Thank you Professor Cole for bringing this to our attention.
You are thank God so helpful.
Sorry for the long post, but I hope you will find this post with useful information.
According to the Bible in First Kings 11:1-3 indicates that King Solomon had 700 hundred wives and 300 hundred concubines....although he is described in the Bible to be righteous at least before later period of his life.
The theme in Anti-Islam polemics of attributing Prophet Muhammad with lasciviousness does not hold up with any thoughtful consideration.
This theme is unfortunate for it prevents many from learning about the Prophet.
The natural impulse to have relations with the opposite gender occurs early in life...after puberty rather than after 50 yrs of age.
Islam considers this impulse to be healthy and natural as long as the relationship is made under God in the institution of marriage.
Psychologists will point out that virtually all character traits and especially any possible lasciviousness will show up early in life like in the late teens or early twenties.
I don't know of any person who suddenly developed new character traits in their early 50's (when the Prophet first had more than 1 wife).
The Prophet's first marriage was later than the age I assume most men at his time would marry. He married at 25 and he married someone aged 40 which is again is a trait inconsistent with the type of allegation thrown at the Prophet. Age 40 is substantial back then when people would age faster in terms of their appearance.
Those who try to do character assassination on the Prophet conveniently leave out that he stayed monogamous for the 10 yrs or so until his wife Khadija died.
And then after his really favorite wife, Khadija (as) died, then the Prophet (s) did not marry for I think around two years....and therefore was abstinent for a substantial time.
Since he was a Prophet with hundreds of followers in Makkah, he probably could have had multiple wives early on but he only entered into multiple marriages (mostly with widows) in Madina to forge ties with different tribes and thus helped in many ways...bringing peace and kinship with other tribes...etc.
Another very key thing is that the Prophet lived very humbly in some very small mud dwelling from my understanding for reach wife.
The Prophet could have arranged better housing...and if he was into womanizing, he would try to make the homes as attractive as possible (instead of the small number of dates and little food they had every day since he gave everything to the poor)....
It is hard to be in ideal mood for conjugal relations when the husband and wife are going to sleep hungry.....sorry for being so descriptive....but I wanted to convey my thoughts....
The Qur'an also shows in Chapter 33 that the wives were displeased with their living conditions...but God tells the Prophet to not compromise...and to be ready to let go of his wives in a cordial way if they could not be patient with his mission to be an example to the community."
He certainly was able to live like a king if he wanted to for he was a leader of a city-state and had eventually become leader of much of the whole Arabian peninsula.
The Qur'an even states within Chapter 33, verse 52..."Not lawful to you, [O Muhammad], are [any additional] women after [this], nor [is it] for you to exchange them for [other] wives,...."
Again, if the Prophet was not really a prophet and if he wanted to be lascivious, why would he have such a verse inserted in the Qur'an?
As far as the age of Aisha, this is not in the Qur'an which Muslims holds to be above doubt but according to one tradition collected into compilation hundreds of years after the Prophet. Even that tradition makes clear that Aisha's menstrual cycles had begun before consummation of her marriage and back then, the start of cycles was considered the time when marriage was not only allowed by recommended since life expectancy was low...commonly leading to deaths early on before one can have a family.
And as former nun and convert to Islam, and author of over 40 books on Islam, Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood says there are many other traditions that indicate the Aisha was between 14-19 years when her marriage was consummated.
Sorry to add but I noticed that the link does not go to the exact article but to her website as a whole.
To find the exact article, one needs to go to
main section-articles and then under the Prophet (pbuh) and his family section and the article itself is entitled
"The Age of Aishah on her marriage to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)"
Also, i accidently placed word adjacent to the link... it is
http://www.ruqaiyyah.karoo.net/
Thank you Professor Cole for bringing this to our attention.
You are thank God so helpful.
Sorry for the long post, but I hope you will find this post with useful information.
According to the Bible in First Kings 11:1-3 indicates that King Solomon had 700 hundred wives and 300 hundred concubines....although he is described in the Bible to be righteous at least before later period of his life.
The theme in Anti-Islam polemics of attributing Prophet Muhammad with lasciviousness does not hold up with any thoughtful consideration.
This theme is unfortunate for it prevents many from learning about the Prophet.
The natural impulse to have relations with the opposite gender occurs early in life...after puberty rather than after 50 yrs of age.
Islam considers this impulse to be healthy and natural as long as the relationship is made under God in the institution of marriage.
Psychologists will point out that virtually all character traits and especially any possible lasciviousness will show up early in life like in the late teens or early twenties.
I don't know of any person who suddenly developed new character traits in their early 50's (when the Prophet first had more than 1 wife).
The Prophet's first marriage was later than the age I assume most men at his time would marry. He married at 25 and he married someone aged 40 which is again is a trait inconsistent with the type of allegation thrown at the Prophet. Age 40 is substantial back then when people would age faster in terms of their appearance.
Those who try to do character assassination on the Prophet conveniently leave out that he stayed monogamous for the 10 yrs or so until his wife Khadija died.
And then after his really favorite wife, Khadija (as) died, then the Prophet (s) did not marry for I think around two years....and therefore was abstinent for a substantial time.
Since he was a Prophet with hundreds of followers in Makkah, he probably could have had multiple wives early on but he only entered into multiple marriages (mostly with widows) in Madina to forge ties with different tribes and thus helped in many ways...bringing peace and kinship with other tribes...etc.
Another very key thing is that the Prophet lived very humbly in some very small mud dwelling from my understanding for reach wife.
The Prophet could have arranged better housing...and if he was into womanizing, he would try to make the homes as attractive as possible (instead of the small number of dates and little food they had every day since he gave everything to the poor)....
It is hard to be in ideal mood for conjugal relations when the husband and wife are going to sleep hungry.....sorry for being so descriptive....but I wanted to convey my thoughts....
The Qur'an also shows in Chapter 33 that the wives were displeased with their living conditions...but God tells the Prophet to not compromise...and to be ready to let go of his wives in a cordial way if they could not be patient with his mission to be an example to the community."
He certainly was able to live like a king if he wanted to for he was a leader of a city-state and had eventually become leader of much of the whole Arabian peninsula.
The Qur'an even states within Chapter 33, verse 52..."Not lawful to you, [O Muhammad], are [any additional] women after [this], nor [is it] for you to exchange them for [other] wives,...."
Again, if the Prophet was not really a prophet and if he wanted to be lascivious, why would he have such a verse inserted in the Qur'an?
As far as the age of Aisha, this is not in the Qur'an which Muslims holds to be above doubt but according to one tradition collected into compilation hundreds of years after the Prophet. Even that tradition makes clear that Aisha's menstrual cycles had begun before consummation of her marriage and back then, the start of cycles was considered the time when marriage was not only allowed by recommended since life expectancy was low...commonly leading to deaths early on before one can have a family.
And as former nun and convert to Islam, and author of over 40 books on Islam, Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood says there are many other traditions that indicate the Aisha was between 14-19 years when her marriage was consummated.
Please see washttp://www.ruqaiyyah.karoo.net/ http://www.ruqaiyyah.karoo.net/
Thanks much!
This is a nice video. Thanks Juan. I assume others are conveying messages like this in their respective countries.
however, i hope someone can translate this in Arabic and other languages for people to see.