Prophet Muhammad’s daughters, Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthoom, were married to disbelievers—the sons of his uncle, Abu Lahab, a man who fiercely opposed Islam. This fact, recorded in Al-Bidaya An-Nihaya by Ibn Katheer (Volume 5, page 75), exposes a glaring contradiction: while modern Muslims vehemently oppose inter-religious marriages, especially Muslim women marrying non-Muslim men, the Prophet’s own daughters were wedded to polytheists who hated Islam. This historical event, far from being a minor footnote, demands scrutiny and challenges the consistency of Islamic teachings on marriage.
Historical Account
The source, Al-Bidaya An-Nihaya (Volume 5, Miracles & Merits of Allah’s Messenger, translated by Darussalam Publishers & Distributors, page 75), states explicitly:
“As for Ruqayyah, the son of her paternal uncle ‘Utbah Ibn Abu Lahab, married her first just as his brother ‘Utaibah Ibn Abu Lahab married Umm Kulthoom. Thereafter they divorced them out of hatred of the Messenger of Allah when Allah (SWT) revealed…” The text then cites Surah Al-Masad (Surah 111):
“Perish the two hands of Abu Lahab, and perish he! His wealth and his children will not benefit him! He will be burnt in a Fire of blazing flames! And his wife too, who carries wood (thorns of Sa’dan which she used to put on the way of the Prophet). In her neck is a twisted rope of Masad (palm fiber).”
Abu Lahab, the Prophet’s uncle, and his wife, Umm Jamil, were notorious enemies of Islam. Umm Jamil tormented the Prophet by scattering thorns in his path, and Abu Lahab openly rejected his message. Their sons, ‘Utbah and ‘Utaibah, married Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthoom, likely before the Prophet’s mission began, when tribal alliances in pre-Islamic Arabia trumped religious divides. But after the revelation of Surah Al-Masad—a scathing condemnation of Abu Lahab and his family—these sons divorced the Prophet’s daughters out of spite for him. The text doesn’t say the marriages were consummated, and other sources, like Sahih al-Bukhari, suggest they were not. Later, Ruqayyah married Uthman ibn Affan, the future third Caliph, and after her death, Umm Kulthoom also married him.
Analysis
The irony is undeniable: today’s Muslims insist that a Muslim woman marrying a non-Muslim man is forbidden, yet the Prophet’s daughters were married to ‘Utbah and ‘Utaibah—polytheists and enemies of Islam. Islamic law now strictly prohibits such unions, arguing that a Muslim woman’s faith would be compromised under a non-Muslim husband. Meanwhile, Muslim men can marry Christian or Jewish women (People of the Book) under certain conditions. The marriages to Abu Lahab’s sons fly in the face of this double standard.
Were these marriages an exception? Perhaps they happened before Islam’s rules crystallized, in a time when tribal ties mattered more than faith. The divorces, triggered by Surah Al-Masad, suggest a shift—once Islam emerged, these unions became untenable. But that doesn’t erase the fact that they happened. The Prophet, revered as the ultimate example, had daughters married to disbelievers, a reality that clashes with the rigid prohibitions preached today.
Critique
This episode exposes a crack in Islamic consistency. If the Prophet’s daughters could marry disbelievers, why is it an absolute sin now? The text says the divorces came “out of hatred” for the Prophet after he “disrespected” Abu Lahab with Surah Al-Masad—a revelation that damned their father to Hell. This wasn’t a noble rejection of interfaith marriage; it was a petty act of vengeance. The marriages weren’t dissolved because Islam demanded it—they ended because Abu Lahab’s family despised the Prophet. That’s a flimsy basis for claiming divine consistency.
Critics can push further: if these marriages were okay then, why not now? Apologists might say Islam evolved, or that the rules tightened post-revelation. But that dodge raises more questions. Why didn’t the Prophet foresee the conflict and prevent the marriages? And if pre-Islamic customs explain it, doesn’t that admit Islamic laws are shaped by culture, not just divine will? The prohibition on Muslim women marrying non-Muslims looks arbitrary when the Prophet’s own family did it.
Other sources reinforce the critique. Sahih al-Bukhari and Ibn Hisham’s Sirah confirm Abu Lahab’s enmity and the marriages’ dissolution. Islamic jurists like Al-Ghazali and modern scholars uphold the ban on Muslim women marrying non-Muslims, citing Quran 2:221: “Do not marry polytheist women until they believe…”—a verse extended to men marrying Muslim women by analogy. Yet no such verse explicitly stopped Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthoom’s marriages until after the fact.
Conclusion
The marriages of Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthoom to ‘Utbah and ‘Utaibah, as documented in Al-Bidaya An-Nihaya (Volume 5, page 75), lay bare a contradiction in Islam. Muslims decry inter-religious marriages for women, but the Prophet’s daughters were wed to disbelievers—sons of a man cursed in the Quran. This wasn’t a minor lapse; it’s a historical fact that undermines the claim of timeless, unchanging rules. The divorces, driven by spite rather than doctrine, only deepen the inconsistency.
This forces a hard question: if the Prophet’s daughters married disbelievers, why can’t Muslim women today? Critics see hypocrisy; believers might see context. Either way, this event from Islam’s early days—backed by Ibn Katheer and the Quran itself—demands an honest reckoning, not excuses.
References:
- Ibn Katheer, Al-Bidaya An-Nihaya, Volume 5 (Miracles & Merits of Allah’s Messenger), Darussalam Publishers & Distributors, page 75. Link
- Sahih al-Bukhari, various narrations on the Prophet’s family and Abu Lahab’s enmity.
- Ibn Hisham, Sirah Rasul Allah, accounts of early Islamic history.
- Quran, Surah Al-Masad (111) and 2:221.