16- Aisha Sufwan
According to Aisha, ‘When the apostle of Allah was
about to depart on a journey, he used to throw lots to decide which of his
wives he would take with him. Before an expedition against the Banu
Mustaliq, my lot came out; so the apostle of Allah took me with him. In
those days women used to eat only the necessities of life, and did not
become strong and heavy on meat. When my camel was ready, I would seat
myself in the howdah, which my attendants would then lift on to the back
of the camel; then they would attach it to the beast and we could set off.
‘During our return from the Mustaliq expedition we
paused to rest for a night. Before the company set off again, I withdrew
for a moment; but I was wearing a string of Yemeni beads and when I
returned I found they had fallen from my neck. Although the people were
about to start I went back to the place where I had been and searched
until I found them. The attendants who were in the habit of saddling my
camel had meanwhile done so and had taken up the howdah (thinking that I
was in it as usual) and tied it upon the camel; then they had led the
camel off. When I returned to the camp not a soul was there, so I wrapped
myself in my cloak and laid myself down, for I knew that they would miss
me and come to seek me.
‘While I was thus reclining, Sufwan ‑ who had
fallen behind the company for some reason, and had not spent the night
with them ‑ passed by and observed me. He exclaimed, “To Allah we
belong, and to Him we must return! This is the wife of the apostle of
Allah!” and he brought his camel near and said, “Mount!” He withdrew
a little and I mounted, then he took hold of the camel’s head and
advanced rapidly, being anxious to overtake the company; but we neither
overtook them, nor did they miss me, until they again encamped. When
Sufwan arrived, leading me on his camel, slander was uttered against me
although I knew nothing of it.
‘I became very ill when we arrived in
Medina
and so I still did not hear the slanders, but they were communicated to
the apostle as well as to my parents. They did not speak of it to me, but
I observed the absence of that kindliness which the apostle of Allah used
always to show me when I was ill. This I thought strange on his part.
However, I knew nothing of the matter until I had recovered from my
illness, after more than twenty days.
‘At that time we still lived like true Arabs and
had no privies in our houses as the Persians did, because we despised and
disliked such luxuries. Instead, we went out to an open plain in
Medina
, the women going at night. Thus I walked out one night, and the woman who
walked with me stumbled over the hem of her skirt and cursed, saying
“Let Auf perish!” “By Allah!” I exclaimed. “That seems to me an
evil wish, since it concerns a Believer who has fought at Badr.” The
woman asked, “Has not the news reached thee, o daughter of Abu Bakr?”
and when I asked what news she told me of the slanders. I could scarce
believe it and fled to the house of my mother, weeping so that I thought
my heart would break. I said to my mother, “May Allah forgive thee; the
people slander me and you have said nothing of it to me!” and she
replied, “Do not be unhappy. There are but few handsome women ‑
who are loved by their husbands, and have rivals ‑ who escape false
imputations and slander.”
‘Meanwhile, unknown to me, the apostle of Allah
addressed the people, glorified and praised Allah, and said, “How do you
dare to insult me by insulting my family, and by saying things about them
which are not true? By Allah, I know nothing but good of them.” [The
lies were spread by some of the Khazraj and by the sister of another wife
of the apostle.] When the apostle of Allah had finished, Usayd, one of the
Aus, rose and said, “If the slanders are spoken by the Aus, we shall
silence them; and if they be spoken by our brothers, the Khazraj, say the
word and we shall punish them!” Then one Sad b. Ubada, who had hitherto
seemed a true Believer, said, “You lie. By Allah, you have suggested
this punishment only because you know the slanderers are of the Khazraj;
had they been of your tribe you would not have suggested it.” Usayd
retorted, “ You lie, by Allah! You are a Hypocrite and give your support
to the Hypocrites!” Then the people assailed each other, and it would
have taken little for evil to come to pass between the two tribes.
‘The Apostle of Allah now consulted Ali and Usama,
and Usama spoke only what was
good, saying, “0 apostle of Allah. We know only good of Aisha, and thou
knowest only good of her, and these are merely false and idle rumours!”
But Ali said, “There are many women! Thou canst take another! Ask her
slave and she will tell thee the truth.” So the apostle of Allah
summoned my slave to examine her. Ali rose and struck the woman a violent
blow, and said, “Tell the truth to the apostle of Allah”, and she
replied, “I know only what is good; and I cannot say ill of Aisha, save
that one day I was kneading my dough and asked her to watch it, but she
fell asleep and a sheep came and ate it up.”
‘After this, the apostle came to me, while both my
parents were with me; and I wept. He sat down, glorified and praised
Allah, and then said, “Thou must have heard what the people are saying.
Fear Allah! If thou hast done wrong, then repent, for Allah accepts the
repentance of his servants.” While he spoke thus, my tears ceased to
flow. I waited for my parents to reply to the apostle, but neither of them
spoke; and I entertained too low an opinion of myself to hope that Allah
would reveal verses of the Koran about me. But I hoped the apostle might
have a vision in his sleep, in which Allah would expose the liars, or
justify me, or tell the apostle the truth. When I saw that my parents did
not speak, I asked, “Will you not reply to the apostle of Allah?” They
said, “We know not what to say to him!”
‘When I saw my parents thus estranged from me my
tears flowed once more, and I cried, “I shall never repent to Allah for
what I am accused of, because Allah knoweth I should be repenting
something which did not occur, and thus I should speak untruth. But if I
deny the charges, you will not believe me.”
‘And the apostle of Allah had not yet left us when
he lost consciousness, as always happened before a revelation; then I
neither feared nor cared, for I knew that I was innocent, and that Allah
would do no injustice to me. But my parents seemed about to die for fear,
lest Allah might send a revelation confirming the words of the slanderers.
‘The apostle of Allah came back to consciousness
and sat up, and the perspiration trickled like pearls from his forehead,
although it was a winter day. Then he wiped it away, and said, “Allah
has revealed thy innocence”, and I replied, “Allah be praised!”
After that, he went out to the people and recited to them verses of the
Koran revealed to him by Allah, and he ordered the slanderers to be
scourged.’
Sufwan, who had been slandered with Aisha, met one of
the worst slanderers, the poet Hassan, and struck him with his sword.
Another man, Thabit, hastened to assist Hassan, grasping Sufwan, and tying
his hands to his neck with a rope; he then took him to the dwelling of one
of the Khazraj, where Abdullah b. Rawaha met them. He asked, ‘What is
this?’ and Thabit replied, ‘Are you displeased? He struck Hassan
with a sword and, by Allah, he might have killed him.’ Abdullah asked,
‘Does the apostle of Allah know of this?’ and when Thabit said he did
not, Abdullah told him, ‘You have been presumptuous 1 Let the man go.
When the apostle heard of this, he had Sufwan and
Hassan brought before him, and Sufwan explained, ‘He offended and mocked
me; anger overcame me, and I struck him.’ Then the apostle said to
Hassan, ‘Why do you malign my people when Allah has given them
enlightenment? I think you deserved the blow.’ However, the apostle
soothed the poet by presenting him with a fortress in
Medina
, and a Coptic slave girl. Then Hassan composed verses complimentary to
the chastity and beauty of Aisha.
In the fifth year of the Hijra the campaign of the
Ditch occurred. A number of Jews went to the Quraysh in
Mecca
and invited them to wage war against the apostle of Allah, saying, ‘We
shall
aid you against him until we wipe out him and his
followers.’ The Quraysh replied, ‘You are the possessors of the first
scripture; tell us whether our religion is better than his?’ They
said, ‘Your religion is better than his, and you are nearer to the truth
than he.’Then the Quraysh were encouraged to accept the invitation to
fight against the apostle of Allah, and the Jews went to the Ghatafan and
invited them to wage war against the apostle of Allah, saying they would
aid them, and that the Quraysh had already consented to fight. So the
Quraysh marched out under the command of Abu Sufyan, and the Ghatafan
under the command of Uyayna.
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