Marriage, Divorce, Adultery and Polygamy
In his personal life, Muhammad had two great weaknesses. The first was
greed. By looting caravans and Jewish settlements he had amassed fabulous
wealth for himself, his family, and his tribe (Ali Dashti, 23 Years, p.
86-87; Encyclopedia Britannica, 15:648).
When we turn and look at the life of Muhammad we find that he clearly
killed
and robbed people in the name of Allah according to the Quran. He taught
his
disciples by example, command, and precept that they could and should kill
and rob in Allah's name and force people to submit to Islam.
His next greatest weakness was women. Although in the Quran he would limit
his followers to having four wives, he himself took more than four wives
and
concubines.
The question of the number of women with whom Muhammad was sexually
involved
either as wives, concubines or devotees was made a point of contention by
the Jews in Muhammad's day. Ali Dashti comments:
"All the commentaries agree that verse 57 of Sura 4 (on-Nesa) was sent
down
after the Jews criticized Mohammad's appetite for women, alleging that he
had nothing to do except to take wives" (Ali Dashti, 23 Years, pp.
120-138).
Since polygamy was practiced in the Old Testament by such patriarchs as
Abraham, the mere fact that Muhammad had more than one wife is not
sufficient in and of itself to discount his claim to prophethood. But this
does negate the fact that the issue has historical in terms of trying to
understand Muhammad as a man.
It also poses a logical problem for Muslims. Because the Quran in Sura 4:3
forbids the taking of more than four wives, to have taken any more would
have been sinful for Muhammad.
One Muslin apologist with whom I was conversing argued as follows:
"Muhammad was sinless. The Quran makes taking more than four wives a sin.
Therefore Muhammad could not have taken more than four wives. Why? Because
Muhammad was sinless."
I pointed out that the question of how many wives Muhammad or anyone else
had should be answered on the basis of the historical and literary
evidence
and not blind faith.
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