Salam (Peace) - Part 1

[Guest guest]

('Salam' - Peace; often used by Muslims as a greeting. [Muhammad Prophet For Our

Time Glossary pg. 218].)

 

 

Salam - Part 1

 

(p.165) MUHAMMAD'S VICTORY over the Quraysh greatly enhanced his prestige in the

peninsula. During the next few months, he capitalized on this, dispatching

raiding parties against tribes who belonged to the Meccan confederacy, hoping to

tighten the economic blockade that was damaging Qurayshan trade and attract some

of the Syrian caravans to Medina. His continuing success made many of the Arabs

question the validity of their traditional faith. They were pragmatic people,

less interested in abstract speculation than in the effectiveness of a religious

system. When the Meccan army had left Medina after the siege, the commander

Khalid ibn al-Walid had cried: " Every man of sense now knows that Muhammad has

not lied! " [1] Even the most committed adherents of the old faith were beginning

to agree. (p.166) During a raid against one of the Meccan caravans, Muhammad's

former son-in-law Abu l-'As, who had been ready to give up his family rather

than accept Islam, was taken prisoner; Muhammad ordered that he be released and

his merchandise returned to him, and this second act of generosity so impressed

Abu l-'As that after he had taken the goods back to Mecca, he made the hijrah

[migration to Medina], converted to Islam, and was reunited with Zaynab and

their little daughter.

 

In Arabia as a whole, the tide had turned in Muhammad's favor, but within Medina

the opposite was true. There the conflict had become more venomous than ever;

every day Ibn Ubayy insinuated that had 'he' retained the leadership, Yathrib

[now named Medina] could have been pacified without incurring the lethal enmity

of the most powerful city in Arabia. Muhammad's enemies rarely attacked him

openly, but conducted a somewhat underhanded smear campaign. His controversial

attempt to improve the status of women was a godsend to them, and they began to

circulate malicious and salacious rumors about his wives. Some made it known

that they had their eye on some of the more attractive members of his harem and

intended to marry them after his death--a suggestion that carried more than a

hint of assassination. [2] It was whispered that Muhammad was now too old to

satisfy his wives or that he had a testicular hernia. [3] There was a good deal

of spiteful gossip about 'A'isha and a young man called Safwan ibn al-Mu'attal.

When people crowded into his family quarters to put their questions and

complaints to Muhammad, some of the men had actually insulted his wives before

his very eyes. The situation was getting out of hand. (p.167) At night, when it

was cooler, Medina came to life, and people liked to walk about and socialize

outside, enjoying the fresher air, but since the siege, women had been attacked

on the streets. When the Prophet's wives went out together, the Hypocrites had

started to follow them, yelling obscene suggestions and making lewd gestures.

[4] When challenged, they protested that in the darkness they had mistaken the

women for slave girls, who were considered fair game for this type of

harassment.

 

Muhammad was emotionally and physically drained by the strain of the last few

years. He had always been emotionally dependent upon his women and this made him

vulnerable. When he decided to take another wife, tongues started to wag again.

[5] Zaynab bint Jahsh had always been close to Muhammad; she was his cousin, but

she was also the wife of Zayd, his adopted son. Muhammad had arranged the match

himself shortly after the hijrah [migration to Medina], even though Zaynab had

been far from enthusiastic: Zayd was not physically pre-possessing and she may

even then have been interested in Muhammad himself. Zaynab was now in her late

thirties, but, despite the harsh climate and conditions of Arabia, she was still

extremely beautiful. A pious woman, she was a skilled leather-worker and gave

all the proceeds of her craft to the poor. Muhammad seems to have seen her with

new eyes and to have fallen in love quite suddenly when he had called at her

house one afternoon to speak to Zayd, who happened to be out. Not expecting any

visitors, Zaynab had come to the door in dishabille, more revealingly dressed

than usual, and Muhammad had averted his eyes hastily, muttering " Praise be to

Allah, who changes men's hearts! " Shortly afterwards, Zaynab and Zayd were

divorced. The marriage had never been happy and Zayd was glad to release her.

(p.168) This story has shocked some of Muhammad's Western critics who are used

to more ascetic, Christian heroes, but the Muslim sources seem to find nothing

untoward in this demonstration of their Prophet's virility. Nor are they

disturbed that Muhammad had more than four wives: why should God not give his

prophet a few privileges? What scandalized his opponents in Medina was the fact

that Zaynab had been married to Zayd: Arabs regarded adoption as conferring an

almost biological relationship and there was much scandalized talk about incest.

Muhammad was reassured on this point by a revelation that assured him that Allah

himself desired the match and that it was not sinful to marry the spouse of an

adopted child. [6] 'A'isha, who was always prone to jealousy, happened to be

with Muhammad when he received his divine message. How very convenient! she

remarked tartly, " Truly thy Lord makes haste to do thy bidding! " As usual,

tensions in the harem reflected divisions in the community as a whole:

Muhammad's marriage to one of his own cousins would further the political ends

of the Prophet's family, advancing the cause of the ahl al-beit [People of the

household. Muhammad's immediate family].

 

Because of the scandal, Muhammad insisted that the entire community attend the

wedding celebrations. The courtyard was crowded with guests, many of them

hostile to the Prophet, and the atmosphere would not have been pleasant.

Eventually the party began to break up, but a small group remained behind in

Zaynab's new apartment, apparently blissfully unaware that it was time for the

bride and groom to be alone. Muhammad left the room and sat with his other

wives, hoping that these tactless guests would take the hint. (p.169) " How do

you like your new companion? " 'A'isha inquired acidly, when he dropped in on

her. He eventually returned to Zaynab's hut, where the revellers were finally

being ushered out by his friend Anas ibn Malik. As he entered the room, Muhammad

somewhat impatiently drew a curtain ('hijab') between himself and Anas, uttering

the word of a new revelation:

 

O you who have attained to faith! Do not enter the Prophet's dwellings unless

you are given leave; [and when invited] to a meal, do not come [so early as] to

wait for it to be readied: but whenever you are invited, enter [at the proper

time]; and when you have partaken of the meal, disperse without lingering for

the sake of mere talk: that, behold, might give offence to the Prophet, and yet

he might feel shy of [asking] you [to leave]: but God is not shy of [teaching

you] what is right.

And as for the Prophet's wives, whenever you ask them for anything that you

need, ask them from behind a screen: this will but deepen the purity of your

hearts and theirs. [7]

 

The revelation went on to ordain that Muhammad's wives should not remarry after

his death, and ordered them to wear their 'jilbab' (which could refer to various

garments) in a distinctive way, so that they could be recognized in the street

and avoid harassment. [8]

 

The hijab verses have become extremely controversial. [9] They would

eventually--about three generations after the Prophet's death--be used to

justify the veiling of all women and their segregation in a separate part of the

house. But they must be seen in context. They occur in Surah 33, which also

deals with the siege, and must be considered against this frightening backdrop.

These directives did not apply to all Muslim women, but only to Muhammad's

wives. They were prompted by the thinly disguised threats of Muhammad's enemies,

the aggressive encroachment upon his personal space, and the abuse to which his

wives were subjected almost daily. The poisonous atmosphere of Medina after the

siege had compelled Muhammad to change his personal arrangements. Henceforth

there would be no open house; instead of crowding freely into his wives'

apartments, Muslims must approach them from behind a protective screen. The word

'hijab' comes from the root HJB: to hide. The curtains established a threshold;

it shielded a " forbidden " or " sacred " (haram) object, like the damask cloth that

covered the Kabah. In times of vulnerability, women's bodies often symbolize the

endangered community, and in our own day, the hijab has acquired new importance

in seeming to protect the ummah from the threat of the West.

 

Muhammad had not wanted to separate his private life from his public duties. He

continued to take his wives on military expeditions, though they would now

remain in their tent. But the other women of the ummah continued to move around

the oasis freely. The hijab was not devised to divide the sexes. In fact, when

the revelation had come down, the curtain had been drawn between two men--the

Prophet and Anas--to separate the married couple from the hostile community.

(p.171) The introduction of the hijab was a victory for 'Umar, who had been

urging the Prophet to segregate his wives for some time--a somewhat superficial

solution to a complex problem. Muhammad had wanted to change people's attitudes,

and the imposition of this external barrier was a compromise, because it did not

require Muslims to exercise an internal control over their actions. But he gave

in to 'Umar, because of the crisis that was tearing Medina apart.

 

Muhammad (Prophet For Our Time)

Chapter 5, 'Salam', p. 165-171

Karen Armstrong

Harper Perennial - London, New York, Toronto and Sydney

ISBN-13 978-0-00-723248-2

ISBN-10 0-00-723248-9

 

Notes:

 

[1] Muhammad ibn 'Umar al-Waqidi, 'Kitab al-Maghazi', 488-490, in Martin Lings,

'Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources' (London, 1983), 227.

 

[2] Fatima Mernissi, 'Women and Islam: An Historical and Theological Enquiry',

trans. Mary Jo Lakeland (Oxford, 1991), 17-172.

 

[3] Qur'an 33:51, 63.

 

[4] Qur'an 33:59-60.

 

[5] Lings, 'Muhammad', 212-214; Tor Andrae, 'Muhammad: The Man and His Faith',

trans. Theophil Menzil (London, 1936), 215-16.

 

[6] Qur'an 33:36-40.

 

[7] Qur'an 33:53, in Muhammad Asad, trans., 'The Message of the Qur'an'

(Gibraltar, 1980).

 

[8] Qur'an 33:53, 59.

 

[9] Mernissi, 'Women and Islam', 88-191; Leila Ahmed, 'Women and Gender in

Islam' (New Haven and London, 1992), 53-57.