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'A'isha Bint Abi Bakr
Ahmad Thompson
eBook: The Wives of the Prophet
source: Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd.
... continued from Page 5
"This day I have perfected your deen for you and have completed My blessing on you, and have chosen Islam for you as your deen." [Quran 5:3]
It was also during this hajj that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) gave his famous Farewell Khutba, whose words still ring in our ears and echo in our hearts all these centuries later. When he had finished speaking to the thousands upon thousands of Muslims who were gathered around him on the plain of Arafa, he raised his voice slightly and asked, "My Lord, have I delivered the message?" And thousands upon thousands of voices from all around him answered his question: "Yes, you have." And many of those who were present passed on that message to those who ere not present, and so it has continued, right up until today. And one of those who was present was A'isha, of whom the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) once said, "Learn some of your deen from this red haired lady." Meaning A'isha.
This is not surprising, for she is one of the four people who have transmitted more than two thousand hadiths, the others being Abu Hurairah, Abdullah ibn Umar, and Anas ibn Malik. Many of these are about some of the most intimate aspects of personal behavior and hygiene which only someone in A'isha's position could have learned. It was during the course of his marriage with A'isha that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) married several other wives, usually to strengthen ties between important families and tribes, or to relieve the hardship of a woman who had been unexpectedly divorced or widowed, or in order to clearly demonstrate whom it was permissible for a Muslim to marry, but above all because all of his marriage had been decreed by Allah, and because all of his wives were exceptional women.
The Position of 'A'isha
Of the Prophet's wives in Medina, (may Allah be pleased with all of them), it is clear that it was A'isha that he loved the most: From time to time, one or another of his Companions would ask him who it was that he loved the most, and the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) did not always give the same answer to this question, for he felt great love for many - for his wives, for his daughters by Khadijah, for their children, for Sayyiduna Abu Bakr and Sayyiduna Umar and Sayyiduna Uthman and Sayyiduna Ali, and for many of his Companions and community - but of his wives the only one whom he named in this connection was A'isha. She too loved him greatly in return and often would seek reassurance from him that he loved her. "how is your love for me?" she once asked. "Like the rope's knot," he replied, meaning that it was strong and secure. Many times after that she would ask, "how is the knot?" and he would reply: "Ala haliha" "The same as ever!"
Since A'isha loved the Prophet so much, she could not help being jealous if his attention were directed towards others more than what seemed enough to her. She once asked him, "O Messenger of Allah, tell me about yourself. If you were between the two slopes of a valley, one of which had been grazed, while the other had been grazed, on which slope would you pasture your flocks?" "On the one that had not been grazed," replied the Prophet. "Even so," she said, "and I am not like any of your other wives. Every one of them had a husband before you, except myself." The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) smiled and said nothing.
It is clear that in spite of his wives' high station with Allah, (may Allah be pleased with them) they were still human, and at times rather jealous of each other. Thus, for example, it had been related by A'isha that the Prophet usually visited his wives every afternoon, after the Asr prayer. On one occasion he stayed longer than usual in the room of Zainab bint Jahsh, for someone had given her some honey, of which the Prophet was very fond. "At this," said A'isha, "I felt jealous, and I, Hafsah, Sawdah, and Safiyyah agreed between ourselves that as he visited each of us, we would tell him that there was a funny smell coming from his mouth from what he had eaten, for we knew that he was particularly sensitive to offensive smells." Everything went as planned, and as a result, the Prophet vowed that he would never eat honey again, only to be reprimanded by the revelation of the following ayat:
"O Prophet, why do you forbid what Allah has made lawful for you, in seeking to please your wives? And Allah is Forgiving, Compassionate." [Quran 66:1]
Allah made the whole matter known to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and he confronted the one whose idea it had been with the truth:
So when he told her about it, she said, "Who told you this?" He said, "I was told by the Knowing, the Aware." [Quran 66:3]
This incident indicates the extent of the Prophet's submission to Allah. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was the means by which Allah taught the Muslims their deen in every moment and situation. What might have seemed an innocent bit of fun to his wives, (may Allah be pleased with them), was not permitted by Allah to result in any alteration to the hudud of Allah, to what is permitted and what is forbidden by Allah, for if the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) had never eaten honey again, then many of his Companions and followers might have done likewise.
On another occasion, when one of the Prophet's other wives, Umm Salamah (may Allah be pleased with her) complained on their behalf about the fact that more presents were being given to the Prophet on the day that he was with A'isha than on the days when he was with his other wives, he replied, "O Umm Salamah, do not trouble me by harming A'isha, for by Allah, the Divine inspiration never came to me while I was under the blanket of any woman amongst you except her." "I turn to Allah from troubling you, O Messenger of Allah," she said.
However the Prophet's other wives were still not content, and asked Fatimah to speak to the Prophet on their behalf. When she raised the subject, he said, (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) "O my daughter, do you not love those I love?" "Yes." She said. "Then love her." He replied.
On another occasion, A'isha was on a journey with the Prophet and some of his Companions. She had borrowed a necklace from her sister Asma and during the journey she discovered that she had mislaid it. The journey was delayed while some of the Companions looked for it, and after a while the time for the prayer came. There was no water with which to do wudu, so they became very agitated about that. They went to Abu Bakr and said, "Do you see what A'isha has done! She has caused the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to stop at a place where there is no water!" Meanwhile, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) had fallen asleep with his head resting against A'isha's leg. Abu Bakr went up to A'isha and started to poke her and upbraid her for holding up the people when they did not have any water. She did not move because she did not want to disturb the Prophet's sleep. The Prophet soon woke up and the ayats about tayammum were revealed, making it clear to everyone what should be done when a Muslim on a journey needs to do wudu, but has no water.
Usayd ibn Hudayr said to Abu Bakr, "This is not the first blessing to have come from your family." And to A'isha, "May Allah reward you with good! By Allah, whenever you have difficulty, Allah relieves you of it and gives a blessing to the Muslims by it as well!"
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