Prophet's marriages, Circumcision, Astrology and rebirth
Mu' meneen Brothers
and Sisters,
As Salaam
Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and
Blessings be upon all of you)
One of our
brothers/sisters has asked this question:
Dear brother
As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh
Why did our beloved prophet married twelve times even though the maximum is
four?
Why is it necessary for all the Muslim men to do circumcision? What are its
benefits?
What does Islam says about astrology? Do we have to believe in all the star
signs and predictions?
Does Islam believes in the rebirth theory?
(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)
Answer:
Prophet's marriages,
Circumcision, Astrology and rebirth
In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask
for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever
He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that
there is no one (no idol, no
person, no grave, no prophet, no imam,
no dai, nobody!) worthy of
worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad(saws) is His
slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.
Q-1: Why did our beloved prophet married twelve
times even though the maximum is four?
The law in Islam is
that a man or a woman may marry any number of times; but at any one time, a
woman is permitted to have only one husband,
and the man, at any one
time, is permitted to have a maximum of
four wives.
The
Messenger of Allah (saws) married a total of 11 times in his life; but the maximum number of wives he had at
any one time was nine.
When
Allah revealed the aayah restricting the believers to a maximum of four
wives, it was the norm of the times
that most of the believers had more than four wives; and to comply with the command of Allah Subhanah, they divorced a number of their wives and
kept a maximum of four. These divorced
women then married other believers, if
they wished to do so.
Allah
Subhanah declared in the Holy Quran that the Prophet’s wives were the ‘Mothers
of the Believers’, and forbade anyone
to marry the wives of the Messenger (saws),
if he divorced them or after he died.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 33 Surah Ahzaab verse 53
(part):
It is not at all permissible that you should trouble the Messenger
of Allah (saws); nor is it
permissible that you should marry his wives after him. This is a grave offence in the sight of
Allah.
When the
aayah restricting the believers to a maximum of four wives was revealed, the Messenger of Allah (saws) had four
wives, namely: Hadrat Aisha, Hadrat Saudah, Hadrat
Hafsah, and Hadrat Umm-Salamah. Then Allah Subhanah Himself commanded the
Prophet (saws) to marry his fifth wife,
Hadrat Zainab, who was the
divorcee of his adopted son, Hadrat
Zaid ibn Harith (r.a.).
In the
days of ignorance, the divorced wife of
an adopted son was illegal to the man who adopted that son. Islam made this permissible, and to break this false custom once and for
all, Allah Subhanah Himself commanded
the Prophet (saws) to marry the divorcee of his adopted son, and make Hadrat Zainab his fifth wife.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 33 Surah Ahzaab verse 37:
(O Prophet) remember the time when you were saying to the man
(Hadrat Zaid), whom Allah as well as
you had favored, “Keep your wife and
fear Allah”. You were at that time
keeping hidden in your heart that which Allah intended to reveal. You were fearing the people, whereas Allah has a greater right that you
should fear Him. So, when Zaid had fulfilled his desire of her
(Hadrat Zainab), We married
her to you, so that there
remains no hindrance for the believers in regard to the wives of their adopted
son, when they have fulfilled their
desire with them. And Allah’s Command
had to be carried out.
Besides
the above, Allah Subhanah gave special
permission and gave certain conditions to the Prophet (saws) to take on extra
wives after his fifth wife, Hadrat
Zainab, and made it absolutely clear in
the Quran, that this permission was only for the Prophet (saws), in accordance with Divine Wisdom.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 33 Surah Ahzaab verses 50-52:
O Prophet, We have made
lawful to you those of your wives,
whose dowry you have paid, and
those women who came into your possession out of the slave-girls granted by
Allah; and the daughters of your
paternal uncles and aunts, and of your
maternal uncles and aunts, who have
migrated with you; and the believing
woman who gives herself to the Prophet,
if the Prophet may desire to marry her. This privilege is for you only, not for the other believers. We know what restrictions We have imposed on
the other believers concerning their wives and slave-girls. (You have been given an exception) so that
there may be no hindrance to you; and
Allah is Oft Forgiving, Most
Merciful. You are granted the option
that you may keep aside any of your wives you please, and keep to yourself any of them you please; and call back any of them you had set
aside. There is no blame on you in
this regard. Thus, it is expected that their eyes will be
cooled and they will not grieve, and
will all remain well satisfied with whatever you give them. Allah knows whatever is in your
hearts, for Allah is All Knowing, All Forbearing. No other women are lawful to you after this, nor are you allowed to have other wives
instead of them, even if their beauty
may be very pleasing to you. You
may, however, have slave-girls. Allah
is watchful over everything.
And one
of the blessings of the many marriages of the Prophet (saws) was that a huge
percentage of the traditions of the Messenger of Allah (saws) are related by
his wives. Most, if not all the deeds that the Prophet (saws)
did in the secrecy of his house, were
related to the believers by his many wives,
so that the believers may have a perfect example of a perfect human being
to follow.
It
is narrated in an authentic tradition that the Messenger of Allah (saws) said,
“Relate from me, even if it is one
sentence”.
Almost
all the leaders of mankind, have two
lives. The one which is public is
published and for all to see,
hear, and know. The other life they live is private with
their wives and children, and in the
secrecy of their house. This life all
the leaders try to keep secret from their followers and subjects.
But the
whole life of the Messenger of Allah (saws) was to be a perfect example for all
mankind, until the end of time. Thus,
his public life, and his private
life, had to be made available for all
the believers, so that they may follow
the perfect man in all his deeds. No
leader in the annuls of time have allowed this level of transparency like the
leader of the believers, The Last
Messenger of Allah (saws).
And his
wives were instrumental in relating the hadiths of the Messenger (saws), which he did in the privacy of their house
and their bedrooms.
Q-2: Why is it necessary for all the Muslim men
to do circumcision? What are its benefits?
The act of
circumcision is a preferred Sunnah;
not only of our beloved Prophet, Mohamed (saws), but it is the Sunnah of the father of the
Prophets, Prophet Ibraheem (a.s.). Besides,
circumcision is the norm not only in Islam, but also in the deen of the People of the Book (the Jews and the
Christians).
The
benefits are mostly in relation to hygiene;
and modern medicine has indeed proved that having a circumcised organ is
more hygienic than an uncircumcised organ.
Today, most doctors in the
developed countries highly recommend that a male baby be circumcised; not because of a religious doctrine, but because it is proven that circumcision
is more hygienic.
Q-3: What does Islam says about astrology? Do we
have to believe in all the star signs and predictions?
It is absolutely
prohibited for a believer to seek his fortune,
or find out about his future,
through the movement of the stars,
star signs, or any other thing
or device! The Messenger of Allah
(saws) called the people who read stars,
liars; and invoked the curse of
Allah on the ones who tried to read the stars,
and the ones who went to them to seek their fortune or future.
The
so-called knowledge of astrology, or
the deciphering the happenings of the future by studing the position of the
stars or any heavenly objects, and the
so-called star-signs are nothing more than absolute lies, whims,
conjecture, and guess-works of
ignorant people. There is absolutely
no reality and relation between the movement of the stars and the events that
take place on this earth!
Everything
that happens in the heavens and the earth,
is in the Absolute Control and Sole Domain of the All Powerful, All Knowing Lord of the Worlds. No star,
no sun, no moon, and absolutely nothing and no one in the
universe has the power to bring about any good or evil on anyone. All Power and All Strength is vested in
the Hands of Allah Subhanah Alone.
To
believe in astrology, and to believe in
the prediction of the star-signs,
palm-reading, etc. is a form and manifestation of the heinous
sin of ‘shirk’; and all the believers
must abstain from this evil deed.
The
believers are commanded to abstain from all these false beliefs, and put their trust in Allah Subhanah
Alone.
Allah says in
the Holy Quran Chapter 3 Surah Ale Imran verses160:
If Allah helps
you, none can overcome you! And if Allah forsakes you, who is there, then, after Allah that can
help you? Therefore, the true believers should trust in Allah
Alone.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 10 Surah
Yunus verses 106-107:
And do not call
besides Allah, any being that can
neither do you any good nor any harm.
For if you will do so, you shall
be one of the doers of wrong. If Allah
afflicts you with a calamity, there is
none to remove it, but He Himself. Likewise,
if Allah wills to bestow a favor on you, there is none to withhold Allah’s bounty. He bestows His bounty on anyone of His
servants He wills. And He is The
Forgiving, The Merciful.
Q-4: Does Islam believes
in the rebirth theory?
In light
of the guidance and teachings of the Quran and Sunnah, a human being has two lives only. One is the life that he lives in this
world, and the other is when he will be
given life again to live the eternal and ever lasting life of the Hereafter.
Islam
absolutely does not believe in the rebirth theory as believed by the Hindus or
other polytheists, whereby one takes an
‘x’ number of births to be born as a human being; and depending on his deeds,
he goes back into the cycle of rebirth!
The
rebirth theory is absolutely baseless,
and has no relation to reality!
It is absolutely illogical and irrational. If the theory was correct,
the population of the world would be stagnant, because rebirth would basically mean that the same souls would
keep coming back into other bodies!
But it is basic knowledge, that
the population of the world has increased exponentially over time. At the beginning of the last century, the world population was somewhere around 1
billion; and today it is about 6
billion. If the rebirth theory was
indeed correct, this would never have
been the case!
The
belief in Islam is that this life is a testing period for the human being, who has been given two things which the
Creator has not given to any other (except the Jinns):
The one
who, with his intelligence and power of
reasoning, recognizes his Creator
through his Signs and Attributes, and
of his own free will, submits his will
to Him, and lives his life according to
His Guidance, passes the test.
The one
who, with his intelligence and power of
reasoning and of his own free will,
denies his Creator and His Signs, follows his lusts and desires, and
invents his own way of life, fails the
test miserably.
The life
of this world is a test, and the
results will be declared whether one passed or failed this test, in the life of the Hereafter. Only the human beings and the jinns, who are the only ones who have been given
intelligence and a free will, will have
an accounting in the life of the Hereafter.
Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to
Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only
Source of Strength.
Your Brother in
Islam,
