Chief of the Prophets — Page 197
Chapter Eight 197 Muḥammad sa marry her, and he agreed. This was the last marriage of Muḥammad sa. Maimūnah ra had very righteous beliefs and a mature mind. Most of her time was spent in explaining religious matters to the people. Once a woman was indisposed and she pledged to pray in the Baitul-Muqaddas on recovering. Allah the Exalted granted her recovery and she came to see Maimūnah ra before leaving to fulfill her pledge. Maimūnah ra explained to her that the reward for offering Ṣalāt in the Masjid an-Nabawī was greater than the reward of offering Ṣalāt in any other mosque by more than 1,000 times; therefore, she should fulfill her pledge by offering Ṣalāt in Masjid an- Nabawī. 1 Maimūnah ra died in 51 A. H. , and Ibn Abbās led her funeral prayers. If the objective of Muḥammad‘s multiple marriages was—God forbid—his own pleasure as alleged by non-Muslim historians, he would not have married elderly ladies. Instead, he would have chosen beautiful unmarried girls, and it was not hard for him to do so because the parents of such girls would have taken pride in marrying their girls to Muḥammad sa. Therefore, as mentioned before, Muḥammad’s marriages with widows and mature women, mostly beyond the age of marriage, is clear proof that his objective was to facilitate the propagation of Islam to various tribes and to spread Islamic teachings among the Muslim women. Marriage with Māriyyah ra As mentioned before, the Muqauqis of Egypt sent two girls of his family to Muḥammad sa as a gesture of his devotion to Muḥammad sa. Out of the two, Muḥammad sa married Māriyyah ra. Allah gave him a son from her who was named Ibrāhīm. Before the birth of this child, Muḥammad sa had borne the loss of all of his sons and daughters except Fāṭimah ra. 1 Al-Iṣābah