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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Muhammad Marriages of the Prophet When the Prophet passed away, he left nine wives behind. This has become a main target of spiteful Christian and Jewish writers. They say that plurality of marriages (polygamy) in itself points to avidity and to yielding to lust and desire, and the Prophet was not content with four wives which had been allowed to his ummah but exceeded even that limit and married nine instead.

It is necessary to point out that this is not such a simple matter to be dismissed by one saying that he was inordinately fond of women, so much so that he married nine wives. The fact is that he had married each one of his wives for some particular reason due to particular circumstances. His first marriage was with Khadija. He lived with her alone for twenty-five years. It was the prime time of his youth and constitutes two-thirds of his marriage life.

We have written about her on the preceding pages. Then he married Sawdah daughter of Zam’ah whose husband had passed away during the second migration to Abyssinia. Sawdah was a believing lady who had migrated on account of her faith. Her father and brother were among the most bitter enemies of Islam. If she were left to return to them, they would have tortured her, as they were doing with other believing men and women, oppressing and killing them, forcing them to renounce their faith.

At the same time, he married ‘Ayisha bint Abu Bakr, who was then a six-year[^1] old child. She came to the Prophet's house some time after the migration to Medina. He married Zainab bint Khuzaymah whose husband ‘Abdullah ibn Jahsh was killed during the Battle of Uhud. She was a very virtuous woman even during the time of jahiliyya . She used to be called “ummul-masakin,’ mother of the destitutes, due to her generosity to the indigent and the poor.

Seeing that by losing her husband she had none to provide for her, the Prophet married her in order to safeguard her dignity. When he migrated to Medina, the Prophet began spreading the word of Allah. Thereafter, he married women who were all either widows or divorcees, old or middle-aged. He married Safiyya daughter of Huyayy ibn al-Akhtab, as indicated above, who was killed during the Battle of Khaybar. Her brother was also killed in the same battle.