Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 103
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 103 a widow and of an advanced age. The principal motive of the Holy Prophet in marrying Sudah was to procure suitable female companionship and to provide protection and comfort for one who had suffered for the faith and deserved his compassion. In no single m arriage of his was he inspired by any purely personal desire or motive. At the time when his nikah was performed with Aisha, she was only ten years of age. She was the daughter of his closest and most devoted friend; had been brought up from her birth in an atmosphere of piety and righteousness; her mind under the Holy Prophet’s care could be moulded a long lines of utmost beneficence; she could be instructed in an intimate relationship with regard to all that Islam required of a woman and could thus prove most helpful in guiding Muslim women, both by precept and by example, along the ways of righteousne ss; and she could be expected to survive the Holy Prophet for a long period and to serve as a source of instruction for the whole Muslim community, as indeed it proved to be the case in fact. A great part of the knowledge of the ways and practice of the Ho ly Prophet, peace be on him, was handed down to future generations of Muslims through Aisha. All his subsequent marriages were with widows or divorced women, and personal desire played no part in the motive behind any of those marriages. An insinuation to that effect has crept into some accounts of his marriage with his cousin, Zainab bint Jahsh, after she was divorced by Zaid bin Haritha. The circumstances, however, do not lend the least support to any such insinuation. The Holy Prophet had known Zainab, his first cousin, from the moment of her birth, and had he developed any