16.1
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, who said: Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr, ʿAlqamah ibn Waqqāṣ, and ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUtbah ibn Masʿūd all related to me the story of ʿĀʾishah, the Prophet’s wife, when the slanderers spoke against her as they did. Al-Zuhrī said:
16.1.1
God proved her innocence. Each of my sources related to me a portion of her story, some of them being more knowledgeable of her story than the others or more reliable narrators. I committed what I heard of her story from them to memory, and each version confirmed the veracity of the others. They recalled that ʿĀʾishah, the Prophet’s wife, said: Whenever the Messenger of God wished to depart on a journey, he would cast lots between his wives. When a certain wife’s arrow turned up, he would take her with him.
16.1.2
ʿĀʾishah said: He cast lots between us for one of his expeditions. My arrow turned up, so I set out with the Messenger of God. Now that was after God had revealed his decree for us women concerning the veil,193 so I was lifted up in my howdah and placed atop a camel. We marched out, and eventually the Messenger of God completed his expedition. Returning home, once we had come close to Medina he announced that we would travel through the night. When they made the announcement, I got up and walked away from the army. After I had attended to my personal needs, I headed back to my camel, but when I felt my chest, I realized my necklace—the one fashioned from the beads of Ẓafār—had fallen from my neck. I returned and searched for my necklace, and it was the effort to track it down that delayed me. The troop that I had been with set off to continue the journey. They picked up my howdah and saddled it on the camel I had been riding, thinking I was still in it.
16.1.3
ʿĀʾishah said: Women used to be slender things—they didn’t grow plump, and meat never stuck to their bones. We only ate tiny morsels of food. The men didn’t notice the weight of the howdah when they lifted it up and saddled it—I was only a young maiden then. They prodded the camel on and marched off with it. I found my necklace after the army had marched off, and when I arrived at their encampments, neither hide nor hair of them was to be found. I figured that the men would notice I was lost and return for me. While I was at the campsite, my eyes grew heavy, and I fell asleep. I did not wake until the following morning. Ṣafwān ibn al-Muʿaṭṭal al-Sulamī al-Dhakwānī had passed the night behind the army and set out again before daybreak. He arrived near to where I lay in the early morning, first seeing the dark outlines of a person asleep. When he came closer, he recognized me the moment he saw me, for he had seen me before I had been made to don the veil. I only awoke when I heard him exclaim, “We are God’s, and to Him we shall return!” once he recognized me. I then veiled my face with my outer garment. I swear by God, he neither spoke to me nor did I hear him say a single word except, “We are God’s, and to him we shall return!” Eventually he made his camel kneel down onto its forelegs, and I mounted her. He then departed, leading his riding camel with me on it until we reached the army after they had made camp to seek respite from the heat of the midday sun.
16.1.4
It was then that those who brought about their own damnation damned themselves on my account. The man who bore responsibility for the most egregious misdeed was ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl. I arrived in Medina, and once I arrived, I fell ill for a whole month, and all the while the people were drowning in the gossip of my accusers. Yet I perceived none of it, even though the Prophet did give me reason to be suspicious during my illness. The Messenger of God had always treated me graciously when I had taken ill before, but this time the Messenger of God would merely enter, bid greetings of peace, and ask, “How is she feeling?”
That gave me reason to be suspicious, but still I perceived no evil until I left the house after I had recovered. I went out with Umm Misṭaḥ toward al-Manāṣiʿ, the place where we women relieved ourselves. We only used to go out there in the evenings, and that was before we started using enclosures closer to our homes. Our custom used to be the same as the Bedouin of old, going out somewhere alone, and it made us cross when we had to start using the enclosures near our houses. So I went out with Umm Misṭaḥ. She was the daughter of Abū Ruhm ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn ʿAbd Manāf; and her mother was Rīṭah bint Ṣakhr ibn ʿĀmir, Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq’s maternal aunt; and her son was Misṭaḥ ibn Uthāthah ibn ʿAbbād ibn al-Muṭṭalib ibn ʿAbd Manāf. Abū Ruhm’s daughter and I turned back home once we had relieved ourselves, and Umm Misṭaḥ tripped over her robe. “Damn you, Misṭaḥ!” she yelled.
“That’s a horrible thing to say!” I said. “Will you curse a man who witnessed Badr?”
“Silly girl!” she replied. “Haven’t you heard what he’s said?”
“And what has he said?” I asked.
16.1.5
She then related to me what my slanderers were saying. Thus I added malady to my illness.194 When I had returned to my home, I went to see the Messenger of God. “How are you feeling?” he asked. I said, “Will you permit me to go to my parents’ house?”
At that moment, I wanted to confirm the report with them. The Messenger of God gave me permission, and I went to my parents. I said to my mother, “Dear mother, what do the people say?”
“My dear daughter,” she replied, “don’t you worry. By God, it seldom happens that a woman so bedazzles a man in love with her that his other wives do not constantly find fault with her.”
“Glory be to God,” I exclaimed, “are the people really saying such things!”
“Yes,” she answered.
I cried that night until I had no more tears, and sleep’s antimony did not once touch my eyes. I spent the next morning weeping, too. The Messenger of God then summoned ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and Usāmah ibn Zayd, for revelations had ceased coming to him for some time, to seek counsel from them as to whether he should divorce his wife.195
16.1.6
As for Usāmah, he knew the Prophet’s household to be innocent of the charges and also that the Prophet loved his household with all his heart, so he advised God’s Messenger accordingly, saying, “O Mesenger of God, they are your family, and we know nothing but good of them.” As for ʿAlī, he said, “God does not wish for you to be distraught. There are many women besides her. If you ask her maiden, she will speak to you truthfully.” The Messenger of God then summoned Barīrah and asked, “Barīrah, have you ever seen anything that would cause you to suspect ill of ʿĀʾishah?” Barīrah addressed him, “By the Lord who called you to proclaim the Truth, I’ve never witnessed any ill behavior that would cast any doubt upon her other than the fact that she is a young maiden who will nod off to sleep next to the family’s dough, leaving the goats and sheep to eat it!”
16.1.7
The Messenger of God stood to address the people, seeking to justify taking action against ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl. From the pulpit he said, “O assembly of Muslims! Who will give me cause to act against this man who has brought such pain to my household? By God, I know of nothing but good from my household. They have mentioned a man of whom I also know of nothing but good. Never has he sought to enter the company of my household save by my side.”
Saʿd ibn Muʿādh the Ally then stood up and said, “I will take action against him on your behalf, O Messenger of God! If the man be of the Aws clan, then we will strike off his head! And if he be from our brethren of the Khazraj clan, if you so command us, it will be done.”
Then Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah stood up. Now, he was the chieftain of the Khazraj and otherwise an upright man, but the Era of Ignorance still had a hold on him. He said to Saʿd ibn Muʿādh, “By the Everlasting God! You will never slay him, and nor could you even if you tried!”
Usayd ibn Ḥudayr, Saʿd ibn Muʿādh’s cousin, then stood and addressed Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah, “By the Everlasting God, you lie! We will indeed slay him! You are but a hypocrite wrangling over hypocrites!”
The two clans, the Aws and the Khazraj, rose up in a furor and were on the verge of coming to blows. The Messenger of God remained at the pulpit working to settle them down until they became calm. The Prophet himself remained calm.
16.1.8
That day I stayed home. My tears flowed until they ran dry, and sleep’s antimony did not once touch my eyes. My parents feared that the weeping would rip my insides apart. While they sat with me as I was crying, a woman sought permission to visit me. I bade her enter, and she sat down next to me crying. While we were in this state, the Messenger of God came to us and sat with us. Now he had not sat with me since the affair began, for a month had passed without a revelation coming. The Messenger of God confessed the oneness of God when he sat, and then said, “As for the matter before us, ʿĀʾishah, word about you concerning a certain matter has reached me. If you are blameless, God will prove you blameless, but if you are guilty of sin, seek God’s forgiveness and repent before him. Truly, if a servant recognizes his sin and repents, God shall accept his repentance.” When the Messenger of God finished speaking, my tears subsided, and eventually I couldn’t even tell I had been crying. I then asked my father, “Intercede for me with God’s Messenger on the matter of which he spoke,” but he answered, “By God, I know not what I would say to the Messenger of God.” So I asked my mother, “Intercede for me with the God’s Messenger!” But she too answered, “By God, I know not what I would say to the Messenger of God.” Now, I was just a young maiden—I could not yet recite much of the Qurʾan—but I said, “By God, I know you have heard so much about this affair that now it has taken hold of your hearts and you believe it to be true! Indeed, even if I were to say to all of you, ‘I am blameless, and God knows my innocence,’ you would still not believe my words. But if I were to confess my sin before you all—though God knows I am blameless—you would surely believe my words. Truly, I swear by God, I can find no adage for you or me more suitable than the words of Joseph’s father: «it is best to be patient: from God alone I seek help to bear what you are saying».”196
16.1.9
Then I turned and left to lie down on my bed. I swear by God that, at that moment, I knew I was blameless and that God would vindicate my innocence, yet I did not imagine that a revelation concerning my problems would descend and come to be recited. For in my heart I loathed the thought that God might address any matter concerning me in a revelation to be recited aloud. Rather, I hoped that the Messenger of God would have a vision in his sleep, by which God would vindicate me. By God, the Messenger of God refused to receive anyone, and not one person from his household went out, until God granted his Prophet a revelation. Suddenly the tremulous convulsions that took hold of him at the moment of revelation seized him, and soon beads of sweat began to run down him like pearls, even though it was a winter’s day—because of the gravity of the revelation that had descended. When the convulsions had passed, he began laughing, and the first word he spoke was, “Good tidings, ʿĀʾishah! Indeed, by God, God has vindicated you!” My mother then said to me, “Go to him!” “No, by God,” I said, “I will not, nor shall I praise any but God, for He is the one who revealed my innocence.”
God, Blessed and Exalted be He, revealed, «It was a group from among you who concocted the slander» and ten more verses.197 God revealed these verses about my innocence.
Abū Bakr, who used to provide Misṭaḥ with money because of their kinship and Misṭāḥ’s poverty, said, “By God, never again shall I give him money after saying what he did about ʿĀʾishah!” But God revealed,
«Those who have been graced with bounty and plenty should not swear that they will no longer give to kinsmen, the poor, those who emigrated in God’s way: let them pardon and forgive. Do you not wish that God will forgive you?»198
Abū Bakr then said, “By God, I indeed wish that God will forgive me,” and he resumed providing Misṭaḥ with the money he used to provide, saying, “By God, never again will I withhold it.”
16.1.10
ʿĀʾishah continued: The Prophet had asked Zaynab, the daughter of Jaḥsh and the Prophet’s wife, about my situation: “What do you know?”—or, “What do you think?”
“I protect my ears and eyes from such things,” Zaynab answered. “I swear by God, I know nothing but good of her.”
ʿĀʾishah added: Zaynab was my biggest rival among the Prophet’s wives, and God sealed her heart with piety. Her sister, Ḥamnah bint Jaḥsh, sought to turn her against me, but Ḥamnah only damned herself along with the others.
Al-Zuhrī said: This is all that has come down to us about those people.
16.2
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, on the authority of Ibn Abī Yaḥyā, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr, on the authority of ʿAmrah, on the authority of ʿĀʾishah, who said:
When God vindicated her innocence with His revelation, the Prophet punished those who said about her what they said according to God’s law.199
16.3
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī:
The Messenger of God punished them according to God’s law.