The Heart's Witness Against Muhammad: Concubines for the Perfect Man

Under any ordinary moral standard, sex with concubines is considered adultery and not consonant with the ends of marriage.  Under Muhammadan logic, however, sex with concubines is right because Allah revealed it to be so and because his messenger had sex with concubines.  Muhammad's treatment of women alone should disabuse any conclusion of a prophetic charism, much less a legitimate claim to being the "seal of the prophets," the khatamun nabiyyin.

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CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - Muhammad's moral travesties are legion, and include, as we have related in prior articles on the subject, polygamy, incest, pedophilia, concubinage, and divorce and remarriage.  In this article, we will focus on Muhammad's relationships with his slave-women, his concubines.  It will be the last in this series that will focus on sexual sins.  We will then take leave of the sixth commandment and look at other commandments.

Under any ordinary moral standard, sex with concubines is considered adultery and not consonant with the ends of marriage.  Under Muhammadan logic, however, sex with concubines is right because Allah revealed it to be so and because his messenger had sex with concubines.  Allah locutus, causa finita est. Mahometus fecit, causa finita est.   Allah has spoken, the case is closed.  Muhammad has done it, the case is closed.  That's the reasoning: pure divine positivism, the natural moral law be damned.

Muhammad's treatment of women alone should disabuse any human of concluding this man to have a legitimate prophetic bone in his body, much less a legitimate claim to being the "seal of the prophets," the khatamun nabiyyin.  Muhammad's rank disregard of natural moral law, his blindness to it in the area of marriage and family life, is proof positive that his message is inauthentic.  His inability to control his sexual faculties makes Muhammad more a prophet of Priapus than a prophet of the Most High God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Jesus.  As man, Muhammad is not exempt from the natural moral law. As a supposed prophet, he is bound to the natural moral law a fortiori.  As a supposed perfect man, al-insan al-kamil, he is to bound to exhibit in an excellent way virtues consonant with the natural law.
 
This, perhaps, is the reason traditionalist Muslims are so suspicious of practical reason as a source of morals, and why they cannot brook any opposition or criticism to their alleged prophet.  The moment natural moral law steps into the picture, the entirety of Islam falls like a deck of cards.  If Islam is no better than its prophet, then Islam suffers from serious problems.

Islam is founded entirely upon sheer moral positivism: the positivism of Allah and the positivism of Muhammad's actions.  The moment the blinders of Islam's positivism are removed and the witness of one's heart is accessed, one sees the raunchy character of Muhammad.

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In assessing Muhammad's activities with his concubines, we start, of course, with that part of the Qur΄an, the Surat Al-Ahzab, known as "The Confederates," or "The Allies," specifically, the fiftieth ayah, which was so generous and accommodating to the sexual life of this pseudo-prophet: "O Prophet!" the ayah begins, "Verily, We have made lawful to you . . . those (captives or slaves) whom your right hand possesses-whom Allah has given to you."  These are the ma malakat aymanukum, the ones which are possessed by a man's right hand, a euphemism for concubines captured during war (or bought from men who captured them during war).  Qur΄an 33:50.

This privilege was not reserved for Muhammad alone: all Muslim men, in imitatio Muhammedi, enjoy the privileges associated with those whom their "right hand possess."  So we find in the Surat An-Nisa' that Muslim men in general enjoy the sexual benefits of those women whom their right hand possess.  Qur΄an 4:4. 

Muhammad's right hand possessed many such female concubines, and we know that he exercised his sexual rights freely with at least two of them, Mariya al-Qibtiya and Rihanah, respectively, his Christian and Jewish concubines.  The former, to the consternation of Muhammad's legal wives, even gave him a child, whom Muhammad called Ibrahim (Abraham), but who died young.

At the outset, so that we are not accused of slighting Muhammad and accusing him of sex with concubines when he was innocent of that moral lapse, we might quote from the popular Islamic biography of Muhammad, Ar-Rahiq Al-Makhtum (The Sealed Nectar) by Saifur Rahman al-Mubarakpuri (translated by Issam Diab):

"Besides these [Muhammad's wives], he had two concubines. The first was Mariyah, the Coptic (an Egyptian Christian), a present gift from Al-Muqauqis, vicegerent of Egypt - she gave birth to his son Ibrâhim, who died in Madinah [Medina] while still a little child, on the 28th or 29th of Shawwal in the year 10 A.H., i.e. 27th January, 632 A.D.  The second one was Raihanah bint Zaid An-Nadriyah or Quraziyah, a captive from Bani Quraiza.  Some people say she was one of his wives. However, Ibn Al-Qaiyim gives more weight to the first version. Abu ΄Ubaidah spoke of two more concubines, Jameelah, a captive, and another one, a bondwoman granted to him by Zainab bint Jahsh. [Za'd Al-Ma'ad 1/29]."

There is, in fact, a rather humorous story involving the jealousies of the wives arising from Muhammad's enjoyment of the "honey" given to him by Mariya the Copt.  It can be found in the Sahih Bukhari 3.43.648. The event is corroborated in the Sahi Muslim 9.3511 and Sahih Bukhari 7.62.119.  These sources are rather candid about the affair.

It seems that the pseudo-prophet's foresight was rather limited, or was perhaps clouded by lust.  He could not hear Allah's warning, or perhaps Allah withdrew to allow his prophet privacy, while his prophet was trying to achieve orgasm with his concubine Mariya. 

His first fling with Mariya so far as we know was at the home of one of his wives, Hafsa.  Muhammad found a pretense (in other words, he lied) to send Hafsa to her father's house, and then bedded Mariya.  But Hafsa unexpectedly returned home when she discovered that her father did not seek her as Muhammad had told her.  She caught the perfect man in flagrante delicto with Mariya the Copt.

As might be expected, Hafsa became indignant, but Muhammad, as was his bent, found fault with everyone but himself.  He got Hafsa to shut up by promising not to sleep with his maid servant anymore, but on the condition that Hafsa keep this moral failure between herself and him.  But Hafsa told Muhammad's young wife 'A'΄isha , and soon Muhammad's whole harem learned of the mess.  How did this alleged prophet handle the incipient revolt?

Muhammad's response was to do two things.  First, he punished his wives by depriving them of his sexual services for a month.  (This, of course, is the second level of punishments advised by Allah in the treatment of wives who misbehave.  The first is to admonish them.  The second level is to refuse to share their beds.  The third level is to beat them. Qur΄an 4:34. Presumably, if all else fails: divorce is the remedy.) 

But this overreaction presented the sex-starved Muhammad with a problem: where would he get his sexual satisfaction?  He had promised Hafsa no longer to have sex with Mariya, and he had promised no longer to have sex with his wives for a month.

Where Muhammad has a need, Allah conveniently provides.  Behold, a new revelation! Recite!

Allah in the eternal Qur΄an threatens Muhammad's wives with divorce (as if they did something wrong).  Moreover, Allah releases Muhammad of his oath to Hafsa so that he can enter into Mariya to his heart's content while Muhammad punishes his wives with his sexual absence!  After all, Allah would not let such a small thing as marriage or promises get in the way of Muhammad's sexual relief.

"O Prophet! Why do you ban (for yourself) that which Allah has made lawful to you, seeking to please your wives? And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

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Allah has already ordained for you (O men), the dissolution of your oaths. And Allah is your Maula (Lord, or Master, or Protector, etc.) and He is the All-Knower, the All-Wise.

And (remember) when the Prophet (SAW) disclosed a matter in confidence to one of his wives (Hafsah), so when she told it (to another i.e. 'Aishah), and Allah made it known to him, he informed part thereof and left a part. Then when he told her (Hafsah) thereof, she said: "Who told you this?" He said: "The All-Knower, the All-Aware (Allah) has told me."

If you two (wives of the Prophet SAW, namely 'Aishah and Hafsah) turn in repentance to Allah, (it will be better for you), your hearts are indeed so inclined (to oppose what the Prophet SAW likes), but if you help one another against him (Muhammad SAW), then verily, Allah is his Maula (Lord, or Master, or Protector, etc.), and Jibrael (Gabriel), and the righteous among the believers, and furthermore, the angels are his helpers.

It may be if he divorced you (all) that his Lord will give him instead of you, wives better than you, Muslims (who submit to Allah), believers, obedient to Allah, turning to Allah in repentance, worshiping Allah sincerely, fasting or emigrants (for Allah's sake), previously married and virgins."

Qur΄an 66:1-5.

Muhammad's relationship with Mariya the Copt (as well as Rihanna) is morally inexcusable.  Muhammad's utter insensitivity and disregard for the natural moral law when it comes to sexual mores brands him a moral decrepit.  In light of Muhammad's polygamy, incest, concubinage, pedophilia, and other sexual sins, it becomes harder and harder to say without rank hypocrisy, calculated blindness, or the murder of conscience, what the Muslims always say, Allah and his messenger know best, the natural law notwithstanding.

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Andrew M. Greenwell is an attorney licensed to practice law in Texas, practicing in Corpus Christi, Texas.  He is married with three children.  He maintains a blog entirely devoted to the natural law called Lex Christianorum.  You can contact Andrew at agreenwell@harris-greenwell.com.

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