Home > Surah 33 - The Confederates
1. Exemption from Legal Limits:
While followers were limited to four wives (Surah 4:3), Surah 33:50 granted Muhammad an unlimited quota and the ability to marry women without a dowry—a explicit double standard declared "only for you, excluding the believers."
2. Self-Serving Exemptions:
Critics point to this as evidence of self-serving revelation, where divine authority was invoked to grant personal exemptions for marital arrangements.
The Quran Verse
Surah 33:50-52:
"O Prophet, indeed We have made lawful to you your wives... and a believing woman if she gives herself to the Prophet [and] if the Prophet wishes to marry her; only for you, excluding the [other] believers."
The "Double Standard":
While other Muslim men were limited to four wives (4:3), Muhammad was granted an unlimited number, including those who "gifted" themselves to him without a dowry.
Critics find it highly suspicious that the Creator of the Universe would issue specific legal exemptions to allow one man more sexual partners than his followers.
This is often cited as a prime example of self-serving revelation, where the "Voice of God" provides a moral hall-pass for the Prophet’s personal life.