Zād al-Maʿād - Ibn al-Qayyim - (1/152)

Zād al-MaʿādIbn al-Qayyim

Women and perfume were (1) the things he loved most. He, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would visit all his wives in a single night. He had been given the strength of thirty men in intercourse and other matters, and Allah permitted him in this regard what He did not permit anyone else in his community.

He apportioned overnight stays, lodging, and maintenance among them. As for love, he would say:

“O Allah, this is my division in what I can control, so do not blame me for what I cannot control” (2).

It has been said that this refers to love and intercourse (3). Equal treatment in these matters is not obligatory, because they are beyond one’s control. Was dividing his time among them obligatory for him, or was he permitted to live with them without such a division? The jurists hold two views. He, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had more wives than anyone else in his community. Ibn ʿAbbās said: “Marry, for the best of this community is the one with the most wives” (4).

He, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, divorced and took back a wife, and swore an oath to abstain from his wives for a fixed period of one month. He never declared a wife forbidden to him by likening her to his mother. Whoever claimed that he did so committed a grave error. This is mentioned (5) only to draw attention to the reprehensible nature of that person’s error and his attributing to the Prophet something Allah had declared him free of.

(1) Sād, Jīm: “fa-kāna (so … were).” (2) Reported by Ahmad (25111), al-Dārimī (2253), Abū Dāwūd (2134)—whose version is closest to the wording quoted here—al-Tirmidhī (1140), al-Nasā’ī in al-Mujtabā (3943) and al-Kubrā (8840), Ibn Mājah (1971), Ibn Hibbān (4205), and al-Hākim (2/187), through Hammād ibn Salamah, from Ayyūb, from Abū Qilābah, from ‘Abd Allāh ibn Yazīd, from ‘Ā’ishah. Its narrators are trustworthy. However, several leading hadith scholars differed from Hammād ibn Salamah, transmitting it from Ayyūb, from Abū Qilābah, in mursal form. This is the version preferred by al-Bukhārī, al-Tirmidhī, the two al-Rāzīs, and al-Dāraqutnī. See al-‘Ilal al-Kabīr (286), ‘Ilal Ibn Abī Hātim (1279), and ‘Ilal al-Dāraqutnī (3176). (3) See Tafsīr al-Tabarī (9/285–287). (4) Reported by al-Bukhārī (5069). (5) Qāf, Mīm-Bā’, Nūn: “hunā (here)”; likewise in the margin of Sād.

وكان (١) النساء والطيب أحبَّ شيء إليه. وكان ﷺ يطوف على نسائه في الليلة الواحدة، وكان قد أعطي قوة ثلاثين في الجماع وغيره، وأباح الله له من ذلك ما لم يبحه لأحد من أمته. وكان يقسم بينهن في المبيت والإيواء والنفقة، وأما المحبة فكان يقول: «اللهمَّ هذا قَسْمي فيما أملك، فلا تلُمني فيما لا أملك» (٢). قيل: هو الحبُّ والجماع (٣)، ولا تجب التسوية في ذلك لأنه مما لا يُملَك. وهل كان القَسْم واجبًا عليه أو كان له معاشرتهن بغير قَسْم؟ على قولين للفقهاء. فهو ﷺ أكثر الأمة نساءً، قال ابن عباس: تزوَّجوا، فإنَّ خير هذه الأمة أكثرها نساءً (٤). وطلَّق ﷺ وراجع، وآلى إيلاءً موقَّتًا بشهر. ولم يُظاهِر أبدًا، وأخطأ من قال: إنه ظاهر خطأً عظيمًا. وإنما ذُكِر هذا (٥) تنبيهًا على قبح خطئه ونسبته إليه ما برَّأه الله منه.

(١) ص، ج: «فكان». (٢) أخرجه أحمد (٢٥١١١) والدارمي (٢٢٥٣) وأبو داود (٢١٣٤) ــ واللفظ أشبه بلفظه ــ والترمذي (١١٤٠) والنسائي في «المجتبى» (٣٩٤٣) و «الكبرى» (٨٨٤٠) وابن ماجه (١٩٧١) وابن حبان (٤٢٠٥) والحاكم (٢/ ١٨٧) من حديث حماد بن سلمة عن أيوب عن أبي قلابة عن عبد الله بن يزيد عن عائشة. رجاله ثقات إلا أن حماد بن سلمة خالفه غير واحد من الحفاظ فرووه عن أيوب عن أبي قلابة مرسلًا. وهو الذي رجحه البخاري والترمذي والرازيان والدارقطني. انظر: «العلل الكبير» (٢٨٦) و «علل ابن أبي حاتم» (١٢٧٩) و «علل الدارقطني» (٣١٧٦). (٣) انظر: «تفسير الطبري» (٩/ ٢٨٥ - ٢٨٧). (٤) أخرجه البخاري (٥٠٦٩). (٥) ق، مب، ن: «هنا»، وكذا في حاشية ص.