Salaamun alaykum, dear readers!
It is commonly believed, based on Hadith accounts of the prophet Muhammad’s life as found in Bukhari, that Aisha, the youngest of his wives, was 6 years old when married to him and 9 years old when he consummated the marriage with her via intercourse.
However, the collection of authentic hadiths and other historical sources provide conflicting information regarding this matter.
Some hadiths indicate that she was 6 years old when married, and others indicate that she was at least 15 years old when married, and 18 years old when the prophet consummated the marriage with intercourse.
But the commonly-accepted view is based on narrations such as this:
- Narrated from Urwah via his son Hisham: that the Prophet married her [Aisha] when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old. Hisham said: I have been informed that `Aisha remained with the Prophet for nine years (i.e. till his death). (Bukhari no. 5134)
Let us examine the contrary evidence from biographies and even other Hadith that Aisha was 18 when she consummated the marriage with the prophet.
Evidence from Historical Biographies
The first matter involves the age of her older half-sister Asma ibn Abi Bakr. According to historians like ibn Kathir, al-Dhahabi, and others, Asma was at least 10 years older than her sister Aisha.
Ibn Kathir writes, in his work “Al-Bidayah” that, “She [Asma] was elder to her sister [Ayesha] by 10 years”.
But al-Dhahabi writes in “Siyar a’lam al-nubala” that the age difference between the two is 13-15 years, so there is a slight inconsistency there.
Nonetheless, the reason why this is important is because it is commonly accepted that Asma died at the age of 100 at the year 73 AH, which corresponds to 695 AD.
If we assume the commonly-accepted date that the prophet first consummated with Aisha (623 AD) is correct, then at 623 AD, Asma was 28 years old. Given the age difference, this means Aisha was 18 years old when the prophet consummated the marriage with her by intercourse.
- Ibn Kathir writes in Al-Bidayah that, “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.”
Evidence from Hadith
The second line of evidence is found in Hadith, such as that from Bukhari in which Aisha remembers very well the frequent visits the prophet made to her home day and night before Abu Bakr attempted migration to Abyssinia.
If the second migration to Abyssinia was in the year 615, that would render Aisha’s age as 1 year old at the time if we believe that she was married at the age of 6, which would not make sense. How would she, as a 1-year-old, remember the prophet’s visits to her home before the migration to Abyssinia?
But if she was married (and consummated the marriage) at age 18, Aisha would have been 9 years old when her father migrated to Abyssinia, which makes much more sense as far as memory is concerned.
- “Narrated ‘Aisha: I never remembered my parents believing in any religion other than the true religion (i.e. Islam), and (I don’t remember) a single day passing without our being visited by Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) in the morning and in the evening. Then when the Muslims were put to test, Abu Bakr set out migrating to the land of Abyssinia… (Bukhari no. 3905)
Third, one scholarly-authenticated Hadith from Bukhari states that Aisha said she was a young girl (jariyah) playing when the 46th verse of Surah al-Qamar (the 54th Surah) was revealed. There is no fixed age for the term “jariyah” but it typically refers to elementary-school age girls. The verse mentioned in the Hadith is verse number 46 of this Surah, which was revealed while Muhammad was still in Mecca. This Surah is believed to have been revealed in the year 614.
However, Aisha was not an infant (sibyah) in the year 614, but a “jariyah (young girl)” past the toddler age playing, so the year 614 cannot be her birth year.
But if she was born in the year 605 or 606, she would have been 8 years old (a young girl) during the year 614. As a result, she would be 18 years old if she consummated her marriage in 623 AD.
- …The following was revealed to Muhammad in Mecca while I was a young girl (jariyah) playing “Indeed, the Hour is their appointed time and the Hour is more disastrous and bitter.” Sura Al-Baqara and Sura An-Nisa were revealed while I was with him.” … (Bukhari no. 4993)
Also, according to Ibn Kathir in his book, he wrote regarding the early believers among the women, that, “Out of the women … Asmaa and Aisha who was a young girl. These believed in the years when the prophet was preaching secretly for fear of persecution.”
- If Aisha was a young girl who believed in the prophet before he began preaching openly at the year 614 AD, how could Aisha have been born at the year 614 AD as is commonly accepted?
- If Aisha’s true age was 18 when she consummated her marriage to the prophet, that would make her real birth year to be 605 AD, thus making her an 8 or 9-year old girl by the time the prophet began to openly invite to Islam during the year of 614.
Hisham ibn. Urwah: Poor Memory
So what is the cause of this discrepancy? One common factor is that every single Hadith in the Sahih (scholarly-authenticated) collections except one (Muslim, no. 1422) is narrated by a problematic figure named Hisham ibn Urwah.[2] Ibn Hajar writes about this person, saying that Malik ibn Anas (who authored one of the earliest Hadith collections, known as the Muwatta) stated that his narrations were generally reliable, but became unreliable after he moved to Iraq during his older years.
- The historian al-Dhahabi in his work “Mizal al-Itdal” wrote that Hisham’s memory suffered badly as he aged.
Thus, if his claim about Aisha’s age came from when he was an older man with poor memory in Iraq, then given the other evidence suggesting Aisha was older, his Hadith on such matter should be considered weak.
Quranic Evidence
So what does this mean? To start with, significant doubt has been casted into the long-held belief that Muhammad married and had sex with a kid.
While Sahih hadiths and biographies contradict each other regarding the true age of Aisha, the most important contradiction of all is of course a contradiction with the Quran.
A marriage in Islam is a contractual relationship, and thus requires the consent of all parties involve, so how can a small child enter into a contractual relationship with his or her full consent like an adult can?
Not only that, but if God in the Quran only allows for giving the orphans their rightful wealth when they reach a marriageable age, and if they are assessed to be mature enough to handle their finances upon reaching such age, then how can those below the age of marriage be entrusted with the responsibility and burdens of marriage?
While the Quran does not explicitly give a number for the age, the marriageable age is implied to be any age when they have “right-mindedness”, and are mature enough to able to be trusted to handle their own belongings (such as their finances).
It is thus implied that they have to at least be mature enough to comprehend the complex emotions of sex, intimacy, and romantic love like a grown person who can handle his or her finances is able to.
In what world is a child with a right mind and mature enough for marriage, or any kind of romantic and sexual intimacy?
The Quran states in verse 24:31 that women can relax their dress around children because of their innocence, since they lack awareness of the nakedness of a woman. So how can they be of right mind for marriage in that case?
- [4:6] And test the orphans. Until when they reached the marriage, if you then detected from them right-mindedness, you shall thus transfer to them their wealth…
Conclusion
Regardless of any apparent contradiction between the Quran and the notion of child marriages, can any person of right mind seriously look at their 9-year-old daughter, sister, or cousin, and imagine a 54-year-old man having sex with them?
[1] https://aobm.org/articles/was-ayesha-a-six-year-old-bride/
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