Ishaq:184 “Umm (Hani), Abu Talib's daughter, said: “The Apostle went on no journey except while he was in my house. He slept in my home that night after he prayed the final night prayer. A little before dawn he woke us, saying, ‘O Umm, I went to Jerusalem.' He got up to go out and I grabbed hold of his robe and laid bare his belly. I pleaded, ‘O Muhammad, don't tell the people about this for they will know you are lying and will mock you.' He said, ‘By Allah, I will tell them.' I told my negress slave, ‘Follow him and listen.'”
Muhammad passionately fell in love with his first cousin-sister, Umm Hani bt Abu Talib, but for some unknown reason his beloved uncle, Abu Talib did not give her hand to Muhammad when Muhammad requested. Instead, she was married to a pagan, Hubayrah. But Muhammad’s adulterous relation with Umm Hani (real name Fakitah, also known as Hind) continued. He used to sleep in her house, when no one was around. Such an incidence took place when Muhammad returned from his failed mission at Taif, after the deaths of his first wife, Khadijah and his uncle Abu Talib. Returning from Taif, he took shelter in Ka’ba. But at nightfall, when all were asleep, he stealthily went to Umm Hani’s house and spent the night with her. When the people did not find him at Ka’ba, they went looking for him and when he was discovered in the house of Umm Hani, he was embarrassed, so was Umm Hani. To hide the truth, he concocted the story of his night journey to Jerusalem and Paradise from Umm Hani’s house (more precisely, from her bed), which many converted Muslims found too incredible to believe and left Islam. This made him sad and withdrawn. Soon, after such an adulterous affair was leaked out, he left Mecca and settled in Medina . But his undying love for Umm Hani remained aflame.
Later, when Muhammad became militarily strong and conquered Mecca , he went to Umm Hani’s house and stayed there overnight, praying and chit-chatting with her. Hubayrah, Umm Hani’s husband had foreseen the fall of Mecca and had fled to Najran. So, Umm Hani was living in her house, separated from her pagan husband, and Muhammad was there comforting her, in open transgression of the Qur’anic code.
Does it make sense why he concocted the unbelievable fable of his journey to "heaven" in the morning ?
2006-10-11
19:47:33
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