Banu Khuzayma

Zaynab bint Jahsh, whose birth name was Barrah, belonged to the clan of Banu Khuzayma of the Quraysh. Her mother, Umayma bint Abdul Muttalib, was an aunt of Muhammad ﷺ, so Zaynab was his first cousin. She had been married and widowed in Makkah. She then emigrated to Madinah with her brother, Abdullah ibn Jahsh RA, and was free to marry again. The Prophet ﷺ sent her a proposal on behalf of his adopted son, Zayd ibn Harithah RA. At that time Zayd was still called Zayd ibn Muhammad, because verse 33:5, which returned him to his father's name, had not yet been revealed. Zaynab and her brother objected that Zayd was not of their standing. The Prophet ﷺ insisted. According to the early books of seerah, Allah then revealed verse 33:36 of the Qur'an. It says that when Allah and His Messenger ﷺ have decided a matter, a believer has no choice left in it. Zaynab and her brother both said they were content with Zayd, and the marriage went ahead.

The slander, known as al-ifk, was the last and most painful of three things that happened on the way home from the expedition of al-Muraysi'. That expedition was against the Banu al-Mustaliq, in Sha'ban of 5 AH. Most books of Seerah follow Ibn Ishaq and date it to 6 AH instead. More hypocrites marched with the Muslims on this expedition than on any other. The target was close, there was no harvest to keep men at home, and victory was certain. So Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul and his followers came along. On the way back, a Muhajir and a man of the Ansar scuffled at a well. The quarrel grew into a stand-off between the two halves of the army. It ended when the Prophet ﷺ condemned the old tribal war cries as rotten. Ibn Ubayy had hoped for a fight. In his tent he said that once they reached Madinah, the honourable would drive out the lowly. A boy, Zayd ibn Arqam RA, reported what Ibn Ubayy had said. Ibn Ubayy swore that he had said no such thing. That morning, Surah al-Munafiqun was revealed, quoting his own words back at him. The Prophet ﷺ then marched the army for twenty hours without stopping, so that the gossip had no time to spread. Ibn Ubayy had been exposed by the Qur'an itself, and he looked for revenge. He found it in the Prophet ﷺ's own household. Aisha RA told the whole story herself, in long narrations in Sahih al-Bukhari that run to several pages. Before a journey, the Prophet ﷺ would draw lots among his wives, and this time her name had come up. The verses about hijab had already been revealed, so she travelled inside a covered seat, called a howdah, on her camel. On the last night before Madinah, the order came to make camp. She walked out beyond the army to relieve herself. On the way back she felt at her neck and found that her necklace of Yemeni onyx had broken. She went back to look for it. While she was searching, the order came to move on. The men who carried her howdah lifted it onto the camel without noticing that she was not inside. Fifty years later she explained why, gently excusing them as she always did. She had been a slight young girl who ate little. The army moved off. She found the necklace under the spot where her camel had knelt, and returned to an empty camp. She was sure they would notice she was missing and come back. So she wrapped herself up and fell asleep. She woke to hear a man saying, "La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah." It was Safwan ibn al-Muattal RA, who had fallen behind the army and slept through its departure. He had seen her before the verses of hijab came, and he recognised her. She covered her face. He said nothing more. He made his camel kneel and turned his back while she climbed on. Then he led the camel on foot until they caught up with the army, which had stopped to rest in the heat of the day. The hypocrites always rode at the back of the column, and Abdullah ibn Ubayy was among them there. That was when the talk began. Out of respect for her, the books of Seerah never record what was said. They simply call it "the slander". Aisha herself heard none of it. She fell ill with a fever when they reached Madinah, and spent a month in bed. She only noticed that the Prophet ﷺ was not as tender with her as usual, and she did not know why. When she recovered, she went out one night with Umm Mistah bint Abi Ruhm RA, her father's cousin. They went to the open ground that people used before houses had their own toilets. Umm Mistah tripped on her cloak and cursed her own son, Mistah RA. Aisha scolded her for cursing a man who had fought at Badr. Umm Mistah asked whether she really had not heard. Then she told her. Aisha went home more ill than before. She asked the Prophet ﷺ's permission to go to her parents. There she asked her mother, Umm Ruman RA, what people were saying. Her mother tried to soften it. She said that a beautiful woman whose husband loves her, and who has co-wives, will always be talked about. Aisha understood that the rumours were real. She wept all night, until she thought her liver would burst. The story had been started by Ibn Ubayy and some of his followers from the Khazraj. Only three believers had repeated it. They were Mistah, the poet Hassan ibn Thabit RA, and Hamnah bint Jahsh. Hamnah was the sister of Zaynab bint Jahsh RA, Aisha's one real rival among the wives. The Prophet ﷺ asked Zaynab herself about Aisha. Zaynab said that she would protect her ears and her eyes, and that she knew nothing but good of Aisha. As Aisha later put it, Zaynab's religion protected her, while her sister was ruined for her sake. Meanwhile, no revelation had come to the Prophet ﷺ for a whole month. He asked the advice of the two young men closest to his household. Usama ibn Zayd RA had been born and raised in his house. He said plainly that the rumour was impossible. Ali ibn Abi Talib RA said that Allah had not limited him to one woman. He also advised him to question Aisha's maidservant, Barirah RA, who would know the truth. Barirah was terrified. The only fault she could find in her mistress was that she sometimes fell asleep while kneading dough and let the family goat eat it. The Prophet ﷺ then stood on the minbar. He asked who would defend him against a man who had hurt him through his own family. He said that he knew nothing but good of his wives, and nothing but good of the man they had named. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh RA, of the Aws, answered first, though some narrations name another young leader of the Aws. He said that if the man was from his own tribe, he would behead him. If the man was from the Khazraj, he only needed the order. Sa'd ibn Ubadah RA, of the Khazraj, was a righteous man. But as Aisha said, the old tribal feeling flared up in him for a moment. He called Sa'd ibn Mu'adh a liar and said he would never dare to do it. Usayd ibn Hudayr RA then called Sa'd ibn Ubadah a hypocrite who was defending hypocrites. The two tribes were on their feet before the Prophet ﷺ calmed them down. While Aisha was still weeping, the Prophet ﷺ came to her at her parents' house. A woman of the Ansar was sitting and weeping with her. He sat down and praised Allah. Then he told Aisha that if she was innocent, Allah would clear her name. If she had slipped, she should ask Allah's forgiveness, because He forgives whoever repents. At once her tears dried up. She asked her mother to answer for her, but her mother did not know what to say. She asked her father, Abu Bakr RA, but he did not know what to say either. So she answered for herself. She used the words of the father of Yusuf, though in her distress she could not remember his name. She said, "Patience is beautiful, and Allah is the One whose help is sought against what you describe" (Qur'an 12:18). Then she turned to face the wall. She had hoped that Allah might show her innocence in a dream. She never imagined that He would reveal Qur'an about her. But before the Prophet ﷺ had even left the room, the signs of revelation came over him. He felt the heaviness, and sweat ran down him on a cold day. When it lifted, he was laughing. He said, "O Aisha, Allah has declared you innocent." The opening passage of Surah al-Nur had been revealed, from 24:11 onwards. It called the affair a lie. It promised the worst of punishments to the man who led it. It set a punishment of eighty lashes for anyone who accuses a chaste woman without four witnesses. It also asked the believers why they had not simply said what Abu Ayyub al-Ansari RA had said. His wife had asked him whether he had heard the rumour. He had answered, "Glory be to You, this is a monstrous slander." Aisha's mother told her to get up and thank the Prophet ﷺ. Aisha said that she would get up and thank only Allah. The three believers who had repeated the story were flogged. The hypocrites who had invented it were left to be judged in the Hereafter. Abu Bakr had been supporting Mistah, a poor relative of his. He swore never to give him another coin. Then a verse was revealed asking whether he did not want Allah to forgive him. So he swore instead to support Mistah for the rest of his life. Before the matter was settled, Safwan had struck Hassan with the flat of his sword for repeating the rumour. The Prophet ﷺ ruled in Hassan's favour, because no man may take the law into his own hands. Then he asked Hassan to forgive Safwan. Hassan forgave him for the Prophet ﷺ's sake, and he was given a garden. Safwan swore that he had never lifted the veil of any woman. He married later, and he died a martyr in the time of Umar RA. When Aisha told the story, she made excuses for everyone in it. She would never allow anyone to speak ill of Hassan in her presence.

The verses of hijab were revealed around the beginning of Dhu al-Qa'dah in the 5th year after the Hijrah, according to the strongest opinion. Anas ibn Malik RA reports in Sahih al-Bukhari that they came down on the very night of the Prophet ﷺ's marriage to Zaynab bint Jahsh RA.

Zaynab bint Jahsh RA was a cousin of the Prophet ﷺ through her mother. She had been married to his adopted son, Zayd ibn Harithah RA, but the marriage did not work and Zayd divorced her. According to the strongest opinion, the Prophet ﷺ married her at the beginning of Dhu al-Qa'dah in the 5th year after the Hijrah. When her waiting period was over, the Prophet ﷺ sent Zayd himself to tell her of his interest. She said she would not answer until she had prayed istikhara, the prayer for guidance. While she prayed, Allah revealed verse 33:37 of the Qur'an, which says, "We married her to you." There was no guardian, no dowry and no witnesses. It was the only marriage in history contracted by Allah Himself. The same verse gives the reason. It shows that there is no wrong in marrying the former wife of an adopted son, because an adopted son is not a blood relative. The verses of hijab were revealed on the night of this wedding (see Legislation of Hijab). The wedding feast was the most generous the Prophet ﷺ ever gave for any of his wives. He sent Anas ibn Malik RA to invite people, starting with Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali. Then Anas invited the poor who lived at the masjid, known as the People of Suffa, then anyone in the masjid or on the road, and anyone he met. Anas thought the small dish of food would feed two or three people, but more than seventy ate from it.

Safiyyah was a young girl in Madinah on the day the Prophet ﷺ arrived there. Her father was Huyayy ibn Akhtab, the chief of the Banu Nadir. She was his favourite child, and the favourite of her uncle Abu Yasir too. One day the two men came home from going to see the Prophet ﷺ. Safiyyah ran to greet them, but they walked straight past her with their shoulders slumped. Then she overheard them talking. Her uncle asked whether it was really him. Her father answered, "By the Lord of Moses, it is him." Her uncle asked what they would do now. Her father said they would oppose him for as long as he lived. Later Safiyyah was exiled along with her tribe. She settled in Khaybar and married there. In the fighting at Khaybar, the Banu Nadir threw themselves into the front line of its defence. More of them died than of Khaybar's own people, and her husband Kinana was among the dead. When the fighting ended, Safiyyah was a widow and a captive. When the captives were divided, she was given to Dihyah al-Kalbi. Some Companions told the Prophet ﷺ that the daughter of the chief of the Banu Nadir should be his, not left with Dihyah. So he paid Dihyah her price and took her. At first no one knew whether he had taken her as a servant or as a wife, so they watched. When it was time to leave Khaybar, he made his camel kneel. He knelt down himself and made his thigh into a step to help her mount. Out of respect, she placed her knee on it rather than her foot. Then he covered her with his cloak. At that the Companions understood, because that veil was only for his wives. Safiyyah herself did not yet know what it meant. When he went to her on the first night, she refused him, and he left her alone. When they were a night's journey from Madinah, she agreed. He asked Umm Sulaym to prepare her. Umm Sulaym hung two cloths between some trees, and the women did what they could with the little they had. They worried that they had no perfume or jewellery for her. But when they had finished, they smelt a scent finer than any they knew. When the Prophet ﷺ came in, he said the hard thing first. He said to her, "Your father Huyayy was the most open of the Jews in their animosity against me until Allah caused his death." This was a test of what was in her heart. She answered with a teaching of the Qur'an, that no soul bears the burden of another. Then he said to her, "You have a choice. If you accept Islam, I shall keep you for me; if you remain in your faith, then perhaps I will free you and you can return to your people." As she understood it, staying with him meant remaining a captive. She told him that she had been drawn to Islam even before he offered it, and had already believed in him. She said she had no people to go back to, since her father and her brother were gone. And she said that Allah and His Messenger ﷺ were dearer to her than her own family. So he freed her, made her freedom her dowry, and married her. He had noticed a bruise on her face and asked her about it. She explained that she had once told her husband about a dream. In it, the moon rose from Yathrib and fell into her lap. Her husband struck her and asked whether she expected the king of the Arabs to marry her. He had understood the dream correctly. Later she was asked why she had refused him on the first night. She said that they were still so close to Khaybar that she had feared the Jews would retaliate. The Prophet ﷺ loved her all the more for it. Abu Ayyub al-Ansari stood outside the tent all night with his sword drawn. He was afraid of what a woman whose family had died at Muslim hands might do. In the morning the Prophet ﷺ found him there. He laughed and prayed for him. The wedding feast was made of whatever anyone had. There were dates, a little clarified butter and barley, all mixed together. On the road home, the walls of Madinah came into sight. As was the custom in Madinah, the riders whipped their camels forward. The Prophet ﷺ's camel stumbled and threw both him and Safiyyah to the ground. Every Companion turned his face away. Only Abu Talha cried out to ask whether he was all right. The Prophet ﷺ replied, "I am okay; I am not hurt." He was on his feet at once and put his cloak over her. In Madinah the other wives came to look at her. Zaynab bint Jahsh said to Juwayriyya that this one would be trouble. Safiyyah belonged to neither of the groups among the wives, since she had no family of her own there. Perhaps that is why the Prophet ﷺ was so tender with her. Once Hafsa called her "the daughter of a Jew", and Safiyyah wept. The Prophet ﷺ asked her, "Why didn't you defend yourself?" She asked how. He said, "You should have said your father was a prophet (Harun), and your uncle was a prophet (Musa), and you are married to a prophet. What do they have over you?" On the Farewell Hajj, he stopped speaking to Zaynab because she refused Safiyyah a camel. In his last illness, Safiyyah said she wished she could take his fever on herself. The other wives said something unkind to her. He told them to rinse their mouths, and when they asked why, he said, "Because you have made fun of Safiyyah, and wallahi, she has spoken the truth." She died in 52 AH.

The Prophet ﷺ stayed longer than usual at the house of his wife Zaynab bint Jahsh RA, where he had eaten a type of honey. Two of his other wives, Aisha RA and Hafsa RA, made a plan between them. When he next came in to either of them, she would tell him that there was a bad smell coming from him, meaning the smell of the honey. When he came in, they both said this to him. The Prophet ﷺ said, "I won't eat at Zaynab's house again."

No one knows the year this happened. Ibn Sayyid al-Nas says it was the ninth year of the Hijrah. Others say the fourth, fifth or sixth. Some clues point to a late date. By then the Prophet ﷺ was married to all nine of his wives: Sawda, Aisha, Hafsa, Umm Salama, Juwayriyya, Zaynab bint Jahsh, Umm Habiba, Safiyyah and Maymunah. Also, Umar was worried at the time about an attack by the Ghassanids, and that fear ended after Tabuk. On the other hand, Umar went in to see Aisha, which points to a time before the verses of hijab. The verses revealed about the episode are in Surah al-Ahzab, but that proves nothing about the date, because the verses of a surah did not have to come down together. The cause is easier to state than the date. The Prophet ﷺ had never lived in comfort. As a boy he worked as a shepherd for pennies. He lived as a lodger in Abu Talib's crowded house. He had no riding animal of his own until the Hijrah. When wealth came, it went to the community rather than to him. It came in the ransoms of Badr, the fields of Khaybar, and the gift of Fadak, which fed his household. Greatest of all were the spoils of Hunayn. He kept none of them for himself, even though the law allowed a ruler his share. This was his own choice. An angel who had never come down before had once brought him an offer from his Lord. He could be a king and messenger, or a slave and messenger. Jibril signalled to him to humble himself, and he chose to be a slave. The narrator says that after that day he was never seen eating while leaning back against a wall. His wives saw the standard of living rising all around them in Madinah, but not in their own rooms. At some point, most likely in the eighth or ninth year, they went to him together and asked for more. No book records exactly what they asked for, and that is right, because it was a private household matter. What is clear is that they asked together, that Aisha and Hafsa led them, and that what they wanted was lawful. He answered with an ila'. This is an oath before Allah to stay away from one's wives. The law allows it for up to four months, when a marriage needs time to cool down. He swore it for one month. Then he withdrew to a small loft near the mosque, which was reached by a ladder. Umar later told the story to Ibn Abbas. Ibn Abbas had waited more than a year for a chance to ask him about the two wives addressed in Surah al-Tahrim. Umar began with the affair of Maria. He explained that the men of the Quraysh had been used to ruling over their women. In Madinah they found people whose women ruled over them, and their own wives began to learn the same ways. One day, at his house in al-Awali, Umar's wife answered him back. When he scolded her, she told him that the Prophet ﷺ's own wives answered him back. Some of them even stayed away from him for a whole day when they were angry. Umar went straight to his daughter Hafsa and asked if this was true. She said it was. He told her that any woman who did that had lost everything. He warned her never to answer the Prophet ﷺ back again, and never to trouble him for anything. If she needed something, she should bring it to her father. He also told her not to be misled by what her co-wife could get away with. Aisha was more graceful than Hafsa and dearer to the Prophet ﷺ, he said, and she would be forgiven things that Hafsa would not. Umar and a neighbour of his from the Ansar used to take turns. One would work the land while the other spent the day with the Prophet ﷺ and brought back the news. In those days everyone was talking about a Ghassanid army that was said to be shoeing its horses to march on them. One night after Isha, the neighbour hammered on Umar's door. Umar asked whether the Ghassanids had come. The neighbour said no, it was something worse. He said the Prophet ﷺ had divorced his wives. Umar went at first light. He found the mosque full of men sitting in silence, turning pebbles over in their hands. In one telling, he went first to Aisha. He asked whether the daughter of Abu Bakr had troubled the Prophet ﷺ so much that he had left all of them. She told him to mind his own business. Then he went to Hafsa and found her weeping. He reminded her that he had warned her. He told her she knew the Prophet ﷺ did not love her, and that if she were not his daughter, the Prophet ﷺ would have divorced her long ago. Hafsa did not know whether they had been divorced. She only knew that he had gone up to the loft. A servant stood at the foot of the ladder. One version says it was Bilal. Umar asked him to ask permission for him to come in. The servant came back and said he had mentioned Umar, but the Prophet ﷺ had said nothing. Umar went and sat by the minbar. Then he came back and was refused a second time. The third time, Umar called up loudly. He said he thought the Prophet ﷺ believed he had come on Hafsa's behalf. He swore by Allah that if he were told to strike off her head, he would do it. Then he was let in. Inside, he found a room with some barley, a half-tanned water-skin, a chamber pot and a few animal hides. The Prophet ﷺ was lying on a mat of palm fibre, and its weave had left marks on his side. Umar asked whether he had divorced his wives. The Prophet ﷺ said he had not. Umar said "Allahu akbar." He could see the tension, so he told the Prophet ﷺ the whole story about the women of Madinah. He also told him how he had warned Hafsa not to compare herself with Aisha. The Prophet ﷺ smiled, then smiled again, and invited Umar to sit. Umar looked around the room and could see nothing else in it. He asked why the Prophet ﷺ did not pray for his people to be given wealth, as Persia and Rome had been, when those nations did not even worship Allah. Then Umar began to cry. When the Prophet ﷺ asked him why, Umar said it was because the mat had marked the side of Allah's chosen one, while Kisra and Caesar lay in silk. The Prophet ﷺ sat up. He said, "O son of al-Khattab, are you in doubt? Are you not content that Allah has chosen us over them for the Next world and given them this world?" Umar asked him to pray for Allah's forgiveness for him. Another version adds something Umar said. He told the Prophet ﷺ that if he wished to divorce any of his wives, then Allah, Jibril and Mika'il, Abu Bakr, Umar himself and all the believers were with him. Umar used to say that he hoped Allah would confirm what he had said. Allah did, in the fourth verse of Surah al-Tahrim. It was one of three times the Qur'an came down in agreement with Umar. After twenty-nine days the Prophet ﷺ came back down. Aisha reminded him that he had sworn to stay away for a month, and it had only been twenty-nine days. He said, "The month may be 29 days as well." He went to her room first. He told her he was going to put something to her. He asked her not to answer in haste, and to consult her parents before she replied. Then he recited the verses Allah had sent down: "O Prophet ﷺ, say to your wives, if you desire the life of this world and its adornment, come and I will provide for you and release you graciously. But if you desire Allah and His Messenger ﷺ and the Home of the Hereafter, then Allah has prepared for those of you who do good a great reward." Aisha understood why he had told her to consult her parents. He knew they would never tell her to leave him. She asked what there was to consult about. She said she chose Allah and His Messenger ﷺ and the Hereafter. Then she asked him not to tell the other wives what she had chosen. He refused. He said Allah had sent him to convey the message, not to make things hard. He put the same choice to each of his wives in turn, and every one of them chose as Aisha had. The whole city had known about the quarrel, and Allah put it into the Qur'an. The problem it revealed did not lie with the wives. It lay in a standard of living that a messenger who had chosen to be a slave could not share with them. The episode is the source of the law of ila'. It is also the source of the husband's right to give his wife the choice of divorce. And it gives the plainest picture the Companions left of how the Prophet ﷺ chose to live.

The wives of the Prophet ﷺ once talked among themselves about which of them would be the first to die after him. The Prophet ﷺ said, "The one amongst you with the longest hand will be the first to meet me." For several years after his death, the wives would stand against a wall and measure whose hand was longest. Then Zaynab bint Jahsh RA became the first of them to die. She was the most generous of the wives, known as the Mother of the Poor. They understood that by "the longest hand" he had meant the one who gave the most for the sake of Allah.

Zaynab bint Jahsh RA was a wife of the Prophet ﷺ who was famous for her generosity. People called her the Mother of the Orphans and the Mother of the Poor. During the caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattab RA, Umar set up yearly stipends for the Muslims. He placed the wives of the Prophet ﷺ in the highest category, at 12,000 dirhams a year. When Zaynab's stipend was poured out in front of her, she sent it away, portion by portion, to people in need. She did not go to sleep until none of it was left. When Umar heard of this, he praised her and sent her another 1,000 dirhams, and she gave that away as well. She died in the 20th year of the Hijrah, before her next stipend arrived. She was the first of the Prophet ﷺ's wives to die after him.