Muḥammad's Bond with the Women

The acceptance by the early women converts of Islam and of Muḥammad as the Apostle of the new monotheistic religion is expressed usually by a stereotyped phrase, which takes the form of "so-and-so became resigned to God and made a bond with the Apostle of God". At a later date a convert was merely required to repeat the shahādah, but Wensinck has shown that probably this creed was only evolved after Muḥammad's death. In the very early days the mere fact that a woman attended the prayer meetings held by Muḥammad was no doubt sufficient for her to be considered as a member of his community. This being so, what then was the significance of the bond made between the women converts and Muḥammad ? It was possibly made in order to give a more formal aspect to their conversion and to make solemn confession of their belief in one God and their allegiance to Muḥammad as his Apostle, as also to include their acceptance of his ordinances

Allegiance · Apostle · Bond · Confession (law) · Creed · Islam · Phrase · Political science · Prayer · Theology · Education and Islamic Studies · Historical and Linguistic Studies · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies

• Kinship & marriage in early Arabia

  W Robertson Smith•Kinship & marriage in early Arabia•1903

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