The wives of the Prophet (peace be upon him) continued to be fully involved in the affairs of the Muslim community after they were instructed that they could only speak to men from behind a screen. This did not deter any of them from expressing their views or speaking about their feelings even in matters that concerned men. A case in point is that of Lady Umm Salamah and her expressed sympathy with Kaab ibn Malik during the difficult time he went through.
Kaab ibn Malik was one of three of the Prophet’s companions who stayed behind when the order was that all able men should join the expedition to Tabuk: A hard and long journey undertaken in very difficult circumstances. These three had no particular reason for staying behind. When the Prophet and his army came back, they admitted that they had made a mistake. They did not try to justify their absence by false excuses. The Prophet (peace be upon him) did not rule in their case and left it to God to judge them. All Muslims were ordered not to speak to these three. They were practically boycotted by all Muslims for 50 days, then God revealed that He had accepted their repentance.
The Prophet received this new revelation shortly after midnight when he was in Umm Salamah’s home. She was particularly concerned about Kaab and sympathetic to him. Therefore, the Prophet told her the good news of God accepting his repentance immediately after learning of it. She said to the Prophet: “Shall I dispatch someone to give him the good news?” The Prophet said: “People will then be crowding at your door and will keep you awake all night.” He waited until Fajr prayer, and when he finished the prayer, he told those who were in the mosque of God’s acceptance. Everyone in the community was very pleased. One raced on horseback to give them the good news, while another shouted it to them from the top of the mosque.
It should perhaps be mentioned that those three people were ultimately in a much better situation, despite the hardship they went through, than others who offered false excuses to the Prophet on his return. These latter ones have been denounced as hypocrites by God and theirs will be the fate of hypocrites on the Day of Judgment.
Another example of the involvement of the Prophet’s wives in community affairs is provided by Hafsah. Hafsah was Umar’s daughter, the second Caliph, who was stabbed as he was leading the prayer in the Prophet’s mosque. It was clear that his wounds were fatal. His son, Abdullah, reports that he went to see his sister, Hafsah, after their father was stabbed and discussed with her the issue of succession. He said that following the discussion he told his sister that he would be speaking to his father on the issue.
Abdullah says, “I went home but did not speak to him. I went out in the morning, but I felt as if I was carrying a mountain. I went back to him and he asked me about the people of Madinah and the state they were in. I reported to him on that, then I said: ‘I heard something and I pledged to bring it to your attention. They say that you are not going to appoint a successor. Had you had a shepherd attending to your camels or sheep and he comes to see you leaving them under no one’s supervision, you would judge him as negligent of his duty. Taking care of people is far more important.’ He was attentive to what I said, but he rested his head a while and then lifted it. He said to me: ‘God will certainly take care of His faith. If I do not appoint someone to succeed me, God’s Messenger did not appoint anyone as his successor; and if I appoint one, Abu Bakr did that.’ The moment he mentioned the Prophet and Abu Bakr I realized that he would not prefer anyone’s practice to that of the Prophet and, therefore, he would not appoint a successor.” (Related by Muslim.)
There are several important points to note in this Hadith which we will briefly highlight.
* Hafsah was concerned about what happened to the Muslim community should her father, the caliph, die without having appointed a successor. He himself became caliph when Abu Bakr chose him as his successor. She feared that dispute might arise within the Muslim community. Thus, despite the fact that, as a wife of the Prophet, she could only see and speak to men from behind a screen, she took keen interest in the affairs of the Muslim community.
* Like his father, Umar’s son, Abdullah, was a scholar of the highest caliber, but they had totally different approaches. Yet the son presented his advice urging his father to appoint a successor.
* When the choices were put forwarded by Umar, Abdullah realized that his father would follow the Prophet’s example. However, Umar felt the importance of providing a mechanism for the choice of a caliph.
* The mechanism Umar devised was very elaborate, providing a method of choice that fits with the best democratic standards known to man. He appointed six of the best and well-trusted people to choose a caliph from among themselves, giving them a period of three days to come to a decision. Should they split into two groups of three each, Abd Al-Rahman ibn Awf was given a casting vote. During the period of deliberations, Suhayb, who was not one of the six would be leading the prayer and handling public affairs. Abdullah ibn Umar was to supervise the whole operation, having no personal interest in the matter. He could not be chosen as caliph. The man chosen by the six was then to seek people’s endorsement. It was through this process that Uthman ibn Affan was chosen as the third caliph.
Involvement in community affairs could also be seen with regard to cases of individuals. Saad ibn Abi Waqqas was one of the earliest companions of the Prophet, and a great servant of Islam. When he died, Lady Ayesha instructed people to bring his coffin into the mosque so that she could offer the janasah prayer for the deceased. People thought that this was singular, as janasah prayer was normally performed outside the mosque, shortly before burial. She commented: “How quickly people forget. The Prophet performed this prayer in the mosque when Suhayl ibn Al-Bayda’ died.” (Related by Muslim.)
