Mohammad; and then he told him: 'Maybe Zainab pleaseth thee? If
so, I'll get rid of her.'--'Go back to thy wife and keep her to
thyself,' replied the Prophet.
But Zayd had had enough of her. Ever since the sight of Zainab had
forced a cry of admiration from the Prophet, her husband did not dare
to approach her and considered that he would have no peace until after
he had divorced her. So he went back to Mohammad. 'O Prophet!' said
he, 'the way Zainab talketh to me is worse than ever. I wish to
repudiate her.'--'Fear Allah,' replied Mohammad, 'and keep thy wife to
thyself.'--'But I'm no longer master in my own house!'--'If that is
so, put her away from thee.'
As soon as she was repudiated, Zainab had but a single thought: to
become the wife of the Prophet; and she never ceased intriguing to
gain her ends. At last a Revelation came down to Mohammad: "_And when
Zayd had settled the necessary matter of her divorce, We married her
to thee._" (THE QUR'AN, XXXIII, 37.) So he resolved to be wedded to
Zainab.
The Jews and the "Hypocrites" declared this was scandalous. 'Mohammad
marries his son's wife!' was their cry, and they worked with a will to
make capital out of the incident and bring him into disrepute. The
following verses, however, stopped every true Believer from listening
to the discreditable group: "_Name your adopted sons after their
fathers: this will be more right before Allah. But if ye know not who
their fathers are, still let them be your brethren in the faith, and
your comrades * Mohammad is not the father of any man among you._"
(THE QUR'AN, XXXIII, 5, 40.)
The adoption of Zayd, dating from before the birth of Islam, and which
might have proved a serious stumbling-block in the political career of
its chief, was thus annulled, and the freed man, called Zayd ibn
Mohammad, now went by his real name: Zayd ibn al-Haris. But the
affection that Mohammad had for Zayd and his son Usamah, was
strengthened by this solution which put an end to all feelings of
restraint.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account