Islamic tradition holds that Muhammad was the ideal man; pious and holy, set apart from all of the heathens of the world. If a person wants to be a proper Muslim in absolute submission to God, they need to imitate Muhammad (Qur’an 33:21). That is why so many Islamic fundamentalists are named Muhammad. That is why the Sunna (the compilation of the sayings and deeds of the historical Muhammad) are so important. Muslims need to know who Muhammad was so that they may also be like him. However, this has led to depravity on a cataclysmic scale. Men have appealed to the deeds of Muhammad to justify sexual immorality. But how is that, if Muhammad was the ideal man? I would like to suggest an alternative view, namely, Muhammad was not the ideal man. So, who was he? Was Muhammad a sexual deviant?
Muhammad married and had sex with a prepubescent girl, little Aisha. I hastily admit that I look at this marriage through western eyes, my perception honed by context. I point this out because that is the common Islamic response. They do not deny this. They simply reply that in those days, it was quite typical for younger girls to marry older men. However, the defense that they raise is that little Aisha had already gone through puberty by the time Muhammad had consummated his marriage with her.
The Islamic sources tell a different story. Muhammad proposed marriage to little Aisha when she was six years old, offering the romantic tale that God himself had decreed their marriage (Bukhari 9:87:140). However, at another time, Muhammad admitted that he married little Aisha because he was sexually aroused by the six year old (Bukhari 7:62:17). Further, while she was too undeveloped to have intercourse with the holy prophet, she was not so undeveloped that he could not fondle her and place his hand between her legs, according to the grand mufti Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Shemary (1809). He would also take baths with the six year old (Bukhari 1:6:298).
All of the hadiths concur that Muhammad consummated his marriage with little Aisha when she was nine years old. When she moved into Muhammad’s home (much to her fathers’ protest [Bukhari 7:18]), she still had her dolls with her. Little Aisha played with dolls, and Muhammad had sex with her (Muslim 8:3311). Was Muhammad a sexual deviant?
Muhammad stole wives from other men, sometimes after murdering the husband. This can be so difficult to fathom for westerners, because even if somebody is murdered in the west, the murderer then goes into hiding. They do not have the power nor the authority to steal that persons’ wife. But suppose they did? The man who murdered your husband is having sex with you, and do you think that is consensual sex? I seriously doubt it. That is rape.
But that is precisely what Muhammad did. A man named Kinana ibn al-Rabi knew where some treasure was hidden, and Muhammad tortured him so that he would surrender that information. Afterwards he struck his neck until he inflicted slaughter (Ibn Ishaq, Sirat Rassul Allah page 515). Then he took Kinana’s seventeen year old wife, Safiyyaa as a slave girl for a short period of time, until he married her (Bukhari 1:8:367). Thus, he raped Safiyyaa. Was Muhammad a sexual deviant?
Muhammad permitted his followers to rape widows and married women. Reread that sentence until the implications set in. Consider the sexual slavery that we see throughout the radical (or, orthodox) Muslims throughout the middle eastern world. ISIS takes Christian and Jewish women as sex slaves. This, of course, is abhorrent to many of our Muslim friends throughout the world. They call for the condemnation of these men in accordance with the religion of peace.
The problem is that the very Qur’an that they appeal to condones these practices. After battles, the Muslims would have a number of female captives. The Muslims men were afraid to take these women as spoils, because they might get them pregnant. Muhammad replied, “It is better for you not to [ejaculate outside of the vagina], for if any soul till the Day of Resurrection is predestined to exist, it will exist.” (Bukhari 5:59:459).
Further, when the Muslim men captured married women, and asked Muhammad if it was permissible to have sex with them, he replied that it was forbidden to have sex with a married woman, except those who your right hand possesses. (Qur’an 4:24). ‘Those who your right hand possesses’ is an idiom for those who are your captives. Thus Muhammad permitted this followers to have sex with married captives of war. Do you think this was consensual? Thus Muhammad permitted his followers to rape women. Was Muhammad a sexual deviant?
Muhammad allowed prostitution. Imagine a man who was so overcome with lust that he just could not control who he had sex with. Sometimes, this man would have sex with nine or ten women every day. This man is Muhammad. With so little self-control, he had sex with every women that he could find. He instituted a practice known as Mutta, which was a temporary marriage, that is, legal prostitution. Since it was illegal to have sex with somebody with whom you are not married, you need only marry them for one night. The Islamic sources teach that Muhammad’s followers practiced this during his lifetime, and it was later annulled by Umar (Muslim 3248). If Muhammad’s followers are practicing Mutta, one could hardly suspect that their leader was not also indulging himself. Was Muhammad a sexual deviant?
Muhammad took more wives than his own revelation allowed. Muhammad told his people that they were permitted to have as many as four wives (Qur’an 4:3). I am not in the business of criticizing him for polygamy, because surely, there are worse sins. But instead, I think it is worthy to point out that while Muhammad permitted Muslims to have four wives, he took more for himself. He had at least nine wives (Bukhari 7:62:142).
The reason for this is simply that he had sexual desires and he wanted to fulfill them. Not only that, but these raging sexual hormones were looked with favor by the divine. God wanted to give Muhammad all of the lusts of his heart (Bukhari 6:60:311). Now of course, that is a theological question that it might be difficult to refute. But I am just saying that it seems a little suspicious when a person institutes a law saying that one can only have four wives and then takes nine. It becomes even more suspicious when that person claims that the reason for this is none other than that God wants to give them more sexual partners. Was Muhammad a sexual deviant?
Muhammad’s conception of Paradise entails having sex with lots of young virgins. Imagine what Heaven will be like. Many Christians imagine seeing their lost loved ones, running toward them on a sandy shore. We hear of imagery of no more tears or pain. All of the pain of this world will be forgotten. I think that all of these things and so much more that we cannot even imagine will be there. But most importantly, Jesus Christ will be there. That is Heaven. To be with God.
Not for Muhammad. For Muhammad, Heaven is all about having sex with lots of girls. That common ’72 virgins’ in the Islamic utopia is straight out of the Qur’an and the Sunna. The righteous shall be wed to dark-eyed virgins (Qur’an 44:51-54). They will arrange in ranks, waiting in line to marry wide-eyed, fair, female virgins (Qur’an 52:20). “Which of your Lord’s blessings will you deny? Therein are bashful virgins who neither man nor jinnee have touched before.” (Qur’an 55:54-56). They will be chaste and fair, dark-eyed virgins, (Qur’an 55:70-74). They will have swelling breasts (Qur’an 78:31-34). This is the Paradise of Muhammad. Women. Many women to have sex with. Was Muhammad a sexual deviant?
Was Muhammad a sexual deviant? According to their own Islamic sources, Muhammad must have been a sexual deviant. If moderate Muslims want to follow Muhammad, they need to start marrying and having sex with girls who play with dolls. They need to start murdering men and stealing their wives. They need to start raping widows and married women when they capture them in war. They need to temporarily marry women just to have sex with them. They need to be so obsessed with sex, that the greatest place that they can conceive of, is full of it. If a Muslim wants to follow Muhammad, they need to be sexually depraved.
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