'Your wives are your fields. Go, then, into your fields as you please!' (Sura 2.223)
The Life of Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq
Appendix 2: The Wives of the Prophet Muhammad
The number of the Prophet Muhammad’s wives according to Ibn Hisham
According to Ibn Hisham, ‘There were nine of them (when the apostle died). The apostle contracted marriage with thirteen women in all.’
This statement of ‘thirteen contracted marriages’ by Ibn Hisham can be found in Alfred Guillaume’s translation of Ibn Ishaq’s The Life of Muhammad, Oxford University Press, 1955 edition, note 918, page 792.
The number of the Prophet’s wives according to Al-Tabari
Al-Tabari confirms Ibn Hisham’s statement that the apostle contracted thirteen marriages in all, but explains that only eleven of these marriages were consummated.
Besides these eleven contracted and consummated marriages, Muhammad contracted a [disputed] number of marriages or betrothals that were never consummated, and Al-Tabari also lists a number of unsuccessful proposals of marriage made by Muhammad.
A full account of the apostle’s wives and ‘slave concubines’ can be found in The History of Al-Tabari Volume IX: The Last Years of the Prophet. State University of New York, 1990, pp 126-141.
Pre-Islamic infanticide in Arabia
Prior to the coming of Islam, the poverty-stricken tribes of North Arabia used to practice infanticide of unwanted baby girls. The mother would give birth over a pit. If the baby was a boy, it was pulled out of the pit, but if it was a girl, it would be buried alive in the sand. There is also evidence that the Meccans used to sacrifice both male and female children to propitiate the gods. Indeed, Abdul-Muttalib, Muhammad’s own grandfather made a rash oath that if he ever had ten sons, he would offer one son as a sacrifice to the gods. (Ibn Ishaq, transl Guillaume, pp 66-68)
Many years later, Caliph Omar was to speak of his sorrow at the fact he had buried one of his young daughters alive, and wept as he described how the little girl had reached up to stroke the sand off his beard as he did so. (It should be noted that Sunni Muslims deny this story and claim that it is a Shia fabrication against Omar):
Adwa Al-Bayan Fi Idhah Al-Qur'aan Bil Qur'aan. Vol. 9, p 63.
Narrated Omar ibn Al-Khattab
“There were two things in Jahiliyyah: One of them makes me cry and the other one makes me laugh. The one that makes me cry. I had taken a daughter of mine to bury her alive and I was digging the hole for her while she was dusting my beard off without knowing what I am planning for her. When I remember that, I cry.
And the other one is that I used to make an idol of dates that I put over my head to guard me during the night. Then when I woke up in fine fettle, I would eat it, and whenever I remember that, I laugh at myself.”
Pre-Islamic freedom of women in Arabia
On the other hand, the women who grew to adulthood had much more freedom than they were to enjoy under the harsh restrictions that Muhammad was to impose on his own wives and those of his followers.
Ibn Ishaq describes how an ancestor of Muhammad, Hashim b. Abu Manaf had gone to Medina and married a widow, Salma d. Amr, one of the Beni Adiyy b. al Najjar.
Ibn Ishaq describes Salma thus: ‘On account of the high position she held among her people, she would only marry on condition that she should retain control of her own affairs. If she disliked a man, she left him.’ (Ibn Ishaq, transl Guillaume, p 59)
The son that Salma bore to Hashim was Muhammad’s grandfather, Abul-Muttalib b. Hashim, who inherited the noble duties of watering and feeding the people who came to the Kabah on pilgrimage.
Muhammad too was to marry a wealthy independent widow, Khadija d. Khuwaylid. Ibn Ishaq describes Khadija thus: ‘She was a merchant woman of dignity and wealth. She used to hire men to carry merchandise outside the country on a profit sharing basis. She was the best born woman of the Quraysh, of the greatest dignity too, and the richest.’ (Ibn Ishaq, transl Guillaume, p 82)
In fact, it was due to Khadija’s business acumen that Muhammad was to live a life of leisure in which he could pursue the intellectual pursuits and meditations that led to his first revelations in the cave on Mount Hira in 610CE. It was also due to her high standing in the community, and that of his uncle Abu Talib, that he was not immediately exiled or killed by the Quraysh for his insults to their gods in the Quran and his attempts to gain supporters from outside Mecca.
Early Islamic treatment of women in Medina
Shortly after his wife Khadija died, Muhammad took two wives simultaneously: Sauda, a mature widow, and Aisha, the six-year-old daughter of his close companion Abu Bakr, and they both accompanied him on the Emigration to Medina in 622CE.
Although a revelation in the Quran had forbidden infanticide of girls: ‘You shall not kill your children for fear of poverty. We will provide for them and for you. To kill them is a grievous sin.’ (Sura 17.31), Muhammad retained into his new religion of Islam all the other sixth-century strictures of a primitive and largely illiterate desert Arab society, such as female genital mutilation, slavery, concubinage and polygamy.
Sauda and Aisha were to be the first members of a harem of wives and sex slaves that he was to accumulate and win in battle during his years as absolute ruler of Medina. He put a limit of four wives each on his followers, but no limit on himself, being the Messenger of Allah and thus exempt from normal restrictions.
Soon after arrival in Medina, he reintroduced the primitive Old Testament punishment of death by stoning for adultery, abandoned centuries before by both Jews and Christians. Muhammad’s confrontation with the Jews and his re-introduction of stoning as punishment for adultery in an attempt to prove his claims to prophethood, are described in Chapter 2 on this website. (Also see Ibn Ishaq, transl Guillaume, pp 266-267)
The Verse of the Hijab, instigated by Omar
As time went on, Muhammad’s revelations in the Quran became more and more severe and possessive with regard to women. His wives found themselves segregated in individual cell-like rooms and screened away from sight behind a hijab [curtain or veil].
It is related in the hadith [collections of sayings and deeds of the Prophet] how Omar and other followers of Muhammad would obsessively spy on his wives as they left their rooms to relieve themselves in the open fields nearby:
Sahih Bukhari Hadith 146
Narrated Aisha
“The wives of the Prophet used to go to Al-Manasi, a vast open place (near Baqi at Medina) to answer the call of nature at night. Omar used to say to the Prophet, “Let your wives be veiled,” but Allah's Apostle did not do so. One night Sauda bint Zama, the wife of the Prophet, went out at ‘Isha’ time and she was a tall lady. Omar addressed her and said, “I have recognized you, O Sauda.” He said so, as he desired eagerly that the verses of Al-Hijab [the observing of veils by the Muslim women] may be revealed. So Allah revealed the verses of ‘Al-Hijab.’ [A complete body covering except for the eyes].
The consequence of Omar’s actions was a new Quranic revelation from Muhammad [in the voice of Allah] that all Muslim women were to cover themselves from head to foot whenever they went outside: ‘Prophet, enjoin your wives, your daughters, and the wives of true believers to draw their veils close around them. That is more seemly, so that they may be recognised and not be molested. Allah is ever forgiving and compassionate.’ (Sura 33.59)
It is recorded in the hadith that years later, Omar boasted about having been responsible for at least three verses of the Quran, including this ‘Verse of Covering’:
Sahih Bukhari Volume 6 Book 60 Hadith 10
Narrated Anas
‘Omar said, “My Lord [Allah] agreed with me in three things. I said, 'O Allah's Apostle! Would that you took the station of Abraham as a place of prayer.'
I also said, 'O Allah's Apostle! Good and bad persons visit you! Would that you ordered the Mothers of the Believers to cover themselves with veils.' So the Divine Verses of Al-Hijab (i.e. veiling of the women) were revealed.
I learned that the Prophet had blamed some of his wives, so I entered upon them and said, 'Either you stop [troubling the Prophet] or else Allah will give His Apostle better wives than you.' Thereupon Allah revealed: "It may be, if he divorced you, his Lord will give him instead of you, better wives than you, Muslims [submissive to Allah]."
Omar’s boast shows that he was also responsible for the first verses of Sura 66 of the Quran in which Muhammad [in the voice of Allah] threatens to divorce his wives Hafsa and Aisha because of the trouble they are causing about his infatuation with his beautiful slave concubine, Mary the Copt: ‘Prophet, why, in seeking to please your wives, do you prohibit that which Allah Himself has made lawful to you?
Allah has given you absolution from such oaths. If you two [Hafsa and Aisha] turn to Allah in repentance, for your hearts have sinned, you shall be pardoned. But if you conspire against him [Muhammad], know that Allah is his protector, and Gabriel, and the righteous among the faithful.
It may well be that if Muhammad divorces you, his Lord will replace you with better wives than yourselves – submissive to Allah, obedient, penitent and devout (Sura 66.1-5).’
Islamic superiority of men over women
Muhammad used to visit his wives at night on a strict ‘rota’ system until they lost all control over what happened to them and became reduced to inferior beings, nothing more than bodies designed for men’s enjoyment, waiting their turn, like vessels to be filled, or fields to be tilled, whilst the Quran pronounced that the slightest hint of disobedience would became punishable by scourging.
As he established his rule in Medina, he made clear that Muslim wives had no say over what happened to them: ‘Your wives are your fields. Go then into your fields as you wish (Quran 2.223).
His utterances in the Quran became more and more oppressive, as he confirmed the absolute superiority of men over women thus: ‘Men have authority over women because Allah has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their private parts because Allah has guarded them (Quran 4.34).’
Wife-beating in the Quran
Further Quranic utterances from Muhammad confirmed that wives who refused sex, or were suspected of harbouring disobedient thoughts towards their husbands, were to be beaten. ‘As for those women from whom you fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them.’ (Quran 4.34).
This Quranic instruction led to such terrible beatings carried out by his violent followers that Aisha lamented the lot of Muslim women, and brought before him an unnamed woman, covered in bruises, beaten black and blue by her Muslim warrior husband:
Sahih Bukhari 5825
Narrated Ikrima
Rifaa divorced his wife whereupon AbdurRahman bin Az-Zubair Al-Qurazi married her. ‘Aisha said that the lady [came], wearing a green veil and complained to Aisha about her husband and showed her the markings on her skin caused by beating. It was the habit of ladies to support each other, so when Allah's Messenger came, Aisha said, "I have not seen any woman suffering as much as the believing women [Muslim women]. Look! Her skin is greener than her clothes!"
In his Last Sermon, during the Farewell Pilgrimage, Muhammad tried to modify Allah’s harsh instructions about wife-beating in Sura 4.34, saying: ‘O men, you have rights over your wives and they have rights over you. You have the right that they should not defile your bed, nor behave with open indecency. If they do, Allah gives you permission to put them in rooms apart and to beat them, but not harshly.
If they behave properly, they have the right to be fed and clothed and treated kindly. Lay strictures on women kindly, because they are bound to you like captives, with no say over their bodies. Remember that Allah has entrusted them to you and you have the enjoyment of their bodies made lawful to you by the grace of Allah, so pay heed to my words, O men.’ (Ibn Ishaq, transl Guillaume, p 651)
When asked what he meant by ‘not harshly’ the Prophet is reported to have said ‘not as harshly as you beat your slave girl.’
Sahih Bukhari Volume 7 Book 62 Hadith 132
Narrated Abdullah b Zama
‘The Prophet said ‘None of you should flog your wife as you flog your slave girl and then demand sex that same night.’
The Prophet’s eleven consummated marriages in chronological order
1. Khadija d. Khuwaylid
Khadija was a wealthy widow who had been married twice before. Marriage with her made Muhammad one of the wealthiest men in Mecca. She invited the apostle to marry her when he was 25 years old. She was the first person to support Muhammad in his mission and he was faithful to her until her death in late 619CE.
Ibn Ishaq mentions Khadija as ‘bearing all the apostle’s children except Ibrahim’, namely al-Qasim and Abdullah, boys who both died in infancy, as well as four daughters, Zaynab, Ruqayya, Umm Kulthum and Fatima.
Of these daughters, only Fatima, who was married to Ali b. Abu Talib, survived him and had children of her own, sons Hassan and Husayn, whom Muhammad loved dearly. Hassan was elected fifth caliph after Ali’s death in 661CE, but abdicated after a few months in favour of Muawiya I, founder of the Umayyad dynasty, in an attempt to prevent civil war among the Muslims. When Muawiya I died, Husayn claimed the caliphate but was killed at Kerbala by the army of Muawiya’s son, Yazid.
2. Sauda d. Zama’a b. Qays.
A few months after Khadija’s death, after his return from al-Taif in May 620CE, the now poverty-stricken apostle married Sauda d. Zama’a b. Qays, a mature widow who worked as a tanner, and who could look after his daughters and household.
According to al-Tabari, this marriage was arranged for him by Khawlah d. Hakim, wife of Uthman b. Mazun, who said, ‘She (Sauda) has long believed in you and followed you.’
Later, in Medina, when Muhammad tired of Sauda and wanted to divorce her, she pleaded with him to let her stay as one of his wives in name only, promising that she would give up her turn on the rota in favour of Aisha, to which the apostle agreed.
3. Aisha d. Abu Bakr
According to al-Tabari, at the same time, in May 620CE, Khawlah arranged a contract of marriage for Muhammad with Aisha, the six-year-old daughter of his companion Abu Bakr. This is confirmed in the hadith:
Sahih Bukhari 5134
Narrated Aisha
‘That the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old. Hisham said: I have been informed that Aisha remained with the Prophet for nine years (i.e. till his death).
The marriage was consummated in Medina when Aisha was nine years old. Aisha herself described how the marriage was consummated in her father’s house in Medina.
She had been playing on a swing, when: ‘I was brought in while the apostle was sitting on a bed in our house. I was made to sit on his lap and all the men and women got up and left, and the apostle consummated his marriage with me in my house when I was nine years old.’ (Al-Tabari, Vol IX, p 130-131)
Aisha remained a favourite wife of the apostle, surviving a scandal in which she was accused of adultery. Later, after the apostle’s death, she became known as ‘the Mother of the Faithful’ and a source for many of the hadiths about the apostle and his intimate sexual habits.
As al-Tabari says, ‘Aisha was eighteen years old when he died. The apostle did not marry any maiden [virgin] except her.’
4. Hafsa d. Omar b. al-Khattab
Hafsa was a daughter of the apostle’s companion, Omar b. al-Khattab. She was the widow of Khunays b. Hudhafa who had fought at the Battle of Badr. The marriage with Muhammad took place in January or February 625CE before the Battle of Uhud.
At one point, the marriage almost ended in divorce when Hafsa found Muhammad in her room with his concubine Mary the Copt and complained about it to Aisha. Muhammad swore to both women that he would not have sex with Mary again.
However he did so, after he received a revelation from Allah who said to him: ‘Prophet, why, in seeking to please your wives, do you prohibit that which Allah Himself has made lawful to you. If you two [Hafsa and Aisha] turn to Allah in repentance, you shall be pardoned. But if you conspire against him [Muhammad], know that Allah is his protector. It may well be that if he divorce you, his Lord will replace you with better wives – obedient, penitent and devout (Quran 66.1-5).’
Omar went to Hafsa and told her to behave, as Muhammad did not love her and would have divorced her if she had not been his [Omar’s] daughter.
Sahih Muslim 009.3507
Umar said on one occasion: "Hafsa, the news has reached me that you cause Allah's Messenger trouble. You know that Allah's Messenger does not love you, and had I not been [your father] he would have divorced you." [On hearing this] she wept bitterly.
In the event, Muhammad did not divorce either Aisha or Hafsa. Hafsa d. Omar turned out to be a devout and literate woman who kept her own parchment copies of the Quran as it was revealed, and Uthman sent for it when he became Caliph in 644CE and when he began his standardisation of the hitherto different versions of the text of the Quran.
5. Zaynab d. Khuzayma b. al-Harith
Zaynab, says Al-Tabari, was ‘called ‘Mother of the Poor’ because of her kindness to them and her pity for them.’ She had been married twice before. This marriage took place in February or March 625CE, but Zaynab died in October of the same year.
6. Umm Salama d. Abu Umayya.
According to Al-Tabari, Umm Salama’s maiden name was Hind. She was the widow of Abu Salama b. Abdul Asad who had fought at the Battle of Badr with the apostle, but who then died of his wounds after the Battle of Uhud. She borne him four children: Salama, Omar, Zaynab and Ruqayya.
Muhammad’s marriage with Umm Salama is said to have taken place in April 626CE.
Umm Salama was a tactful and wise woman whose advice Muhammad followed at several important stages of his life. After the ignominy of Hudaybiya, when the apostle was forced by the Quraysh to abandon his attempt to enter Mecca as a pilgrim that year, his despairing followers refused to obey his orders to make sacrifice outside the sacred area, so he retreated into his tent.
Umm Salama saved the day by advising him to go straight back out, make sacrifice and shave his head, which he did, and ‘when the men saw what the apostle had done, they leapt up and did the same.’ (Ibn Ishaq, transl Guillaume, p 505).
7. Zaynab d. Jahsh.
Zaynab was a first cousin of Muhammad whom he had married, against her will, to his freed slave and adopted son Zayd b. Haritha.
One day, Muhammad came upon Zaynab in a state of undress, and was overcome with desire for her. On hearing that his [adoptive] father desired his wife, Zayd divorced her so that she could marry Muhammad. Muhammad then had a Quranic revelation from Allah that abolished the laws of adoption and commanded that all existing adopted sons should henceforth be known only by the names of their real fathers. (Sura 33.5)
Thus Zayd b. Muhammad was henceforth to be known as Zayd b. Haritha, and Allah said to his Prophet: ‘So when Zayd had done as he wished in divorcing her, We married her to you, Muhammad (Sura 33.37).’
The Prophet was then ‘absolved of all blame in the matter’ (Sura 33.38) and Allah was able to proclaim: ‘Muhammad is the father of no man amongst you’ (Sura 33.40) thereby freeing Muhammad to marry his daughter-in-law and beautiful first cousin, Zaynab d. Jahsh. (Sura 33.37)
The History of Al-Tabari Volume VIII, page 2
The Messenger of God came to the house of Zayd b. Haritha. He came to his residence to look for him but did not find him. Zaynab bt. Jahsh, Zayd’s wife, rose to meet him.
Because she was dressed only in a shift, the Messenger of God turned away from her. She said: "He is not here, Messenger of God. Come in, you who are as dear to me as my father and mother!" The Messenger of God refused to enter. Zaynab had dressed in haste when she was told "the Messenger of God is at the door." She jumped up in haste and excited the admiration of the Messenger of God, so that he turned away murmuring something that could scarcely be understood. However, he did say overtly: "Glory be to Allah the Almighty! Glory be to Allah, who causes the hearts to turn!"
When Zayd came home, his wife told him that the Messenger of Allah had come to his house. Zayd said, "Why didn't you ask him to come in?" He replied, "I asked him, but he refused." "Did you hear him say anything?" he asked. She replied, "As he turned away, I heard him say: ‘Glory be to Allah the Almighty! Glory be to Allah, who causes hearts to turn!’
[Later] while the Messenger of God was talking with Aisha, a fainting [revelation] overcame him. When he was released from it, he smiled and said, "Who will go to Zaynab to tell her the good news, saying that Allah has married her to me?"
It was after this event that the apostle imposed the hijab (veil or curtain) upon all his wives.
Ibn Ishaq mentions Aisha as saying that Zaynab d. Jahsh ‘was the only other wife who could rival her in the apostle’s favour.’
It is said that Zaynab herself used to boast to the apostle that she was not like his other wives, because all of them had been married to him by their fathers, brothers or guardians, but she had been given to him in marriage by Allah. (Al-Tabari, Vol IX, p 134)
8. Juwayriya d. al-Harith
Juwayriya was the beautiful daughter of chieftain al-Harith b. Abu Dirar of the Beni Mustaliq. Her father and her husband, Malik b. Safwan, were killed by the Muslims in a raid in January 628CE.
She was among the women taken captive, and had fallen to the lot of Thabit b. Qays. She came to the apostle, who offered to pay the ransom that Thabit was asking, and marry her himself. When the apostle married her, the whole tribe was freed and later converted to Islam.
‘On hearing the news that the apostle had married Juwayriya, and that the Beni Mustaliq had then become relatives of the apostle by marriage, the Muslims released their prisoners, and over a hundred families were freed. Aisha used to say, ‘I do not know of a woman who was a greater blessing to her people than Juwayriya.’ (Ibn Ishaq, transl Guillaume, p 493)
9. Umm Habiba d. Abu Sufyan
Umm Habiba, whose birth name was Ramla, was a daughter of Qurayshi leader Abu Sufyan b. Harb. She was the widow of Ubaydullah b. Jahsh, a cousin of Muhammad’s, and they had both been among the first Muslim emigrants to Abyssinia. Her husband converted to Christianity and tried to make her follow him, but she refused and maintained her faith in Islam.
When Ubaydullah died, Muhammad sent to the Negus, the ruler of Abyssinia, and Umm Habiba was married to him by proxy while she was still in Abyssinia.
This marriage made Muhammad son-in-law to Umm Habiba’s father, Abu Sufyan b. Harb, who had become leader of the Quraysh in Mecca after their defeat at Badr. It is probably the reason why al-Abbas rode out on the apostle’s mule to save Abu Sufyan and bring him to pledge fealty to the apostle and convert to Islam before the 10,000-strong Muslim army attacked and conquered Mecca.
10. Safiya d. Huyay
Safiya was the daughter of Huyay b. Akhtab, chief of the Jewish tribe, the Beni al-Nadir, who had been beheaded in Medina in the mass execution of his allies, the Beni Qurayza, after the Battle of the Trench.
Safiya was also the beautiful widow of Kinana b. al-Rabi, the Jewish chief tortured and beheaded on Muhammad’s instructions, after the Muslim Conquest of Khaybar in 628CE. The apostle chose her as his own personal booty by casting his cloak over her.
Ibn Ishaq says that when Safiya was brought to the apostle, she had a black eye, and when the apostle asked the cause, she told him that ‘she had seen in a dream when she was the wife of Kinana b. al-Rabi that the moon would fall into her lap. When she told her husband, he said ‘This means that you covet the King of the Hijaz, Muhammad, and gave her such a blow in the face that he blacked her eye.’ (Ibn Ishaq, transl Guillaume, p515)
On hearing this [obviously concocted] story, Muhammad married Safiya rather than simply taking her as a concubine, and consummated the marriage on the spot.
11. Maymuna d. al-Harith b. Hazn
Maymuna, whose given name was Barra, was a sister-in-law of al-Abbas, Muhammad’s uncle. Divorced from her first husband and widowed by her second, she herself requested marriage to the apostle. Ibn Ishaq says that the apostle held the wedding feast for her in Mecca at the end of the ‘Fulfilled Pilgrimage’ in AH 7 (February 629CE) and then consummated the marriage in Sarif.
Muhammad gave Barra the name Maymuna [blessed] to celebrate his happiness at his return visit to Mecca seven years after the Hijra [Emigration to Medina].
Eleven consummated marriages in all
Ibn Hisham: ‘Thus the apostle consummated marriages with eleven women, two of whom died before him, namely Khadija and Zaynab d. Khuzayma, and died leaving the nine we have mentioned.’
The Prophet’s concubines or sex-slaves
In addition to his formal marriages, none of which produced any offspring except for his first monogamous marriage to Khadija, the apostle possessed at least two notable concubines or sex slaves:
1. Rayhana d. Amr
Rayhana was the beautiful daughter of Jewish leader Amr b. Khunafa. The apostle chose her for himself from the captive women after her husband was beheaded in the mass execution of the men of the Jewish tribe, the Beni Qurayza.
Ibn Ishaq says: ‘She remained with him until she died, in his power. He had proposed to marry her and put the veil on her, but she refused, saying, ‘No, leave me in your power as that will be easier for both of us.’ (Ibn Ishaq, transl Guillaume, p 466)
2. Mariya b. Shamoor al-Quttiya [Mary the Copt]
Mary the Copt was a beautiful slave girl, one of four slave girls given to the apostle by the Muqauqis, the ruler of Alexandria in 629CE.
The apostle was so attracted to Mary that he had sex with her in his wife Hafsa’s house, and Hafsa caught them in flagrante. Hafsa became angry and told Aisha, and they both criticised the apostle who then swore to them that he would refrain from having sex with Mary. The apostle then had a revelation from Allah that he should not have denied himself that ‘which Allah had made lawful to him (Quran 66.1-6)’ and threatened to divorce and replace his wives.
According to Sahih Bukhari, ‘The Prophet then kept away from his wives for twenty-nine days [as punishment] because of the story which Hafsa had disclosed to Aisha.’
In March or April 630CE, Mary bore Muhammad a son whom he named Ibrahim [Abraham], but to his utmost grief, Ibrahim died after the apostle’s return from Tabuk.
Other betrothals and unconsummated marriages
Asma d.al-Numan and Amra d. Yazid
Ibn Hisham says that there were ‘two other women whom the apostle married, and with whom he had no marital relations,’ namely Asma d. al-Numan, who was found to be suffering from leprosy and so was sent back to her people with a suitable gift, and Amra d. Yazid, who, when she came to the apostle, invoked Allah’s protection against him, thereby making herself ‘inviolable’ and who was then sent back to her people.
A woman of the Beni Kilab, and al-Sanbar d. Amr
Al-Tabari lists several other women besides these two, including a woman of the Beni Kilab ‘who died before the apostle consummated his marriage with her’ and Al-Sanbar d. Amr al-Ghifariyah, who, at the time of baby Ibrahim’s death in January 632CE and just before the consummation of the marriage, was overheard saying, ‘If Muhammad was a true prophet, the person dearest to him would not have died,’ so the apostle dismissed her by giving her a divorce.