Page "Muhammad's wives" Paragraph 11

Zaynab bint Jahsh was Muhammad's cousin, being the daughter of one of his father's sisters.

In Medina, Muhammad arranged Zaynab's marriage, a widow, to Zayd ibn Harithah.

Zaynab disapproved of the marriage and her brothers rejected it, because according to Ibn Sa'd, she was of aristocratic lineage and Zayd was a former slave and the adopted son of Muhammad.

Muhammad, however, was determined to establish the legitimacy and right to equal treatment of the adopted, Caesar E. Farah states.

Watt however states that it is not clear why Zaynab was unwilling to marry Zayd as Zayd was held in a high place in Muhammad's esteem.

Watt discusses the following two possibilities: being an ambitious woman, she was already hoping to marry Muhammad ; and the other she may have been wanting to marry someone of whom Muhammad disapproved for political reason.

In any case, Watt says, it is almost certain that she was working for marriage with Muhammad before the end of 626.

According to Maududi, the Qur ' anic verse was revealed, thus Zaynab acquiesced and married Zayd.

Zaynab's marriage was unharmonious, and eventually became unbearable.

Zaynab told Zayd about this, and Zayd offered to divorce her, but Muhammad told him to keep her.

The story laid much stress on Zaynab's perceived beauty and Muhammad's supposedly disturbed set of mind.

William Montgomery Watt doubts the accuracy of this portion of the narrative, since it does not occur in the earliest source.

He thinks that even if there is a basis of fact underlying the narrative, it is suspect to exaggeration in the course of transmission as the later Muslims liked to maintain that there was no celibacy and monkery in Islam.

Nomani considers this story to be a rumor.

Rodinson disagrees with Watt arguing that the story is stressed in the traditional texts and that it would not have aroused any adverse comment or criticism.