A detailed treatment of this issue, a full presentation of the arguments concerning it, and a demonstration that permitting such a marriage accords with the fundamental principles and analogical reasoning belong elsewhere. Here we have merely drawn attention to it (1).

He then married Maymūnah bint al-Hārith al-Hilāliyyah, the last woman he married. He married her in Mecca during the compensatory ‘umrah, after leaving the state of ritual consecration, according to the correct view.

It has also been said that he married her before leaving that state. This was the view of Ibn ‘Abbās, may Allah be pleased with him, but he was mistaken. The intermediary who arranged their marriage, Abū Rāfi‘, knew the circumstances better than anyone else. He reported that the Prophet married her while not in a state of ritual consecration, and said, “I was the intermediary between them” (2). Ibn ‘Abbās was then about ten years old or somewhat older, and was absent when this took place; he did not witness it. Abū Rāfi‘, however, was an adult, and the marriage was arranged through him, so he knew its circumstances better. Clearly, such grounds for preferring one account require that it be given precedence (3). She died during the reign of Mu‘āwiyah, and her grave is at Sarif.

It is said that his wives also included Rayhānah bint Zayd al-Nadariyyah—or, according to another account, al-Quraziyyah. She was taken captive during the campaign against Banū Qurayzah and was among the spoils the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, selected for himself. He freed her and married her, then divorced her