The rock caused a gash on
the blessed face and broke
his teeth (Musannaf Abdul
Razzaq; Man Damma Wajha
al-Nabiyy a). Saalem, the
freed slave of Abu Huzayfa k,
washed the blood from the
blessed Prophet’s a face while
the Prophet a said, “How
can a nation that does such
a thing to their prophet gain
salvation” (Umdat al-Qari;
al-Siwak)?
Reality vs Principle
‘Utba was having an affair
with the bondswoman of
Zam‘a. Zam‘a was the father
of Sauda bint Zam‘a j, the
Mother of the Believers, and
the Prophet’s a father-in-law. ‘Utba
called on Sa‘d g before he migrated
to Madina Munawwara and said, “If
the girl (i.e. the bondswoman) has a
child, he/she is mine. Claim him/
her for me.” ‘Utba died shortly after
and Sa‘d g entered the Holy City in
the conquest of Makka Mukarrama in
7 A.H. There, Sa‘d g saw the son of
the bondswoman and recognized him
by his striking resemblance to ‘Utba.
He took the boy but was stopped by
‘Abd bin Zam‘a who asked him where
he thought he was going. Sa‘d g
explained that he was the uncle of the
child but ‘Abd bin Zam‘a said that the
child was, in fact, his younger brother.
The dispute was presented before the
blessed Prophet a.
Sa‘d g came holding the boy’s hand
with ‘Abd bin Zam‘a g in tow. ‘Abd
bin Zam‘a g was Sauda’s j brother.
He was a defendant in the litigation
against Sa‘d g who claimed that the
boy was his brother’s son. ‘Abd g
claimed that the boy was sired by his
father, Zam‘a, since the mother was
his father’s bondswoman. Legally,
the child was his father’s son and thus,
his sibling. The Prophet a patiently
listened to the arguments. He did
not miss the resemblance between
‘Utba and the boy, but also knew that
his mother had been a bondswoman
of Zam‘a, which established the
defendant’s legal right over the child.
The case was a moral tort. Truth
was with the defendant but the boy’s
face was the clearest DNA proof of
his lineage to ‘Utba. It was a matter
of principle vs reality. In principle,
the defendant was right, but the ugly
reality was on the side of the plaintiff,
Sa‘d bin Abi Waqqas g, that the child
was illegitimate.
The blessed Prophet a decided in
favor of ‘Abd g, the defendant, and
established the lineage of the child to
his legitimate family (Zam‘a). There
were two benefits in this without
disclaiming other benefits: first, to
legitimize the claim of Sad g would
be to sanction the unlawful act of
fornication and self-implicate Islam
as an amoral faith. The second is
that lineage is a part of the identity
that shapes who we are; we need it
for psychological and emotional
security, knowing that we are not
branches of a tree without any roots
in the ground. Marcus Garvey (1887-
1940) said rightly, “A people without
the knowledge of their past history,
origin, and culture is like a tree
without roots” (www.biography.com/
activist/marcus-garvey).
This is a benefit that can be
appreciated in our times
when the market for DNA
testing has opened up to
all those who are curious
to know more about their
ancestry. For many, it turned
out to be the beginning of a
lifetime of nightmares. As
Elle Hunt of the Guardian
writes, “Increasingly, DNA
tests are bringing to light
infidelities, adoptions,
cover-ups, and lies that
have been concealed for
decades. ‘There have been
cases of people learning that
they were conceived from
donated sperm or even that
they were switched at birth,’
says genealogist Debbie Kennett.
‘There have been a lot of secrets
covered up in the past, and they are
starting to come out.’” Most victims
who bought these DNA kits for fun
realized they had been conned by
immediate family, intentionally
or unintentionally, and are
psychologically scarred for life. “This
is one reason that the UK’s Human
Fertility and Embryology Authority is
now calling on DNA testing services
to warn customers about the possible
emotional fallout,” Elle Hunt adds.
(Hunt, Elle. “’Your Father’s Not Your
Father:’ When DNA Tests Reveal
More Than You Bargained For.” The
Guardian, 2018).
Of course, the verdict did not change
the reality about the resemblance
and the boy being the illegitimate
child of ‘Utba. The blessed Prophet
a deferred to this reality. The hadith
of Bukhari states that he ordered
his wife Sauda j, the legal sister of
the boy, to keep herself covered in
his presence (i.e. after he matures)
(Bukhari; Tafseer al-Mushabbahat).
Shining Stars
16 January - February 2020 | AL-MADINAH