Ala-Maududi
(33:37) (O Prophet),[67] call to mind when you said to him[68]whom Allah
had favoured and you had favoured: “Cleave to your wife and fear Allah,”[69] and you
concealed within yourself for fear of people what Allah was to reveal, although Allah has
greater right that you fear Him.[70] So when Zayd had accomplished what he would of
her,[71] We gave her in marriage to you[72] so that there should not be
any constraint for the believers regarding the wives of their adopted sons after they had
accomplished whatever they would of them.[73] And Allah’s command was bound to be
accomplished.
67. The discourse from here to (Surah
Al-Ahzab, ayat 48) was sent down after the Prophet (peace be upon him) had married
Zainab, and the hypocrites, the Jews and the mushriks had started a relentless propaganda
campaign against him. While studying these verses one should bear in mind the fact that this
divine discourse was not meant for the instruction of the enemies who were engaged in a willful
campaign of vilification and slander and falsehood to defame the Prophet (peace be upon him)
intentionally and to satisfy their rancor. But its real object was to protect the Muslims
against the influence of their campaign and to safeguard them against doubts and suspicions.
Evidently, the word of Allah could not satisfy the unbelievers. It could give peace of mind only
to those who knew and believed it to be Allah’s word. There was a danger that those righteous
people also might be confused and influenced by the objections that were being raised by their
enemies. Therefore, on the one hand, Allah removed all possible doubts from their minds, and on
the other, taught the Muslims as well as the Prophet (peace be upon him) himself how they should
conduct themselves under the circumstances.
68. It refers to Zaid as has been mentioned clearly below. In order to understand how Allah and
the Prophet (peace be upon him) had favored him, it is necessary here to relate his story
briefly. He was the son of Harithah bin Shurahbil, a person of the Kalb tribe, and his mother,
Suda bint Thalabah, was from the Bani Maan, a branch of the Tay tribe. When he was eight years
old, she took him along to her parents. There the people of Bani Qain bin Jasr raided their
camp, plundered their goods and took some men prisoners including Zaid. Then they sold Zaid at
the fair of Ukiiz near Taif. His buyer was Hakim bin Hizam, a nephew of Khadijah (may Allah be
pleased with her). Hakim brought him to Makkah and presented him to his paternal aunt. When the
Prophet (peace be upon him) married Khadijah, he found Zaid in her service and was so impressed
by his good manners and conduct that he asked her to give Zaid to him. Thus, this fortunate boy
entered the service of the best of men, whom Allah, after a few years, was going to appoint a
Prophet (peace be upon him). Zaid at that time was 15 years old. Afterwards, when his father and
uncle came to know that their child was at Makkah, they came to the Prophet (peace be upon him)
and requested him to return him in exchange for a payment. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said,
“I shall call the boy and leave it to him whether he would like to go with you or stay with me.
If he chose to go, I would take no payment but would let him go with you. However, if he chose
to stay back, I am not the one who would send away a person who would like to stay with me.”
They said, “This is perfectly right and just. Please ask the boy.” The Prophet (peace be upon
him) called Zaid and asked him: “Do you know these two gentlemen?” He said, “Yes, this is my
father and this is my uncle.” The Prophet (peace be upon him) then said, “Well, you know them as
well as me. You have the choice to go with them, or stay with me if you so desire.” He said, “I
have no wish to leave you and go with anyone else.” His father and uncle said: “Zaid, will you
prefer slavery to freedom, and choose to stay with others in preference to your parents and
family?” He replied, “After what I have seen of this person, I cannot prefer anything else of
the world over him.” Hearing this reply, the father and uncle of Zaid were reconciled to his
remaining with the Prophet (peace be upon him). The Prophet (peace be upon him) set Zaid free
immediately and proclaimed before a gathering of the Quraish in the Kabah, “Bear witness that
hence forth Zaid is my son: he will receive inheritance from me and I from him.” Thereafter, he
began to be called Zaid bin Muhammad by the people. All this happened before the Prophet’s
(peace be upon him) advent as a Prophet. Then, when he was blessed with Prophethood by Allah,
there were four persons who accepted his claim to it without a moment’s hesitation as soon as
they heard of it from him. They were Khadijah, Zaid, Ali and Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with
them all). Zaid was 30 years old then, and had already spent 15 years in the Prophet’s (peace be
upon him) service. In the fourth year after Hijrah, the Prophet (peace be upon him) married him
to his first cousin Zainab, paid her dower on his behalf and provided them with necessary
articles for setting up the house.
This is to what Allah has alluded in the verse, saying: “Upon whom Allah has bestowed favor, and
upon whom you (O Muhammad) have done favor.”
69. These words were said when the relations between Zaid and Zainab had become very strained,
and after making repeated complaints Zaid had finally told the Prophet (peace be upon him) that
he intended to divorce her. Although Zainab had accepted to be married to him in obedience to
Allah and His Messenger’s command, she could not overcome her feeling that Zaid was a freed
slave, who had been brought up by her own family, and she in spite of being the daughter of a
noble Arab family, had been wedded to him. Due to this feeling she could never regard Zaid as
her equal in matrimonial life, and this caused more and more bitterness between them. Thus after
a little more than a year the marriage ended in divorce.
70. Some people have misconstrued this sentence to mean this: The Prophet (peace be upon him)
desired to marry Zainab and wanted that Zaid should divorce her. But when Zaid came to the
Prophet (peace be upon him) and said that he wanted to divorce his wife, the Prophet (peace be
upon him) stopped him from this only half heartedly. At this Allah said: “You were keeping
hidden in your heart that which Allah intended to reveal.” The real meaning, however, is
contrary to this. If this the sentence is read with – verses 1, 2, 3 and 7 of this Surah – one
can clearly see that in the very days when bitterness was increasing between Zaid and his wife,
Allah had hinted to His Prophet (peace be upon him) that when Zaid had divorced his wife, he
would have to marry the divorced lady. But since the Prophet (peace be upon him) knew what it
meant to marry the divorced wife of the adopted son in the contemporary Arab society, and that
too at a time when apart from a handful of the Muslims the entire country had become jealous of
him, he was hesitant to take any step in that direction. That is why when Zaid expressed his
intention to divorce his wife, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said to him, “Fear Allah and do
not divorce your wife.” What he meant by this was that Zaid should not divorce his wife so that
he was saved from facing the trial, otherwise in case the divorce was pronounced he would have
to comply with the command, and thus provoke a severe storm of criticism and vilification
against himself. But when the Prophet (peace be upon him) deliberately forbade Zaid to divorce
his wife so that he himself might be saved from what he feared would cause him defamation, Allah
found this below the high position that He wanted His Prophet to enjoy, whereas Allah intended
to effect a great reform through this marriage of the Prophet. The words “And you feared the
people, while Allah has more right that you should fear Him,” clearly point to the same theme.
The same explanation of this verse has been given by Imam Zain-ul-Aabedin Ali bin Husain (may
Allah be pleased with him). He says, Allah had indicated to His Prophet (peace be upon him) that
Zainab would be included among his wives. But when Zaid complained about her to him, the Prophet
(peace be upon him) admonished him to fear Allah and keep his wife. At this Allah said to His
Prophet, “I had informed you that I would give Zainab you to in marriage. But when you were
forbidding Zaid to divorce his wife, you were hiding that which Allah was going to reveal.” (Ibn
Jarir, Ibn Kathir on the authority of Ibn Abi Hatim).
Allama Alusi in his Ruh-al-Maani has also given the same meaning of it. He says, “This is an
expression of displeasure on abandoning the better course, which was that the Prophet (peace be
upon him) should have kept quiet, or should have told Zaid to do as he liked. The displeasure
amounted to this: “Why did you tell Zaid to keep his wife, whereas I had informed you beforehand
that Zainab would be included among your wives?”
71. That is, Zaid divorced his wife and her waiting period came to an end. The words “So when
Zaid had fulfilled his desire of her” by themselves give the meaning that Zaid was left with no
desire attached to her. And this state of affairs does not appear on mere pronouncement of the
divorce, because even during the waiting period the husband can take his wife back if he has any
interest in her; and the husband also has this desire left with the divorced wife that it should
become known whether she is pregnant or not. Therefore, the desire of her former husband with
the divorced wife comes to an end only on the expiry of the waiting period.
72. These words are explicit that the Prophet (peace be upon him) had married Zainab not because
of any personal desire but under the command of Allah.
73. These words clearly indicate that Allah accomplished this social reform through the Prophet
(peace be upon him) to effect a great change which could not be enforced by any other means.
There was no way to put an end to the wrong customs that had become prevalent in Arabia in
respect of the adopted relations but that Allah’s Messenger himself should take initiative to
abolish them. Therefore, Allah arranged this marriage not for the sake of adding a wife to the
Prophet’s (peace be upon him) household but for enforcing an important social change.