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In the previous chapter we were discussing
the mutual trust, confidence and responsibilities of husband and
wife. We were looking at the married life of the prophet (pubh)
and saw that the importance of him (pubh) telling his wife about
his prophet hood first of all. This exemplary show of
confidence made her most distinct till the Day of Judgment as
she would always be known as the first of the believers.
We have a lesson in all this as how to gain
confidence of each other and this is done by truthfulness and
justice. Your wife will follow you only when you are of a high
character and always tell her the truth, as there is no better
confidant than your wife. Nothing in your personality is hidden
from her. In fact certificate of her confidence in you is worth
framing as it is such a great achievement. Luckiest are the
people who following the example of our prophet (PUBH) would
gain such an achievement, as this requires a big effort,
patience, endurance and understanding. When you gain all this
then you will create such an atmosphere of confidence in home
that will be fit to raise the best of children.
Now here some people may take a stand that
the prophet (pubh) was best of the best people, how can we the
weaklings and sinners match his greatness? Here we can keep in
mind the logic given in Quran which says, “We (Allah) did not
send angels as prophets because people will say that how can we
follow the angles”. Prophet Muhammad (pubh), was though the
greatest in the beings, was a human in his natural disposition
and had all the habits and feelings of a man so that people
would follow him like they would follow a human being. He (pubh)
is a guiding light to humanity and was an ideal man.
Here I would like to give another example
from his married life. Once Hazrat Aisha (RA), traveling in a
Caravan, his (PUBH) wife Aisha (RA) had to answer the call of
nature and there she lost her necklace, which took a while to
find it. In the meantime the caravan left thinking that she was
in the canopied seat on the back of camel. Prophet (pubh)
used to leave someone behind when the caravan left so that he
could bring any thing they may have left, she came to the
caravan with that person. However this gave an excuse to
enemies of Islam to blame her, so much so that one of her cousin
also joined them in this blame. The prophet (pubh) at that time
behaved like a normal person and stopped talking to her until it
was revealed to him ( pubh) of her piety . She was dearest to
him (pubh), so much so that he (pubh) used to play dolls etc.
with her. Just imagine how much it would have affected him (pubh)
to break relations with her. Here he had to present himself as
a human being so that we learn a lesson from all that. On the
other hand we in our furry don’t hesitate for a moment to
divorce our wives for trifling matters. Islam has given us a
clear way to progress for divorce in a proper way if it has to
be done and it takes three menses and not a momentary decision
as we normally do in our haste.
We are such a breed that we do not hesitate
to kill our own for trifling matters. How can we wait for four
months and ten days? Quran and prophet (pubh) both consider
divorce as least desired of the things allowed in Islam. The
point of discussion is that prophet (pubh) never showed himself
as an angel and here too he had to prove himself as a human
being, although he was better than angles. It is not that he (PUBH)
did not trust his wife (God forbid), but he had to tell us by
example as how to behave in such matters and we should not leave
patience and modesty. Aisha (RA) was the wife who if she was
not married to the prophet (pubh), we would not have known half
of the guidance that was conveyed to us through her. She was
most learned of all the prophet’s (PUBH) wives, and that was the
time when, what to talk of the women, even very few of the men
were educated. Here we should also ponder upon another point
that before Islam there was no limit to the number of wives.
Prophet Muhammad (PUBH) also was married to more than one wife,
however it was according to will of ALLAH and for genuine
reasons. When the situation changed, then he (PUBH) did not
marry anymore as ALLAH had restricted him (PUBH). As we know
that before the Islam there was no limit of marriages for chiefs
and kings and even than prophets (pubh) too, David (pubh) had
99 wives and Solomon (pubh) had one thousand wives. Islam was
first of the religions, which put a limit to number of wives to
four and put a condition that “only if you can do justice to all
of them” and then stipulated that “you will not be able to do
that”. |
