Apologetics: Flippin’ Fatwa Friday – Muhammad was the Gayest Guy in Arabia – Part 3: Momo the Crossdresser.

As we wrap up this month’s series on how Muhammad’s gay tendencies, we need to take a look at one of the weirdest tendencies Muhammad had: crossdressing.

According to Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2813 and Sunan Abi Dawud 4032, Muhammad would wear a mirt made of goat hair. Why is this important? Well, a mirt is a garment that could be made of various things, that was worn by primarily women as a covering.

Already, this is weird. Why is Muhammad wearing clothing that was typically worn by women? But don’t worry, it gets weirder.

According to Sahih Muslim, Hadith Number 4415, Muhammad wouldn’t wear any old mirt. He would often wear his child bride, Aisha’s, mirt. It says:

Narrated by Abdel Malik ibn Shu’aib ibn Laith Ibn Sa’ad, narrated by his father, narrated by his grandfather, narrated by Ukail ibn Khalid, narrated by ibn Shihab, narrated by Yahya ibn Sa’id ibn al-Aas who narrated that Aisha, the wife of the prophet, and Uthman related to him that Abu Bakr requested permission from the prophet to enter when the prophet was lying down on Aisha’s bed WEARING HER GARMENT (mirt). So the prophet gave permission to Abu Bakr to enter while he (Muhammad) was in that state and Abu Bakr finished what he needed and left. Later, Umar came and requested permission to enter and the prophet gave him permission to enter while he (Muhammad) was in that state. So Umar finished what he needed and left. Later, Uthman requested permission to enter to the prophet, so Muhammad sat up and told Aisha, “TAKE ALL THE CLOTHING THAT BELONGS TO YOU.”

So Aisha did as the prophet requested and left. Afterwards, Aisha asked the prophet, “O prophet! Why is it that I didn’t see you anxious when Abu Bakr or Umar came like you were when Uthman came in?”

The prophet replied, “Uthman is a bashful man, and I feared that if I gave him permission to enter in the state that I was in, he would not have finished what he came for.”

Additionally, other hadiths say that Muhammad would receive revelations when he was in Aisha’s mirt. While on most hadith websites like Sunnah.com, the English translation says “blanket” or “covering,” the word used in the Arabic is mirt and in the context of the hadith above, it makes no sense for it to be referring to anything but Muhammad wearing some sort of clothing. Why would Muhammad tell Aisha to take all the clothing that belonged to her when the very bashful Uthman walked in if he was only wearing her blanket? After all, a blanket doesn’t count as clothing. That’s also not mentioning the fact that mirts were never used as blankets.

Now, some people might be wondering how Muhammad could have possibly fit into Aisha’s mirt given the fact that she was a child when she was married to him. The answer is pretty simple: a mirt was a single, large piece of fabric, as shown below. It would have been easy for Muhammad to wear it, especially as Aisha got older (she was 18 when he died).

Until next time,

M.J.