A Comment on 'Why is not the Prophet (pbuh) the Perfect Example in the Number of Marriages'... Koran is God's revealed truth to the world through the Prophet. Yet, this didn't apply to the Prophet himself, the very person who revealed the truth. As you said, he could marry more than 4 wives through Al-Ahzaab 33: 50 - 52. This is a vicious circle: you can't make your own rules, break them, and make special rules for oneself. He could marry as many wives as he wanted, even the wife of his adopted son, by Allah's permission. He was thus beyond the very rules he championed. Why didn't he act as he preached or advocated? I know your answer would be "he was the Prophet". How can Muslims view the Prophet's life as example par excellence if he alone was accorded special permission? The Koran championed the equality of women and men. Could the women have 4 husbands as men could have 4 wives? One of your readers asked a very pertinent question [1] . The Prophet could have helped these women, in many other ways, socially and economically, than just marrying them. You answered that the Prophet had 13 wives because of the different roles he assumed. Does one marry because of one's roles (be they economic, social, or political) or because of one's love? The former sounds so business-like from the head, and the latter more meaningful from the heart. edmiho Reply I really do not think that my referred answer has been fully understood. I would therefore like to clarify a few aspects of the answer, which are pertinent to your comments. The Qur'an - the revealed truth of God - did apply to the Prophet (pbuh), without any exception. In my referred response, I had written: ... the Qur'an has given a separate set of directives regarding the marriages of the Prophet (pbuh). This set of directives may be seen at Al-Ahzaab 33: 50 - 52. The Qur'an has also stated that these directives are specifically for the Prophet (pbuh) alone. This statement, if you would examine closely, clearly supports my point of view that the actions of the Prophet (pbuh), like that of all other Muslims, were fully and completely subject to the directives of the Qur'an. You write: Koran is God's revealed truth to the world through the Prophet. Yet, this didn't apply to the Prophet himself, the very person who revealed the truth. This would only have been the case if the Qur'an itself had not made the Prophet (pbuh) an exception from the rule relating to the maximum number of marriages. On the contrary, because the Qur'an - the revealed truth of God - has, itself, made the Prophet (pbuh) an exception in the case of the maximum number of marriages, therefore, the number of marriages of the Prophet can no longer be considered a deviation from the directive of the Qur'an. In fact, now the increased number of Prophet's marriages is in compliance with the directive of God, i.e. the Qur'an ( Al-Ahzaab 33: 50 - 52). You write: This is a vicious circle: you can't make your own rules, break them, and make special rules for oneself. According to the Muslim belief, the Prophet (pbuh) did not, in the first place, 'make his own rules'. In fact, as far as the Shari`ah is concerned, the Prophet (pbuh) did not make any rules at all. On the contrary, according to the Muslim faith, God made the rules. Then, God, Himself, gave an exception, wherever He decided to, in these rules to His Prophet (pbuh), and subsequently gave separate rules for him. Look closely at the above paragraph, once again. You shall find the basic answer to all your questions in it. A Muslim mind holds Mohammed (pbuh) to be a prophet of God and thus accepts the complete Qur'an to be a revelation from God. A non-Muslim mind, on the other hand, does not accept Mohammed (pbuh) to be God's prophet and is, thus, not willing to accept the Qur'an to be God's revelation. As a consequence, for a Muslim mind, Al-Ahzaab 33: 50 - 52 is God's directive to Mohammed. Whereas, for a non-Muslim mind, Al-Ahzaab 33: 50 - 52 entails Mohammed's deviation from his own rules. Consider a brief example to understand the above difference in the perspectives of the believing and the rejecting minds, in a given situation: The Christian mind, generally, holds that the four Gospels as we have them today are an accurate and a divinely inspired account of the life and times of Jesus (pbuh). The Muslim mind, on the other hand, holds that the Gospels do not present an error-free account of the incidents of the life of Jesus (pbuh), as they were written and translated by ordinary human beings, who were prone to all such errors that a normal human being is prone to making. In view of this basic difference between the two minds, when the Christian mind is faced with the following incident narrated in Matthew 15: 24 - 25: The woman came and knelt before him (i.e. Jesus). "Lord, help me!" she said. He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." it tries to give an explanation, in its own perspective, to the statement ascribed to Jesus (pbuh), in which he is narrated to have called the woman 'a dog'. A Muslim mind, on the other hand, may simply reject the ascription of these words to Jesus (pbuh) as a mistake of the narrators or one committed by the translators of the original narration. This is so, because a prophet, in the understanding of a Muslim mind is not likely to use such derogatory words for a woman who comes to him for the sole purpose of receiving guidance and whose only mistake is to be born a non-Israelite. By the same token, a Muslim mind, because of its basic belief regarding the prophethood and the truthfulness of Mohammed (pbuh), interprets all the directives of the Qur'an - whether favoring Mohammed (pbuh) or going against his worldly comforts - to be a part of God's true revelation. While a non-Muslim mind, on the other hand, is likely to criticize such directives and make them an excuse for his rejection of Mohammed (pbuh)'s prophethood. The basic difference, indeed, lies in the different basic premises that the two minds hold. You have also implied in your comments that only the Prophet (pbuh) was allowed to marry the wife of his adopted son. This implication is absolutely unfounded. Wives of adopted sons are not prohibited in the Islamic Shari`ah . It was only construed to be prohibited by the Arabs, due to their social tradition. The Qur'an directed the Prophet (pbuh) to marry the divorced wife of his adopted son for the very purpose of correcting the referred Arab tradition of holding the divorced wives or widows of their adopted sons to be prohibited for marriage ( Al-Ahzaab 33: 37). You write: How can Muslims view the Prophet's life as example par excellence if he alone was accorded special permission? The Muslims view the Prophet's life as an example par excellence for themselves in those spheres of life, which are common to the Prophet (pbuh) and themselves (as I have already clarified in my referred response). These spheres of life do not include those in which the Prophet (pbuh) was accorded special (exclusive) permissions to fulfill special (exclusive) responsibilities, not imposed on the common Muslim. You write: The Koran championed the equality of women and men. Could the women have 4 husbands as men could have 4 wives? Your premise statement is not correct. Qur'an is not a proponent of 'equality' among human beings in all matters; it is a proponent of 'justice'. I am sure you can understand the difference between the two concepts and their practical implications. You write: ... You answered that the Prophet had 13 wives because of the different roles he assumed. Does one marry because of one's roles (be they economic, social, or political) or because of one's love? The former sounds so business-like from the head, and the latter more meaningful from the heart. What you have interpreted is precisely what I had wanted to communicate. In my opinion (in the light of the verse that I had referred to in my previous response), most of the marriages of the Prophet (pbuh) were not because of his desires, but because of God's directives, which were given because of the different roles of that God intended for the person of Mohammed (pbuh). I hope this helps. Regards, The Learner Home Page [1] Reference is to one of my previously answered questions http://www.understanding-islam.com/rm/mo-007.htm