wa sallam’, this person certainly has seen him, for the devil cannot assume the Prophet’s guise. Sarwar-i âlam ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ is now alive in a life we can not understand. His blessed body never rots. An angel stays in his tomb and informs him of the blessings which his Ummat (Muslims) invoke upon him. Between his pulpit and his blessed tomb is a place called Rawda-i-mutahhara. This place is one of the gardens of Paradise. It is one of the greatest and most valuable acts of worship to visit his blessed shrine. He said: “My shafâ’at is certain for him who visits my shrine.” Sarwar-i ’âlam ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ had three blessed sons and four blessed daughters, eleven blessed wives, twelve uncles and six paternal aunts. [In order to deceive youngsters, immoral and indecent people, the enemies of religion say that the Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ was fond of women and girls, and they insolently slander him by saying and writing very loathsome things which become their abominable souls, but of which we would be ashamed to write in this book of ours. Rasûlullah’s ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ first marriage was when he was twenty-five years old; he married Hadrat Khadîja. She was forty years old and a widow. But she had much property, beauty, wisdom, knowledge, honour, nobility, chastity and decency. They lived together for twenty-five years, and she passed away three years before the Hegira in the month of Ramadân in Mecca. As long as she was alive, Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ never entered into another marriage. The second marriage that Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ entered into was to Hadrat ’Âisha ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anha’, Hadrat Abû Bakr’s daughter, when he was fifty-five years old. He took her under his nikâh[1] one year after Hadrat Khadîja’s death, with the command of Allâhu ta’âlâ, and lived with her for eight years, until he died. He married all the others after marrying Hadrat Âisha ‘radiyAllâhu ’anhunna’ and did so for either religious or political reasons or out of mercy or as a kindness. All these women were widows. Most of them were old. For example, when the Meccan disbelievers’ persecution and harm to the Muslims had become [1] Marriage contract prescribed by Islam. Please see the twelfth chapter of the fifth fascicle of Endless Bliss for ‘nikâh’.
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