The offer made by the Thaqif tribe

Before entering Islam, the Thaqif tribe tried to get some concessions from the Prophet, including some exemptions from various religious duties—as if the Messenger were authorized to do so! As even an ordinary Muslim would never think of granting such a request, imagine the Prophet's reaction! The verses revealed concerning this incident say:

They sought to entice you from what we reveal unto you, to substitute against Us something different. Then, they would certainly have made you a trusted friend! Indeed, had We not given you strength and firmness, you might nearly have inclined to them a little. Then, We should have made you taste double (punishment) in this life, and double in death; and moreover you would have found none for you to help you against Us. (17:73–75)

First, God's Messenger is the direct addressee and receiver of the Divine Revelation. For this reason, God directly addresses him concerning collective and individual orders, prohibitions, and responsibilities. This does not mean that God's Messenger sometimes ignored what he was told to do. Being the embodiment, representative, and preacher of Islam, as well as the best example, God's Messenger practiced them most strictly and experienced the "whole history of Islam" in miniature measure.

In other words, God used him, his time, and his Companions as a pattern according to which the future expansion of Islam would be shaped. He functioned as a seed from which all future Islamic civilizations, movements, and sciences—the universal tree of Islam—would grow. For this reason, such verses should never be taken to suggest that God's Messenger was reproached for doing something wrong. That blessed person, the Beloved of God and for whose sake God created all the worlds, is absolutely free of defect, fault, and shortcoming.

God's Messenger was extremely eager for the guidance of all people. To have some understanding of his love and affection for humanity and existence in general, it is enough to reflect on what a contemporary Muslim saintly scholar said concerning his eagerness for the guidance and well-being of his nation:

I have known nothing of worldly pleasures in my life of over eighty years. All my life has passed on battlefields, and at various other places of suffering. There has been no torment which I have not tasted and no oppression which I have not suffered. I care for neither Paradise nor fear Hell. If I witness that the faith of my nation—that is, all the Muslim peoples—has been secured, I will have no objection to being burnt in the flames of Hell, for my heart will change into a rose garden while my body is being burnt. [5]

God said to His Messenger, consoling him in the face of persistent unbelief: You will nearly grieve yourself to death, following after them, if they don't believe in this Message (18:6).

Having seen the eagerness of God's Messenger to guide people, the Thaqifi leaders tried to extract special concessions. They even added that if others objected, he might excuse it with the lie that his Lord had ordered him to do so. From a purely human point of view, it may seem good policy to make a small concession to fulfill a great mission. But the Messenger was not the author of Islam; his only responsibility was to convey it. The religion belongs to God. The verses in question emphasize this point.

His marriage to Zaynab

During the pre-Islamic period, and still today, cultural, economic, and spiritual slavery was widespread. Islam came to destroy such slavery and sought to solve this social, as well as psychological, problem in stages. Since slavery has a deep psychological aspect, its abolition all at once could have resulted in even harsher conditions. For example, when Lincoln abolished slavery in the United States, most slaves had to return to their owners because their ability to assume responsibility, to choose, and to manage their affairs as free people had been beaten out of them or had caused their leaders to be murdered.

Islam established, as a first step, strict principles on how to treat slaves, as seen in the following hadiths: "Those who kill their slaves will be killed. Those who imprison and starve their slaves will be imprisoned and starved. Those who castrate their slaves will be castrated," [6] and "Arabs are not superior to non-Arabs; non-Arabs are not superior to Arabs. White people are not superior to black people; black people are not superior to white people. Superiority is only in righteousness and fear of God." [7]

As its second step, Islam enabled slaves to realize their human consciousness and identity. It educated them in Islamic values, and implanted in them a love of freedom. On the day of their emancipation, they were fully equipped to be useful members of the community as farmers, artisans, teachers, scholars, commanders, governors, ministers, and even prime ministers.

Another pre-Islamic practice, which still exists in the civil law codes of many contemporary countries, is allowing adopted children to enjoy the same legal status as natural children. As a result, a father could not legally marry his adopted son's widow or divorced wife. This practice was to be abolished, for neither adoption nor any other method of declaring someone a son can create a relationship comparable to that between children and their natural parents.

Zayd was a black African who had been kidnapped and enslaved as a child. Khadija, the first wife of God's Messenger, had purchased him in the Makkan slave market. After she married the Prophet, she gave Zayd to him as a gift. God's Messenger emancipated him and called him "my son." When Zayd's parents finally located him and came to Makka to get him, he refused to go with them, saying that he would rather stay with God's Messenger.

In order to show the equality between black and white people and demonstrate that superiority lies in righteousness and devotion to God, not in descent and worldly position, God's Messenger married Zayd to Zaynab bint Jahsh of the Hashimite tribe. She was a very devoted and intellectual Muslim woman and had a noble character. God's Messenger had known her very well since her childhood. Although her family had wanted her to marry God's Messenger, they agreed to let her marry Zayd because God's Messenger desired it.

Zayd, however, admitted that he was spiritually inferior to his wife. He realized through his insight that her sublimity of character made her fit to be the wife of a far greater man than himself. He asked God's Messenger many times to allow him to divorce her, but each time God's Messenger advised him to remain married to her. Nevertheless, Zayd concluded that he was not his wife's equal and eventually divorced her.

After this, God told His Messenger to marry her, even though this would violate his society's norms. But as this marriage had been ordained in heaven, he submitted and married Zaynab: When Zayd had dissolved (his marriage) with her, We gave her in marriage to you, so that there may be no difficulty and sin for believers in marriage with the wives of their adopted sons if they divorce them. And God's command must be fulfilled (33:37).

Although this marriage was very difficult for God's Messenger to enter into, God used it to abolish a mistaken custom and establish a new law and custom. The Messenger always was the first to practice the law or rule to be established and obeyed, so that it would have enough influence on others. His marriage to Zaynab was one of the most difficult commandments he had to carry out. That is why his wife 'A'isha remarked: "If the Messenger of God been inclined to suppress anything of what was revealed to him, he would surely have suppressed this verse."

As expected, the enemies of Islam and the Hypocrites slandered God's Messenger. Although some of their allegations have found their way into various Qur'anic commentaries, no such allegation or slander has ever affected—or will affect—his pure personality and chastity. All scholars agree that he lived happily with Khadija, a widow 15 years older than himself, with nothing to suggest any misconduct during their 25-year marriage (ending only with Khadija's death). Unlike young people, he did not burn with lust and carnal desires. This clearly shows that his subsequent marriages, which took place after he was 50 years old, a time when desire has subsided, were entered into for specific purposes.

In sum, like every other Prophet, God's Messenger has no blemish and is innocent of what they accuse him. Nor can his infallibility be doubted.