How many wives did the Prophet Muhammad have?

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ married eleven women over his lifetime, by the count most scholars give, and nine of them were living when he died. Anas ibn Mālik reported that in his last years he had nine wives at once (Sahih al-Bukhari 5068). For about twenty-five years, through his youth and middle age, his only wife was Khadija. Nearly all the women he married after her had been widowed or divorced, and most of these marriages took place in the last ten years of his life. The Quran honors his wives as “the mothers of the believers” (33:6). For the story of his life, see Who was the Prophet Muhammad?

Who were the wives of the Prophet ﷺ?

The eleven women usually listed, in the order of their marriages, are:

1. Khadija bint Khuwaylid, his first wife and his only wife for as long as she lived.
2. Sawda bint Zamʿa, a widow, who later gave her turn of nights to Aisha (Sahih al-Bukhari 5212).
3. Aisha bint Abī Bakr, the only one of his wives who had not been married before (Bukhari 5077), and later one of the great scholars of Islam (How old was Aisha?).
4. Ḥafṣa bint ʿUmar, widowed when her husband Khunays ibn Ḥudhāfa, a veteran of Badr, died in Medina (Bukhari 4005).
5. Zaynab bint Khuzayma, a widow, who died a few months after the marriage.
6. Umm Salama, widow of Abū Salama, who came with her young children (Sahih Muslim 918a).
7. Zaynab bint Jaḥsh, divorced from the Prophet’s ﷺ adopted son Zayd ibn Ḥāritha (33:37).
8. Juwayriya bint al-Ḥārith, a captive whose freedom the Prophet ﷺ paid before marrying her.
9. Umm Ḥabība bint Abī Sufyān, whose husband died in Abyssinia; the Negus conducted her marriage there (Sunan Abi Dawud 2107).
10. Ṣafiyya bint Ḥuyayy, a noblewoman of the Jewish tribes of Qurayẓa and al-Naḍīr, captured at Khaybar, whom the Prophet ﷺ freed, making her freedom her dowry, or mahr (Sahih al-Bukhari 5086).
11. Maymūna bint al-Ḥārith, the last woman he married (Bukhari 1837).

Khadija and Zaynab bint Khuzayma died during his lifetime; the other nine survived him. Māriya, an Egyptian woman who bore him his son Ibrahim, is usually listed separately, since the scholars differed over her status.

Why was Khadija his only wife for twenty-five years?

He married Khadija when he was a young man, and he took no other wife while she lived. Aisha said, “The Prophet ﷺ did not marry anyone else alongside Khadija until she died” (Sahih Muslim 2436). Years later he still sent gifts of meat to her friends, and when Aisha, jealous of her memory, spoke of her sharply one day, he answered:

«إِنِّي قَدْ رُزِقْتُ حُبَّهَا»

“I was granted her love as a gift.”

Sahih Muslim 2435b

The longest marriage of his life was a monogamous one, to a woman who supported him with her faith when no one else believed. Her story is told in Who was Khadija?

Why did the Prophet ﷺ marry so many women?

Most of his later marriages took place in Medina, in a society at war, when he was in his fifties and early sixties. Each has its own story, and three purposes appear again and again:

• Care for widows. Ḥafṣa, Umm Salama, Sawda, and Zaynab bint Khuzayma had lost their husbands, several of them to hardship or war, in a society where a widow with children could be left without support.
• Bonds between families and peoples. Aisha and Ḥafṣa were the daughters of his closest Companions, Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. Umm Ḥabība was the daughter of Abū Sufyān, then the leader of his opponents in Mecca.
• Freedom for captives. When the Companions heard that the Prophet ﷺ had married Juwayriya, they freed the captives of her tribe, saying they were now the Prophet’s ﷺ relatives by marriage. Aisha said she knew of no woman who brought greater blessing to her people: a hundred families were freed because of her (Sunan Abi Dawud 3931, graded hasan by al-Albani).

His marriage to Zaynab bint Jaḥsh also taught a legal point: the Quran declared that an adopted son’s former wife is lawful to marry, since adoption creates no blood tie (33:37).

Was the Prophet ﷺ allowed more than four wives?

The Quran set a limit of four for believers, with a warning that justice among wives is hard (4:3, 4:129), and it addressed the Prophet ﷺ with a ruling that was “for you alone, apart from the believers” (Quran 33:50). Then it closed the door:

لَّا يَحِلُّ لَكَ ٱلنِّسَآءُ مِنۢ بَعۡدُ

“No other women are lawful for you after this.”

Quran 33:52

His wives also had a free choice. When they asked for more than the household could give, Allah commanded him to offer each of them a gracious parting with a generous gift, or a life with him:

فَتَعَالَيۡنَ أُمَتِّعۡكُنَّ وَأُسَرِّحۡكُنَّ سَرَاحٗا جَمِيلٗا

“Come, I will provide for you and release you with a gracious release.”

Quran 33:28

He began with Aisha and told her to consult her parents before answering. She chose him, and so did the others (Sahih al-Bukhari 4785). For the rules of marriage for other Muslims, see How many wives can a Muslim have?

How did the Prophet ﷺ treat his wives?

He helped with the work of the house (Bukhari 676), raced Aisha while travelling, lost to her once and beat her years later, telling her, “This one is for that one” (Sunan Abi Dawud 2578), and followed Umm Salama’s advice at al-Ḥudaybiya when his Companions hesitated (Bukhari 2731). He set the measure for every husband:

«خَيْرُكُمْ خَيْرُكُمْ لأَهْلِهِ وَأَنَا خَيْرُكُمْ لأَهْلِي»

“The best of you is the one who is best to his family, and I am the best of you to my family.”

Jamiʿ al-Tirmidhi 3895, graded sahih by al-Albani

May Allah be pleased with the mothers of the believers, and make every home a place of the mercy he showed in his.