This excerpt is taken from the book by Fazilat-ul-Sheikh Abdul Salam Rustami From Denial of Hadith to Denial of Quran.
Hadith 3: Prophet Solomon (peace be upon him) visiting one hundred wives in one night
Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari, Al-Aiman wa An-Nudhur, Chapter: How was the oath of the Prophet (peace be upon him), Hadith: 6639
◈ Note: The hadith mentions ninety wives.
There are two objections from Tolu-e-Islam regarding this hadith.
➊ The gathering of ninety-five or one hundred wives in marriage at one time; there is confusion in the narrations regarding the number.
➋ Having intercourse with all of them in one night to the extent of ejaculation so that each wife could conceive a child.
Answer:
➊ For Solomon (peace be upon him), the wind and jinn were subjugated; he would imprison and punish them. He had superior horses, royal grandeur, and ruled over most countries of the world. Evidence of these facts is found in the Holy Quran, so it is not unreasonable for such a person to have one hundred or ninety-nine wives.
➋ The Bible provides evidence that Solomon (peace be upon him) had seven hundred concubines and three hundred wives.
Reference: Sultans: 1, Chapter: 11, Verses 1-5
If authentic hadith confirms one hundred wives, then why object to it?
➌ The difference in number (one hundred or ninety-nine) does not cause confusion in the hadith; there are two reasons for this:
First:
Scholars agree that the opposite meaning of a number is not reliable, meaning that mentioning a smaller number does not necessarily negate a larger number.
Second:
It is also possible that one narrator counted wives and concubines together, another counted only wives, and another counted only those who were in a state of purity, thus resolving the confusion.
The answer to the second objection is that the wise have said: "Do not judge the actions of the pure ones by your own reasoning." The point is that the miracles of the Prophets, peace be upon them, are true even if they are beyond our intellect. It is mentioned in a hadith that the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was given the strength of thirty men, and according to another narration, forty men.
Reference: Al-Sunan al-Kubra by Al-Bayhaqi: 54/7
Ibn Hajar, may Allah have mercy on him, narrated that Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: We used to say that the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was given the strength of thirty men, and according to another narration, forty men. Abu Nu'aym narrated in the chapter on the description of Paradise from Mujahid’s chain of narration in this way, and at the end he said: This refers to the men of Paradise. And the narration in Musnad Ahmad and Sunan al-Nasa'i, which Imam Hakim declared authentic, reports from Zaid ibn Arqam, may Allah be pleased with him, that a man of Paradise will be given the strength to eat, drink, and copulate like one hundred men. According to this calculation, it is understood that our Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was given the strength of three to four thousand men.
Reference: Fath al-Bari: 324/6
And since a man refers to a person of Paradise whose strength is that of one hundred men, if the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, had the strength of three thousand or four thousand men, then it is not beyond reason for him to copulate with one hundred wives in one night.
