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Juwairiyyah bint Harith, may Allah be pleased with her,
married the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in 5
AH, when the Prophet was fifty-eight years old and she was twenty, not long
after his marriage to Zainab bint Jahsh, and as a result of the Muslims '
successful campaign against the Banu Mustaliq who were swiftly defeated
after the Prophet's surprise attack. Among the captives taken in this
campaign was the beautiful Juwairiyyah, the daughter of al-Harith, who was
the chief of the Banu Mustaliq.
She was afraid that once the Muslims realized who she was, they would demand
an exorbitant ransom for her safe release. After the Muslims had returned to
Medina with their booty and prisoners, she demanded to see the Prophet
Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) hoping that he would
help to prevent what she feared. Seeing how beautiful she was, A'isha was
not keen on her seeing the Prophet.
But she persisted, and eventually she was permitted to see the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and was taken to him while he was
with A'isha. After she had finished speaking, the Prophet thought for a
moment, and then said, "Shall I tell you what would be better than this?"
He then asked her to marry him, and she immediately accepted. Although
Juwairiyyah was young and beautiful and of noble lineage, the Prophet (peace
and blessings of Allah be upon him) was thinking of how to save her and all
her tribe from an ignoble fate. By marrying Juwairiyyah, the Banu Mustaliq
would be able to enter Islam with honor, and with the humiliation of their
recent defeat removed, so that it would no longer be felt necessary by them
to embark on a war of vengeance that would have continued until one of the
two parties had been annihilated. As soon as the marriage was announced, all
the booty that had been taken from the Banu Mustaliq was returned, and all
the captives were set free, for they were now the in laws of the Prophet
Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Thus A'isha once said
of Juwairiyyah, "I know of no woman who was more of a blessing to her people
than Juwairiyyah bint al-Harith." After they were married, the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) changed her name was Barra to
Juwairiyyah.
It has been related by Juwairiyyah that early one morning the Messenger
(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) left her room while she was doing
the dawn prayer. He returned later that morning and she was still sitting in
the same place. "have you been sitting in the same place since I left you?"
he asked. "Yes," she replied. Whereupon the Prophet said, "I recited four
phrases three times after I left you, and if these were to be weighed
against what you have been reciting since dawn, they would still outweigh
them. They are: 'Glory be to Allah and Praise be to Him as much as the
number of his creations, and His pleasure, and the weight of His Throne, and
the ink of His words.'" Which reminds us of the following ayat of the
Qur'an:
Say: 'If the sea were the ink for the words of My Lord, truly the sea would
be used up before the words of my Lord were completed, and even if We used
the same again to assist. (Qur'an 18:109)
Juwairiyyah was married to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him) for six years, and lived for another thirty-nine years after his death,
dying in 50 AH at the age of sixty-five, may Allah be pleased with her.
Source > > http://www.a2youth.com |
