The Doubt around the Prophet’s Marriage to Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her

The Doubt around the Prophet’s Marriage to Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her; A Review and Rebuttal

In the name of of Allah the Beneficent, the Most Merciful

All praises are due to Allaah, Lord of the worlds, and may salutations and peace be upon the one who was sent as a mercy to the worlds, our prophet Muhammad, his family and all his companions, and those who follow them in goodness until the Day of Judgment. To proceed:

Many of the enemies of Islam, to this day mock the marriage of our prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, to Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her and her father, when she was six years old, and his consumating with her when she was nine years old, while he was over fifty years old. They describe this marriage as a kind of rape and assault on young girl that was solely a whim of lust and desire, in an attempt to distort the image of Islam and incite people against it.

The response to this doubt is from five angles:

The first, marriage at an early age was a general phenomenon that occurred before the advent of Islam, and continued after it. Our prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, did not invent it, nor was he the first to do it. Rather, he married, just as other members of his community married at an early age, and if it were something that was reprehensible and unacceptable, his enemies, the disbelievers of  Quraysh would have censured him for having done so. They would have made this a reason to tarnish his image and alienate him but they did not because it was a normal thing in that society, and because they themselves were marrying girls at an early age. Rather, even European and Christian peoples continued to practise this custom until the twenty-first century.

This indicates that this is a relatively recent doubt, as the previous enemies of Islam did not mention it. And it is unfair to judge an act separated from its circumstances, place and time. So how can our prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, be blamed for this after more than one thousand and four hundred years have passed?

The second, the marriage of the prophet to Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, was not an act of pleasure and lust, as portrayed by the enemies of Islam. If that were the case, he would not have married, at the age of twenty-five, Khadijah, who was fifteen years older than him, and he did not marry another alongside her until she died. Then after her death he married an old woman who was eighty; Sawda bint Zam’a al-Amiri, whose husband died and she remained amongst the polytheists. He wanted to give her mind ease, and address her loneliness. And this is an example for the rest of the Muslims to do good to widows. Four years later, the prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, married Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, and the prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, did not marry another virgin; all his wives had previously married before him.

The third, the scholars mentioned that the marriage of the prophet, may Allah’s salutations and peace be upon him, with Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, having this difference in age, was for a legitimate legislative purpose and had a great wisdom behind it. And that was that the young woman in her age is more able to memorise than others, so he married her at this age so that she could convey many narrations about him, especially rulings that only wives saw.  She then reported these narrations after his death for a long time due to her young age at the time of his death. And this facilitated the conveyance of Allah’s religion.

And this is what actually happened. Al Hafith Ibn Hajar, may Allah have mercy on him, said on the authority of the mother of the believers Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, “The Prophet died ﷺ and she was about eighteen years old and she had memosired a great deal from him and lived for nearly fifty years after him. And the people took so much [knowledge] from her, and related so many rulings and matters of ettique on her authority to the extent that it was said that a quarter of the narrations of legal rulings were transmitted on her authority, may Allah be pleased with her” (Fat-hul Bari).

The fourth, the Islamic legislation does not prohibit marrying the young, as Allah the Most High said, {And those of your women as have passed the age of monthly courses, for them the ‘Iddah (prescribed period), if you have doubts (about their periods), is three months, and for those who have no courses [(i.e. they are still immature) their ‘Iddah (prescribed period) is three months likewise, except in case of death] . And for those who are pregnant (whether they are divorced or their husbands are dead), their ‘Iddah (prescribed period) is until they deliver (their burdens), and whosoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will make his matter easy for him} [At Talaq: 4]. So in this verse Allah explains that the waiting [‘Iddah] period for a young divorced woman who has not yet reached the age of menstruation, which indicates that the young woman can marry and get divorced while she has not yet reached the age of menstruation.

The fifth, there is a difference between marriage or consummation of the marriage and the ability to have sexual intercourse. A person may marry a woman when she is young and cohabit with her until she is able to have intercourse. For this reason, you will see the jurists talking about the issue of the obligation of financial maintenance or staying overnight for those who cannot have intercourse. And similarly, the issue that the one who marries a young girl unable to have intercourse, does that give him the ruling of being a married person, such that he would be stoned if he commits adultery or not? And so on and so forth. So, it is not surprising, therefore, to find that a woman may be married to a man while there is an impediment to intercourse for a certain period, whether it be due to sickness, menstruation, postpartum, being young, or anything else.

And Allah knows best.

Translated by Aqeel al-Hindi