Qur'an for Christians (7)

Surah 66: 1, 3-5
O Prophet! Why do you forbid (yourself) that which Allah has made lawful for you; you seek to please your wives, and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

And when the prophet secretly communicated a piece of information to one of his wives – but when she informed (others) of it, and Allah made him to know it, he made known part of it and avoided part; so when he informed her of it, she said: Who informed you of this? He said: The Knowing, the one Aware, informed me.

If you both turn to Allah, then indeed your hearts are already inclined (to this); and if you back up each other against him, then surely Allah it is Who is his Guardian, and Jibreel and the believers that do good, and the angels after that are the aiders.

Maybe, his Lord, if he divorce you, will give him in your place wives better than you, submissive, faithful, obedient, penitent, adorers, fasters, widows and virgins.

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In these passages from the Qur’an we read that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) confided a secret to one of his wives, a secret that she subsequently disclosed to others. Allah informs the Prophet of this betrayal of trust. So this passage is important first of all in proving that the Prophet did have access to the aid of Allah, because the wife clearly took enough precautions that she was amazed that the Prophet learned of her betrayal of his trust.

The second important point is that you should note that if Islam were violent and hurtful against women, this would be the place where we would read of Allah and the Prophet’s wrath against the betrayer of trust wife. There is not a word of that, and in fact, you read only of how justified the Prophet would be to divorce her and find wives with good qualities. So while she faces, understandably, divorce for her gossip and betrayal of trust, this passage only focuses to extol the virtues of good wives. “You can be replaced” is as forceful as this passage implies!

By the way, Jibreel is the angel Gabriel, the same angel who notified Mary of the impending birth of Jesus in the Bible. Gabriel guided the Prophet and brought word from Allah to him.

As an aside, yes, both the Prophet of the Qur'an and the Patriarchs/ Prophets of the Bible had multiple wives. They were fully within their rights. So get over it. I'm tired of hearing some people blather that the morals of the Prophets of the Bible or the Qur'an should be questioned. That's one reason I blogged the reading from the Book of Job, because no good things come of mortal sinners who criticize God and his Prophets or Angels in their actions.