Her enemies were not slow to take advantage of this incident
to prejudice her before the prophet. He was deeply hurt, and in face
of the surge of public opinion, sent her back to her parents. The
complications arising out of the divorce would probably have alienated
the sympathies of Abu Bakr, her father, so with his usual diplomacy,
Mohammed produced a revelation, in which God declared Ayesha innocent
of any cause for divorce! It was through Ayesha, too, that the prophet
conceived the idea of praying for deliverance from the torment of the
grave, for she casually remarked one day that she had heard a Jewish
woman speaking about torment after death. Through all her life with
the prophet she proved herself to be strong in character, and a
fitting mate for a man of Mohammed's type.
Other wives did not play such an important part in the prophet's life
work. He seems to have exhibited his taste for beauty in all his
selections. Keud was the daughter of a man of considerable wealth and
influence, and, like Zainab, was one of the Abyssinian refugees. In
the expedition against Khaibah, Mohammed's greed was excited by the
sight of some valuable ornaments belonging to one of his vanquished
enemies. He sought to gain possession of them by marrying the daughter
of the owner, Safiyyah, whose husband and brother had both been killed
in the battle that had been fought.
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