Part 9

During the pre-Islamic days of ignorance, Arabs considered it lawful for a man to be married to two sisters at the same time; they also deemed it lawful for a man to have as many wives as he wanted. Countless Arab men of course took advantage of the situation, so that some men had ten or more wives. With the advent of Islam, any man who embraced Islam had to divorce any additional wife so that he was left with four wives; and even the remaining four he kept only if he knew that he was able to spend on them and treat them with justice. If he feared that he wouldn't able to do justice between two wives or more, he would remain content with one wife. Prior to Islam, men would certainly not treat their wives with justice; rather the opposite took place: they would treat

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them harshly and usurp all of their rights. Islam then came and did justice to women; they gained rights that they never could have previously dreamt of, and their husbands were instructed to treat them well and with kindness.

5) A man was always allowed to take back his wife, no matter how many times he had previously divorced her

The concept of divorce was recognized among Arabs, but men were given an unlimited amount of freedom in terms of being able to take back their wives after first divorcing them. A man could divorce his wife and then take her back; he could divorce her again and then take her back again; and he could continue this process endlessly, always having the right to take back his wife. In the early days of Islam, this practice was sanctioned, but then was finally limited in scope with the revelation of the eee ng Verse:

“The divorce is twice, after that, either you retain her on reasonable terms or release her with kindness. And it is not lawful for you (men) to take back (from your wives) any of your Mahr (bridal-money given by the husband to his wife at the time of marriage) which you have given them, except when both parties fear that they would be unable to keep the limits ordained by Allah (e.g., to deal with each other on a fair basis). Then if you fear that they would not be able to keep the limits ordained by Allah, then there is no sin on either of them if she gives back (the Mahr or a part of it) for her Al-Kuhl' (divorce) . These are the limits ordained by Allah, so do not transgress them. And whoever transgresses the limits ordained by Allah, then such are the Zaalimoon (wrong-doers, etc.).”” (Qur'an 2: 229)

Still giving a man the opportunity to make amends with his wife after divorce and to take back a hastily spoken word (ie., “I divorce you’’), Islam limited the number of times a man could divorce his wife and yet still take her back.

In Islam, after a man divorces his wife for the first time, he has a period during which he can take her back. If he does take her back and then divorces her for a second time, he has another period during which he can take her back. But if he takes her back for a second time and then divorces her for a third time, the divorce is final, and he may not take her back. The only way he can get back together with her is if she marries another man and then divorces him; and even still, he may not orchestrate a false marriage between her and another man in order to get her back. Her matrying another man and then divorcing him must occur naturally, without advanced planning. Allah 3¢ said:

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“And if he has divorced her (the third time), then she is not lawful unto him thereafter until she has married another husband. Then, if the other husband divorces her, it is no sin on both of them that they reunite, provided they feel that they can keep the limits ordained by Allah. These are the Limits of Allah, which He makes plain for the people who have knowledge.” (Qur'an 2: 230)

In regard to divorce, Islam also forbade a practice known as Zihaar, which involves a man saying to his wife, “ You are like the back of my mother (which means that, as with one’s mother, one will certainly not have sex with his wife, so it is a kind of vow).” Describing Zihaar as “an ill word and a lie,” Allah 3 gives a man who says the words of Zihaar a way out of his predicament through the legislation of atonement. Allah 3 said:

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“Those among you who make their wives unlawful (Az-Zihaar) to them by saying to them “You are like my mother’s back.’ They cannot be their mothers. None can be their mothers except those who gave them birth. And verily, they utter an ill word and alie. And verily, Allah is Oft-Pardoning, Oft-Forgiving. And those who make unlawful to them (their wives) (by Az-Zihaar) and wish to free themselves from what they uttered , (the penalty) in that case (is) the freeing of a slave before they touch each other. That is an admonition to you (so that you may not return to such an ill thing). And Allah is All-Aware of what you do. And he who finds not (the money for freeing a slave) must fast two successive months before they both touch each other. And for him who is unable to do so, he should feed sixty of the Miskin (poor) . That isin order that you may have perfect faith in Allah and His Messenger. These are the limits set by Allah. And for disbelievers, there is a painful torment.’’

6) War was a constant reality

Arabs didn’t need an important reason to go to war and to shed blood; to the contrary, they would start wars for the most trifling of reasons. It didn’t matter that the tribal ways that they were fighting to uphold were senseless and trivial; they would fight nonetheless. In pre-Islamic times, Arabs were warlike people, which they became probably through environment and upbringing.

Consider two examples that illustrate the warlike nature of preIslamic Arabs and the way in which they started wars for insignificant reasons. In the first example, the Taghlib and Bakr tribes waged a bitter and long war against each other. How did the war start? A man named Jarmee from the Bakr tribe owned a she-camel; his neighbour was Basoos bint Manqadh, who was the

aunt of Jassaas ibn Murrah. The leader of the Taghlib tribe, Kaleeb, sheltered his camels in a special location. One day, Jarmee’s she-camel wandered away and ended up among Kaleeb’s flock. Upon seeing the strange camel, Kaleeb fired an arrow at it and killed it. Jarmee was furious, and so was his neighbour, Basoos. When Basoos’s nephew, Jassaas, learned of what had happened, he didn’t think that he should go to Kaleeb and discuss the matter with him, perhaps telling him that he should pay for the she-camel. Instead, he went and killed Kaleeb. And again, no one from the Kaleeb tribe thought about resolving the matter through non-violent means. They simply attacked the Bakr tribe; what ensued was a bitter war that lasted for 40 years and that began with the simple killing of a she-camel.

In the second example, it was the ‘Abas and Dhubyaan tribes that fought one another. Their war began with the day that is remembered as the “Day of Daahis and Al-Ghabraa.” On that day, Daahis and Ghabraa, which were the names of two horses that belonged to the two aforementioned tribes, were set to race against each other. Qais ibn Zaheer owned Daahis, and Hudhaifah ibn Badr owned Al-Ghabraa. The latter of the two men instructed someone to wait in the valley and to intervene somehow if he saw that Daahis was in the lead. Since Daahis was in fact in the lead upon entering the valley, Hudhaifah’s henchman struck the horse as it raced by, and it fell into a stream. Al-Ghabraa of course ended up winning the race, but when it was established that foul play had been at work, fighting took place. Some people died during the fighting, and a cycle of violence erupted, which soon escalated into a full-fledged war, all of which began with a simple horserace.

Some of the wars that had a direct impact on Islamic history were the ones that took place between the Aus and Khazraj tribes of AlMadeenah; for it was the Aus and Khazraj tribes that eventually became known as the Ansaar, once they embraced Islam and welcomed their migrating brothers from Makkah with open arms and hearts.

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The Aus and Khazraj tribes were actually related through blood, for the members of both tribes were descended from the line of Haarithah ibn Tha’labah Al-Azdee. These tribes came to and settled in Yathrib, which later became known as Al-Madeenah, after they, among many other others, were displaced because of the great Flood of ‘Arim. Some Jewish tribes also came to and settled in Yathrib; the primary reason why they settled there was that they were fleeing from oppression at the hands of the Romans.

At first, the Aus, the Khajraj, and the Jewish tribes of Yathrib lived together in relative harmony and peace. But then fighting took place among them, and wars continued intermittently until the advent of Islam. Sometimes, the Aus were fighting the Khazraj; at other times, the Khazraj were fighting the Jewish tribes; alliances constantly shifted. Very often, the Jewish tribes would switch alliances and sow dissension between the Aus and the Khazraj, their goal being to remain the dominant force in Yathrib. In the latter days of their wars, the Jews of Yathrib were allied to the Aus tribe, and the Aus tribe ended up with the upper hand over the Khazraj. The two tribes agreed to live in peace and under one king, ‘Abdullah ibn Ubai ibn Salool, who was about to be crowned around the time that the Aus and Khazraj tribes pledged to believe in, obey, and defend the Prophet ##. ‘Abdullah ibn Ubai never forgot about the crown he never got to wear; his bitterness prompted him to fight Islam from within the ranks of Muslims: Outwardly, he claimed to be a Muslim, but inwardly he disbelieved in Islam. History remembers him as being the chief of the hypocrites.