Short answer
Not from desire. The Prophet (ﷺ) married Khadijah, a widow older than him, when he was twenty-five. She was his only wife for about twenty-five years, until she died. Apart from Sawdah and Aisha, all came after he was fifty-three. By then he led a state at war and lived in poverty. Every wife but Aisha had been married before. The marriages sheltered widows, joined tribes and freed a captive. Other Muslims may marry up to four; he alone had permission for more. God (﷾) forbade any man to marry his wives after him. This is why scholars say he was not told to divorce any of them, to bring the number down to four. Later God (﷾) forbade him to marry again. Even when that ban was lifted, he took no new wife into his household. Islam's answer is that God (﷾) governed these marriages and they served the message.
Full explanation
Twenty-five years with one wife
The Prophet (ﷺ) married Khadijah before his prophethood, when he was twenty-five. By the biographers' count she was forty and had been married before. He took no other wife while she lived. His youth and early manhood were spent with one wife. Sawdah married him in Mecca after Khadijah's death, and Aisha's marriage was contracted there. Every other marriage came after the Hijra, his move from Mecca to Medina, when he was over fifty-three.
Aisha reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) did not marry any other woman until Khadijah died.
Lists the Prophet's (ﷺ) wives in order. Khadijah was the first: he married her before prophethood, when he was twenty-five and she was forty, and married no one else until she died. Sawdah followed in Mecca soon after Khadijah's death, then Aisha. The rest he married after the Hijra: Hafsah, Zaynab bint Khuzaymah (who died about two months after the marriage), Umm Salamah, Zaynab bint Jahsh, Juwayriyah, Umm Habibah and Safiyyah. Umm Habibah, daughter of Abu Sufyan, was widowed in Abyssinia and married to the Prophet there by the Negus. Maymunah, married in the seventh year after the Hijra, was the last.
- Age 25
Khadijah
The Prophet (ﷺ) married Khadijah, who had been married before. By the biographers' count she was forty.
- About 25 years
One wife
Khadijah was his only wife until she died.
- In Mecca
Sawdah
After Khadijah's death he married Sawdah in Mecca.
- After 53
The later marriages
Apart from Sawdah and Aisha, all his other marriages came after he was fifty-three.
- Those years
A household of poverty
Two months could pass with no fire lit to cook in his houses, and the family lived on dates and water.
Who the wives were
Aisha was the only one of his wives who had not been married before. Hafsah was a widow. Her father had offered her to Uthman and Abu Bakr before the Prophet (ﷺ) asked for her. Umm Salamah was a widow with children. She had prayed for someone better than her late husband. The biographers report that the Prophet (ﷺ) paid for the freedom of Juwayriyah and married her. She was the daughter of the chief of Banu al-Mustaliq, an Arab tribe. They report that the Muslims then freed about a hundred families of her people. They also report that Umm Habibah was widowed in Abyssinia, and the Negus, the king there, married her to the Prophet (ﷺ). Safiyyah was freed, and her freedom made her dowry. The Prophet (ﷺ) knelt so she could mount her camel. He defended her when she was taunted for her Jewish birth.
Aisha asked the Prophet (ﷺ), as a parable, whether he would graze his camel on a tree already eaten from or on one untouched, and he chose the untouched one. The narrator explains that she meant the Prophet had married no virgin besides her.
Umar reports that when his daughter Hafsah was widowed by the death of Khunays ibn Hudhafah, a Companion who died in Medina, he offered her in marriage first to Uthman and then to Abu Bakr. Neither accepted, and some days later the Prophet (ﷺ) asked for her hand.
Umm Salama reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) taught: when a Muslim struck by a calamity says what Allah commanded, "To Allah we belong and to Him we return; O Allah, reward me in my affliction and give me something better in its place", Allah gives him something better. When her husband Abu Salama died she wondered who could be better than him, but she said the words, and Allah gave her the Messenger of Allah in marriage.
Reports that Juwayriyah, daughter of al-Harith, chief of Banu al-Mustaliq, was taken captive in the raid on her tribe. The Prophet (ﷺ) paid for her freedom and married her. When the Muslims heard that her people were now his relatives by marriage, they set free the captives they held, and about a hundred families of Banu al-Mustaliq were freed.
Lists the Prophet's (ﷺ) wives in order. Khadijah was the first: he married her before prophethood, when he was twenty-five and she was forty, and married no one else until she died. Sawdah followed in Mecca soon after Khadijah's death, then Aisha. The rest he married after the Hijra: Hafsah, Zaynab bint Khuzaymah (who died about two months after the marriage), Umm Salamah, Zaynab bint Jahsh, Juwayriyah, Umm Habibah and Safiyyah. Umm Habibah, daughter of Abu Sufyan, was widowed in Abyssinia and married to the Prophet there by the Negus. Maymunah, married in the seventh year after the Hijra, was the last.
Anas reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) set Safiyyah free and made her freedom her dowry.
Anas reports that after Khaybar the Prophet (ﷺ) married Safiyyah, whose husband had been killed. On the way to Medina he made a seat for her with his cloak on his camel, and knelt so that she could step on his knee to mount.
Anas reports that Safiyyah wept because Hafsah had called her the daughter of a Jew. The Prophet (ﷺ) told her that she was the daughter of a prophet, her uncle was a prophet, and she was married to a prophet, so Hafsah had nothing to boast of over her; and he told Hafsah to fear Allah.
A household of poverty
These were not the years of a sultan with a harem. Two months could pass with no fire lit to cook in the houses of the Prophet (ﷺ), and the family lived on dates and water. Umar found him lying on a bare mat of palm leaves, its marks pressed into his side. His wives chose that life with him over the comforts of this world.
Aisha told her nephew Urwa that three new moons could pass, two months, without a fire being lit to cook in the Prophet's (ﷺ) houses. They lived on dates and water, and some milk that Ansari neighbours sent them.
Umar found the Prophet (ﷺ) lying on a mat of palm leaves with nothing between him and it, a leather pillow stuffed with palm fibre under his head. Seeing the marks of the mat on his side, Umar wept, saying that Caesar and Khosrau lived in luxury while he lived in want. The Prophet asked whether he was not content that they should have this world and the believers the Hereafter.
Aisha reports that when the Prophet (ﷺ) was commanded to give his wives the choice in Qur'an 33:28-29, he began with her and told her not to answer before consulting her parents. She said she had no need to consult them: she chose Allah, His Messenger and the Home of the Hereafter. All the Prophet's other wives then did the same.
Why he married them: the scholars' reasons
Ibn Hajar, a commentator on Sahih al-Bukhari, gathers the reasons Muslim scholars give. First, many witnesses to his private life would end the charge that he was a sorcerer. Second, marriage ties would join the tribes of Arabia to him and win their hearts. Third, his wives would teach the rules of home and family that men do not see. The Qur'an tells them to pass on what they heard in their homes. Fourth, his character would be seen where no one can pretend. The daughters of his enemies came to love him above their own families.
Gathers the scholars' explanations of the wisdom in the Prophet's (ﷺ) many marriages. Among them: that many people should witness his private life, so the idolaters' charge that he was a sorcerer would fall away; that the tribes of Arabia should be honoured by marriage ties with him and their hearts won; that his wives should pass on the rulings of home and family that men do not see; and that his character at home should be shown. He married Umm Habibah while her father was his enemy, and Safiyyah after her father, uncle and husband were killed, yet he was dearer to them than all their families.
“And recite what is rehearsed to you in your homes, of the Signs of Allah and His Wisdom: for Allah understands the finest mysteries and is well-acquainted (with them).”
Rules stricter than any other man's
The Qur'an made the wives of the Prophet (ﷺ) the Mothers of the Believers, a title of honour. It forbade any man to marry them after him. It told him to offer every wife a divorce with a gift, and all of them chose to stay. Then it forbade him to marry again, or to exchange any wife for another, whatever her beauty. Ibn Kathir, a scholar of the fourteenth century who explained the Qur'an, reports from Ibn Abbas that this was a reward for the wives' choice. Aisha reports that the ban was lifted before he died. Yet, as Ibn Kathir notes, he took no new wife into his household after Maymunah.
“The Prophet is closer to the Believers than their own selves, and his wives are their mothers. Blood-relations among each other have closer personal ties, in the Decree of Allah. Than (the Brotherhood of) Believers and Muhajirs: nevertheless do ye what is just to your closest friends: such is the writing in the Decree (of Allah).”
“Nor is it right for you that ye should annoy Allah's Messenger, or that ye should marry his widows after him at any time. Truly such a thing is in Allah's sight an enormity.”
“O Prophet! Say to thy Consorts: "If it be that ye desire the life of this World, and its glitter,- then come! I will provide for your enjoyment and set you free in a handsome manner. But if ye seek Allah and His Messenger, and the Home of the Hereafter, verily Allah has prepared for the well-doers amongst you a great reward.”
Aisha reports that when the Prophet (ﷺ) was commanded to give his wives the choice in Qur'an 33:28-29, he began with her and told her not to answer before consulting her parents. She said she had no need to consult them: she chose Allah, His Messenger and the Home of the Hereafter. All the Prophet's other wives then did the same.
“It is not lawful for thee (to marry more) women after this, nor to change them for (other) wives, even though their beauty attract thee, except any thy right hand should possess (as handmaidens): and Allah doth watch over all things.”
Reports from Ibn Abbas, Mujahid, al-Dahhak, Qatadah and others that 33:52 was revealed as a reward to the Prophet's (ﷺ) wives for choosing Allah and His Messenger: he was forbidden to marry others or to exchange them. He then cites Aisha's report that before he died this was made lawful for him again, and notes that he did not marry anyone else.
Aisha reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) did not die until marrying women had been made lawful for him again.
Why four for others, and not for him
The Qur'an limits every Muslim man to four wives, and to one if he fears he cannot be fair. The commentators Ibn Kathir and al-Qurtubi explain that having more than four was a privilege particular to the Prophet (ﷺ). A fair question follows. When later marriages were closed to him, why did he not reduce his wives to four? Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a modern scholar, answers that a divorced wife could never marry again. She would also lose her place in his house. That would be a punishment for no sin of hers. So all of them stayed his wives.
“If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, Marry women of your choice, Two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice.”
Writes that, according to the scholars, marrying more than four wives was one of the particular privileges of the Messenger of Allah, not allowed to anyone else in the Muslim community.
States that the Prophet's (ﷺ) having more than four wives is among his particular privileges.
Argues that because the Qur'an barred the Prophet's (ﷺ) wives from ever marrying another man, a wife he divorced would have stayed unable to marry for the rest of her life, and would also have lost her place in his household: a punishment for a sin she never committed. Choosing four of them to remain Mothers of the Believers and casting out the rest would have been extremely hard. So divine wisdom required that they all remain his wives, as a privilege particular to him and an exception to the rule.
The marriage to Zaynab bint Jahsh
The Life of Mahomet, vol. 3 (1861)
Tells the story that Muhammad (ﷺ), calling at Zayd's house, glimpsed Zaynab through a half-opened door and was smitten by her, and that Zayd then divorced her so that Muhammad could marry her. Muir presents the marriage as a sign of the Prophet's growing desire for women in Medina.
Cited for
The Prophet (ﷺ) saw his adopted son's wife through a half-open door and was smitten by her beauty. Zayd divorced her so that he could have her.
The response
The Qur'an records that the Prophet (ﷺ) told Zayd to keep his wife and fear Allah (﷾). What he hid was what Allah (﷾) was about to reveal: that she would be his wife. This was to end the custom of treating an adopted son as a son by blood. He feared what people would say. Zaynab was his own cousin, whom he had known all her life and had himself given in marriage to Zayd. The door story rests on reports Ibn Kathir refused to repeat because they are not sound. Aisha said that if he had hidden any verse, he would have hidden this one.
Where it lands — The marriage was commanded by the Qur'an to end a custom, and the story of desire has no sound source.
Perspectives
The critics' reading
Christian critics since the Middle Ages have read his many wives as a sign of desire. So have Western writers such as William Muir, a nineteenth-century British author. They say the Prophet (ﷺ) gave way to desire once he held power in Medina. They point above all to his marriage to Zaynab bint Jahsh.
Muir tells the story that the Prophet (ﷺ) glimpsed Zaynab through a half-open door and desired her. He says Zayd divorced her so the Prophet (ﷺ) could marry her.
Rebuttal
The Qur'an records that the Prophet (ﷺ) told Zayd to keep his wife and fear Allah (﷾). What he hid, Ibn Kathir explains, was that God (﷾) had told him Zaynab would be his wife. God (﷾) joined her to him to end the custom of treating an adopted son as a son by blood. Zaynab was his own cousin, and he himself had arranged her marriage to Zayd. If he had wanted her, he could have married her then. The door story rests on reports Ibn Kathir refused to repeat because they are not sound.
The Islamic perspective
God (﷾) governed the marriages of the Prophet (ﷺ), and they served the message. They sheltered widows, joined tribes, freed a captive and gave the community teachers of his home life. The facts of his life rule out the charge of lust.
He had no other wife for the whole of his marriage to Khadijah, some twenty-five years.
Every wife except Aisha had been married before.
He set Safiyyah free and made her freedom her dowry.
The Qur'an forbade anyone to marry his wives after him and then forbade him to marry again.
These rules bound him more tightly than any other man. That does not fit the charge that his marriages were for pleasure.
Every wife was offered a divorce with a gift, and all chose to stay with him.
When the ban on new marriages was lifted, he took no new wife into his household, as Ibn Kathir notes.
Having more than four wives was a privilege particular to the Prophet (ﷺ), granted by God (﷾).
When later marriages were closed to him, his wives were not reduced to four. As al-Qaradawi argues, a divorced wife could never have married again.