Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 05:33, 8 August 2005

v t e Wives of Muhammad
Khadija bint Khuwaylid (595–620) Sawdah bint Zam'ah (620–632) Aisha bint Abi Bakr (620–632) Hafsa bint Umar (625–632) Zaynab bint Khuzayma (626–627) Hind bint Abi Umayya (627–632) Zaynab bint Jahsh (627–632) Juwayriya bint al-Harith (628–632) Safiyya bint Huyayy (628–632) Ramla bint Abi Sufyan (629–632) Maymunah bint al-Harith (629–632) Rayhana bint Zayd (627–631) Maria bint Sham'ūn

Maria al-Qibtiyya (alternatively, especially in non-Arabic traditions, "Maria Qupthiya"), or "Maria the Copt", was a Coptic Christian slave girl who was part of Muhammad's harem, given to Muhammad by a viceregent of the Roman Empire.

Maria is sent from Egypt

Near the time of his death, Muhammad's power had become formidable, and Muhammad wrote a letter to the viceregent of Egypt appointed by the Roman Empire, Muqawqis, demanding that Muqawqis either convert to Islam or face war . Muqawqis sent a letter in reply in which he was evasive about Muhammad's summoning him to Islam ; but with his letter, Muqawqis sent a tribute of a thousand measures of gold, twenty robes of fine cloth, a mule, a she-ass, and two Coptic Christian slave girls along with a eunuch escorting them. The two slave girls were sisters, Maria and Sirin. Both were beautiful, but Maria more so. Muhammad kept Maria for himself as a concubine, and gave Sirin to the poet Hassan ibn Thabit (Lings 277). It is not at all clear that Muhammad later freed and married Maria (some traditions claim that Muhammmad offered to do this but Maria prefered to remain as a slave), though some contend that this was the case.

Maria in Muhammad's harem

Muhammad had a son with Maria, Ibrahim, who died in infancy - this was the only son that Muhammad had ever had, though he had had many daughters. Maria was with Muhammad for only three years until his death, and she died five years later.

The Sira of Ibn Ishaq relates that the sixty-sixth chapter of the Qur'an (surah At-Tahrim) was revealed on account of Maria. The story goes that Muhammad was particularly fond of Maria, who is described as being fair skinned and having curly hair. Muhammad lodged Maria in a nearby house and would visit her by day and by night. Muhammad's wives became openly jeleous, as Muhammad was spending less time with them and had copulated with Maria without any ceremony, Maria being sent as a concubine (though all recognized that Muhammad had this right, just as Abraham had kept Hagar as a concubine) (Lings 277). This reached a climax when, one day, Muhammad was in the home of his wife Hafsa bint Umar (as it was her day to be visited by him). Hafsa was away visiting her father, Umar ibn al-Khattab. It happened that Muhammad was feeling amourous so he made advances to Maria, and they slept together in Hafsa's hut. Hafsa returned unexpectedly and burst into anger and tears, crying, "In my hut, on my own day and in my own bed!" Becoming weary of this, Muhammad then promised that he would ban Maria from his life, and only asked Hafsa that she not tell anyone else about what had transpired. But Hafsa could not contain herself, and told the secret to Aisha (Muhammad's most favoured wife, and a close friend of Hafsa's). Aisha, like the rest of the harem, also detested Maria, "the little nobody who had managed to give the Prophet a son." From Aisha the news spread amongst the harem. Muhammad became furious at his wives.

At this point, the story goes that the sixty-sixth Surah of the Qur'an was revealed to Muhammad: "O Prophet, why do you make prohibited that which Allah has made lawful for you , just to please your wives? Allah is forgiving and merciful. Allah has given absolution from such oaths . He is your master. He is all-knowing and wise. The Prophet made a story secret to one of his wives and she repeated it, but Allah revealed it to him ... If he divorses you , perhaps his Lord will give him instead better wives than yourselves..." (Qur'an, 66:1-5). Having been absolved of his oath to ban Maria from his life, and still being furious over dissent amongst his wives caused by Hafsa's spreading the secret about what had happened in her hut, Muhammad now vowed to teach his wives a lesson by abstaining from them for a month and instead spending all of his time with Maria. Muhammad then lodged Maria in upper Medina with the eunuch, away from his wives. After the month had ended, Muhammad went back to visiting his wives, Aisha being the first wife that he resumed seeing when the month ended. (Rodinson, 279-282).

There is an alternative and contradictory explanation, in Islamic cannonical hadiths, as to what the sixty-sixth chapter of the Qur'an is specifically referring to. This alternative explanation is a quoation attributed to Aisha in the Bukhari collection of hadith, and is known as the story of the honey. This story is very similar to the one involving Maria. In this version of the story, Muhammad was spending too much time with his wife Zaynab bint Jahsh because Zaynab had a skin filled with honey which Muhammad enjoyed eating. So Aisha and Hafsa decided to conspire against Muhammad by telling him that his breath smelled bad after he had eaten the honey. This caused Muhammad to take an oath to not eat Zaynab's honey, but he told Aisha and Hafsa to keep his oath a secret, and this the oath is allegedly the one referred to in the sixty-sixth chapter. "One feels inclined to treat this tradition with some caution, however, as it may well have been invented, or more probably adjusted, to fit the permission given to Muhammad in Surah 66 to absolve himself from an oath taken to please his wives ... the verse has generally been taken to refer to a far more serious matter relating to another wife where the same consorts Aiyshah and Hafsa again teamed up against him. It is not uncommon to find traditions in Bukhari's Sahih which are very similar in style to others in earlier Sirat literature but which neatly remove any details considered to be dishonouring to Muhammad. " (Gilchrist 77).

References

• Lings, Martin. Muhammad: his life based on the earliest sources. Inner Traditions International, Vermont, 1983.
• Rodinson, Maxime Muhammad. Random House, Inc., New York, 2002.
• Gilchrist, John. Muhammad and the Religion of Islam. Benoni, Republic of South Africa, 1986.