Ala-Maududi
(33:50) O Prophet, We have made lawful for you your wives whose bridal dues you havepaid,[87] and the slave-girls you possess from among the prisoners of war, and thedaughters of your paternal uncles and paternal aunts, and the daughters of your maternal unclesand maternal aunts who have migrated with you, and a believing woman who gives herself to theProphet and whom he wants to take in marriage.[88] (O Prophet), this privilege isyours alone to the exclusion of other believers.[89] We know well what restrictionsWe have imposed upon them as regards their wives and those whom their right hands possess, (andhave exempted you from those restrictions) that there may be no constraint uponyou.[90] Allah is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful.
87. This, in fact, is an answer to the objection of the people who said that Muhammad (peace beupon him) forbade others to keep more than four wives at a time but had himself taken a fifthwife. This objection was raised because at the time the Prophet (peace be upon him) marriedZainab, he already had four wives with him:
(1) Saudah, whom he had married in the 3rd year before the Hijrah,
(2) Aishah, whom he married in the 3rd year before the Hijrah but who came to live with him inShawwal, A.H. 1,
(3) Hafsah, whom he married in Shaban, A.H. 3, and,
(4) Umm Salamah, whom he married in Shawwal. A.H. 4. Thus, Zainab was his fifth wife. May Allahbe pleased with them all. Here Allah has answered the objection of the disbelievers and thehypocrites, as if to say, O Prophet, We have made lawful for you all these five wives whom youhave married by giving them their dowers. In other words, the answer means this: “It is We whohave imposed the restriction of four wives on others, and it is also We ourselves who have madeOur Prophet an exception to the restriction. When We could impose the restriction, We could alsomake the exception.”
Also, about this answer one should note that it was not meant to satisfy the disbelievers and thehypocrites but those Muslims to whom the opponents of Islam were trying to impart evilsuggestions. Since they believed that the Quran is Allah’s speech and has been sent down inAllah’s own words, Allah declared through a clear and decisive verse that the Prophet (peace beupon him) had not made himself an exception from the general law about four wives of his ownaccord, but the exception in regard to him had been decreed by Allah.
88. Besides making the fifth wife lawful for the Prophet, Allah in this verse also granted himthe permission to marry a few other kinds of the women:
(1) The woman who came into his possession from among the slave-girls granted by Allah. Accordingto this the Prophet (peace be upon him) selected for himself Raihanah from among the prisonersof war taken at the raid against the Bani Quraizah, Juwairiyah from among the prisoners of wartaken at the raid against the Bani al- Mustaliq, Safiyyah out of the prisoners of war capturedat Khaiber, and Mariah the Copt, who was presented by Maqauqis of Egypt. Out of these he setthree of them free and married them, but had conjugal relations with Mariah on the ground of herbeing his slave-girl. In her case there is no proof that the Prophet (peace be upon him) set herfree and married her.
(2) The ladies from among his first cousins, who emigrated along with him. The words “whoemigrated with you” do not mean that they accompanied the Prophet (peace be upon him) in hismigration journey but this that they also had migrated in the way of Allah for the sake ofIslam. The Holy Prophet was given the choice to marry any one of them he liked. Accordingly, inA.H. 7 he married Umm Habibah. (Incidentally, in this verse it has been elucidated that thedaughters of one’s paternal and maternal uncles and aunts are lawful for a Muslim. In thisregard the Islamic Law is different both from the Christian Law and from the Jewish Law. Amongthe Christians one cannot marry a woman whose line of descent joins one’s own anywhere in thelast seven generations, and among the Jews it is permissible even to marry one’s real niece,i.e. daughter of one’s brother or sister.
(3) The believing woman who gives herself to the Prophet (peace be upon him), i.e. who isprepared to give herself in marriage to the Prophet (peace be upon him) without a dower, and hemay like to marry her. On account of this permission the Prophet (peace be upon him) took HadratMaimunah as his wife in Shawwal, A.H. 7, but he did not think he should have conjugal relationswith her without paying her the dower. Therefore, he paid her the dower even though she did notdemand or desire it. Some commentators say that the Prophet (peace be upon him) did not have anywife who had offered herself to him; but this in fact means that he did not keep any wifewithout paying her the dower although she offered herself to him.
89. If this sentence is taken to be related with the preceding sentence, it will mean that it isnot permissible for any Muslim to take in marriage a woman who gives herself to him, withoutpaying her the dower; and if it is taken to be related with the whole preceding passage, it willimply that the concession to marry more than four wives is only reserved for the Prophet (peacebe upon him), not for the other Muslims. This verse also shows that certain commandments arespecifically meant for the Prophet (peace be upon him) to follow and are not applicable to theother Muslims. A study of the Quran and Sunnah reveals several such commandments. For example,the Tahajjud prayer was obligatory for the Prophet (peace be upon him) but is voluntary for theUmmah. It is unlawful for him and his family to receive charities though it is not so forothers. The inheritance left by him cannot be divided; as for the inheritance left by othersrelevant commandments have been given in Surah An-Nisa. Keeping of more than four wives was madelawful for him though he was not enjoined to do equal treatment with them. He was permitted tomarry a woman who gave herself to him without any dower, and after his death his wives wereforbidden for the Ummah. None of these privileges could be enjoyed by any other Muslim. Anotherspecial thing that the commentators have mentioned in this regard is that it was forbidden forthe Prophet (peace be upon him) to marry a woman from among the people of the Book though it islawful for the Muslims to do so.
90. This is the reason why Allah made the Prophet (peace be upon him) an exception to the generalrule. “That there should be no difficulty (restraint) upon you.” does not mean that he was, Godforbid, a very lustful person, and therefore, he was permitted to marry several wives so that hemight not feel any hindrance due to the restriction to four wives. This meaning will beunderstood only by the person who, blinded by prejudice, forgets that the Prophet (peace be uponhim) at the age of 25 married a lady who was 40 years old, and lived a happy, contented marriedlife with her for full 25 years. Then, when she died, he marred another old lady Saudah, whoremained his only wife for the next four years. Now, no sensible and honest person can imaginethat when he became over fifty-three he was suddenly filled with lust and needed to have moreand more wives. In fact, in order to understand the meaning of “no restraint”, one should, onthe one hand, keep in view the great task whose responsibility Allah had placed on the Prophet(peace be upon him), and on the other hand, understand the conditions and circumstances underwhich he had been appointed to accomplish the great task. Anyone who understands these twothings with an unbiased mind, will certainly realize why it was necessary to grant him freedomin respect of the wives and what hindrance was there for him in the restriction to four wives.
The task entrusted to the Prophet (peace be upon him) was that he should mold and chisel byall-round education and training an uncouth, uncultured nation which was not uncivilized onlyfrom the Islamic point of view but from a general viewpoint as well, into a highly civilized,refined and virtuous nation. For this purpose an unbiased mind will certainly realize why it wasnecessary to grant him freedom in respect of the wives and what hindrance was there for him inthe restriction to four wives. For this purpose it was not enough only to train men but thetraining of the women was also equally necessary. However, the principles of social life andcivilization which he had been appointed to teach forbade free mixing of the sexes together, andit was not possible for him to impart direct training to the womenfolk without violating thisrule. Therefore, for imparting education to the women the only alternative left for him was thathe should marry several women of different ages and mental capabilities and should prepare themby education and training to become his helpers, and then employ them to give religiousinstructions to the young, middle-aged and old women of the city and desert and teach them thenew principles of morality and civilization. Moreover, the Prophet (peace be upon him) had alsobeen appointed to abolish the system of life of the pre-Islamic days of ignorance and replace itwith the Islamic system of life practically. For the accomplishment of this task a conflict wasinevitable with those who upheld the system of ignorance, and this conflict was beingencountered in a country where the tribal system of life was prevalent with all its peculiarcustoms and traditions. Under these conditions, besides other devices, it was also necessarythat the Prophet (peace be upon him) should marry in different families and clans in order tocement many ties of friendship and put an end to enmities. Thus, the selection of the ladieswhom he married was to some extent determined by this object besides their personal qualities.By taking Aishah and Hafsah as wives he further strengthened and deepened the relations with AbuBakr and Umar. Umm Salamah was the daughter of the family to which Abu Jahl and Khalid bin Walidbelonged, and Umm Habibah was the daughter of Abu Sufyan. These marriages neutralized the enmityof these families to a large extent; so much so that after Umm Habibah’s marriage Abu Sufyannever confronted the Prophet (peace be upon him) on the battlefield. Safiyyah, Juwairiah andRaihanah belonged to Jewish families. When the Prophet (peace be upon him) married them aftersetting them free, the hostile Jewish activities against him subsided. For according to the Arabtraditions when the daughter of a clan or tribe was married to a person, he was regarded as theson-in-law of not only the girl’s family but of the entire tribe, and it was disgraceful tofight the son-in-law.
Practical reformation of the society and abolition of its customs of ignorance was also includedamong the duties of his office. Therefore, he had to undertake one marriage for this purposealso, as has been related in detail in this Surah Ahzab itself.
For these reasons it was essential that there should be no restriction for the Prophet in respectof marriage so that in view of the requirements of the great mission entrusted to him he couldmarry as many women as he wanted.
This also brings out the error of the view of those people who think that polygamy is permissibleonly under special personal requirements and apart from these there can be no other object forwhich it may be permissible. Evidently, the reason for the Prophet (peace be upon him) to marrymore wives than one was not that the wife was sick, or barren, or that he had no male child, orthat there was the question of the bringing up of some orphans. Without these restrictions, hemarried all his wives either in view of the educational requirements, or for the reformation ofsociety, or for political and social objectives. The question is, when Allah Himself has notkept polygamy restricted to a few particular needs, which are being mentioned these days and theMessenger of Allah took several wives for many purposes other than these, how is another personentitled to propose some restrictions in the law and then claim that he is imposing these inaccordance with the Shariah? As a matter of fact, the root cause for the imposition of theserestrictions is the Western concept that polygamy is an evil in itself. That very concept hasgiven rise to the idea that this unlawful thing can become lawful only in case of extremecircumstances. Now, however hard one may try to label this imported concept with Islamartificially, it is entirely alien to the Quran and Sunnah and the whole Muslim literature.