تَبْتَغِى

4278

Commentary:

It is related that one day one of the wives of the Holy Prophet gave him a drink made from honey, which he seemed to like. Some of his other wives, out of pique, pointed out to him that his breath smelt of Maghafir, a shrub the taste of which resembled that of honey but having a bad smell. The Holy Prophet, because of his delicate nature, promised not to take honey any more (Buldan). It is to this incident that the verse under comment is generally taken to refer. But it seems improbable that the Holy Prophet, merely to satisfy the pique of his wife or wives, should have taken such a drastic step as to have forbidden himself the use of some-thing which was lawful, particularly that in which, according to the Quran, "there is cure for men" (16:70). It appears the narrator or narrators of this incident in the traditions suffered from some misunderstanding or confusion, particularly when, accor-ding to one tradition, the Holy Prophet took honey from the house of Zainab, and it were ‘A’ishah and Hafsah who contrived to draw him into making the aforesaid promise, while, according to another tradition, it was at the house of Hafsah that he was served with honey and that the wives who objected were ‘A’ishah, Zainab and Safiyya. It appears, moreover, that according to the hadith, two, or at the most three, of the Holy Prophet’s wives were concerned in the incident, but, according to vv. 2 & 6 of the present Surah, all were connected with it, two of them taking a leading part (v.5). These considerations indicate that the Surah refers to some incident of much greater significance than the mere taking of honey by the Holy Prophet at the house of one of his wives and of having been drawn into making a promise not to take it anymore. In the commentary on this Surah, Bukhari (Kitabul-Mazalim wal Ghasb) quotes Ibn ‘Abbas as relating that he was always on the lookout to enquire of ‘Umar as to who were the two wives to whom reference had been made in the verse: "Now, if you two turn unto Allah, it will be better for you, and your hearts are already so inclined." One day, finding ‘Umar alone, he sought to satisfy his curiosity. He had hardly finished his question, says Ibn ‘Abbas, when ‘Umar said that they were ‘A’ishah and Hafsah and then proceeded to relate the story: "Once, when my wife offered me her advice concerning some domestic affair, I curtly told her that it was no business of hers to advise me, for in those days we did not hold our womenfolk in much respect. My wife sternly replied: 'Your daughter Hafsah takes so much liberty with the Holy Prophet that she retorts back, when he says something not to her liking till he feels offended, and you do not allow me to speak to you even about our domestic affairs.' Upon this I went to Hafsah and sternly told her that she should not be misled by ‘A’ishah in this matter as she was nearer to the Prophet’s heart. Then I went to Ummi Salma and had hardly broached the matter with her when she also curtly told me not to interfere in affairs concerning the Prophet and his wives. A short time after this, the Prophet separated himself from his wives and decided not to go to the house of any of them. The news went round that the Prophet had divorced his wives. I went to him and asked him if it was true that he had divorced his wives to which he replied in the negative." This incident shows that ‘Umar, and Ibn ‘Abbas were of the view that the relevant verses of the Surah referred to this temporary separation of the Holy Prophet from his wives. The fact that the preceding Surah mentions the subject of Talaq which is separation of a permanent character, lends weight to the inference that these verses relate to the Prophet’s separation from his wives, which, however, was of a temporary nature. Besides, as reported by ‘A’ishah in the above mentioned hadith, immediately after the period of separation was over, v. 33:29 was revealed, and the Prophet’s wives were given the choice between the Prophet’s companionship and a life of poverty and austere simplicity on the one hand, and separation from him with a life of ease and comfort and all sorts of material benefit on the other. The choice was given to all the wives and the verse under comment speaks of all the wives, as also does v. 4. This shows that the incident referred to in these verses concerns all the wives in which two of them took a more prominent part. And this was when the Prophet’s wives, led by ‘A’ishah and Hafsah, demanded of him that like other Muslim women they should also have amenities of life and comfortable living (Fathul-Qadir). In this context the words تبتغی مرضاة أزواجک would seem to mean something like this: "Since thou always desirest to please thy wives and meet their wishes, they have been encouraged by this loving attitude of thine naturally to lose sight of thy high position as a Prophet of God and to make excessive demands on thee."

The alleged incident of Mariah, the Copt, being too foolish and fantastic a concoction of Christian writers and lacking all reliable historical evidence, does not merit serious notice. Mary was the Holy Prophet’s wedded consort and the respected mother of the Faithful. The Prophet never kept a slave girl.