Life of Muhammad — Page 146
sa 146 Prophet sa has been attacked by European writers because he had several wives. They think a plurality of wives is evidence of personal laxity and love of pleasure. This impression of the Prophet's sa marriages, however, is belied by the devotion and self-consuming love which the Prophet's sa wives had for him. Their devotion and love proved that the Prophet's sa married life was pure, unselfish and spiritual. It was so singular in this respect that no man can be said to have treated his one wife so well as the Prophet sa treated his many. If the Prophet's sa married life had been motivated by pleasure, it would most certainly have resulted in making his wives indifferent and even antagonistic to him. But the facts are quite otherwise. All the Prophet's sa wives were devoted to him, and their devotion was due to his unselfish and high-minded example. To his unselfish example they reacted by unsparing devotion. This is proved by many incidents recorded in history. One relates to Maim u na ra herself. She met the Prophet sa for the first time in a tent in the desert. If their marital relations had been coarse, if the Prophet sa had preferred some wives to others because of their physical charms, Maim u na ra would not have cherished her first meeting with the Prophet sa as a great memory. If her marriage with the Prophet sa had been associated with unpleasant or indifferent memories, she would have forgotten everything about it. Maim u na ra lived long after the Prophet's sa death. She died full of years but could not forget what her marriage with the Prophet sa had meant for her. On the eve of her death at eighty, when the delights of the flesh are forgotten, when things only of lasting value and virtue move the heart, she asked to be buried at one day's journey from Mecca, at the very spot where the Prophet sa had camped on his return to Medina, and where after his marriage she had first met him. The world knows of many stories of love both real and imaginary, but not of many which are more moving than this.