Aisha's age

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Aisha's age
Anonymous

01/28/02 at 02:11:09

This following is the full content of a word document I have
saved from the internet awhile back. Does anyone know where it may be
found or the degree to which it is accurate?

(Letter from Scholar)
My dear brothers,
Assalaam Alaikum,
May Allah be with you.
I am extremely sorry for the delay in my response. Please accept my
apologies.
In your letter, you had asked regarding my opinion on Ayesha's age at
the
time of her marriage, and at the time of consummation of her marriage.
My answer to the question follows (the answer is primarily based on the
research by Habib ur Rahman Kandhalwi (urdu) as presented in his
booklet,
"Tehqiq e umar e Siddiqah e Ka'inat"):
To begin with, I think 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 that effect.
In my opinion, the age of Ayesha (ra) has been grossly misreported in
the
ahadith. Not only that, I think that the narratives reporting this
event
are not only highly unreliable but the event reported, is also quite an
unlikely happening. Let us look at the issue from an objective stand
point.
My reservations in accepting the narratives, on the basis of which,
Ayeshas
(ra) age at the time of her marriage with the Prophet (pbuh) is held to
be
nine years are:
Most of these narratives are reported only by Hisham ibn `urwah
reporting
on the authority of his father. An event as well known as the one being
reported, should logically have been reported by more people than just
one,
two or three.
It is quite strange that no one from Medinah, where Hisham ibn `urwah
lived
the first seventy one years of his life has narrated the event, even
though
in Medinah his pupils included people as well known as Malik ibn Anas.
All
the narratives of this event have been reported by narrators from Iraq,
where Hisham is reported to have had shifted after living in Medinah
for
seventy one years.
Tehzibu'l-tehzib, one of the most well known books on the life and
reliability of the narrators of the traditions of the Prophet (pbuh)
reports that according to Yaqub ibn Shaibah: "narratives reported by
Hisham
are reliable except those that are reported through the people of
Iraq". It
further states that Malik ibn Anas objected on those narratives of
Hisham
which were reported through people of Iraq. (vol 11, pg 48 - 51)
Mizanu'l-ai`tidal, another book on the narrators of the traditions of
the
Prophet (pbuh) reports that when he was old, Hisham's memory suffered
quite
badly. (vol 4, pg 301 - 302)
According to the generally accepted tradition, Ayesha (ra) was born
about
eight years before Hijrah. But according to another narrative in
Bukhari
(kitabu'l-tafseer) Ayesha (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, Ayesha (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.
According to a number of narratives, Ayesha (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. Ayesha'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.
According to almost all the historians Asma (ra), the elder sister of
Ayesha (ra) was ten years older than Ayesha (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,
Ayesha (ra) should have been 17 or 18 years old at that time. Thus,
Ayesha
(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.
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 Ayesha (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.
According to Ibn Hisham, the historian, Ayesha (ra) accepted Islam
quite
some time before Umar ibn Khattab (ra). This shows that Ayesha (ra)
accepted Islam during the first year of Islam. While, if the narrative
of
Ayesha's (ra) marriage at seven years of age is held to be true, Ayesha
(ra) should not have been born during the first year of Islam.
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
Ayesha
(ra) was engaged -- and asked him to take Ayesha (ra) in his house as
his
son's wife. Mut`am refused, because Abu Bakr had embraced Islam, and
his
son divorced Ayesha (ra). Now, if Ayesha (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 Ayesha (ra) had not only been born 8 years
before
hijrah, but was also a young lady, quite prepared for marriage.
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 Ayesha'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".
According to Ibn Hajar, Fatimah (ra) was five years older than Ayesha
(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,
Ayesha
(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.
These are some of the major points that go against accepting the
commonly
known narrative regarding Ayesha's (ra) age at the time of her
marriage.
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 Ayesha (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.
I hope I have been of some help.
May Allah help us in helping His deen.
Best Regards
The Learner (moizamj@brain.net.pk)

Re: Aisha's age
se7en

01/28/02 at 02:28:03

as salaamu alaykum,

"The Learner" answers questions on the [url=http://www.understanding-islam.com/]Understanding Islam[/url] website.

The issue of Aisha's age we talked about a little bit [url=http://www.jannah.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl/YaBB.pl?board=madrasa&action=display&num=6416]here[/url]. It's Cara's question #3.

Hope that's of help inshaAllah :)

wasalaamu alaykum wa rahmtAllah

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