Genealogy of Khadijah's daughters

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Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, the first wife of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, had six children. Some Shia dispute 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.

Introduction[edit]

The dispute extends to Zainab, Umm Kulthum and Ruqayyah. Shias believe Fatima was the only daughter of Khadija whereas Zainab, Ruqayya and Umm Kulthum were the daughters of Khadija's sister, Hala, who had strained relations with her husband and the two girls were brought up by Khadija after the death of Hala. It is notable that before the revelation of the Quran, Muhammad also had an adopted son, Zayd ibn Harithah, but the Quran forbade adoptions,[1][2] and Zayd's name was changed back from Zayd bin Muhammad to Zayd bin Harithah.

This debate becomes significant and contentious[citation needed] since two of the children, Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum were consecutively married to Uthman, one after the death of the other. Due to marrying two of the prophet's daughter, Uthman was called 'Dhul Nurayn' (Arabic: ذو النورين، He of the Two Lights).

Views[edit]

The Quran refers to Muhammad's daughters as "banatika" ([Quran 33:59]), the plural[3] for "daughters".

There is another argument regarding the explanation of word "Banatika" that it does not refer to the immediate daughters but the daughters till the day of judgement. Means the Daughters of Daughter of Fatima bint Mohammad.

This is the argument against the that the sisters of Fatimah were not the biological daughters of the prophet Muhammad as according to the universally accepted Islamic creed that the Qur'an will remain unaltered till it is lifted totally. Shia discard this logic based on a similar contradiction found in context of event of Mubahila for which Quranic verse 3:61 ([Quran 3:61]) was revealed, though the verse calls for (in 'Arabic) at least 3 "sons", at least 3 "women", and at 3 least "selves" from each side in the Mubahila, only Imam Hasan ibn 'Ali and Imam Husain ibn 'Ali represented the "sons" of the Prophet, only Fatima al-Zahra represented the "women", and only Imam 'Ali ibn Abi Talib represented as the "self" or "soul" of the Prophet.,[4][5]

Sunni view[edit]

Sunnis outright reject any notion of them being born anywhere but in Muhammad's marriage. Sunni believe that Ruqayyah was born three years after the birth of Zainab, when Muhammad was 33.[6] Sunnis believe that the only reason Shia reject that Muhammad and Khadija had four daughters are due to the fact that two of their daughters married Uthman ibn Affan, whom the shia dislike.

Al-islam.org, the largest Shia website, agrees with the Sunni opinion that Khadija did indeed have four daughters:

Shi'a view[edit]

Shia scholars view them as adopted children,[8] and that this fact is obscured in order to give greater merit to Uthman, the first caliph from the Bani Ummayah tribe. 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 Khadijah's deceased sister.[9]

One source states:

Ali Asgher Razwy, a 20th century Shi'a twelver Islamic scholar states:

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:

The Shi'a website Answering-Ansar states:

Fatima was the smallest daughter of prophet Mohammad from Kadeejah Some individuals have said that Khadija had no previous husbands.[13]

Shia also reject the Sunni claim based on Quranic verse 33:59 by citing similar contradiction in context of event of Mubahila for which Quranic verse 3:61 ([Quran 3:61]) was revealed, though the verse calls for (in 'Arabic) at least 3 "sons", at least 3 "women", and at 3 least "selves" from each side in the Mubahila, only Imam Hasan ibn 'Ali and Imam Husain ibn 'Ali represented the "sons" of the Prophet, only Fatima al-Zahra represented the "women", and only 'Ali ibn Abi Talib represented as the "self" or "soul" of the Prophet.,[5][14]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ http://al-quran.info/?x=y#&&sura=33&aya=5&trans=en-yusuf_ali&show=both,quran-uthmani&ver=2.00
  2. ^ http://al-quran.info/?x=y#&&sura=33&aya=40&trans=en-yusuf_ali&show=both,quran-uthmani&ver=2.00
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ [1] @ Al-Islam.ORG
  5. ^ a b Mubahala (Imprecation) @ ezsoftech.com
  6. ^ anwary-islam.com
  7. ^ al-islam.org
  8. ^ Al-Tijani in his The Shi'ah are (the real) Ahl al-Sunnah on Al-Islam.org note 274
  9. ^ Again, it is also not agreed that these two were the real daughters of Muhammad, 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 al-Qasim al-Khoei 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 Muhammad 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 Muhammad 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 [2])
  10. ^ Wife of the Prophet Muhammad (SAWAS)
  11. ^ Restatement of History of Islam section Uthman, the Third Khalifa of the Muslims
  12. ^ answering-ansar.org
  13. ^ 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 Muhammad'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: [3] [4] (google cache acceced 2006-07-12)
  14. ^ AYAT AL-MUBAHILA @ Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

Further reading[edit]

For Sunni view see:

For Shi'a sources that mention other daughters of Muhammad, see:

For views from Western scholarship see:

  • G. Levi Della Vida-[R.G. Khoury]. ʿUT̲H̲MĀN b.ʿAffān. Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2007. Brill Online. 3 April 2007
  • Veccia Vaglieri, L. Fāṭima. Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2007. Brill Online. 3 April 2007
  • Watt, W. Montgomery. K̲H̲adīd̲j̲a. Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2007. Brill Online. 3 April 2007
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