Muhammad’s Desire for His Daughter-in-Law and the Usual Convenient Verses

At the beginning of his preaching, or shortly before it, Muhammad adopted a slave named Zayd ibn Harithah, who had been given to him by his wife Khadija. Some time later, Muhammad married his adopted son to his cousin Zaynab bint Jahsh. She initially refused, but had to yield when faced with an “ad hoc revelation”:

When Allah and His Messenger have decreed a matter, it is not for a believing man or woman to choose according to their own wishes. Whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has clearly gone astray. (Quran 33:36)

One day Muhammad discovered Zaynab’s beauty and fell in love with her. Al-Tabari, in his official biography of the Prophet, describes the episode as follows:

Zaynab had been living with Zayd for five years when the Prophet went to his son’s house. When the door opened, he saw Zaynab sitting with her head uncovered. Turning his gaze away from her, he asked where her husband was, and she replied that he had gone out. Muhammad had often seen Zaynab, but always veiled, never with her face uncovered. He was deeply struck and, not wishing to look at her a second time, seduced by her beauty, closed his eyes and said: “Glory to God who turns hearts!” Then he left.

When Zayd returned home, his wife told him about the Prophet’s visit. “Why did you not let him in?” Zayd asked. “He did come in,” Zaynab replied. “My head was uncovered, and he said this and that.” “You probably made an impression on him,” Zayd said. “In that case, I can no longer remain with you.” He went to the Prophet and told him that he intended to repudiate his wife. “Why?” the Prophet asked. “What do you have against her?” “Nothing!” Zayd said, “but I cannot remain with her.” “Come now, do not leave your wife. Treat her well and obey God, who says: ‘Keep your wife with you and fear God.’” But Muhammad, despite the advice he gave his son, was actually pleased that Zayd would repudiate her, but did not want to show it, so as not to hurt his adopted son and prevent the matter from becoming known.

This is confirmed by verse 33:37:

[Remember] when you said to the one whom Allah had favored and whom you yourself had favored: “Keep your wife and fear Allah,” while you concealed in your heart what Allah was going to make public. […] (Quran 33:37)

But the marriage to Zaynab that Muhammad desired so greatly posed the thorny problem of the legality of marrying the repudiated wife of an adopted son. As we have said, once repudiated, Zaynab would have been the repudiated wife of Zayd, Muhammad’s adopted son. We now discover how the conflict, both internal and with the laws of the time, was happily resolved by the usual “ad personam revelations.” Al-Tabari describes it as follows:

After leaving the Prophet, Zayd repudiated Zaynab. Once the legal period had elapsed, she sent word to the Prophet: “Zayd repudiated me because of you, so that you might marry me.” The Prophet desired this marriage, but he was ashamed and did not reply. God, seeing his embarrassment, gave Zaynab to him in marriage by revealing the verse: [Remember] when you said to the one whom Allah had favored and whom you yourself had favored: “Keep your wife and fear Allah,” while you concealed in your heart what Allah was going to make public. You feared the people, while Allah has more right to be feared. Then, when Zayd had ended his relationship with her, We gave her to you in marriage, so that there would be no impediment for the believers concerning the wives of their adopted sons when they have ended their relationship with them. Allah’s command must be carried out. (Quran 33:37)

The Prophet then said: “Who will bring Zaynab the good news?” Aisha did not like the matter, but the Prophet addressed her: “Do you want to oppose the will of the Lord?” A woman went to inform Zaynab, who removed all the jewelry she was wearing and gave it to her. The Prophet then went to her by virtue of the marriage that God in heaven had concluded for him, as it is written in the Quran: “When Zayd decided to repudiate her, We gave her to you as a wife.” Zaynab boasted of these words and said to the Prophet’s other wives: “You were married by the Prophet, but I was married to him by God.” Zaynab’s marriage took place in the month of Muharram in the fifth year of the Hijra. At the beginning of the month of Rabi al-Awwal, the Prophet left for the expedition to Dumat al-Jandal.

Amid the general embarrassment, verse 33:38 also “came down” to exonerate Muhammad by emphasizing his honesty, saying that it was Allah who imposed the marriage to his cousin and that it was not the result of an arbitrary decision on his part:

Therefore there is no blame upon the Prophet for what Allah has imposed upon him: this was Allah’s rule [also] for those who lived before. Allah’s command is an immutable decree. (Quran 33:38)

Other verses were “revealed” to remove every remaining doubt about the lawfulness of the marriage between Muhammad and the wife of his adopted son. How? Simply by abolishing every adoption and transforming Zayd from an “adopted son” into a “former adopted son”:

The dissemblers said that “Muhammad forbids us the wives of our sons while he himself marries the wife of his son Zayd.” Abdullah Ibn Umar said, “We continued to call him Zayd ibn Muhammad until the verse ‘Muhammad is not the father of any of your men’ was revealed”:

Muhammad is not the father of any of your men; he is Allah’s Messenger and the seal of the prophets. Allah knows all things. (Quran 33:40)

[Allah] … has not made your adopted sons your own sons either. These are nothing but words from your mouths; but Allah speaks the truth, and it is He who guides to the [right] path. (Quran 33:4)

Thus, with “Allah’s help,” Muhammad was able to marry Zaynab, the repudiated wife of his former adopted son.