*The below is an unofficial and short summary of the Ahmadiyya Friday Sermon delivered (on 14th June 2019) by Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad Sahib, the fifth Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Community. Errors in it are very likely, and the fault behind any errors occurring below lies with me.*
Huzoor began with the mention of Hadhrat Zaid and the journey of the Holy Prophet undertaken to Taif, in which the former accompanied the latter. Besides Mecca, it was Taif which helds its value and importance amongst the Arabs. Whereas Mecca due the Kaaba being situated in it, the latter due to the fact that some of the most influential and rich people used to live there. There´s even a verse in the Holy Qur´an which refers to the objection of the disbelievers as to why the Qur´an hasn´t been revealed to some big man from amongst the two big towns. So this verse too bears witness to the value that Taif held in their view. This journey was undertaken only the Holy Prophet, after being elected as a Prophet, felt some freedom to move about in places. He stayed and preached the Message of Islam, and it was sadly rejected by them too. One day he visited some influential man of the town to present to him the Message of Islam. He mocked the Holy Prophet and warned him to leave the town. As the Holy Prophet was on his way back from Taif, that very man made some mischievous youths of the town to chase the Prophet as they pelted him with stones - injuring the Prophet as well as Hadhrat Zaid in the process as he tried to protect the blessed body of our beloved Prophet. They chased them for about three miles until they saw that they had taken refuge at the place of some influential man. The Prophet´s short stay was fruitful in the sense that a Christian slave of that man accepted Islam. The slave was taken aback at discovering that the Holy Prophet knew about Prophet Jonah, who was a Judeo-Christian Prophet. This led to a conversation between them which resulted in him accepting Islam.
Next up, Huzoor mentioned a female Companion of the Holy Prophet. She was amongst the wives of Hadhrat Zaid. She also participated in a couple of battles as she would give water to drink to the wounded Muslim soldiers. She was very grief-stricken at the death of the Holy Prophet. She used to say that she´s indeed saddened by the death of the Prophet, but she know that he was a human-being after all and was bound to die one day. However, what aggrieved her massively was the fact that Allah had now ceased communicating with them through divine revelation as used to be the case during the Prophet´s life. The Prophet once referred to her as being amongst the women of Paradise.
Huzoor also touched upon the subject of the marriage between Hadhrat Zaid and Hadhrat Zainab. This marriage itself was done at the proposal of the Holy Prophet. It lasted for around a year. A cause of differences between them was the difference in status between them, as she belonged to a noble and honourable family, whereas Hadhrat Zaid was after all a freed slave (of the Holy Prophet). This led to firstly Hadhrat Zaid feeling that his wife considered herself greater in status and felt that she used to show off, and secondly also the fact that Hadhrat Zaid himself used to consider himself inferior to her. When the matter was taken to the Holy Prophet, he judged that the fault probably lies with Hadhrat Zaid himself. So he advised him to keep her as his wife. In one Hadith, Prophet Muhammad had declared divorce of being the most disliked act in the Sight of Allah from amongst the things allowed in Islam. So he naturally wanted the best for the both and desired that the union should continue. This advice of the Holy Prophet, to keep her, is also recorded in the Holy Qur´an.
Now, the Prophet by now had been made aware beforehand through divine revelation that Hadhrat Zainab would end up becoming his own wife, but he still stayed tried his best to prevent a divorce between them. He didn´t want to play a role in their divorce. The differences continued to exist between the married couple as Hadhrat Zaid finally divorced her. After the completion of her Iddah, the Holy Prophet approached her for marriage as divine commandment was finally fulfilled. One of the reason behind this, as also laid out in the Holy Qur´an, was to abolish an ignorant Arab custom which considered adopted sons as real sons of the person who adopted them, and Hadhrat Zaid was an adopted son of the Holy Prophet. So a precedent was set through this marriage for the times to come.
Lastly, Huzoor also addressed the misconception that, since it was conducted under divine commandments, the ritual of Nikkah did not take place between the Holy Prophet and Hadhrat Zainab. Huzoor addressed the Ahadith which have led to people holding such wrong beliefs. The Nikkah did indeed take place between the two.
Rawal Afzal (Twitter: @R_A_Azaad).
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