Genealogy of Khadijah's Daughters
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Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, the first wife of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, had six children. There is some dispute regarding whether all of the children were born in her marriage to Muhammad, or if three of the four daughters were born to a previous marriage.
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[edit] Introduction
The dispute extends to Umm Kulthum, Ruqayah, and Zainab. For ease of identification, all four daughters share the same patronym, "Ibn Muhammad." This is accepted even by those who view them as children from a previous marriage and view that Muhammad adopted them, as this predates usage of Islamic rules of adoption. It is notable that Muhammad also had an adopted son, Zayd ibn Muhammad.
This debate becomes significant and contentious since two of the children, Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum were consecutively married to Uthman, one after the death of the other. Uthman became the third Sunni Caliph and first Banu Umayyad Caliph.
[edit] Views
The Quran refers to Muhammad's daughters as "wabanatika" (33:59), the plural[1] for "daughters"
[edit] Muslim view
Regardless of which marriage they where born in, both Shi'a and Sunni view all the children with the high respect.
[edit] Sunni view
Sunni outright reject any notion of them being born anywhere but in Muhammad's marriage. Sunni honour Uthman as "possesor of the two lights", in reference to him being married to two of Muhammad's biological children. Sunni believe that Ruqayyah was born three years after the birth of Zainab, when Muhammad was 33 [2].
[edit] Shi'a view
Shi'a are divided[3], some view that Khadija had no previous husbands[4], while others view the them as born in previous marriages[5], and that this fact is obscured in order to give greater merit to the first Banu Umayyad Caliph. Those Shi'as view is that Fatimah was Muhammad's only biological daughter and the only one who married a Caliph, i.e., Ali. They argue it improbable for Khadija to have given birth to so many children at such an advanced age, while at the same time having abstained from having children in both her previous marriages. A third version also exists which views the two daughters as being the children of Khaijah's deceased sister [6].
One source states:
- Who were Khadija's children by her second husband? This is another controversy that revolves round the other daughters or step-daughters of the Prophet (pbuh) besides Fatima (as). These daughters, chronologically arranged, are: Zainab, Ruqayya, and Ummu Kulthoom. Some historians say that these were Khadija's daughters by her second husband, whereas others insist they were her daughters by Muhammad (pbuh). The first view is held by Sayyid Safdar Husayn in his book The Early History of Islam wherein he bases his conclusion on the contents of al-Sayyuti's famous work Tarikh al-khulafa wal muluk (history of the caliphs and kings). We hope some of our Muslim sisters who read this text will be tempted to research this subject. [7]
Ali Asgher Razwy stats:
- It is not known with any degree of certainty who were these three girls. Most of the Sunni historians claim that they were the daughters of Muhammad and Khadija. According to some other historians, they were the daughters of Khadija by an earlier marriage.
- The Shia Muslims disagree. They assert that Zainab, Ruqayya and Umm Kulthoom were not the daughters of Muhammad and Khadija; in fact, they were not even the daughters of Khadija by any earlier marriage; they were the daughters of a (widowed) sister of Khadija. Khadija's sister also died, and upon her death, she brought the three girls into her own house and brought them up as her own children.
- According to the Shia Muslims, Muhammad and Khadija had three and not six children.The first two of them – Qasim and Tayyeb or Tahir – were boys, and both of them died in their infancy. Their third and the last child was a girl – Fatima Zahra. She was their only child who did not die in infancy.
- The girls – Zainab, Ruqayya and Umm Kulthoom – could not have been the daughters of the Prophet of Islam. If they were, he would not have given them in marriage to the idolaters which the husbands of all three of them were. It's true that all three girls were married long before the dawn of Islam. But then he did not violate any of the imperatives of Qur’an at any time – before or after he was ordained God's Messenger. And Qur’an is explicit on the prohibition of the marriage of a Muslim woman to a pagan. [8]
Shi'a are known to ask how come Sunnis regard Uthman as "possesor of the two lights", when Sunni in contrast to Shi'a do not believe that Muhammad was made of "light". This is factually incorrect however as traditional Sunnis do believe the Prophet (SAWS) was a light, it is Wahabbi Muslims who deny this fact.
Also, Shi'a argue that there is a lack of narrations from Muhammad regarding his other daughters, and they use it to argue that if they held the same position in Muhammads eye, this would not be the case.
[edit] Non-Muslim view
Some Orientalists argue that it is an improbable and grossly inaccurate tall tale that the 40 year old Khadijah had five children in five years, as Sunnis believe. Sunnis reply that the age of 40 is largely disputed.
[edit] References
- ^ The Arabic language has three persons - singular, dual, and plural, with the latter referring to more than two. For further explanation, refer to Arabic grammar.
- ^ anwary-islam.com
- ^ Abu Muhammad Ordoni in his Fatima The Gracious p.32
- ^ This is not a unanimous opinion amongst Muslim historians and many have said that these narrations of Khadija [a]'s previous marriages are fabricated reports. Their findings instead are that Khadija [a] was in fact never married until she became the Prophet [s]'s wife; and that the daughters in her care (Zaynab, Rukayya, Umm Kulthum) were in fact her deceased sister's orphans that she took under her care. For example, see: [1] [2] (google cache acceced 2006-07-12)
- ^ Al-Tijani in his The Shi'ah are (the real) Ahl al-Sunnah on Al-Islam.org note 274
- ^ Again, it is also not agreed that these two were the real daughters of the Messenger of Allah, because there is one group which denies them to be his real daughters, and regards them as being the daughters of Khadijah's sister Halah, or the daughters of her own previous husband. Thus, Abu'l-Qasim al-Kufi (d. 352 A.H.) writes: "When the Messenger of Allah married Khadijah, then some time thereafter Halah died leaving two daughters, one named Zaynab and the other named Ruqayyah and both of them were brought up by the Prophet and Khadijah and they maintained them, and it was the custom before Islam that a child was assigned to whoever brought him up." (al-lstighathah, p. 69) Ibn Hisham has written about the issues of Hadrat Khadijah as follows: "Before marriage with the Prophet she was married to Abi Halah ibn Malik. She delivered for him Hind ibn Abi Halah and Zaynab bint Abi Halah. Before marriage with Abi Halah she was married to `Utayyiq ibn `Abid ibn `Abdillah ibn `Amr ibn Makhzum and she delivered for him `Abdullah and a daughter." (as-Sirah an-nabawiyyah, vol. 4, p. 293) This shows that of Hadrat Khadijah had two daughters before being married to the Prophet and according to all appearance they would be called his daughters and those to whom they were married would be called his sons-in-law, but the position of this relationship would be the same as if those girls were his daughters. (Commentary to Nahj al-Balagah [3])
- ^ http://www.ummah.net/khoei/khadija.htm
- ^ Restatement of History of Islam 58
