He never married anyone of his wives because of lust
“These are his wives whom he consummated marriage with and combined in wedlock. None of them was sought lustfully as claimed and there was none of them but that the aim of his marriage to her was to bestow mercy upon her, remove her discomforts and difficulties and console her generously in order that he would gain the affection of the tribes and bring their hearts together through the relationship of marriage, given that most of them were still new converts to Islam.”[31]
“It was not easy upon the Messenger, the leader and ruler of a fighting state, to increase his burdens with problems arising from having more than one wife at home concerning disputes over the most trivial of things. But it was his duty, the duty of the Islamic Da‘wah he carried or the duty of valor, and how far is this from the alleged whim!”[32]

In this way he married Zaynab
“Much muddle was raised about the marriage of Muhammad to this wife. The opinionated led by many Orientalists and followed by a multitude of the lowly clattered on and on in this issue. On a well-established historical foundation, they based their fallacy.”[33]
“That Muhammad married Zaynab bint Jahsh, his paternal aunt’s daughter, is an indisputably established historical fact. Also, that Zaynab bint Jahsh was the wife of Zayd ibn Hârithah, who divorced her after apathy and schism arose between them, is also an indisputably established historical fact.
That Zayd ibn Hârithah, since the pre-Islamic days, was an adopted son of Muhammad who married him to the daughter of his paternal aunt, is an indisputably established historical fact as well.
But quite amazing is the story they composed of these three elements in its dazzling colors to attract only naive minds and wicked intentions.”[34]

“In order to understand well the deeds of great men, we should see them within the context of their grandeur and elements of their psychological constitution and, in light of this conception, we should choose from the different and various motives of the one deed what agrees most with their personalities.”[35]
Louka presented the history of both Zayd ibn Hârithah and Zaynab bint Jahsh and how Zayd was a slave who fell captive in a battle between many tribes until he became the servant of The Messenger of Allâh [peace be upon him] before the Prophetic mission. When his family found him, he refused to leave Muhammad [peace be upon him] when they liked to ransom him. Thereupon, the Prophet [peace be upon him] honored him by adopting him so that he was called Zayd ibn Muhammad. When he grew up, he honored him much more by giving him in marriage his paternal aunt’s daughter, Zaynab bint Jahsh, the beautiful and free Qurayshi woman. Being so, she could not accept to have Zayd, who had previously been a slave, her husband.

The apathy between them became so strong that Zaynab asked him to talk to the Prophet [peace be upon him] about her divorce. But the Prophet [peace be upon him] did not cease to say to him: “Keep your wife with you.” It was difficult upon him that the rule he liked to fix by that marriage should be undermined (i.e. to remove the cast-based differences between the Muslims in Arab families and traditions of intermarriage), just as he eliminated these differences in religion, worship, Jihâd and ruling.[36]
“Zayd divorced Zaynab and he no longer had any need or desire for her. Now, what is Zaynab waiting for? What is expected of Zaynab? She is the noble lady who complied with the Messenger’s command to marry a man whom she did not like and was unable to submit easily to that marriage, by which she became wretched and caused misery to others. Now she was a divorced, beautiful young lady with no husband to protect and save her.

Zaynab, the daughter of Muhammad’s paternal aunt, returned to the home of her family with an injury in her feminine nature and social feelings. She was sad because she was under the false impression that she was so insignificant in the sight of her maternal cousin (Muhammad) that he gave her in marriage to an adopted son, consociated person and emancipated slave.

Thus, her heart was broken and her dignity injured. Meanwhile, she was also pessimistic and distressed: who would marry a previously married woman, divorced from a freed slave? More likely, no equal to her in ancestry would marry her.

What worsened her situation was that she married this person by command from the Prophet and almost all the people knew that she maltreated her husband. Who then would dare to marry her knowing that it was the Messenger of Allâh who made the match and objected to the divorce every time Zayd sought his permission to do so.
She began to feel the paws of relinquishment closing in on her and how difficult situation was it for a good-looking, beautiful woman who was still in her early youth!

At the same time, Muhammad was not to ignore the heavy burdens and consequences imposed by that situation upon this distressed young woman nor was he to close his eyes to his involvement in what happened to her. The girl refused (to get married to Zayd) but he insisted that his command be fulfilled, being the Messenger and her maternal cousin.”[37]
“He had to avert from her the feeling of ignominy and inferiority she falsely had because of the unequalled marriage in her sight and, since she needed another marriage to exculpate her, he saw it was due on him to marry her himself.”[38]

“It was not easy. The inherited traditions stood against marrying the divorced wife of an adopted son. What would the people say? How would such an environment receive the news of that marriage?”
“He had either to comfort his conscience and obey his valor by mending the broken heart of Zaynab and raising her to the station of the Mother of the Believers or to keep himself away from those suspicions given his intelligence and experience in people’s hearts and what is hidden in their innermost.

He remained in this critical situation until his difficulty was removed by the following Divine revelation: {And [remember, O Muhammad], when you said to the one on whom Allâh bestowed favor and you bestowed favor, "Keep your wife and fear Allâh," while you concealed within yourself that which Allâh is to disclose. And you feared the people, while Allâh has more right that you fear Him. So when Zayd had no longer any need for her, We married her to you in order that there not be upon the believers any discomfort concerning the wives of their adopted sons when they no longer have need of them. And ever is the command of Allâh accomplished.} [Al-Ahzâb 37]
In this way, the power of adoption was cancelled out along with the groundless prohibition it imposed.

Should the adopted son who has a known father be closer in relation than the full brother? The divorced wife of a full brother is not unlawful (for one to marry) so how should the divorced wife of a consociated be made unlawful?
Muhammad hid in himself only the wish to mend the broken heart of a girl whose only remedy was in his hand. Thus, the command of marriage was only a verdict whose necessity had previously come in advance and to it was joined the general rule by which all people should abide.”[39]

“All circumstances of this marriage indicate that it was one of the deeds of valor done by Muhammad rather than a speculative adventure prompted by a reckless boyish inclination. But is every human mind able to rise up to the level of this situation, supreme in its farsightedness and nobility? Most minds are fond of the ornate fancies and false senses common among the majority of people and this is the reason lying beyond misunderstanding or, say, the invention of lies.”[40]

 References:

 [31] Ibid. 111.

[32] Ibid. 111.

[33] Ibid. 115.

[34] Ibid. 116.

[35] Ibid. 119.

[36] Ibid. 123.

[37] Ibid. 125.

[38] Ibid. 126.

[39]Ibid. 127.

[40]Ibid. 128.

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