Honorable brother, this is the third lesson in the series dealing with the significance of the Prophet’s biography. I explained in the first two lessons the importance of this biography within the Islamic sciences.
Dear brother, in this lesson we explore the Prophet’s social context before the Revelation, or the historical dimension as termed in historical studies.

First: Holy Mecca is an uncultivated valley.

﴾ O our Lord! I have made some of my offspring to dwell in a valley without cultivation, by Thy Sacred House; in order, O our Lord, that they may establish regular Prayer ﴿

(Surat Ibrahim, Aya 37)

Sometimes all your worldly desires are fulfilled only to remove you farther from the purpose of your existence. This is a fact: worldly prosperity can become a veil between man and his Lord. Many countries enjoy great opulence, unequaled beauty and sensual pleasures. Yet this great prosperity, the stunning beauty, the exaggerated freedom have become a veil between men and their Creator. Other countries may suffer troubles, hardships, and poverty, yet the people are deeply devoted and strongly attached to religion.
So there is a relationship between the abundance of sensual pleasures and the intensity of spiritual activity, when Allah Almighty says:

﴾ O our Lord! I have made some of my offspring to dwell in a valley without cultivation, by Thy Sacred House; in order, O our Lord, that they may establish regular Prayer ﴿

So He may give you in order to deny you, and he may deny you in order to give you, for denial can be the essence of giving.

﴾ and it may be that you dislike a thing while it is good for you, and it may be that you love a thing while it is evil for you, and Allah knows, while you do not know ﴿

(Surat Al Baqara 216)

This worldly existence, dear brother, is nothing compared to the Hereafter.

‘This life compares to the Hereafter like the seawater on a needle compares to the sea it was dipped in’

(Al Tabarani in the Kabir, from the Mustawrad, Souyouti’s ranking: acceptable)

What quantity of water will you get from such needle?

So lesson number one is: if you live in a country, below your expectations, but you are close to Allah Almighty, then you are the big winner. And if you live in a country, be it like paradise on earth, and this paradise on earth stands between you and Allah, and distracts you from the Hereafter then you are the looser. So wherever Allah destined you to be, accept His decree, the Divine wisdom will soon be unveiled, for everything that happens is willed by Allah, and everything that Allah wills comes into being.
Allah Almighty reminds Quraish of His favors when He says in His Holy Book:

﴾ For the covenants by the Quraish, Their covenants (covering) journeys by winter and summer, Let them adore the Lord of this House, Who provides them with food against hunger, and with security against fear ﴿

(Surat Quraish)

The exegetes commented: the greatest blessing that Allah bestows on his worshippers is sustenance and security,

﴾ Who provides them with food against hunger, and with security against fear ﴿

﴾ Allah sets forth a Parable: a city enjoying security and quiet, abundantly supplied with sustenance from every place: Yet was it ungrateful for the favours of Allah: so Allah made it taste of hunger and terror (in extremes) (closing in on it) like a garment (from every side), because of the (evil) which (its people) wrought﴿

(Surat Al Nahl 112)

When you are one of those mentioned in the Tradition,

‘Whoever wakes secure in his flock, sound of body, having his daily sustenance, it is as though he possessed the whole world’

(compiled by Bukhari in the Adab, and by Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah, narrated by Abdalla Ibn Mohsen),

by ‘secure in his flock’ I mean the security that faith provides, when you believe, you feel you are at the heart of Allah’s Mercy, of His Consent, His Protection, His Support, His Guidance, His Patronage… For when Allah is with you no one can be against you, and when He is against you no one can be with you. This is a specific attendance which scholars described as attendance of assistance, support, guidance and protection.

﴾ Allah is with the believers﴿

(Surat Al Anfal, 19)

﴾ Allah is with those who restrain themselves. ﴿

(Surat Al Baqara, 194)

﴾ Faint not nor grieve, for ye will overcome them if ye are (indeed) believers ﴿

(Surat Al Amraan, 139)

Dear brother, the Prophet’s environment before the Revelation knew some forms of noble conduct, like bravery, sense of honor and generosity. This is why the Prophet, peace be upon him said:

‘I was sent as a teacher’

(Compiled by Ibn Majah from the narration of Abdalla Ibn Amr with a weak link)

‘I was sent to take noble ethics to perfection’

(Compiled by Al Hakem and Al Baihaqi from Abu Huraira)

‘The best among you before the advent of Islam are still the best after they became Muslims’

(Compiled by Bukhari, narrated by Abu Houraira)

And the Prophet explained to his companions:

‘You became a Muslim because of the good you did before Islam’

(Agreed upon)

This confirms that values like courage, generosity and sense of honor existed before the revelation. Antara used to say:

I look away if I see my (lady) neighbor until my neighbor’s home hides her away

(Poetry)

***

Is this not courtesy? This is why the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

‘I was sent to take noble conduct to perfection’

From all this we conclude that people who are righteous before they believe, before they find their way to Allah, because they are righteous, Allah Almighty takes them into his protection. Allah says:

﴾ He befriends the righteous﴿

(Surat Al Aaraf, 196)

And I in turn say, and this is an inference, especially that I address the young among you: if you are a young believer, righteous, continent, truthful, honest, then trust that Allah will provide, for Allah Almighty says:

﴾ Or do those who commit ill-deeds suppose that We shall make them as those who believe and do good works, the same in life and death? Bad is their judgment ﴿

(Al Jathia, 21)

So the noble ethics of the period prior to the Revelation was approved and adopted by Islam as inferred from the Prophetic traditions:

‘Truly I was sent to teach’

And

‘I was sent to take noble ethics to perfection’.

The tribe of Quraish was the crown jewel of the Arabic Peninsula, and leader of the Arabs.
This leads us to the question of lineage.
First: Lineage is a crown on the head of the faithful. The Prophet, peace and prayers be upon him described our Master Joseph as

‘the noble son of a noble, son of a noble, son of a noble, Joseph son of Jacob son of Isaac son of Abraham’.

(Compiled by Ahmad in his Musnad narrated by Abu Huraira, and Bukhari in the Sahih narrated by Ibn Omar),

But Allah Almighty says:

﴾ The power of Abu Lahab will perish, and he will perish. His wealth and gains will not exempt him. He will be plunged in flaming Fire, And his wife, the wood-carrier, Will have upon her neck a halter of palm-fibre. ﴿

(Surat Al Masad)

Yet Abu Lahab is the uncle of the Prophet.
This is to say: when there’s no faith, lineage looses its value, and with faith, lineage becomes a subject of honor for the faithful:

‘O Fatima daughter of Mohammad spare yourself hellfire, for I hold for you neither benefit nor harm’

(Compiled by Muslim)

‘Do not bring me your lineages while people bring me their deeds’.

‘If your deeds slow you up, your lineage will not move you any faster’.

(Narrated by Abu Al Rudain from the Prophet)

The Prophet peace and prayers be upon him, once entered a mosque and saw people sitting in a circle around a man. He asked, though he knew:

‘Who is this man?’

They said: ‘a genealogist’. He said:

‘And what is a genealogist?’

They said: ‘He knows the ancestries of the Arabs’. He said:

‘Here is a science that does not benefit those who learn it, and that does not hurt those who do not know it’.

This meaning can be found in some of the supplications of the Prophet, peace and prayers be upon him:

‘O Allah, I seek Your protection against a heart that is not humble, and knowledge that is not useful, and a prayer that is not answered, and a nature which cannot be satisfied, I seek your protection against those four’.

(Reported by Ibn Omar from Jaber, and Abu Huraira and Ibn Mas’ud, this is an ‘acceptable-authentic’ tradition)

Dear brother, there is a comment I should make: because life is short, time is fixed, and the passing days rush us closer to our fate …. we must be selective.
How? You are sitting in your library, the four walls lined up with books, and you have a decisive exam in two days time. Can you allow yourself to read a sermon during these two days? Of course not, you will be reading your textbook … for it would take you two hundred years to read the books published in a single language worldwide.
In the same manner, you should be selective and choose a book that profits you in this life and in the Hereafter, a friend whose behavior inspires you to seek Allah, and whose words guide you to Allah, choose a place where you feel closer to Allah Almighty. As for those who act according to their desires, meeting whoever they wish, reading any book they want, those who do not discriminate, those are the befooled on Judgment Day.
So lineage is the believer’s crown, but where there’s no faith, lineage no longer has a value:

Never say: my lineage and my offspring Man’s value is in what he achieved

(Poetry)

***

Now what did Quraish worship before the Revelation? Allah, Exalted is He, says:

﴾ They worship beside Allah that which neither hurteth them nor profiteth them, and they say: These are our intercessors with Allah﴿

(Surat Yunus, 18)

In another tribe, a man went to worship the idol and found that a fox had urinated on its head, so he said:

A god whose head foxes pee on? Vain is the god that foxes can pee on.

(Poetry)

***

The Arabs used to worship idols instead of Allah, and professed that idols brought them nearer to Allah. For not using their minds, they lost the Hereafter.

Dear brother, incidentally, in many countries East and West, people worship various deities instead of Allah. In some Asian countries the cow is worshiped. If it enters a market and eats of the most exquisite and expensive fruits, the owner of the place will be overwhelmed with joy, because the god entered his store and ate of his fruit. The cow’s dung is sometimes ornaments furniture in guest rooms during feasts, for it is a produce of their deity … where are their minds? There are other people in Asia who worship rats. I have a magazine with a picture of their temple, with thousands of rats which they serve the most precious foods, adoring them instead of Allah … where are their minds?
And in those very far lands to the east that have reached the highest levels of industrial success, some people worship the phallus, as a dear friend who visited their temple told me. There are also people that worship stones, the sun and the moon, the waves of the sea, all this because of the weakness of the human mind. So thank Allah Almighty that we got to know the true God who has power over everything:

﴾ They worship beside Allah that which neither hurteth them nor profiteth them, and they say: These are our intercessors with Allah﴿

Then this idolatry became so deep-rooted that they said:

﴾ Do you really bear witness that there are other gods with Allah?﴿

(Surat Al Anaam, 19)

Dear brother, one of the weirdest things I read a few months ago, is that a newspaper in a neighboring country published an article where the writer claims that the gods of Quraish were democratic because they accepted disagreement, while Mohammad’s god was totalitarian and repressive because he refused to share his divinity with other gods. Isn’t this the very ignorance of pre-Islamic paganism?
When Allah Almighty says:

﴾ and make not a dazzling display, like that of the former Times of Ignorance?﴿

(Surat Al Ahzab, 33)

Could He have meant that there will be a second period of ignorance? Indeed.

On the other hand, Quraish had laws unwarranted by Allah, Allah Almighty says:

﴾ But say not - for any false thing that your tongues may put forth,- "This is lawful, and this is forbidden," so as to ascribe false things to Allah﴿

(Al Nahl, 116)

This is why wrongdoings are ranked in increasing degree of odiousness: Allah mentions: shameful and shocking deeds, sins and transgressions, polytheism and atheism, and then the greatest offense of all:

﴾ and that ye should say of Allah that of which ye have no knowledge ﴿

(Al Baqara, 169)

They shared among themselves silly, risible beliefs.
Concerning creed, they professed that Allah Almighty was not one, but had associates, they did not believe in His names and attributes, they gave the angels girl names and claimed they were Allah’s daughters, they believed that the Jinn were partners of Allah, they did not believe in Predestination. Allah tells us that they said:

﴾ Those who give partners (to Allah) will say: "If Allah had wished, we should not have given partners to Him nor would our fathers; nor should we have had any taboos ."So did their ancestors argue falsely, until they tasted of Our wrath. Say: "Have ye any (certain) knowledge? If so, produce it before us. Ye follow nothing but conjecture: ye do nothing but lie ﴿

(Surat Al Anaam, 148)

They denied Judgment Day, Resurrection, the Hereafter, accountability, heaven and hell, even though they believed in the divine nature of their gods.
So they did not believe in Resurrection, they claimed angels are Allah’s daughters, that the Jinn are his partners, they made laws as they pleased, they did not feel bound by previous religions.

﴾ They swear their strongest oaths by Allah, that Allah will not raise up those who die ﴿

(Surat Al Nahl, 38)

As for worship, they used to circumambulate the Holy Ka’abah bare, and had other unacceptable and illogical practices. This is why when the period separating two prophets becomes prolonged, people will need a prophet to renew their religion and to restore their knowledge of Allah Almighty.

﴾ and if you say, surely you shall be raised up after death, those who disbelieve would certainly say: This is nothing but clear magic﴿

(Surat Hud, 7)

Dear brother, it is important to elucidate this fact. Verbal denial can be remedied, but a denial in conduct is irremediable, unspoken heresies cannot be mended.
Say we have a scale. If there’s an error, it will be due either to the scale itself, or to the weighing operation. Errors due to the scale cannot be corrected, but errors due to the weighing do not persist. It is far better to err in weighing then to have a defective scale.
This is why creed is fundamental: If a man’s beliefs are sound so will his deeds be; and if his beliefs are false his deeds will be false too. I’m tempted to say that creed is the most important aspect of religion, if it is valid, the ensuing deeds will be valid too, and if there’s an error, it will be a weighing error not a flaw in the scale. An error in creed is like the defect in the scale, and an error of conduct is like the weighing error. The errors in creed cannot be fixed, while the error in weighing does not persist. If creed did not affect conduct, I would say: believe what you please. But because every belief has a perverse effect on conduct, you will have to rectify your creed, rectify your ideas.
Dear brother, if a Moslem imagined that the Prophet will intercede for those of his people guilty of grave sins, not concerned with other than a superficial understanding of the tradition (Hadith), what would impel him to be righteous? Nothing, because he wrongly believed that the Prophet, peace and prayers be upon him, will intercede for him.
Incidentally, it is a serious mistake, if you are not knowledgeable, to settle for your own understanding of a tradition, and then to infer what you please and act accordingly, a very serious mistake indeed! The intercession of the Prophet is a profound topic that has its roots in several traditions. To get to a religious ruling, the jurists gather and study all the texts relevant to the topic: ayahs, traditions, the Prophet’s deeds and avowals, deeds of the companions, reasons of revelation, reasons of the tradition … But for a man, in these times, to learn a tradition, explain it as he pleases, and base rulings on it!? This is definitely not acceptable. Only devoted monotheists deserve the Prophet’s intercession. If you are a devoted monotheist then you are a hair’s breadth away from salvation, as the expression goes.
A student takes an exam in ten courses, passes nine of them brilliantly, and needs one point to pass the tenth. This student deserves the intercession. But to have ten zeros and hope for an intercession? This would be utter idiocy.
Imagine a student saying to his classmate: ‘do not study, our teacher is kind-hearted, he sympathizes with you on exams, just pretend you are crying and he will give you the answer, do not study’. Some Muslims understand intercession like this.

‘O Fatima daughter of Mohammad, O Abbas uncle of Mohammad spare yourselves hellfire, for I hold nothing which can avail you against Allah’

‘Do not bring me your lineages while people bring me their deeds’.

‘If your deeds slow you up, your lineage will not move you any faster’.

Those are the Prophet’s words, and Allah almighty says:

﴾ Is he on whom the word of doom is fulfilled, and canst thou (O Muhammad) rescue him who is in the Fire? ﴿

(Surat Al Zumar, 19)

Again I say, were it not for the relationship between believing and behaving, I would say believe what you wish, but every belief has an impact on conduct, good or bad. So watch what you believe, go over your ideas and compare them to the Holy Book and the Traditions: What complies, gladly accept, and what does not, reject.
Dear brother, attending lessons is an investment in your time. Imam Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, says: ‘knowledge is better than money, because knowledge preserves you while you preserve money, and because money is diminished by spending while knowledge prospers beyond spending’.

Two short stories:

A cab driver picked up a woman. Once in the car, he asked her where to head, she said: ‘Anywhere you wish’. He saw she was easy prey, and he indulged himself ... She left him two envelopes. He opened the first envelope to find a large sum in dollars, the second contained this note: welcome to the AIDS club! He was infected with AIDS. It also turned out that the dollars were counterfeit, and he was arrested and sent to jail when he tried to exchange them. If he had learned, the minute she said take anywhere you wish, he would have let her off and said: I fear Allah Lord of the worlds.
In my first sermon at the Nabulsi mosque, back in 1974, an older man approached me crying. When I inquired he said: ‘My wife is cheating on me’. I asked: ‘with who’, he said: ‘With my neighbor’. I said: ‘How did they meet? He said: ‘One day he visited me and I asked her to join us, so she won’t be alone, saying: he is like your brother, that’s how it started’. I said: ‘If you had educated yourself, you wouldn’t have done this’.
Honorable brother, I hope you pay close attention to this rule: every single affliction on the face of the earth, from Adam to the Judgment Day, is caused by a departure from Allah’s scheme, and every departure from Allah’s scheme is caused by ignorance. Ignorance is man’s worst enemy, and the ignorant can cause more harm to himself than his enemy can. When you attend learning sessions you secure your safety and welfare in this world and in the Hereafter, because you learn the maker’s instructions, and no one deserves to be obeyed more than the maker, because he is the expert.

﴾ None can inform you like Him Who is Aware﴿

(Surat Fatir, 14)

So Quraish denied Resurrection, the Afterlife and Predestination, they worshiped idols which they claimed brought them closer to Allah, and other things…then it became clear how ignorant and weak they were. They even altered the remnants that reached them of the cult of Abraham, peace be upon him, denying that it should be in ‘Arafat and Muzdalifa, and Allah addressed them after the revelation of the Qur’an:

﴾ Then hasten onward from the place whence the multitude hasteneth onward, and ask forgiveness of Allah. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful﴿

(Surat Al Baqara, 199)

So they changed, altered and perverted until they ‘adored’ Allah as they pleased. But the noble Ayah says:

﴾ And their prayer before the House is nothing but whistling and clapping of hands﴿

(Al Anfal, 35)

Dear brother, I attended the Conference on Religions in Washington, and I saw the world’s religions and rites. They were 18 in number, and believe me, all these religions invented by man are mere dance, singing and music.

﴾ And their prayer before the House is nothing but whistling and clapping of hands﴿

When our worship looses in quality, it becomes mere chants and chanters, music, banquets and celebrations. The more we deviate from the true meaning of religion, the more we indulge in the pleasant, not the demanding, and the religious obligation is demanding. It is very nice to sing the praises of the Prophet of Allah, but it is not good to stop there and go no further. Some things are light, some demand an effort.

﴾ Do ye make the giving of drink to pilgrims, or the maintenance of the Sacred Mosque, equal to (the pious service of) those who believe in Allah and the Last Day ﴿

(Surat Al Tawba, 19)

Some people have great wealth, they build a minaret at their expense, and the inscription will say: this minaret was built by the great benefactor so-and-so. I am not trying to belittle spending on mosques, orphanages, charities and hospitals, it is a great deed, but the only bother for you is the time it takes to give your approval. While Islam is a comprehensive system, do’s and don’ts, duties and obligations, bans and prohibitions, disapproved matters … you cannot pick what you please, it is a complete scheme that should be accepted as a whole else none of its fruits can be reaped.

Dear brother, Quraish ethics, their customs and practices before the Revelation were many, some of which were abolished by Islam. They indulged in wine drinking, they practiced gambling, they married women in unlimited numbers, they slew their children for fear of indigence, and they buried new-born girls alive for fear of shame and poverty. Allah Almighty says:

﴾ And when the girl-child that was buried alive is asked For what sin she was slain ﴿

(Surat Al Takwir, 8)

I do not want to exaggerate, but just to draw your attention to a few facts. This ignorant man that lived before the revelation, takes his daughter, fresh as a flower, pure as an angel, and buries her alive. Allah says:

﴾ And when the girl-child that was buried alive is asked For what sin she was slain ﴿

Nowadays this practice has disappeared. But on the other hand, today’s father gives his daughter complete freedom to go out whenever she pleases, dressed as she pleases, displaying her charms for everybody to see, heedless of the ethical, religious or legal restraints. So she becomes depraved and perverts sh3er, she strays and leads sh3er astray. This girl will say on Judgment Day: O Lord, I will not enter hellfire before I make my father enter it too. This is the meaning of the words of Allah Almighty:

﴾ And temptation is more grievous than slaughter ﴿

(Surat Al Baqara, 191)

Somebody once asked me during a lesson: men have their own specific worship like the Friday prayer, praying in congregation and joining the holy war (Jihad) for Allah’s cause. Do women have worship specific to them? Of course they do, the Prophet, peace and prayers be upon him, says:

‘Go now woman, and tell the women you know that being a good spouse, seeking to please your husband, and abiding by his will equals all that’.

(Narrated by Asma’ Bint Yazid Al Ansariya)

It is great that caring for husband and children is a sort of Jihad in Allah’s cause. But greater yet is a worship that is specific to women, which I call ‘preserving the virtue of young men’. Men may wear light clothes in summertime, this is peculiar to men. But young faithful women always wear ample compact clothes that do not betray their skin color or the form of their body. This can be a burden, but this is worship. So if a woman asks: what worship did Allah intend for women only? I say: the worship of ‘preserving the virtue of young men’, for every woman who displays her charms and perverts a young man will be accountable for this perversion on Judgment Day.

Before Islam there were no limits to the number of wives, and people used to slay their children because of penury. Allah Almighty says:

﴾ And that ye slay not your children because of penury﴿

(Surat Al Anaam, 151)

meaning actual poverty.

﴾ Slay not your children, fearing a fall to poverty ﴿

(Surat Al Isra’, 31)

meaning an expected poverty.

So it is prohibited to slay the daughter in a condition of want that exists or that is feared and expected to happen. Apply this to our times: When you accept that your son earn a high income at the expense of his piety, is this not a kind of slaying? Numerous are those who are unconcerned with the faith of their children or their conduct, so they become corrupt though making lots of money. This should be taken into consideration too.

They waged wars for the most trivial of reasons: one of them would stretch out his leg and challenge: let those nobler than me strike it! And when somebody does, wars break out that last decades, destroying everything. This is ignorance too. Allah Almighty says:

﴾ And if one of them hath tidings of that which he likeneth to the Beneficent One, his countenance becometh black and he is full of inward rage ﴿

(Surat Al Zukhruf, 17)

They said that the angels are Allah’s daughters, and when they are told they have a daughter

﴾ … his countenance becometh black and he is full of inward rage ﴿

As for the faithful, they are like the Prophet, peace and prayers be upon him, when they brought him news of Fatima’s birth, he hugged her, filled himself of her scent and said:

‘A fragrant flower to smell, and Allah will provide for her’.

(Reported prophetic tradition)

A friend of mine has seven daughters. Every time his wife got pregnant and was ready to deliver, he had a big gift ready, in case she gave birth to a girl, to reassure her that she still had his highest esteem. Thus is the faithful.

﴾ When news is brought to one of them, of (the birth of) a female (child), his face darkens, and he is filled with inward grief! With shame does he hide himself from his people, because of the bad news he has had! Shall he retain it on (sufferance and) contempt, or bury it in the dust? Ah! what an evil (choice) they decide on?﴿

(Surat Al Nahl, 58-59)

The Prophet, peace and prayers be upon him, said:

‘Honor women, for by Allah, only the noble honor them, and only the vile humiliate them. They dominate the noble, and the vile dominate them, and I would rather be noble and dominated than be dominating and villain’.

(Reported in the prophetic tradition)

He also said:

‘For they are the dear companions’

(Compiled by Ahmad in his Musnad, and by Al Tabarani in AlKabir, reported by ‘Uqba Ibn Amer)

And the Prophet, peace and prayers be upon him, made homes the place where a man earns the highest degree of excellence, he says:

‘The best among you are the best to their family, and I am the best to my family’

(Compiled by Tirmidhi from Aisha, Ibn Majah from Ibn Abbas, Al Tabarani in the Kabir from Mo’awiya)

A man outside his home, in a sort of diplomacy, is forbearing, delicate, smiling, apologetic, well dressed, but at home no one controls him… What counts is how you are at home, for the Prophet, peace and prayers be upon him says:

‘The best among you are the best to their family, and I am the best to my family’

Allah Almighty says:

﴾ O you who believe! intoxicants and games of chance and (sacrificing to) stones set up and (dividing by) arrows are only an uncleanness, the Satan's work; shun it therefore that you may be successful ﴿

(Surat AlMaeda, 90)

Some of those who strayed from the path of Allah Almighty imagine that the word ‘shun’ does not imply total prohibition. On the contrary , it expresses the strongest degree of prohibition, for when you are forbidden from something, you are forbidden to engage in it, while here the Prophet, peace and prayers be upon him, says:

‘Allah Almighty has cursed wine and those who drink it, serve it, buy it, sell it, those who press it , who order the pressing, those who carry it, those it is carried to and those who spend its price.’

(Compiled by Abu Dawud and Al Hakem in the Mustadrak from Ibn Omar)

This requires you to keep a safe distance between you and wine, and this why shunning is among the strongest terms used for prohibition.

Several sorts of marriages none different from prostitution prevailed in the social context of the Prophet, peace and prayers be upon him.
Among these marriages is the ‘insemination marriage’, where a man orders his wife to go to so-and-so and mate with him, hoping she bears his child, because he may be good looking, strong or smart…
There was also the ‘group marriage’, where ten men share one woman in marriage, and I think that I have already mentioned to you that the latest scientific research established that every man has an identity, a unique iris, a unique scent. None of the six billion people living on earth share the same iris characteristics, the same voice, scent, fingerprints, cell or blood type. Recently a new differentiating element was added to the list: the semen. Every individual seminal fluid has a specific composition different from all sh3er. And it was discovered that women possess a computing mechanism for processing this semen. As long as it is supplied with the same semen time after time, everything goes normally. But if different seminal fluids meet, the woman risks cancer of the uterus.
For new semen to be safely introduced, the supply of the first semen must be stopped for a period of three months, to give the processing mechanism time to rid itself of previous information, this is the legal waiting period prescribed in the Holy Qur’an. But if this is accompanied with emotional suffering, then a four month period is needed, which coincides with the legal waiting period prescribed for widows. I heard these considerations in an Islamic conference in Cairo, fully detailed and supported by elaborate experiments and research.
This is the ‘group marriage’ where ten men marry one woman, and then she decides who the father will be.

There was also the ‘flag marriage’ or brothels, houses with a flag indicating that the woman makes a living selling her body, while the pre-Islamic saying goes: a free woman prefers hunger to living off her bosoms.
Corrupt beliefs, corrupt conduct, erratic proscriptions, corrupted marriages, wine, gambling, injustice, aggression, burying girls alive, slaying children, this was the state of ignorance at the time the Prophet peace and prayers be upon him, was sent.

Allah willing, we shall continue these lessons to deepen our understanding of the life of the Prophet, peace and prayers be upon him. Every topic in these lessons will provide us with a rule to live by. If possible we will compare that period to ours to better understand the lesson, like I have compared burying a girl alive to the excess of freedom she is given nowadays, which is more dangerous? Excess freedom, because the girl buried alive goes to heaven, as for her, she goes to hell taking her father with her.