Conveying the Sunnah of a Family Man

Number four, and this is very important: conveying the religion. Muslims are to follow the sunnah of Muhammad (peace be upon him). He has a sunnah as a statesman, a sunnah as a teacher, a sunnah as an imam, a sunnah as a military leader, and he has a sunnah as a family man. There are hundreds of companions to convey his sunnah as a statesman. There are hundreds of companions to tell how he acted as a military leader. There are hundreds of companions to tell how he was as a teacher and as an imam. How many are there to tell of his family life? How many? Muhammad (peace be upon him) didn't have a lot of children who survived him, only Fāṭimah (may Allah be pleased with her). So who would convey his family life? It is his wives.

If Muhammad (peace be upon him) only had one wife: first of all, it would be difficult for this one wife to recall every aspect of the family life of Muhammad (peace be upon him). Number two, she could easily be discredited, because there would only be one source. There is the vicious attack directed at Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), because the enemies of Islam know that if they can discredit Abū Hurayrah, they can completely destroy over five thousand of the sayings of Muhammad (peace be upon him). By discrediting one man, they could undermine five thousand hadith of Muhammad (peace be upon him)—and that has already happened, as a fact: there is an attack on Abū Hurayrah.

And the family life of Muhammad (peace be upon him) is one of the most important aspects of the sunnah, because it relates to every one of us. Not everyone will be an imam, not everyone will be a military leader, not everyone will be a statesman, not everyone will be a teacher, but almost everyone in the ummah will be a member of a family. So how will they learn how to conduct their lives as members of a family, without receiving information about how Muhammad (peace be upon him) was a family man? Therefore, Muhammad (peace be upon him) had multiple wives so that they would convey this body of knowledge of how Muhammad (peace be upon him) acted in his private life. Many of the sunan relating to how Muhammad (peace be upon him) treated his wives, how he treated his servants, how he ate, how he dressed, how he would spend his time at home, his ʿibādah at night—that was all conveyed by the wives of Muhammad (peace be upon him). So it's not only limited to the section of family sunnah, but it also relates to the ʿibādah, how Muhammad (peace be upon him) would spend his night.

So having multiple wives: first of all, they compensate each other, so if one of them forgets, the other would remember. Number two, there is more than one chain of narration; it's coming through multiple sources rather than one. And number three, it becomes impossible to discredit, because now there is more than one person involved. And that is an extremely important thing. Allah (swt) has sent Muhammad (peace be upon him) as a living embodiment of the Qur'an, and therefore Allah granted that his sunnah will reach the ummah, because it's part of the promise of Allah to protect the Qur'an. The protection of the Qur'an isn't only that the words of the Qur'an will be protected, but also that part of its interpretation by Muhammad (peace be upon him) would survive. And that was done through the Ṣaḥābah (may Allah be pleased with them), and most importantly through the wives of Muhammad (peace be upon him). So it was very critical for the ummah that Muhammad (peace be upon him) has multiple wives, and that's why he was excluded from the ruling of having four or less. Allah (swt) has allowed him to have more, because of the special circumstances of Muhammad (peace be upon him). This was done and destined by Allah (swt) as a protection of his religion.