"In this world, women and perfume have been made dear to me, and my comfort has been provided in prayer." Is it a hadith? What does it mean?

- Hz. Anas said:
"In this world, women and perfume have been made dear to me, and my comfort has been provided in prayer." Reference: Nasai, Ishratun-Nisa 1, (7, 61)
- I saw this hadith on the internet. I will be glad if you interpret it.

Dear Brother / Sister,

1. (2137)- Hz. Anas (radiyallahu anh) narrates: "The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said,

"In this world, women and perfume have been made dear to me, and my comfort has been provided in prayer." [Nasai, Ishratun-Nisa 1, (7, 61).]

EXPLANATION:

1. Some scholars (like Zamakhshari and al-Qadi) that are not hadith scholars added the word three while reporting this hadith in their works and wrote: "Three things have been made dear to me in the world." However, hadith scholars like Zarkashi, Iraqi and Ibn Hajar refuse it because "it does not exist in the narrations" and "it distorts the meaning". The meaning is distorted because prayer is not something worldly. The Messenger of Allah does not attribute the world to himself in the hadith; he says “it has been made dear” in order to despise it; he does not say, "I love it". For, the Messenger of Allah hated the world more than anybody else did.

The following subtlety is deduced from the fact that passive voice "it has been made dear" is used in the hadith:

Love toward women and perfume does not exist in the nature of the Messenger of Allah. He was forced to love them with the purpose of mercy to slaves. Prayer is not like that; it is lovable due to its nature. It is also stated that what is meant by the word salah (prayer) in the hadith might be salawat uttered for the Prophet. The reason why prayer is shown respect is that it is included among the primary orders of the religion. Many hadiths confirm that prayer holds the highest position among the orders of the religion.

Scholars explain why women have been made dear through a few reasons:

1. An important part of the shari’ah was reported by women.

2. Women become a means for the increase of the ummah in number. The Messenger of Allah will be proud of the great number of his ummah in the face of other ummahs.

3. The woman is the best creature in the world. As a matter of fact, the Messenger of Allah states the following in a hadith: الدُّنْيَا مَتَاعٌ وَخَيْرُ مَتَاعِهَا الْمَرْأةُ الصَّالِحَةُ "The world is a thing; the best thing in it is a righteous woman."

Some scholars explain the mentioning of perfume with the fact that it is the share of the spiritual beings called angels in the world. Some hadiths state that angels like perfume. It is known by everybody that the love of perfume maintains the perfect degree in human nature.

First of all, we should state that the Prophet (pbuh) mentioned the best things together in the hadith: women and prayer. For, the woman is described as the best one of the worldly things. 

"The world consists of things; the best thing in it is a righteous woman."

As it is stated above, the best one of the orders of the religion is prayer. In that case, their being mentioned together is appropriate. The phrase "my comfort has been provided in prayer" is an expression that increases the fame of prayer. Ghazali expresses the reason why prayer is expressed as one of the worldly things as follows:

"Everything that is included in feeling and observation is in the realm of witnessing; therefore, they are regarded as worldly. The pleasure felt with the movement of the organs in sajdah and ruku’ is a worldly feeling; therefore, prayer is attributed to the world. A slave is sometimes identified with prayer so much and takes so much pleasure from it that prevention from prayer becomes one of the biggest penalties for him. As a matter of fact, some worshippers stated the following: "I did not use to fear death but it interferes between me and my tahajjud prayers." Some worshippers prayed as follows: "O Allah! Give me the power to perform prayers in the grave too."

The first remarkable thing about the life of marriage of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) is that he married many women.

We should state that the main reason why the Prophet (pbuh), who married Hz. Khadijah, a woman who was fifteen years older than him, when he was twenty-five years old and who regarded her enough until he was more than fifty years old, married many women in Madinah, which was the phase of the legislation and spread of Islamic decrees, was his duty of prophethood.

Those women determined the phase of the Sunnah related to family life, conveyed it to women and informed them about it. The scholars say, "Three things have been made dear to me in the world..." and explain that one of them is "women" and that the Messenger of Allah loved women because of "their service in the spread of Islam".

Another remarkable issue in marrying many women is the political aspect. As it will be mentioned later, his marriage with Hz. Safiyya brought about a bond of kinship with Khaybar Jews. His marriage with Juwayriyya caused seven hundred prisoners of war of Sons of Mustaliq to be freed without paying any ransom. His marriage with Umm Habiba, the daughter of Abu Sufyan, who was the leader of Makkans, caused Abu Sufyan to come to Madinah under the pretext of seeing his daughter in order to renew the Treaty of Hudaybiyya and to enter the house of the Prophet, decreasing his hostile feelings. The existence of a political aspect like spreading Islam in his other marriages cannot be denied.  

In order to understand how the Messenger of Allah used the political aspect of the bond of marriage, it is necessary to analyze how the political leaders that enabled the first establishment and spread of Islam were interconnected through the bond of marriage:

This core staff called Rightly-Guided Caliphs were virtually clenched with one another with the bond of marriage. Hz. Prophet (pbuh) were married to the daughters of Hz. Abu Bakr and Hz. Umar, becoming their son-in-law. He compensated the deficiency of the bond of marriage compared to Hz. Ali by marrying another daughter of his (after one of his daıghters) off to Hz. Uthman. It is an extraordinary political operation that the Messenger of Allah married Hz. Hafsa in order to please Hz. Umar and to eliminate the resentment that could occur in his heart toward Hz. Uthman and Hz. Abu Bakr because they refused to marry Hz. Hafsa and the crack that would occur among his staff."

It is also necessary to mention the role of the Prophet’s respectable wives in the comprehensive determination of the Sunnah. For, those women narrated many issues related to family life; in addition, they narrated many issues that occurred in the house but were outside the scope of the family and the issues that were impossible to be dealt with by men. 

Furthermore, the wives of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) acted as intermediaries between the Prophet (pbuh) and the women who had some problems related to many issues. The women sometimes felt too shy to mention a private issue to the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) directly and mentioned it to one of his wives. Then, they asked the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) about it. The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) sometimes answered the questions of some women indirectly and they had difficulty in understanding his answers. Then, one of the wives of the Prophet would explain the issues in a way that the women would understand. A good example of it is the following narration from Hz. Aisha. She said,  

"A woman from Ansar came to the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) and asked,

‘How should I be cleaned from menstrual blood?’ The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said,

‘Take a piece of cloth having the perfume of musk and clean it with it three times.’ The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) turned his face away in modesty. The woman did not understand what he said and asked again,

‘How should I clean?’ The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said,

‘Clean with it.’ When the woman asked again,

‘How?’, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said,

‘Subhanallah! Clean with it.’ I dragged the woman toward me and said to her,

‘Wipe the cloth over the places where blood smears.’". (Bukhari and Muslim narrated the hadith.)

One of the main reasons, rather the first reason, why the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) married many women is the determination of the Sunnah. For, it is really thought-provoking and significant that Hz. Prophet (pbuh), who remained married with only one woman who was fifteen years older than him in Makkah, married many women after he migrated to Madinah.

It is not possible to explain the marriages that took place after the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) was fifty-three, which is an age when sexual feelings and excitement fade away in men, with sexual purposes in the life of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh), who dedicated everything he had to a certain mission as some enemies of Islam claim stupidly. It will be incomplete to attribute them to political purposes only. It is necessary to make clear that there were purposes that aimed the determination of the Sunnah.

The inner life of the Messenger of Allah in terms of age, temper, knowledge and talents had to be seen and observed by observers of different talents and the things that were heard and the impressions had to be conveyed to the generations that followed. For, the ummah of billions of people to come up to the Day of Judgment needed his Sunnah; the best examples of his life related to every issue were to be found in his Sunnah. In that case, his inner life had to be followed by many women, not only one, and to be determined and recorded in detail.

As a matter of fact, some scholars explained the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh)

"Three things have been made dear to me in the world: women, perfume and prayer, which is the apple of my eye" as follows: "Women were made dear to the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) because they paid attention to the issues that men could not learn and would feel too shy to ask."

The wives of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) narrated an important part of the Sunnah. The service of especially Hz. Aisha is great in this regard. She is in the fourth place among those who narrated the most hadiths and who were called “mukthirun”. It is stated that Hz. Aisha was very brave related to asking questions and that she never kept silent but asked questions when she did not understand an issue.

By the way, it is necessary to remind the contributions of the other women Companions apart from the wives of the Prophet (pbuh) to the determination of the Sunnah. They also joined the meetings, congregation and even military expeditions with the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) and recorded what they heard and told them to others. Acting upon the enthusiasm and interest of the women in learning their religion, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) addressed only the women one day a week upon their demand.

(Prof. Dr. İbrahim Canan, Kutub as-Sitta Translation and Explanation)

Questions on Islam