The lie that was uttered
Sirat p. 493, Tabari VIII p. 57
Muhammad had gone forward on that journey of his until he was near Medina. Aisha haivng been with him on the journey, when the liars spoke about her.
This is interesting. We are told right from the beginning what to conclude about this story. The Isnad for this hadith is unusually elaborate, going back to Aisha herself. The story is told from her point of view.
When Muhammad intended to go on an expedition, he cast lots between his wives, which of them should accompany him.
Even when going to war, Muhammad made sure not to sleep alone. As an aside, gambling had been condemned by the Quran (Sura 5:90). But possibly there was an exception in personal matters for Muhammad.
He did this on the occasion of the raid on B. al-Mustaliq and the lot fell on me, so Muhammad took me out.
When Muhammad can't make up his own mind, he prefers to leave the decision to a little gambling rather than to the women.
When the camel was being saddled for me, I sued to sit in my howdah; then the men who saddled it for me would come and pick me up and take hold of the lower part of the howdah and lift it up and put it on the camel's back and fasten it with a rope.
The use of the howdah, a riding tent protecting the women from sun & sandstorms, is important.
When Muhammad finished his journey on this occasion, he started back and halted when he was near Medina and passed a part of the night there. Then he gave permission to start and the men moved off. I went out for a certain purpose having a string of Zafar beads on my neck. When I had finished, it slipped from y neck without my knowledge, and when I returned to the camel I went feeling my neck for it but could not find it.
I went back to the place where I had been and looked for the necklace until I found it. The men who were saddling the camel for me came up to the place I had just left, and having finished the saddling, they took hold of the howda thinking that I was in it as I normally was, picked it up and bound it on the camel, not doubting that I was in it. Then they took the camel by the head and went off with it.
I returned to the place and there was not a soul there. The men had gone. So I wrapped myself in my smock and then lay down where I was, knowing that if I were missed, they would come back for me, and by Allah I had but just lain down when Safwan b. al-Muattal al-Sulami passed me; he had fallen behind the main body for some purpose and had not spent the night with the troops.
Not the strongest string of excuses seen in history.
He saw my form and came and stood over me. He used to see me before the veil was prescribed for us, so when he saw me, he exclaimed in astonishment: "The messengers wife!" while I was wrapped in my garments.
Interestingly, we see the veil referred to as being 'prescribed', i.e. mandatory. Presumably by Quranic command.
He asked me what had kept me behind, but I did not speak to him. Then he brought up his camel and told me to ride it while he kept behind. So I rode it and he took the camels head going forward quickly in search of the army, and by Allah we did not overtake them and I was not missed until the morning. The men had halted and when they were rested, up came the man leading me and the liars spread the reports and the army was much disturbed.
OK, so the word goes that it was no coincidence that the two young members of the group were delayed at the same time.
Back in Medina
Sirat p. 495
Then we came to Medina and immediately I became very ill and so heard nothing of the matter. The story had reached Muhammad and my parents, yet they told me nothing of it though I missed Muhammads accustomed kindness to me. When I was ill he used to show compassion and kindness to me, but in this illness he did not and I missed his attentions.
Muhammad is obviously disturbed by the rumours and the possibility that she might have shared her body with another man.
I recovered from my illness some twenty days later. As I went out one night with Umm Mistah d. Abu Ruhm to attend to the call of nature, she said: "Haven't you heard the news, Oh daughter of Abu Bakr?" and when I said that I had not heard, she went on to tell me of what the liars had said, and when I showed my astonishment, she told me that all this really had happened.
While we're not related the exact story, it's inferable from the above.
By Allah, I was unable to do what I had to do and went back. I could not stop crying until I thought that the weeping would burst my liver. I said to my mother: "Allah forgive you! Men have spoken ill of me and you have not told me a thing about it." She replied: "My little daughter, don't let the matter weigh on you. Seldom is there a beautiful woman married to a man who loves her but her rival wives gossip about her and men do the same."
Muhammad had got up and addressed the men, though I knew nothing about it. After praising Allah, he said: "What do certain men mean by worrying me and my family and saying false things about them? By Allah, I know only good of them, and they say these things of a man of whom I know naught but good, who never enters a house of mine but in my company."
Muhammad does his best to stop the rumours. Framing the rumours as evil slander is more useful than digging for the (possibly embarrasing) truth.
"The greatest offenders were Abdullah b. Aubayy and Mistah and Hamna d. Jahsh, for the reason that ther sister Zaynab d. Jahsh was one of Muhammads wives and only she could rival me in his favour."
When Muhammad made this speech, Usayd b. Hudayr said: "If they are of Aus let us rid you of them; and if they are of the Khazraj give us your orders, for they ought to have their heads cut off."
It is dangerous to talk against the interests of Muhammad. But decapitation still seems quite an over-zealuos reaction to slander. "Behead Those Who Insult Islam" is a similar slogan still heard today.
Ali said: "Women are plentiful, and you can easily change one for another. Ask the slave girl, for she will tell you the truth."
Ali apparently believes the story, and suggests Muhammad to simply ditch Aisha. Interestingly, he's making an attempt to find the truth of the matter.
So Muhammad called Burayra to ask her, and Ali got up and gave her a violent beating, saying: "Tell the messenger the truth," to which she replied: "I know only good of her."
If you want the truth, protecting witnesses is better than punishing them. After the beating, the slave girl would probably be ready to tell any kind of truth they wanted of her. That is not of much use.
The aquittal
Sirat p. 495
A long paragraph from Aisha follows, with much weeping and hope that Allah would prove her innocent. An interesting line goes:
By Allah I thought myself too insignificant for Allah to send down concerning me a Quran which could be read in the mosques and used in prayer.
Being the favorite wife of Muhammad (on par with Zaynad), that should not be ruled out, actually.
And by Allah, the messenger had not moved from where he was sitting when there came over him from Allah what used to come over him, and he was wrapped in his garment and a leather coushion was put under his head.
The state Muhammad usually was in when receiving revelation appears similar to epileptic seizures according to the descriptions in the hadith. Stress is one common trigger of seizures, and we frequently see that Muhammad received revelations exactly when he was in quite difficult situations.
Afterwards, Muhammad said: "Good news, Aisha! Allah has sent down (word) about your innocence." I said: "Praise to Allah," and he went out to the men and addressed them and recited to them what Allah had sent down concerning that. Then he gave orders about Mistah b. Uthatha and Hassan b. Thabit and Hamma d. Jahsh who were the most explicit in their slander and they were flogged with the prescribed number of stripes (80).
The matter settled, the three witnesses are punished and silenced with appropriate flogging. But one may wonder why, instead of going through all these tribulations, tears and anguish, and eventually having a Quran revelation resolve the matter, they didn't simply interrogate Aisha and the boy separately, figure out if their explanations matched, and judge from this? It would seem a more honest and transparent way. Courts and real laws are a good invention.
Quranic commentary
Sirat p. 497
This must have been an issue that weighted quite heavily on Allah, as many Quran verses were revealed pertaining to it. They can be found in the beginning of sura 24.
Quran 24:4: And those who accuse chaste women, and produce not four witnesses, flog them with eighty stripes, and reject their testimony forever. They indeed are the Fâsiqűn (liars, rebellious, disobedient to Allâh).
Quite conveniently, there were exactly three witnesses against Aisha.
Quran 24:11: Verily, those who brought forth the slander (against 'Âishah) are a group among you. Consider it not a bad thing for you. Nay, it is good for you. To every man among them will be paid that which he had earned of the sin, and as for him among them who had the greater share therein, his will be a great torment.
meaning Hassan b. Thabit and his companions who said what they said.
Quran 24:12: Why then did not the believers, men and women, when you heard it (the slander), think good of their own people and say: "This (charge) is an obvious lie?"
Probably because it was not all that obvious a lie. Aisha at this time was 14 years, and presumably well into puberty. Like any other teenager, the hormones would be awakening and she might be attracted by the idea of sharing her body with of her own choice, not to mention of her own age. Further, Muhammad kept adding more women to his harem, having recieved an explicit permission from Allah to do so, and took advantage of his captives as well. Aisha was, as recorded in the hadith, seriously jealous about this:
Muslim:C14B39N6759 “Aisha, the wife of Allah’s Apostle, reported: ‘Allah’s Messenger left my apartment during the night. Then he came and he saw me in an agitated state.’ He said: “Aisha, what has happened to you? Do you feel jealous?” I said: “How can it be that a girl like me would not feel jealous in regard to a husband like you?
Jealous and immature teenagers make mistakes. The story simply sounded probable.
Quran 24:13: Why did they not produce four witnesses against him? Since they (the slanderers) have not produced witnesses! Then with Allâh, they are the liars.
One might of course ponder the matter from the side of Muhammad. Apart from the attractiveness of Aisha or the humiliation of Muhammad not being in control of his women, Aisha was the daughter of (future caliph) Abu Bakr, a staunch ally from the Meccan days, not a family to split with. But Muhammad himself gives a very different clue as to why he didn't simply divorce Aisha and content himself with the dozen or so other wives he had:
Bukhari:V5B57N119 Muhammad said: “Um, don’t trouble me by harming Aisha, for by Allah, the Divine Inspiration [Qur’an surahs] never came to me while I was under the blanket of any woman among you except her.”
On the other hand, getting too close to the potential problems of religious scripture inspired by sex with under-age girls is probably not nice.
Quran 24:23: Those who slander chaste women, indiscreet and careless but believing, are cursed in this life and in the hereafter: for them is an awful doom. On the Day when their tongues, their hands, and their feet will bear witness against them as to what they did. On that Day Allah will pay them back their just reward.
The doom is indeed awful for the witnesses. One should think that the flogging would do, but no. Eternal damnation goes on top of the whipping.
Related:
Bukhari, 8/6814: A man from the tribe of Bani Aslam came to Allâh's Messenger and informed him that he had committed illegal sexual intercourse and he bore witness four times against himself. Allâh's Messenger ordered him to be stoned to death as he was a married person.
Fatal attraction... The notion of illegal sexual intercourse is quite alien to westeners. Unfortunately, it is the harsh reality for the vast majority of Muslim women today. They are not permitted to choose themselves who to share their homes and bodies with.
When this came down about Aisha and about those who spoke about her, Abu Bakr, who used to make an allowance to Mistah because he was of his kin and needy, said: "Never will I give anything to Mistah again, nor will I ever help him in any way after what he said about Aisha and brought evil on us." So Allah sent down concerning that:
Quran 24:22: And let not those among you who are blessed with graces and wealth swear not to give (any sort of help) to their kinsmen, Al-Masâkîn (the needy), and those who left their homes for Allâh's Cause. Let them pardon and forgive.
Abu Bakr said: "Yes, by Allah, I want Allah to forgive me," so he continued the allowance to Mistah.
One may wonder why Allah has to interfere in a detail like this, where a word from Muhammad most likely would have been sufficient for Abu Bakr, the long-term ally and future caliph.
Poetry
Sirat p. 499
A bit of poetry to close the matter and round off this instructive tale:
Hassan, Hamna and Mistah tasted what they deserved
For uttering unseemly slander;
They slandered with ill-founded accusations their propeth's wife;
They angered the Lord of the glorious throne and were chastised.
They injured Allah's apostle through her
And were made a public and lasting disgrace.
Lashes rained upon them like
Raindrops falling from the highest clouds.
