Some facts most of you don't know. In other post I have said Muhammad was transported by burraq to al aqsa which means the farthest mosque. He was in Medina then and the furthest mosque then was? Let's find out from Islam books.
Monday, April 29, 2013
SM DERIS at 9:37 PM
Curious Tale of Prophet
Muhammad’s Love Affair with
Umm Hani
Muslims are told that the Miraculous
Night Journey (Isra’ Mi’raj) took place
because Allah wanted to bring some
consolation to Muhammad the Prophet,
peace and blessing be upon him. It took
place in the tenth year of Prophethood,
after he had lost his beloved wife,
Khadijah, and his protective uncle, Abu
Talib.
It was also to give him some “firsthand
experience” about the glory of God. He
was transported to Seven Heavens,
where he “saw” the glory of God with
his naked eyes. And the Prophet was
also shown some “preview” about the
life in the Hereafter, where both
Paradise and Hell, yet to take place in
our time, were shown to him with his
naked eyes. It was “time travel” before
the idea of time travel was even
conceptualized.
But according to one deranged theory,
which seems to find some support in the
Internet, the story of the Miraculous
Night Journey was only his own
concoction. Muhammad was caught in a
very embarrassing position with his
cousin Umm Hani. He was caught red
handed with her in her bed, in her
house, with his pants down. Not
knowing what else to say, his
imaginative mind quickly made up the
miraculous journey: first from Makkah
to Jerusalem, henceforth to Seven
Heavens.
Let’s quote what this theory says:
Muhammad passionately fell in
love with her [Umm Hani], but
for some unknown reason his
beloved uncle, Abu Talib did not
give her hand to Muhammad
when Muhammad requested.
Instead, she was married to a
pagan, Hibayrah. But
Muhammad’s adulterous relation
with Umm Hani (real name
Fakitah, also known as Hind)
continued. He used to sleep in
her house, when no one was
around.
Such an incidence took place
when Muhammad returned from
his failed mission at Taif, after
the deaths of his first wife,
Khadijah and his uncle Abu
Talib. Returning from Taif, he
took shelter in Ka’ba. But at
nightfall, when all were asleep,
he stealthily went to Umm Hani’s
house and spent the night with
her. When the people did not
find him at Ka’ba, they went
looking for him and when he was
discovered in the house of Umm
Hani, he was embarrassed, so
was Umm Hani.
To hide the truth, he concocted
the story of his night journey to
Jerusalem and Paradise from
Umm Hani’s house (more
precisely, from her bed), which
many converted Muslims found
too incredible to believe and left
Islam. This made him sad and
withdrawn. Soon, after such an
adulterous affair was leaked out,
he left Mecca and settled in
Medina. But his undying love for
Umm Hani remained aflame. (1)
I quote the above exactly as it is
written. It shows how far the
imagination of the enemies of Islam can
go. In a single scoop, three ideas are
rubbished in: (1) that Muhammad was
passionately in love with his cousin but
her love was unrequited due to the
objection of his uncle; (2) that after
getting caught fornicating with his
cousin, he concocted the story of
Miraculous Journey to get out of
embarrassment; and (3), because of that
adulterous relationship, he migrated to
Madinah.
One can see that even the Seerah books
of the Prophet written by the
Orientalists, designed to disparage him,
would not have stooped that low. For
that reason, none of these allegations
need to be defended, for they are all
rubbish. I have mentioned the above
tale only to introduce the name of the
alleged adulterous partner of the
Prophet (God forbid), Umm Hani.
Who is she?
Umm Hani is Fakhitah/Hind bint Abi
Talib b. 'Abd al-Muttalib b. Hashim b.
'Abd Manaf b. Qusayy b. Kilab b.
Murra. She was the sister of Ali, the
daughter of Abu Talib and Fatimah
Asad. She was the cousin of the
Prophet.
Muhammad’s alleged love story with
her has been gaining some interest of
late, although such tale can hardly be
found in any Seerah literature, classical
or contemporary, written by Muslim or
otherwise. One Internet site (by a well-
meaning Muslim woman) says that she
was the Prophet’s first love. I find this
curious, because none of the Seerah
books that I have read (and I have read
plenty), ever put it that way.
There is, however, a famous hadith
attributed to Ibnu Abbas, saying that the
Prophet wanted to marry her, but her
father, Abu Talib, married her to
someone else. Abu Talib was quoted as
saying that they (Abu Talib and
Muhammad) were already closely
related to each other through blood, and
that he wanted to return the favor by
marrying her to another man (Hubayra,
or Hibayrah according to the spelling in
the above quotation).
There is also another famous hadith
saying that the Prophet proposed to
marry her again, but this time, it was
she who rejected the proposal, on the
ground that she did not want to bother
him with her small children. She was
quoted as saying: “I loved you in
Jahiliyya , what to say in Islam? but I
have young children and hate that they
should bother you.”
There is yet another hadith which says
that when her children attained
puberty, she went to the Prophet. Umm
Hani said to him she was ready to
marry him, but this time, it was the
Prophet who turned her down.
Putting aside the authenticity of these
traditions, there is nothing to suggest
that the Prophet was madly in love with
her, or even to suggest that she was his
first love. As to his adulterous
relationship with her, we can just
dismiss it outright, without further
argument required.
If he was truly madly in love with her,
would his uncle object to his proposal, if
ever he made one? There was hardly
anything his uncle would not have done
to him. What more if both were
passionately in love with each other.
Furthermore, it takes some imaginative
mind to construe the word “love” as
uttered by Umm Hani’s in the second
hadith to indicate that it was romantic
love. It could well be the love of one
cousin to another.
Most importantly, if the Prophet was
madly in love with her, why on earth
did he turn her down when she was
ready to marry him, as the third hadith
suggest.
Let’s analyze their so called love story
into perspective.
We know for certain that the Prophet
died in 11 AH when he was 63 years
old. He married Khadijah when he was
25, and Khadijah died when he was 50.
I have not yet been able to find the year
of Umm Hani’s birth, but she was said
to die in 41 AH, about 30 years after the
death of the Prophet. If their age was
about the same, then Umm Hani had
lived a long life, about 90 years, plus
minus. We have to keep this age thing
in mind because, for Umm Hani to be
the Prophet’s first love, she has to be
about the same age as the Prophet’s, or
perhaps slightly younger. Else, she was
too young for the Prophet to marry her
before he married Khadijah, in which
case Umm Hani cannot be his first love.
Now, we do not know when the alleged
first proposal was made (the one
rejected by Abu Talib), but we know that
the second proposal was made after the
conquest of Makkah. The conquest of
Makkah took place in 8 AH. By then the
Prophet was already 60 years old. If
Umm Hani’s age was about similar to
the Prophet, then she must have been
about 60 as well, or slightly younger, or
even slightly older.
If such is the case, why would Umm
Hani refuse him by giving such a lame
excuse? She said: “But I have young
children and I hate that they should
bother you.”
Umm Hani had four children. All of
them were still very young during the
conquest of Makkah. Most did not reach
their puberty as yet. If the age of Umm
Hani was about similar to the Prophet,
then she must have given birth in her
late forties and early fifties.
Could that be the case? It is highly
unlikely, of course, because that would
be the age when woman starts having
menopause.
It seems very like likely, therefore, that
during the conquest of Makkah, Umm
Hani must have been rather young. She
was perhaps in her forties, or thirties.
That being the case, then Umm Hani
must have been a toddler or was just a
little girl when the Prophet married
Khadijah. For this reason, Umm Hani,
therefore, cannot be Muhammad’s first
love, unless if you buy the idiotic idea
that Muhammad the Prophet was a
pervert.
This so-called love affair between the
Prophet and his cousin, Umm Hani, is
nothing but a fanciful tale. The
Prophet’s proposal to marry her after
the conquest of Makkah only suggest
that he wanted to honor her, as he had
honored other women such as Umm
Habibah, Hafsah, Juwairiyah and
Safiya, by marrying them.
Besides, Umm Hani, on her part, would
not have refused him, in spite of her
young children, if her cousin (i.e., the
Prophet) was madly in love with her.
She would not have refused him if truly
she was his first love.
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