Home   Revelation   Muhammad   Islam   Government   Trinity   Gospel   Scripture   Urdu   Audio   Resources   Arabic   Farsi   Русский   German   Chinese
  News   Terrorism   الحيـاة الأفضـل   Qur'an   الطريق إلى الجنة   Jesus   Books   Sacrifice    

Hadith

 

Search

  عربى   فارسى   Türkçe   Español  

Maps

 

Homecoming

There is an account in the hadiths about Muhammad and his soldiers coming home from battle.  There was a soldier who was excitedly racing home to embrace his new bride.  All this is very normal and natural.  What new bridegroom would not be eager to see and to be with his lovely bride after an arduous battle?  So, the soldier of this hadith was driving his camel as fast as he could towards the city of Medina.  They would kiss, embrace, and start to talk about things that transpired while they were apart, and then they would sit down to a delicious meal she had prepared.  They were a couple in free and natural love, the way Allah had decreed marriage to be.

Then the story becomes morally debased when Muhammad arrives upon the scene.  The first thing the hadith records is that Muhammad put down the marriage of his soldier.  Muhammad could not understand why his soldier would marry a matron.  Muhammad understood human copulation, but he did not appreciate the true love of a husband for his own wife.  His thoughts of marriage were thoughts of fondling young girls.  The hadith continues, noting that Muhammad prevented his men from entering Medina until night had arrived.  The fast riding soldier was eager to see his wife, and he was acting perfectly normal for a husband who truly loved his wife.  But, Muhammad delayed his soldier's anticipated embrace with his wife, so that he could direct his soldiers' attention to the genital area of their wives.  All of his soldiers would have to stay on the outskirts of Medina until night fell and their women had ample time to shave their pubic area.  Bukhari records the narration as follows, 

Narrated Jabir bin Abdullah: While we were returning from a Ghazwa (Holy Battle) with the Prophet, I started driving my camel fast, as it was a lazy camel A rider came behind me and pricked my camel with a spear he had with him, and then my camel started running as fast as the best camel you may see. Behold! The rider was the Prophet himself. He said, 'What makes you in such a hurry?" I replied, I am newly married " He said, "Did you marry a virgin or a matron? I replied, "A matron." He said, "Why didn't you marry a young girl so that you may play with her and she with you?" When we were about to enter (Medina), the Prophet said, "Wait so that you may enter (Medina) at night so that the lady of unkempt hair may comb her hair and the one whose husband has been absent may shave her pubic region. Sahih Al-Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 16.

So, instead of picturing a returning soldier embracing his new bride, Muhammad turned the picture into a city where all the married women were sitting around shaving the hair off their external genitals before the rude soldiers entered town.  Muhammad set the moral attitude and marital tone for his soldiers' homecoming.  

This historical account is not an account recorded by the enemies of Muhammad.  Indeed, the enemies of Muhammad would not be able to think up such sexually outlandish behavior as this one.  This account appears in the most traditional and conservative hadith recognized by all Muslims.  It is left to the reader to judge whether or not Muhammad's criticism of the soldier's marriage and his reasons for waiting to enter the city express the eternal will of Allah for all of humanity for all time.

Is the Qur'an (68:4) true, when it states that Muhammad is the standard of sublime morality and character?

And most surely you conform (yourself) to sublime morality. [Shakir's translation]

And verily, you (O Muhammad SAW) are on an exalted standard of character. [Al-Hilali & Khan's translation]

وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلى خُلُقٍ عَظِيمٍ ٦٨ :٤

Last edited 11/10/2000
Top of Page.