? . How old was Mrs. Aisha when the Messenger entered her
The answer is not nine years..
In our upbringing, convictions accompany us with many concepts and they take root in us until we believe that they are facts that cannot be doubted. Also, we did not accept discussion or questioning about what or why.
Like others, I was brought up with bad manners and a lack of religion to ask about things like polygamy and why is it open to men but not to women? I had to silently accept the available answers such as the fear of genealogical mixing. And in the event that I continued with the natural question: So, what now that there is a genetic imprint? The answer comes with humility as follows: "Perhaps we do not realize God's wisdom in everything." Thus, the answer that the respondent deems sufficient, sufficient, and satisfactory to any and every question ends, but it never healed any of the questioners.
In this context, one of the most prominent postulates was the Prophet’s marriage to Mrs. Aisha, who was six years old, and consummated the marriage with her when she was nine. There is no need to mention that a story like this would raise many questions, perhaps the most important of which revolves around its use to justify a heinous crime such as child marriage.
?How true is this "fact"
But how true is this "fact"? Despite the popularity of this narrative, there are many voices that presented a completely different approach, including studies that provided scientific evidence refuting it.
Fakih al-Din Abd al-Qadir, a lecturer in Hadith at the Government Institute for Islamic Studies in Indonesia, told “There is indeed a disagreement between hadith experts and historians about the age of Aisha at the time of marriage, but it should not, in any way, be used as a justification for child marriage, rather the purpose should remain.” Behind marriage is the ethics of marriage and its outcome, and it is an equal man and woman.
Among the studies that looked at the age of Mrs. Aisha, one was conducted by the lecturer at the "Islamic Theology Center" at the German University of Münster, Dr. Yasmin Amin analyzed the issue from more than one angle, and titled: “Reconsidering Child Marriage: A Multidisciplinary Jurisprudence on Contemporary Ethical Problems,” which is part of the book “Islamic Interpretive Tradition and Gender Justice,” published by Canadian McGill University.
Amin detailed many points related to the age of Mrs. Aisha at the time of her marriage to the Messenger, in addition to studying the Qur’anic and jurisprudential evidence that permits the marriage of a young girl, and collected evidence from history, the Sunnah, and the Prophet’s biography, indicating that the age of Mrs. Aisha at the time of the Messenger’s entry into her could not be nine years.
?What are the problems raised by Amin that would change a “firm” conviction in us
Sahih Bukhari
When researching the hadiths on the subject of Aisha's age at the time of her marriage, Amin considered only what was stated in Sahih al-Bukhari, which many Muslims consider to be the most authentic authority on the hadiths of the Prophet.
The story of the Prophet’s marriage to Mrs. Aisha when she was six years old, and consummation of the marriage with her when she was nine would raise many questions, perhaps the most important of which revolves around using it to justify a heinous crime such as child marriage.
In this context, we find that the hadiths mentioned in Sahih al-Bukhari narrate that Mrs. Aisha was six years old when she married the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, and nine when consummating her.
Amin points out that all the narrations are attributed to Mrs. Aisha herself, and therefore these hadiths fall under the “mawqoof” section of the hadiths, meaning that the hadith stopped with her, without its chain of transmission being related to the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, and this classification came according to the definition of Ibn Hajar For hadith, it is only what the Prophet said, while traces and news can be narrated by someone else. Hence, these “hadiths” are not considered hadiths in the first place, in the idiomatic sense of the word.
And as a continuation of the research, Amin touched on looking at the science of men, which differentiates the trustworthy narrators from others, as a number of hadith scholars, most notably Ibn Hajar (d. 1449), and al-Dhahabi (d. 1348) saw that Hisham bin Urwah (one of the hadith narrators) was not one of the Trustworthy narrators, Ibn Hajar wrote that he did not know what to narrate when he was old, and he was considered fraudulent at the worst, and poor in memory at best.
In the same context, there is another narrator to talk about the age of Mrs. Aisha at the time of her marriage to the Prophet, and he is Sufyan, who may be Sufyan bin Uyaynah al-Kufi or Sufyan al-Thawri, both of whom are from Kufa, and Ibn Hajar described them as deceivers as well .
Historical novels
In adjudicating this topic, it may be necessary to trace the historical evidence and contexts to find out the relevant facts. In his book "The Prophet's Biography", Muhammad bin Ishaq wrote about the former men and women who converted to Islam early, and mentioned that among those who converted to Islam one year after the mission was Asma bint Abi Bakr and her sister Aisha.
The same list was also mentioned by Ibn Katheer, in his book "The Prophet's Biography", noting that Aisha was young. If Asma and Aisha had converted to Islam in the first year of the mission, as mentioned in several sources, Aisha could not have been nine years old in the second year of the migration, because this means that she was not born when she believed in the Messenger before the migration!
"Despite the spread of the story of the Prophet's marriage to Mrs. Aisha, who was six years old, there are many voices that presented a completely different proposition, including studies that provided scientific evidence refuting it."
Also, it is axiomatic that in order to believe and pronounce the shahada, one must be discerning, and therefore Ayesha is not supposed to have been born, but to be of an age that allows her to discern.
As for al-Tabari, he told that when Abu Bakr prepared to migrate to Abyssinia (about eight years before migrating to Medina), he went to the "restaurant bin Uday" and asked him to complete the marriage of Aisha to his son "Jubeir", and he had engaged her before that, but he refused. The restaurant because Abu Bakr converted to Islam. If Aisha was six years old at the time of her marriage to the Prophet, she could not have been born at the time of that incident. Likewise, Al-Tabari said, in his book “The History of Nations and Kings,” that Abu Bakr had four sons, all of whom were born in the pre-Islamic era.
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani stated , in his book “Tamaiz al -Sahaba,” that Lady Fatimah al-Zahra was five years older than Lady Aisha. Lady Fatima was born when the Prophet was 35 years old, and the Prophet migrated to Medina at the age of 52.
Accordingly, if we take into account the validity of these narrations, then either the lady Aisha made a mistake in estimating her age, or the hadith that was narrated about 100 years after the incident was not true.
Can a girl be married off without her consent?
In a hadith narrated by Al-Bukhari on the authority of Abu Huraira, the Messenger said: “A non-married woman should not be married until she is commanded, and a virgin should not be married until she asks permission. They said, O Messenger of God, how did she give her permission? She orders and her permission is her silence.”
It is also narrated from the Prophet that he said: “Advise the women themselves.”
If Asma and Aisha (daughters of Abu Bakr) had converted to Islam in the first year of the mission, as mentioned in several sources, Aisha’s age could not have been nine years in the second year of the Hijra, because this means that she was not born when she believed in the Messenger before the Hijrah. !"
?It is no secret that a girl's permission to marry is inconceivable, let alone occurring, at the age of six years. And how does the Messenger contradict his saying, when his actual Sunnah is considered a beacon for Muslims in all ages
Speaking about the age of Mrs. Aisha at the time of marriage, the Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayyib, Sheikh of Al-Azhar, indicated the difficulty of accurately determining the age of personalities in history, and the differences may vary from one year to ten years, as there were no statistics or any inventory of births, he added . After many readings, it is seen that the age of Mrs. Aisha at the time of her marriage to the Prophet could not have been less than 13 years.
Says the writer and researcher in Islamic studies d. Sawsan al-Sharif "There is a selective rhetoric on the part of religious scholars, which places all burdens as well as all punishments on women, and grants all privileges to men. We see this clearly in the presentation of some hadiths without clarifying the occasions in which they were mentioned, or their interpretation, which made them misunderstood." .
Accordingly, we should stop taking the Prophet’s marriage as evidence of the permissibility of child marriage, and instead seek, in his biography, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, a model for a marital relationship that is based on affection and mercy.
We were brought up that silence and obedience are the shortest paths to certainty, but after life passed, we became sure that the path to certainty is long, a path strewn with questions, research, thinking, and discussion, but we will never reach its end if it remains strewn with fear.
I did not write this article with the aim of persuasion, but in recognition of my right to ask, and you have the same right.
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