zayd,zaynab and the prophet

 Several years before Muhammad's call to prophethood, his wife Khadijah made him a present of a young slave, Zayd ibn Harithah, a descendant of the North-Arabian tribe of Banu Kalb, who had been taken captive as a child in the course of one of the many tribal wars and then sold into slavery at Mecca. As soon as he became the boy's owner, Muhammad freed him, and shortly afterwards adopted him as his 
son; and Zayd, in his turn, was among the first to embrace Islam. Years later, impelled by the desire to break down the ancient Arabian prejudice against a slave's or even a freedman's marrying a "free-born" woman, the Prophet persuaded Zayd to marry his (Muhammad's) own cousin, Zaynab hint Jahsh, who, without his being aware of it, had been in love with Muhammad ever since her childhood. Hence, she consented to the proposed marriage with great reluctance, and only in deference to the authority of the Prophet. Since Zayd, too, was not at all keen on this alliance (being already happily married to another freed slave, Umm Ayman, the mother of his son Usamah), it was not surprising that the marriage did not bring happiness to either Zaynab or Zayd. On several occasions the latter was about to divorce his new wife who, on her part, did not make any secret of her dislike of Zayd; and each time they were persuaded by the Prophet to persevere in patience and not to separate. In the end, however, the marriage proved untenable, and Zayd divorced Zaynab in the year 5 H. Shortly afterwards the Prophet married her in order to redeem what he considered to be his moral responsibility for her past unhappiness

 The story of Zainab is a favorite among the critics of Islam. They try to find fault with it, through distortion and misinterpretation, and their views do not, therefore, deserve any attention. Zainab was a good-looking girl and closely related to the Prophet (peace be upon him). If he had so wished, he could have married her – an act which would have been the greatest honour her family could have wished for. But the Divine Will had ordained that her marriage would be the cause of two important social reforms which were to come about in Islam. Firstly, she was the subject of a test case, and secondly the Prophet was made to set an example to others. In the first instance God Almighty sought to put an end to aristocratic pride and class consciousness. So Zainab, a girl belonging to the noblest Arab stock, was married to Zayd, a man from a humble background, a fugitive and an adopted son of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Society at that time considered him totally unworthy of her. But she married him all the same, against the wish of her family. Subsequently it was difficult for her to adjust to her new life, and she and her husband were constantly bickering. Both partners were ill at ease with each other and wanted to separate. But the Prophet (peace be upon him) continued to advise Zayd: “Retain your wife and fear God.” But the couple had reached the end of their tether and divorce became inevitable.
 What happened next involved the Prophet (peace be upon him). He was put to the most difficult test. He had to marry Zainab in order to put an end to the practice of adoption and show the world that it is lawful for a person to marry the wife of his adopted son. [Islam forbade to call adopted son with name of man adopting him, rather he was to be called as son of his real biological father] This was extremely hard for the Prophet (peace be upon him) who did not want to bear the stigma of society as one who had married his (adopted) son’s wife. However, he carried out this duty with patience and in obedience to the Divine Will. However, the above incident should be seen in perspective, and not in the way in which it is presented by critics of Islam. The conclusions they draw are nonsense and do not deserve any attention.( muhammad asad )

Had Prophet Muhammad engaged in any unbecoming behavior, no shortage of critics existed during his lifetime. Likewise, Zainab was Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and he had ample opportunity to marry her before her marriage to Zaid was even a nascent possibility. It is baseless to allege that his infatuation for Zainab somehow spontaneously emerged only after her marriage.

While not a single critic of Prophet Muhammad’s time attributed to him any wrongdoing, contemporary critics somehow find an opportunity to do so. To silence those critics, Christian scholar Reverend Boswell Smith writes:

“It should be remembered, however, that most of Mohammed’s marriages may be explained, at least, as much by his pity for the forlorn condition of the persons concerned, as by other motives. They were almost all of them widows who were not remarkable for either their beauty or their wealth, but quite the reverse. May not this fact, and his undoubted faithfulness to Khadija till her dying day, and till he himself was fifty years of age, give us additional ground to hope that calumny or misconception has been at work in the story of Zeinab?” [1]

Critics during Prophet Muhammad’s time and contemporary scholars both agree that Prophet Muhammad committed no wrong.(via muhammadfactcheck)
 The story of Zaninab Bint Jash changing her clothes and Prophet Muhammad peeking into her room, seeing her undress and falling in love with her beauty is false. This false story is found in Al-Tabari (which is filled with fake narrations as I document here). The story of Prophet Muhammad finds Zaniab Bint Jash changing her clothes and fanscinated with her beauty gets a revelation from Allah telling him its okay to marry her because Zaid is ordered to divorce her. The story goes like this: 

The Messenger of God came to the house of Zayd b. Harithah. (Zayd was always called Zayd b. Muhammad.) Perhaps the Messenger of God missed him at that moment, so as to ask, "Where is Zayd?" He came to his residence to look for him but did not find him. Zaynab bt. Jash, Zayd's wife, rose to meet him. Because she was dressed only in a shift, the Messenger of God turned away from her. She said: "He is not here, Messenger of God. Come in, you who are as dear to me as my father and mother!" The Messenger of God refused to enter. Zaynab had dressed in haste when she was told "the Messenger of God is at the door." She jumped up in haste and excited the admiration of the Messenger of God, so that he turned away murmuring something that could scarcely be understood. However, he did say overtly: "Glory be to God the Almighty! Glory be to God, who causes the hearts to turn!" ( via muhammad fact check )

When Zayd came home, his wife told him that the Messenger of God had come to his house. Zayd said, "Why didn't you ask him to come in?" He replied, "I asked him, but he refused." "Did you hear him say anything?" he asked. She replied, "As he turned away, I heard him say: ?Glory be to God the Almighty! Glory be to God, who causes hearts to turn!'" 

So Zayd left, and having come to the Messenger of God, he said: "Messenger of God, I have heard that you came to my house. Why didn't you go in, you who are as dear to me as my father and mother? Messenger of God, perhaps Zaynab has excited your admiration, and so I will separate myself from her." Zayd could find no possible way to [approach] her after that day. He would come to the Messenger of God and tell him so, but the Messenger of God would say to him, "Keep your wife." Zayd separated from her and left her, and she became free. 

While the Messenger of God was talking with 'A'isha, a fainting overcame him. When he was released from it, he smiled and said, "Who will go to Zaynab to tell her the good news, saying that God has married her to me?" Then the Messenger of God recited: "And when you said unto him on whom God has conferred favor and you have conferred favor, “Keep your wife to yourself .'"- and the entire passage.

According to 'A'isha, who said: "I became very uneasy because of what we heard about her beauty and another thing, the greatest and loftiest of matters - what God had done for her by giving her in marriage. I said she would boast of it over us. [1] 

When reporting this story Tabari (the hadith narrator) failed to provide a chain of narrators, is not a single chain of narrators at all, regarding this hadith (or story). It just begins with, "It was said that...." This is not a trustworthy narration and in fact is discarded by several Islamic scholars: 

"So far as the fanciful stories and calumnies of the Orientalists are concerned, we can only say that these are so absurd that any one having even a grain of sense in him would unhesitatingly reject them as mere fabrications. William Muir and so may others like him state that the Prophet, having seen Zaynab by change through a half-open door, was fascinated by her beauty, and that Zayd having come to know of the leanings of his master, divorced her and then she was marred by Muhammad. There is absolutely no truth in these stories which have been fabricated in this connection

Why didn’t he marry her when she was single? Moreover the story of Prophet Muhammad seeing Zanib undress and seeing her beauty, and making Zaid (his apopted son) divorce her so he could marry her is apocryphal (fake) and not at all historical. The real story behind why Prophet Muhammad married Zaniab was because her marriage with Zaid was not working out because she was constantly complaining and nagging to Zaid. Prophet Muhammad refused to have Zaid divocrce her and told Zaid to Fear God. After the marriage proved to be fruitless and Zaniab continued over to over to nag and complain, Zaid had enough and divorced her. Prophet Muhammad then decided to marry her, not of lust, but out of mercy due to her financial status.

When Zanib divorced Zaid she had no home, and Prophet Muhammad offered her a home by marrying her. As to Prophet Muhammad manipulating the divorce to satisty his own whims, I think Paul Grieve (2006) writes it best when he writes: 

There are also responses to be made to the accusation that Muhammad manipulated the divorce to satisfy his own sexual whim. ….. whom he (Muhammad) knew well (Zaniab), and he could have married her at a much earlier time had he been so inclined. Secondly, at the time of the marriage, after the Farewell Pilgrimage, Muhammad was in poor health and close to death.” [3]

Moreover Prophet Muhammad did not want to marry Zaniab as this hadith tells us: 

Narrated Anas: Zaid bin Haritha came to the Prophet complaining about his wife. The Prophet kept on saying (to him), "Be afraid of Allah and keep your wife." Aisha said, "If Allah's Apostle were to conceal anything (of the Quran) he would have concealed this Verse." Zainab used to boast before the wives of the Prophet and used to say, "You were given in marriage by your families, while I was married (to the Prophet) by Allah from over seven Heavens." And Thabit recited, "The Verse:-- ?But (O Muhammad) you did hide in your heart that which Allah was about to make manifest, you did fear the people,' (33.37) was revealed in connection with Zainab and Zaid bin Haritha." (Bukhari, Volume 9, Book 93, Number 516)

 So the marriage between Prophet Muhammad and Zaniab was divinely ordained in the Quran and is in no way did Prophet Muhammad steal someone’s wife. Zaniab being a divorcee was to be married to Prophet Muhammad whether he liked it or not because of commandment of Allah by the Quran. Zaniab divorced Zaid because the marriage was not working out, and Prophet Muhammad offered to marry her. This was backed by a divine commandment by Allah (God) in the Quran. So all what happened is that Prophet Muhammad married a divorcee. That’s it( by ehteshaam gulam)

Zayd, Zaynab And Muhammed: Fabrications And Lies – Discover The ..

 

 

Zaynab Bint Jahsh: The Fact behind the Fiction. - Answering Christianity

 

 

 Fictional Stories about Prophet Muhammad: Zaid, Zanyab and Prophet Muhammad (2010)