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Controversies about the age of
Aisha
By Ali Sina
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.
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:
(tSource: http://www.understanding-islam.com/ri/mi-004.htm)
- 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.
Look
at the abuse:
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”.
Read also
Aisha the Child Wife of Muhammad
Moral Evaluations of the Marriage of the
Prophet with Aisha
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