How did Prophet Muhammad try to solve the problem of wives and children who were left after death of their husbands in battles?

Answer 1

There was not much of a problem with providing for the ansar

(native to Medina) widows. Most of them had families who owned land in Medina and were able to take care of them.

Occasionally the system broke down, and then Mohammed,

in his role as civic judge, had to settle an inheritance dispute. For example, Ibn

Kathir

relates that the widow of Saad

ibn

Al-Rabi

complained that her brother-in-law

was trying to steal her daughters' inheritance. Mohammed

ruled that the brother should receive one-fifth,

the widow should receive one-eighth

and the two daughters should receive one-third

each.

The very poor, who had no property and no families, could join the People of the Bench. The Bench was an area of the mosque where poor people sat. While they listened to readings of the Qur'an,

Mohammed's wives and daughters ensured that food was distributed to them.

The emigrants from Mecca owned no land and hence were at more risk of being left destitute if their breadwinner died. However, nearly all of them arrived in Medina in family groups, and there is no record of any complaints that the surviving emigrants failed to look after their bereaved relatives.

Six emigrants died at the Battle of Badr

(March 624). One was a young bachelor. A second was a poor man under the protection of the Zuhra

clan. If he left any dependants, they would have become the responsibility of Abuldrahman

ibn

Awf,

a talented businessman who was very wealthy and very generous. Two others were the servants of Omar ibn

Al-Khattab,

who was the wealthiest emigrant in Medina. If these men had families, Omar would already have been providing for them before Badr,

so he would have continued to employ them afterwards. The fifth emigrant left a widow and a young son, and they would have become the responsibility of the dead man's brother. The sixth casualty was Mohammed's cousin, Ubayda

ibn

Al-Harith,

who left seven adult children and a young widow, Zaynab

bint

Khayzuma.

Zaynab

had her stepchildren and brother-in-law

to care for her, and she was also on good terms with her wealthy relatives in Mecca. Although she later married Mohammed

himself, this was certainly not out of economic necessity. Probably Zaynab

desired the honour of becoming a Mother of the Faithful; and since three of her previous husbands had been Mohammed's first cousins, this ambition was by no means above her proper station in life.

A seventh man was injured at Badr

and died six months later (it is not clear whether this should be considered a "death in battle"). His widow, Hafsa,

was the daughter of Omar, so she had no financial worries. Nevertheless, Mohammed

immediately announced that he would marry her. Whatever the prestige of becoming Mother of the Faithful, Hafsa

was not helped economically by this marriage, as her father was far wealthier than Mohammed.

Four emigrants died at the Battle of Uhud

(March 625). As three of them were closely related to Mohammed,

it is possible that he had a hand in settling their widows' affairs. The widow of his uncle Hamza

was quickly remarried to a bachelor and apparently remained his only wife. His cousin Hamna

bint

Jahsh

should have become the responsibility of her eldest brother, but in fact she was immediately remarried to Talha

ibn

Ubaydullah.

Although this man eventually had at least ten wives, he was a 31-year-old bachelor when he married Hamna.

The widow of Hamna's

second brother did not remarry (she had a bleeding disorder that would have impeded sexual activity) but she was still alive 37 years after Uhud,

so presumably the eldest brother took care of her. Finally, there was the poetess Noom

bint

Saayid;

she also had a brother living in Medina.

Another of Mohammed's cousins, Abu

Salama

ibn

Abdulasad

, died in December 625 after being injured in a raid. His widow's economic situation is not clear, but it could not have been too bad, as she refused three proposals of marriage. Eventually she married Mohammed,

but he had to ask her three times.

No emigrant died at the Battle of the Trench (March-April

627).

After the Siege of Khaybar

(summer 628) the emigrants became wealthy. Although five of them died at this campaign, the wealth of Khaybar

ensured that there was no more difficulty about caring for widows.

There is one popular theory about Muslim war-widows

that, on examination, simply does not seem to be true. This is the oft-quoted

remark that Mohammed

married widows who were at risk of destitution, which also set an example to the surviving warriors to marry some of the widows. It has even been claimed that the great number of widows was what forced the early Muslims to become polygamous!

In fact there is no evidence that any of these widows was at risk of destitution - and certainly not the three who married Mohammed.

All the widows had families or patrons, and there is no record that the families refused to do their duty or that beggar-widows

were a burden on the community. Some of the widows remarried and others did not; but there is no evidence that their new husbands only took them in as an act of charity.
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It is the wisdom of Islam teachings (per Quran

and prophet rules) that limited the number of wives to four and subject to certain conditions. Most important of these conditions is to get the approval of former wife (or wives) before the new marriage and to treat them all equally. Sex outside marriage is strictly forbidden in Islam religion and is an awful sin if committed

.