MOTHERS OF THE BELIEVERS

In these verses of the Quran, all necessary directives about the Prophet’s wives are very clearly stated. These verses enumerate their responsibilities and the duties of the believers towards them. It is clear from these verses that the Prophet’s wives did not get the status of Umm-ul-Mumineen, i.e. Mothers of the believers only as a title. This title was granted to them for their pious deeds and exemplary sacrifices. The fact is that they fully deserve to be given the status of Mother of the Believers till the Day of Resurrection. According to some Hadith reports, when the above-mentioned verses were revealed in which the wives of the Prophet were given the option to stay with the Prophet if they wished and to separate if they wished. Then the Prophet entered the house and said to his wife Aisha: “O Aisha, I would like to talk to you about one matter. Regarding this option, you should not be in a hurry to decide unless you consult your parents on this matter. Aisha replied: “O Prophet of God, I will not consult my parents in this matter. Rather, I prefer God and His Messenger and his house.” Similar was the response of all of his wives. None of them decided to separate from the Prophet based on the option provided by the Quran. Under the circumstances, the decision of the spouses to stay with the Prophet was an extraordinary sacrifice. Because at that time the situation was that apart from other facilities of life, even simple food was not available for two meals a day. The condition of the Prophet’s wives at that time can be gauged from an incident. Aisha narrates that once an Ansari (a Muslim of Madinah) sent a goat to her house. They struggled to make proper pieces of the meat at night. Someone said, “Why didn’t you light a lamp so that you could chop the meat in the light of the lamp?” Aisha replied that if we had oil to light a lamp, we would drink this oil owing to the intensity of hunger. The fact is that the difficult situation in which the Prophet’s wives decided to stay with him is a unique example and only one of its kind in history. This was great planning of God Almighty. Due to this, the uncommon and extraordinary greatness of the spouses was established so that people would consider them as role models for themselves. It is mentioned in the above verses that if the Prophet’s wives do good deeds and adopt the method of obedience, they will be rewarded twice as much as others.