Controversies about the age of Aisha (R.A)
By Ali Sina
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| Age of Aysha |
The majority of Muslims agree that Aisha was only 9 years old when Muhamamad married her. Most Islamic sites make no apology for her young age and accuse the modernists for humbugging the Westerner's morality and denying the truth.
The
site Islamonline.com
explains: "It should be noted that in the hot
regions, it’s normal for a girl to attain maturity at a very early age"
and argues that the marriages of Muhammad were to foster political alliance.
This is nonsense. Muhammad married Safiya after murdering her father, torturing
to death her husband and massacring her entire tribe
. He married Juwariyah after raiding her people, massacring the men and robbing their wealth and taking the women and children as slaves. He took Rayhana, the 15 year old Jewish girl of Bani Quraiza after massacring all them men and boys who had reached puberty of her tribe and took all the women and children as slaves. With whom he wanted to make alliance? With dead people? What a shameful excuse to defend a war criminal. What Muhammad did was disgusting but it is just as disgusting when Muslim apologists try to acquit him of his crimes with such a shameless excuses.
. He married Juwariyah after raiding her people, massacring the men and robbing their wealth and taking the women and children as slaves. He took Rayhana, the 15 year old Jewish girl of Bani Quraiza after massacring all them men and boys who had reached puberty of her tribe and took all the women and children as slaves. With whom he wanted to make alliance? With dead people? What a shameful excuse to defend a war criminal. What Muhammad did was disgusting but it is just as disgusting when Muslim apologists try to acquit him of his crimes with such a shameless excuses.
As for as Aisha, she was the daughter of Abu Bakr who was
already the primary supporter of him. Why he had to rape his little girl? This
man was cult leader and hand brainwashed Abu Bakr. That fool would have done
anything Muhammad told him to do. When you submit to a cult leader, you submit
your intelligence and your conscience.
However
there are some “modernist” Muslims who dispute this fact. It is a good thing
that they realize what Muhammad did was evil, but it is conning and
hypocritical to lie, hide the facts and twists the truth.
They
argue:
According to the generally
accepted tradition, Aisha (ra) was born about eight years before Hijrah.
But according to another narrative in Bukhari (kitabu'l-tafseer) Aisha (ra)
is reported to have said that at the time Surah Al-Qamar, the 54th chapter of
the Qur'an, was revealed, "I was a young girl". The 54th surah of the
Qur'an was revealed nine years before Hijrah. According to this tradition,
Aisha (ra) had not only been born before the revelation of the referred
surah, but was actually a young girl (jariyah), not an infant (sibyah) at that
time. Obviously, if this narrative is held to be true, it is in clear
contradiction with the narratives reported by Hisham ibn `urwah. I see
absolutely no reason that after the comments of the experts on the narratives
of Hisham ibn `urwah, why we should not accept this narrative to be more
accurate.
Answer:
Even if we assume this narrative to be accurate, we have no reason to
give it more weight than those that are so detailed about Aisha ’s age,
describing her, playing with her dolls and with her little friends who hid when
Muhammad entered the room, her memories of playing on the swing when her
mother called her and washed her face and took her to Muhammad, her ignorance
of what was going on when Muhammad took off his pants and her “surprise” when
got into action. These events are more likely to be remembered by child than
when a particular Surah was revealed. It is more likely that a person confuse
one Surah with the other than confuse all those details of her own life. This
site continues:
According to a number of
narratives, Aisha (ra) accompanied the Muslims in the battle of Badr and
Uhud. Furthermore, it is also reported in books of hadith and history that no
one under the age of 15 years was allowed to take part in the battle of Uhud.
All the boys below 15 years of age were sent back. Aisha 's (ra) participation
in the battle of Badr and Uhud clearly indicate that she was not nine or ten
years old at that time. After all, women used to accompany men to the battle
fields to help them, not to be a burden on them.
Answer:
This is a weak excuse. When the Battle of Badr and Ohud occurred
Aisha was 10 to 11 years old. She did not go to be a warier, like the
boys. She went to keep Muhammad warm during the nights. Boys who were less than
15 were sent back, but this did not apply to her.
According to almost all the
historians Asma (ra), the elder sister of Aisha (ra) was ten years older
than Aisha (ra). It is reported in Taqri'bu'l-tehzi'b as well as
Al-bidayah wa'l-nihayah that Asma (ra) died in 73 hijrah when she was 100 years
old. Now, obviously if Asma (ra) was 100 years old in 73 hijrah she should have
been 27 or 28 years old at the time of hijrah. If Asma (ra) was 27 or 28 years
old at the time of hijrah, Aisha (ra) should have been 17 or 18 years old
at that time. Thus, Aisha (ra), if she got married in 1 AH (after hijrah)
or 2 AH, was between 18 to 20 years old at the time of her marriage.
Answer:
When someone gets that old, people don’t care too much about her exact
age. It is very easy to say she was 100 years old when in fact she was only 90.
The difference is not noticeable to the younger folks and 100 is a round figure.
Assuming the Hadith is authentic, it could be an honest mistake. Since in those
days people did not carry birth certificates, it is very much likely that the
person who reported her age to be 100 did not know that she was 10 years older
than Aisha and did not sit to make the calculations and deductions. She
was not an important person and it did not occur to anyone that 1300 years
later it would become the subject of a controversy.
Tabari in his treatise on Islamic
history, while mentioning Abu Bakr (ra) reports that Abu Bakr had four children
and all four were born during the Jahiliyyah -- the pre Islamic period.
Obviously, if Aisha (ra) was born in the period of jahiliyyah, she could
not have been less than 14 years in 1 AH -- the time she most likely got
married.
Answer:
Tabari’s narratives do not have the distinction to be known Sahih. Even
if we assume that this narrative is not an honest mistake, there is no reason
to discard all those strong, detailed and explicit hadiths that concord with
each other and confirm the age of Aisha was 9 when Muhammad took her to
bed. The narrative reported above could very well be an innocent slip on the
part of the narrator. People remember important events better than those that
are relatively insignificant. The date of the birth of the children of Abu Bakr
was not an important subject for Muslims to record. But the details of
Muhammad's life and his marriages were important. As you can read in the story
of Safiyah's wedding even the kind of food served is
recorded.
According to Ibn Hisham, the
historian, Aisha (ra) accepted Islam quite some time before Umar ibn
Khattab (ra). This shows that Aisha (ra) accepted Islam during the first
year of Islam. While, if the narrative of Aisha 's (ra) marriage at seven years
of age is held to be true, Aisha (ra) should not have been born during
the first year of Islam.
Answer:
The apologist fails to provide the references to the hadithes that he
quotes. In any case this is an error. To understand and accept a religion, one
must be at least intelligent enough to make such decision. That is about 15
years old. But let us be generous and say that age is about 12. If Aisha
accepted Islam during the first year of Islam, she must have been 26 years old
when Muhammad married her. (12 + 14) Are we then supposed to believe that Aisha
at the age of 26 used to play with her dolls and on the swing?
Tabari has also reported that at
the time Abu Bakr planned on migrating to Habshah (8 years before Hijrah), he
went to Mut`am -- with whose son Aisha (ra) was engaged -- and asked him
to take Aisha (ra) in his house as his son's wife. Mut`am refused,
because Abu Bakr had embraced Islam, and subsequently his son divorced
Aisha (ra). Now, if Aisha (ra) was only seven years old at the time
of her marriage, she could not have been born at the time Abu Bakr decided on
migrating to Habshah. On the basis of this report it seems only reasonable to
assume that Aisha (ra) had not only been born 8 years before hijrah, but
was also a young lady, quite prepared for marriage.
Answer:
It was an Arab tradition to betroth a girl to a boy even when the girl
was a newborn. This tradition is still carried on in many Islamic countries.
This is no proof that Aisha was a grown up.
According to a narrative reported
by Ahmad ibn Hanbal, after the death of Khadijah (ra), when Khaulah (ra) came
to the Prophet (pbuh) advising him to marry again, the Prophet (pbuh) asked her
regarding the choices she had in her mind. Khaulah said: "You can marry a
virgin (bikr) or a woman who has already been married (thayyib)". When the
Prophet (pbuh) asked about who the virgin was, Khaulah proposed Aisha 's (ra)
name. All those who know the Arabic language, are aware that the word
"bikr" in the Arabic language is not used for an immature nine year
old girl. The correct word for a young playful girl, as stated earlier is
"Jariyah". "Bikr" on the other hand, is used for an
unmarried lady, and obviously a nine year old is not a "lady".
Answer:
This explanation is absolutely incorrect. Bikr means virgin and, just as
in English is not age specific. In fact Aisha was the second wife of
Muhammad (after Khadijah) but Muhammad did not consummate his marriage with her
for three years because she was too young and Abu Bakr begged him to wait.
So he married Sauda bint Zamah, whom he mistreated because she was not
pretty.
According to Ibn Hajar, Fatimah
(ra) was five years older than Aisha (ra). Fatimah (ra) is reported to
have been born when the Prophet (pbuh) was 35 years old. Thus, even if this
information is taken to be correct, Aisha (ra) could by no means be less
than 14 years old at the time of hijrah, and 15 or 16 years old at the time of
her marriage.
Answer:
Of course this information cannot be taken as correct. If Aisha
was five years older than Fatimah, and Fatimah was born when the Prophet was 35
years old, then Aisha was only 30 years younger than the Prophet. So at
the time of her marriage when the Prophet was 54, Aisha must have been 24
yeas old. This is not certainly correct, for the reasons explained above and
also it contradicts the Hadiths that the apologist quoted about the age of
Asma, Aisha ’s sister, who according to that Hadith was 10 years older that
Aisha and died in 73 Hijra. In that case at the time of Hijra Asma must
have been 100 –73 = 27 years old, but according to this Hadith she was 34 years
old.
The discrepancy between these two hadiths quoted by the same apologist,
demonstrate their inaccuracy. It all goes to show that in those days numbers
did not mean much. It is more likely that people were wrong on dates, but
events are better remembered. The reports of the tender age of Aisha is
consistent with the stories of her childhood, playing with her toys, her
girlfriends hiding when Muhammad entered the room, the Prophet playing with
her, her ignorance about sex and her “surprise” when Muhammad came to her. All
these hadiths confirm that she was a little girl. Those who deny the facts and
try to prove otherwise, demonstrate their embarrassment of the acts of their
Prophet. Perhaps they should be credited for having some scruples and for
realizing that what he did was despicable, but we cannot praise them for their
intellectual honesty for they have none.
The author argues::
- It is the responsibility of all those who believe that marrying a girl as young as nine years old was an accepted norm of the Arab culture, to provide at least a few examples to substantiate their point of view. I have not yet been able to find a single dependable instance in the books of Arab history where a girl as young as nine years old was given away in marriage. Unless such examples are given, we do not have any reasonable grounds to believe that it really was an accepted norm.
I could not have said it better. Not only marring children was not part of
the culture of any nation, it is a actually contrary to human nature. Healthy
grownup men do not find little children sexually attractive The point is that
Muhammad was not healthy. He was a pedophile, a very sick man.
How he got away with it? He claimed to be a prophet and as such put himself
above the scrutiny of mortals. Who dared to question Allah and his messenger?
He had control over the life and death of the people in Medina. He acted very
much like Jim Jones in his Jonestown in Guyana where he could sleep with any
woman he pleased, and like David Korsh in his compound, where he had sex with
every woman and even with the teenaged daughters of his followers while
prohibiting them to touch their own wives. People who fall prey to
cults do stupid things. They kill others, like the followers of Charles Manson,
Shoko Asahara and Muhammad and kill themselves like the followers of Jim Jones,
David Koresh or the Heaven's Gate. Islam is a cult and Muhammad was a cult leader.
I have proven this point with evidence in my book Understanding Muhamamd
The apologist concludes.
- “In my opinion, neither was it an Arab tradition to give away girls in marriage at an age as young as nine or ten years, nor did the Prophet (pbuh) marry Aisha (ra) at such a young age. The people of Arabia did not object to this marriage, because it never happened in the manner it has been narrated.”
Answer:
It may not have been a tradition then but since Muhammad set the
example, every pervert pedophile finds justification and validation for taking
children as brides and the ignorant parents, who are often poor, let their
little girl to be abused for the greed of money.
Just
a few weeks ago I read in the news that in Iran a 9-year-old girl filed for
divorce from her 15-year-old husband just after 20 days of marriage because he
would constantly beat her. When the young man was questioned he said: “She
neglects her housework and plays with her dolls all the time”.
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