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The Marriage Of Aisha RZ

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The Marriage Of Aisha RZ
BUSHRA
11/17/02 at 12:26:36
[slm],
Well, recently I was asked about this by a relative and the lady in question is a muslimah. Her first question was about the reason why Aisha rz . was married at such a young age, which I answered with the help of some useful threads on this message board whcich explain the marriage in context to "age of puberty", the consummation of marriage when she was 9 etc. Her second question however is something I couldn't answer very well and it was that since Aisha rz. 's marriage took place at the age of 6, are we to assume that for a muslimah's marriage only the permission of the waali(guardian) is required?
She further went on to state that  she always assumed that within Islam, the Nikah is strongly dependant on the consent and agreement of the girl/lady. I answered that ofcourse it was and this was where she baffelled me by saying that how is a 6 year old capable of making a great decision such as marriage ? Also if such marriages occur today , they  are seen as a cultural practice and somewhat of a crime when the parties involved are not to be blamed because their actions are actually in accordance with the sunnah.

The reasons I came up with, were:

a- Yes , the opinion and consent of a girl is of utmost importance for the validity of the nikah.

b-Islam is a religion for all times, and marriage at a very young age was the custom during that time. However , the sunnah has clear examples of marriages with pious women of different age groups and backgrounds.

c-The guardian of the girl is responsible for her well being as well as looking out for her best interests such as giving her hand in marriage to a suitable spouse etc.

After these answers she was clearly not satisfied but she didn't ask anymore questions. This is the second time we have had this discussion and I know that she does not feel satisfied with my answers. Her daughter is nearly 8 yrs old and she says that she cannot imagine her own daughter being able to make such a decision now. I only added that she didn't have to, and that her daughter would be married when the time was right inshallah. Then she also added that when we hear of girls being married under the age of 10 we call those people ignorant etc and then she added once more that the opinion of the girl doesn't really matter since what does an under 10year old really know about life's major decisons. I was dying to say that there are people who marry at a mature age and still don't feel whether they have made the right choice or not and that it is in Allah's hands but I didn't because that is not the answer that people want to hear.
So I ask everybody to chip in with what ever answers they have for this fellow muslimah and also , it would be great if someone could post up a link to a previous discussion and the article which dealt with the age of consummation for nikah etc since I need to print it out and distribute it among friends.

Jazakullah khair in advance,
Bushra :-)
Re: The Marriage Of Aisha RZ
jannah
11/17/02 at 22:24:59
[slm]

Aug/Sept issue of the Message has a nice article by Jamal Badawi on this. You might try getting a hold of it. Actually I think it's one of the most amazingingly put together issue I've seen of an Islamic magazine. All about the Prophet SAW it's pretty positive dawah. Check it out!
Re: The Marriage Of Aisha RZ
eleanor
11/18/02 at 06:19:02
[slm]

Where can us "foreigners" get this magazine? Is it available by subscription?
Re: The Marriage Of Aisha RZ
Kathy
11/18/02 at 09:41:07
[slm]
I recently read this.. interesting... any comments?

[code]Was Ayesha A Six-Year-Old Bride?

The Ancient Myth Exposed

by T.O. Shanavas

A Christian friend asked me once, Will you marry your seven year old daughter to a fifty year old man? I kept my silence. He continued, If you would not, how can you approve the marriage of an innocent seven year old, Ayesha, with your Prophet? I told him, I don't have an answer to your question at this time. My friend smiled and left me with a thorn in the heart of my faith. Most Muslims answer that such marriages were accepted in those days. Otherwise, people would have objected to Prophet's marriage with Ayesha.

However, such an explanation would be gullible only for those who are naive enough to believe it. But unfortunately, I was not satisfied with the answer.

The Prophet was an exemplary man. All his actions were most virtuous so that we, Muslims, can emulate them. However, most people in our Islamic Center of Toledo, including me, would not think of betrothing our seven years daughter to a fifty-two year-old man. If a parent agrees to such a wedding, most people, if not all, would look down upon the father and the old husband.

In 1923, registrars of marriage in Egypt were instructed not to register and issue official certificates of marriage for brides less than sixteen and grooms less than eighteen years of age. Eight years later, the Law of the Organization and Procedure of Sheriah courts of 1931 consolidated the above provision by not hearing the marriage disputes involving brides less than sixteen and grooms less than eighteen years old. (Women in Muslim Family Law, John Esposito, 1982). It shows that even in the Muslim majority country of Egypt the child marriages are unacceptable.

So, I believed, without solid evidence other than my reverence to my Prophet, that the stories of the marriage of seven-year-old Ayesha to 50-year-old Prophet are only myths. However, my long pursuit in search of the truth on this matter proved my intuition correct. My Prophet was a gentleman. And he did not marry an innocent seven or nine year old girl. The age of Ayesha has been erroneously reported in the hadith literature. Furthermore, I think that the narratives reporting this event are highly unreliable. Some of the hadith (traditions of the Prophet) regarding Ayesha's age at the time of her wedding with prophet are problematic. I present the following evidences against the acceptance of the fictitious story by Hisham ibn Urwah and to clear the name of my Prophet as an irresponsible old man preying on an innocent little girl.

EVIDENCE #1: Reliability of Source

Most of the narratives printed in the books of hadith are reported only by Hisham ibn `Urwah, who was reporting on the authority of his father. First of all, more people than just one, two or three should logically have reported. It is strange that no one from Medina, where Hisham ibn `Urwah lived the first 71 years of his life narrated the event, despite the fact that his Medinan pupils included the well-respected Malik ibn Anas. The origins of the report of the narratives of this event are people from Iraq, where Hisham is reported to have shifted after living in Medina for most of his life.

Tehzibul-Tehzib, one of the most well known books on the life and reliability of the narrators of the traditions of the Prophet, reports that according to Yaqub ibn Shaibah: He [Hisham] is highly reliable, his narratives are acceptable, except what he narrated after moving over to Iraq (Tehzibul-tehzib, Ibn Hajar Al-`asqalani, Dar Ihya al-turath al-Islami, 15th century. Vol 11, p. 50).

It further states that Malik ibn Anas objected on those narratives of Hisham which were reported through people in Iraq: I have been told that Malik objected on those narratives of Hisham which were reported through people of Iraq (Tehzibul-tehzib, Ibn Hajar Al-`asqalani, Dar Ihya al-turath al-Islami, Vol.11, p. 50).

Mizanul-ai`tidal, another book on the life sketches of the narrators of the traditions of the Prophet reports: When he was old, Hishams memory suffered quite badly (Mizanul-ai`tidal, Al-Zahbi, Al-Maktabatul-athriyyah, Sheikhupura, Pakistan, Vol. 4, p. 301).

CONCLUSION: Based on these references, Hisham's memory was failing and his narratives while in Iraq were unreliable. So, his narrative of Ayesha's marriage and age are unreliable.

CHRONOLOGY: It is vital also to keep in mind some of the pertinent dates in the history of Islam:

pre-610 CE: Jahiliya (pre-Islamic age) before revelation
610 CE: First revelation
610 CE: AbuBakr accepts Islam
613 CE: Prophet Muhammad begins preaching publicly.
615 CE: Emigration to Abyssinia
616 CE: Umar bin al Khattab accepts Islam
620 CE: Generally accepted betrothal of Ayesha to the Prophet
622 CE: Hijrah (emigation to Yathrib, later renamed Medina)
623/624 CE: Generally accepted year of Ayesha living with the Prophet
EVIDENCE #2: The Betrothal

According to Tabari (also according to Hisham ibn Urwah, Ibn Hunbal and Ibn Sad), Ayesha was betrothed at seven years of age and began to cohabit with the Prophet at the age of nine years.

However, in another work, Al-Tabari says: All four of his [Abu Bakr's] children were born of his two wives during the pre-Islamic period” (Tarikhul-umam wal-mamluk, Al-Tabari (died 922), Vol. 4, p. 50, Arabic, Daral-fikr, Beirut, 1979).

If Ayesha was betrothed in 620 CE (at the age of seven) and started to live with the Prophet in 624 CE (at the age of nine), that would indicate that she was born in 613 CE and was nine when she began living with the Prophet. Therefore, based on one account of Al-Tabari, the numbers show that Ayesha must have born in 613 CE, three years after the beginning of revelation (610 CE). Tabari also states that Ayesha was born in the pre-Islamic era (in Jahiliya). If she was born before 610 CE, she would have been at least 14 years old when she began living with the Prophet. Essentially, Tabari contradicts himself.

CONCLUSION: Al-Tabari is unreliable in the matter of determining Ayesha's age.

EVIDENCE # 3: The Age of Ayesha in Relation to the Age of Fatima

According to Ibn Hajar, Fatima was born at the time the Ka`bah was rebuilt, when the Prophet was 35 years old... she was five years older that Ayesha (Al-isabah fi tamyizil-sahabah, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Vol. 4, p. 377, Maktabatul-Riyadh al-haditha, al-Riyadh, 1978).

If Ibn Hajar's statement is factual, Ayesha was born when the Prophet was 40 years old. If Ayesha was married to the Prophet when he was 52 years old, Ayesha's age at marriage would be 12 years.

CONCLUSION: Ibn Hajar, Tabari an Ibn Hisham and Ibn Humbal contradict each other. So, the marriage of Ayesha at seven years of age is a myth.

EVIDENCE #4: Ayesha's Age in relation to Asma's Age

According to Abdal-Rahman ibn abi zannad:Asma was 10 years older than Ayesha (Siyar A`lamal-nubala, Al-Zahabi, Vol. 2, p. 289, Arabic, Muassasatul-risalah, Beirut, 1992).

According to Ibn Kathir: She [Asma] was elder to her sister [Ayesha] by 10 years (Al-Bidayah wal-nihayah, Ibn Kathir, Vol. 8, p. 371, Dar al-fikr al-`arabi, Al-jizah, 1933).

According to Ibn Kathir: she [Asma] saw the killing of her son during that year [73 AH], as we have already mentioned, and five days later she herself died. According to other narratives, she died not after five days but 10 or 20, or a few days over 20, or 100 days later. The most well known narrative is that of 100 days later. At the time of her death, she was 100 years old. (Al-Bidayah wal-nihayah, Ibn Kathir, Vol. 8, p. 372, Dar al-fikr al-`arabi, Al-jizah, 1933)

According to Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani: She [Asma] lived a hundred years and died in 73 or 74 AH. (Taqribul-tehzib, Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani, p. 654, Arabic, Bab fi-nisa, al-harful-alif, Lucknow).

According to almost all the historians, Asma, the elder sister of Ayesha was 10 years older than Ayesha. If Asma was 100 years old in 73 AH, she should have been 27 or 28 years old at the time of the hijrah.

If Asma was 27 or 28 years old at the time of hijrah, Ayesha should have been 17 or 18 years old. Thus, Ayesha, being 17 or 18 years of at the time of Hijra, she started to cohabit with the Prophet between at either 19 to 20 years of age.

Based on Hajar, Ibn Katir, and Abdal-Rahman ibn abi zannad, Ayesha's age at the time she began living with the Prophet would be 19 or 20. In Evidence # 3, Ibn Hajar suggests that Ayesha was 12 years old and in Evidence #4 he contradicts himself with a 17 or 18-year-old Ayesha. What is the correct age, twelve or eighteen?

CONCLUSION: Ibn Hajar is an unreliable source for Ayesha’s age.

EVIDENCE #5: The Battles of Badr and Uhud

A narrative regarding Ayeshas participation in Badr is given in the hadith of Muslim, (Kitabu’l-jihad wal-siyar, Bab karahiyatil-isti`anah fil-ghazwi bikafir). Ayesha, while narrating the journey to Badr and one of the important events that took place in that journey, says: when we reached Shajarah. Obviously, Ayesha was with the group travelling towards Badr. A narrative regarding Ayeshas participation in the Battle of Uhud is given in Bukhari (Kitabul-jihad wal-siyar, Bab Ghazwil-nisa wa qitalihinna ma`alrijal): aceAnas reports that on the day of Uhud, people could not stand their ground around the Prophet. [On that day,] I saw Ayesha and Umm-i-Sulaim, they had pulled their dress up from their feet [to avoid any hindrance in their movement]. Again, this indicates that Ayesha was present in the Battles of Uhud and Badr.

It is narrated in Bukhari (Kitabul-maghazi, Bab Ghazwatil-khandaq wa hiyal-ahzab): Ibn `Umar states that the Prophet did not permit me to participate in Uhud, as at that time, I was 14 years old. But on the day of Khandaq, when I was 15 years old, the Prophet permitted my participation.

Based on the above narratives, (a) the children below 15 years were sent back and were not allowed to participate in the Battle of Uhud, and (b) Ayesha participated in the Battles of Badr and Uhud

CONCLUSION: Ayesha's participation in the Battles of Badr and Uhud clearly indicates that she was not nine years old but at least 15 years old. After all, women used to accompany men to the battlefields to help them, not to be a burden on them. This account is another contradiction regarding Ayesha's age.

EVIDENCE #6: Surat al-Qamar (The Moon)

According to the generally accepted tradition, Ayesha was born about eight years before hijrah. But according to another narrative in Bukhari, Ayesha is reported to have said: “I was a young girl (jariyah in Arabic) when Surah Al-Qamar was revealed (Sahih Bukhari, kitabul-tafsir, Bab Qaulihi Bal al-sa`atu Maw`iduhum wa-sa`atu adha wa amarr).

Chapter 54 of the Quran was revealed eight years before hijrah (The Bounteous Koran, M.M. Khatib, 1985), indicating that it was revealed in 614 CE. If Ayesha started living with the Prophet at the age of nine in 623 CE or 624 CE, she was a newborn infant (sibyah in Arabic) at the time that Surah Al-Qamar (The Moon) was revealed. According to the above tradition, Ayesha was actually a young girl, not an infant in the year of revelation of Al-Qamar. Jariyah means young playful girl (Lane's Arabic English Lexicon). So, Ayesha, being a jariyah not a sibyah (infant), must be somewhere between 6-13 years old at the time of revelation of Al-Qamar, and therefore must have been 14-21 years at the time she married the Prophet.

CONCLUSION: This tradition also contradicts the marriage of Ayesha at the age of nine.

EVIDENCE #7: Arabic Terminology

According to a narrative reported by Ahmad ibn Hanbal, after the death of the Prophet's first wife Khadijah, when Khaulah came to the Prophet advising him to marry again, the Prophet asked her regarding the choices she had in mind. Khaulah said: You can marry a virgin (bikr) or a woman who has already been married (thayyib). When the Prophet asked the identity of the bikr (virgin), Khaulah mentioned Ayesha's 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 without conjugal experience prior to marriage, as we understand the word virgin in English. Therefore, obviously a nine-year-old girl is not a lady (bikr) (Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Vol. 6, p. .210, Arabic, Dar Ihya al-turath al-`arabi, Beirut).

CONCLUSION: The literal meaning of the word, bikr (virgin), in the above hadith is adult woman with no sexual experience prior to marriage. Therefore, Ayesha was an adult woman at the time of her marriage.

EVIDENCE #8. The Quranic Text

All Muslims agree that the Quran is the book of guidance. So, we need to seek the guidance from the Quran to clear the smoke and confusion created by the eminent men of the classical period of Islam in the matter of Ayeshas age at her marriage. Does the Quran allow or disallow marriage of an immature child of seven years of age?

There are no verses that explicitly allow such marriage. There is a verse, however, that guides Muslims in their duty to raise an orphaned child. The Qurans guidance on the topic of raising orphans is also valid in the case of our own children. The verse states: And make not over your property (property of the orphan), which Allah had made a (means of) support for you, to the weak of understanding, and maintain them out of it, clothe them and give them good education. And test them until they reach the age of marriage. Then if you find them maturity of intellect, make over them their property... (Quran, 4:5-6).

In the matter of children who have lost a parent, a Muslim is ordered to (a) feed them, (b) clothe them, (c) educate them, and (d) test them for maturity until the age of marriage before entrusting them with management of finances.

Here the Quranic verse demands meticulous proof of their intellectual and physical maturity by objective test results before the age of marriage in order to entrust their property to them.

In light of the above verses, no responsible Muslim would hand over financial management to a seven- or nine-year-old immature girl. If we cannot trust a seven-year-old to manage financial matters, she cannot be intellectually or physically fit for marriage. Ibn Hambal (Musnad Ahmad ibn Hambal, vol.6, p. 33 and 99) claims that nine-year-old Ayesha was rather more interested in playing with toy-horses than taking up the responsible task of a wife. It is difficult to believe, therefore, that AbuBakr, a great believer among Muslims, would betroth his immature seven-year-old daughter to the 50-year-old Prophet. Equally difficult to imagine is that the Prophet would marry an immature seven-year-old girl.

Another important duty demanded from the guardian of a child is to educate them. Let us ask the question, How many of us believe that we can educate our children satisfactorily before they reach the age of seven or nine years? The answer is none. Logically, it is an impossible task to educate a child satisfactorily before the child attains the age of seven. Then, how can we believe that Ayesha was educated satisfactorily at the claimed age of seven at the time of her marriage?

AbuBakr was a more judicious man than all of us. So, he definitely would have judged that Ayesha was a child at heart and was not satisfactorily educated as demanded by the Quran. He would not have married her to anyone. If a proposal of marrying the immature and yet to be educated seven-year-old Ayesha came to the Prophet, he would have rejected it outright because neither the Prophet nor AbuBakr would violate any clause in the Quran.

CONCLUSION: The marriage of Ayesha at the age of seven years would violate the maturity clause or requirement of the Quran. Therefore, the story of the marriage of the seven-year-old immature Ayesha is a myth.

EVIDENCE #9: Consent in Marriage

A women must be consulted and must agree in order to make a marriage valid (Mishakat al Masabiah, translation by James Robson, Vol. I, p. 665). Islamically, credible permission from women is a prerequisite for a marriage to be valid.

By any stretch of the imagination, the permission given by an immature seven-year-old girl cannot be valid authorization for marriage.

It is inconceivable that AbuBakr, an intelligent man, would take seriously the permission of a seven-year-old girl to marry a 50-year-old man.

Similarly, the Prophet would not have accepted the permission given by a girl who, according to the hadith of Muslim, took her toys with her when she went live with Prophet.

CONCLUSION: The Prophet did not marry a seven-year-old Ayesha because it would have violated the requirement of the valid permission clause of the Islamic Marriage Decree. Therefore, the Prophet married an intellectually and physically mature lady Ayesha.

SUMMARY:

It was neither an Arab tradition to give away girls in marriage at an age as young as seven or nine years, nor did the Prophet marry Ayesha 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.

Obviously, the narrative of the marriage of nine-year-old Ayesha by Hisham ibn `Urwah cannot be held true when it is contradicted by many other reported narratives. Moreover, there is absolutely no reason to accept the narrative of Hisham ibn `Urwah as true when other scholars, including Malik ibn Anas, view his narrative while in Iraq, as unreliable. The quotations from Tabari, Bukhari and Muslim show they contradict each other regarding Ayeshas age. Furthermore, many of these scholars contradict themselves in their own records. Thus, the narrative of Ayeshas age at the time of the marriage is not reliable due to the clear contradictions seen in the works of classical scholars of Islam.

Therefore, there is absolutely no reason to believe that the information on Ayeshas age is accepted as true when there are adequate grounds to reject it as myth. Moreover, the Quran rejects the marriage of immature girls and boys as well as entrusting them with responsibilities.

T.O. Shanavas is a physician based in Michigan. This article first appeared in The Minaret in March 1999.

2001 Minaret

Extracted 09/06/02 from The Minaret



[/code]
NS
02/17/03 at 10:45:55
Kathy
Re: The Marriage Of Aisha RZ
BUSHRA
11/18/02 at 17:35:30
[slm],

Well, this is even more confusing  ::)now and if we are to believe that the above given evidence is true, then does that mean all through out the muslim history NO ONE noticed this flaw? Are we to believe that none of the sahabas rz. ever clarified the correct age and that Aisha rz. herself never told what her age was at the time of marriage to the prophet.
Did the  pious tabaeens such as imam Abu Hanifa rh. etc never notice that there was a missing link in the biography of the Prophet [saw] ?
I have heard this before from fellow muslims that the marriage of Aisha rz. at the age of 6 is a myth etc. and I agree that if we are to believe that this is all a myth , it would make our lives much easier i.e. no more giving people explanations etc. but some how I find it hard to believe that the muslim historians of the previous era would have missed such a fact ::).
I don't mean to lash out at the author of the article  and I agree that it is intersting to read but I don't like doubting our predecessors, especially in such matters :(.

Anyway jazakullah for takin the time and effort to reply to this post and I would appreciate it if the replies keep on coming.

Bushra :-)
Re: The Marriage Of Aisha RZ
BUSHRA
11/18/02 at 18:00:06
[wlm],

Well, did some research and find this :

Volume 5, Book 58, Number 234:
Narrated Aisha:

The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became Allright, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, "Best wishes and Allah's Blessing and a good luck." Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah's Apostle came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age.


Bushra :-)
Re: The Marriage Of Aisha RZ
BUSHRA
11/18/02 at 18:22:31
[slm]
ok, I found some more in sahih muslim:

Chapter 10: IT IS PERMISSIBLE FOR THE FATHER TO GIVE THE HAND OF HIS DAUGHTER IN MARRIAGE EVEN WHEN SHE IS NOT FULLY GROWN UP


-----------------------------)--------------------------------------------------
Book 008, Number 3309:
'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported: Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) married me when I was six years old, and I was admitted to his house at the age of nine. She further said: We went to Medina and I had an attack of fever for a month, and my hair had come down to the earlobes. Umm Ruman (my mother) came to me and I was at that time on a swing along with my playmates. She called me loudly and I went to her and I did not know what she had wanted of me. She took hold of my hand and took me to the door, and I was saying: Ha, ha (as if I was gasping), until the agitation of my heart was over. She took me to a house, where had gathered the women of the Ansar. They all blessed me and wished me good luck and said: May you have share in good. She (my mother) entrusted me to them. They washed my head and embellished me and nothing frightened me. Allah's Messenger (, may peace be upon him) came there in the morning, and I was entrusted to him.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Book 008, Number 3310:
'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported: Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) married me when I was six years old, and I was admitted to his house when I was nine years old.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Book 008, Number 3311:
'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) married her when she was seven years old, and he was taken to his house as a bride when she was nine, and her dolls were with her; and when he (the Holy Prophet) died she was eighteen years old.


Well, these ahadith are narrated by Aisha rz. herself, and since reading them, I think the reason for all these questions is that we live in a very different age now and some of us have different  values regarding the age of marriage .

Bushra.
Re: The Marriage Of Aisha RZ
Aadhil
11/18/02 at 21:53:45
[slm]
I once heard Shaikh Anwar al Awlaki give a speech on how to answer Non Mulims who attack Islam on the point of 'Aisha's marriage to the Prophet [sal]. He said that the first responce to their question (why such a marriage occured) should be that it was an order from Allah [swt] stated in the Qur'an. Their most likely reaction to this statement would be that they do not believe in the Qur'an. The you reply saying that the issue should then be about the validity of the Qur'an, and not about 'Aisha since once they are able to believe in the Qur'an they should not have any doubt about the decision of the Prophet's marriage.

Another point in the marriage is that you could point out that Since 'Aisha was young, and had an inquisitive mind (The marking of a scholar), she would learn about the religeon in detail even more than anyone else because of the bond between a Husband and Wife. Thus when the Prophet died, she was a leading scholar that everyone came to consult.

And in those days, the age of puberty was very low, and women matured quickly.
[wlm]
11/18/02 at 21:54:51
Aadhil
Re: The Marriage Of Aisha RZ
Dawn
11/19/02 at 07:08:15
[quote author=BUSHRA link=board=lighthouse;num=1037553997;start=0#6 date=11/18/02 at 18:22:31] Well, these ahadith are narrated by Aisha rz. herself, and since reading them, I think the reason for all these questions is that we live in a very different age now and some of us have different values regarding the age of marriage .
[/quote]

I don't think the author of the above article was claiming that Aisha rz. herself was not in the chain of reporters, but rather, that the chain of reporters nearly always included Hisham ibn `Urwah during the period after he moved to Iraq.  The author also implies that most, if not all, of the hadith which report this "come" from Iraq, implying, I suppose, that there is at least one reporter, if not the final reporter, in the chain who was not a Medinian.  (Does anyone know if this is indeed the case?  I read some elsewhere which don't fall in this category, but they are considered weak.)

Here is another site which talks about this topic. [url]http://www.understanding-islam.com/ri/mi-004.htm [/url] (This is only one example.  The site seems to have several discussions relevant to the topic.)  The site seems OK to me (they claim to follow the Qur'an and Sunnah), but if it is not appropriate, admins or mods, feel free to delete the link.

But I agree with you, Bushra.  It does seem REALLY odd that if the early marriage is a myth, it went unnoticed for [i]all these years[/i] by scholars.  Such an oversight just seems AWFULLY unlikely.  (Maybe, as you mentioned, it wasn't ever felt to be a real issue before? ???)  Nonetheless, the author does posit some evidence in this direction.  Food for thought.

Peace,
Dawn
Re: The Marriage Of Aisha RZ
UmmWafi
11/20/02 at 22:45:47
[slm]

An eminent Orientalist said this.

"To corner the Muslims is easy.  Make them ask old questions in a new way to confuse them and provide them with the answers."

Nowadays, when a non-Muslim asks me the age of 'Aishah RA when she married the Prophet and what I think about accepting that kind of marriage, my answer is this :

"The Prophet  [saw] married 'Aishah RA when it was the right time for them to get married as ordained by Allah SWT and I have no qualms abt accepting ordainments from Allah SWT."

End of question.  I choose my battles and I don't choose to battle on the question of faith. And no way am I gonna allow the non-Muslims to decide what questions I ask and how I should answer the questions.  Wallahua'alam

Wassalam.
Re: The Marriage Of Aisha RZ
shareefa
11/28/02 at 15:34:26
[slm]

sorry to seem to be dopey but what do u mean by 'rz' after Aisha [ra] 's name, I know of the term radhi Allahu anha or radhi Allahu ta'aala anha, but what does that rz stand for?? ???
Re: The Marriage Of Aisha RZ
se7en
02/17/03 at 03:18:27
as salaamu alaykum,

Cara asked a question about Aisha's age on the old message board.  It's question #3 addressed in the thread [url=http://www.jannah.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl/YaBB.pl?board=madrasa&action=display&num=6416]here[/url].

ps -- a lot of ppl from the subcontinent have difficulty pronouncing the letter 'dhaal'; and pronouce it 'zaal' instead.  so 'radhi Allahu anh' become raZi Allahu anh, abbreviated rz.  I think :)

wasalaam :-)
Re: The Marriage Of Aisha RZ
M.F.
02/19/03 at 08:00:43
Assalamu alaikum,
The piece written by the person trying to "debunk" the so called myth of Aisha getting married at 9 is interesting.  I wonder what made him so embarrassed that he tried to go against all the ahadeeth of Aisha who told the story herself and the agreement of all the scholars.
A girl getting married at age 9 (or as soon as she got her period) was not unusual in the 7th century A.D., especially not in Arabia.   She was engaged at age 6 or 7, but you can't compare that with a 6 or 7 year old today, especially one who lives in a city, who goes to school and who is still treated by everyone as a child.  If you go out into the rural areas of many developing countries, you'll see that children grow up way faster than they do in the cities, and have way more responsibilities.
As recently our grandparents' generation, it was completely normal (especially in Arab society and maybe elsewhere) to get married at 12 or 13 (puberty).  It's only recently that any question was even brought up about Aisha's age.    Even today in some parts of the world girls get married that young.  Can you imagine a modern city-bred 11 year old making such a decision?  There's just no comparison.  And anyway, Aisha never said: No, and if she had, they most likely wouldn't have forced her.
You just can't answer this question to anyone's satisfaction if you use today's standards, but when you go back 1400 years ago into the Arabian desert, it's totally different.
In addition to all this, I don't know why orientalists, and a few Muslims, are so hung up on Aisha's age....  The Prophet (S) first wife after Khadija was in her 70s!  His other wives had all been previously married... Why is everyone so concerned with Aisha?  
Re: The Marriage Of Aisha RZ
Abu_Hamza
02/19/03 at 23:25:27
Let me try to reason this ...

Why would it be a matter of contention if the Prophet [saw] married a young girl of age 9?

A. maybe because some people consider it oppression upon the girl
B. maybe because some people consider it plain immoral (and immorality is not expected from a Prophet)
C. maybe some people consider it unethical (and a Prophet is supposed to have the highest ethics)

If there are any other reasons, please point them out.

Assuming it's one (or more) of the above reasons which raise eyebrows when the marriage of Aisha is mentioned, let's see if any of those contentions are valid.

A. Was Aisha oppressed by being married to the Prophet (saw) at 9?

It's really interesting to note that all the reports about Aisha's marriage to the Prophet have come to us by none other than herself. She's the one who keeps telling people about her marriage at such a young age. Go back and read some of those reports. Do you see a tone of complain, pain or remorse in those reports? I don't think you would. Read them again. Do you see a tone of longing (for the husband who is no longer with the narrator), amusement and love in those reports? Do you almost see a narrator who is reminiscing those moments with joy?

Is that the tone of an oppressed bride? Hardly.

Who was Aisha? She was the daughter of Abu Bakr.

Who was Abu Bakr? He was the best, oldest and most loyal friend of the Prophet (pbuh).

Why would the Prophet (pbuh) oppress the daughter of his best friend? And why would his best friend remain loyal to him for doing so?

Clearly the father of the bride did not see this marriage as oppression upon his daughter. And neither did the bride herself. Neither during the lifetime of her husband, nor after. Then what sense does it make for any of us to view it as such?

B. Is it immoral for a man to marry a girl while she is 9?

Before the answer is given to this question, one must ask: who defines what's moral and what's immoral? For theists, it's God. What does God define as the moral age for marriage? For Christians, Jews and Muslims (along with other faiths), that age is puberty. We know for a fact that Aisha had reached puberty when she was married (as she tells us herself in one of the narrations quoted above by Bushra).

Since the Prophet married Aisha after she had reached puberty, and since the only immoral age for marriage according to the Judeo-Christian-Islamic teachings are pre-puberty, the marriage of Aisha at the age of 9 was *not* immoral either.

C. Was it unethical for the Prophet of Islam to marry Aisha at the young age of 9?

Again, one must ask, who defines what is ethical and what is not. Partly, it is the culture and customs of the people who live in a particular area. And partly, it is the religious beliefs of those people.

Did the Arabs of the time consider it unethical for a woman to be married at the age of 9? History tells us no. (And the narrations also point to that. Note, for example, the well wishing of the Ansaari women to Aisha while she was leaving her parents house to move in with her husband). And there is no doubt the enemies of the Prophet (who were many at the time he married Aisha) would have made a huge fuss about his *unethical* marriage to Aisha if it really had been one. For they were searching like madmen for *any* reason to defame his personality and reputation among his followers and admirers. But there is not a single report of such an accusation coming from the Quraysh or other groups of hostility towards the Prophet. So it was clearly a common practice of the time among the Arabs to marry a girl of that age, and thus not unethical according to the cultural norms.

I have already explained how it was not an unethical act according to the religious teachings of Islam either.

So then, tell me, why then is it a point of contention that Prophet Muhammad (saw) took a 9-year old Aisha in holy matrimony?

And yet why, at the same time, is perfectly ok for a Prophet (Lot) to get drunk and sleep with his daughters; or for a godly king (Solomon) to maintain a harem of 700 women?

Why?

Allahumma salli alaa sayyidina, wa habeebinaa, wa nabiyyinaa Muhammad [saw], wa'alaa aalihi, wa azwaajihi, wa dhurriyyaatihi, wa as-haabihi ajma'een.
02/19/03 at 23:38:43
Abu_Hamza
Re: The Marriage Of Aisha RZ
ascetic
02/20/03 at 04:55:16
Abu_Hamza,

I understood and agreed with all of your post but this:

[quote]
And yet why, at the same time, is perfectly ok for a Prophet (Lot) to get drunk and sleep with his daughters; or for a godly king (Solomon) to maintain a harem of 700 women?
[/quote]

Where are these things about Prophet Lot and Sulaiman (peace be upon them) mentioned?  ???
Re: The Marriage Of Aisha RZ
WhatDFish
02/20/03 at 06:19:38
[quote]Where are these things about Prophet Lot and Sulaiman (peace be upon them) mentioned?[/quote]

in the bible bro


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