She seems to have been second only to
Khadijah in the prophet's affections, and exercised a petty tyranny
over him, which was submitted to even when it affected his
revelations. She excited the envy of the other wives because of her
privileges, and in spite of intrigue, was able to hold her own. She
was extremely sarcastic in regard to some of the revelations, and even
went so far on one occasion as to jeer the prophet on his faithfulness
in recording them. This sarcasm was prompted by jealousy, because of
Mohammed's marriage with Zainab, which was so illegal as to cause him
to throw the responsibility on God. Zainab was the wife of the
prophet's adopted son Zaid, who, having discovered his foster-father's
love, thought it wise to divorce her in his favour. The revelation
Mohammed produced seems to have been held over until his critics had
been mollified by some victory--hence the sarcasm!
During the raiding of the Jews, Mohammed was considerably disturbed by
the desire of the wives to accompany him on the expeditions. He eased
the difficulty by arranging that one only should go with him on each
expedition, and should obtain the favour by lot. Ayesha got into
difficulty on one of these expeditions. She dropped a necklace and
remained behind the returning party in order to seek for it. A youth
who, too, had loitered behind, found it, and accompanied her back to
the camp.
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