In the Name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful.
May Allah bless Muhammad and his Family and damn their enemies.
Christians, Jews or other groups have often used the matter of the Prophet’s marriage (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) with A’isha as a weapon against this Great Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family). They rely on that which was spread by A’isha about her having been married off to the Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) when she was a girl of six and that he consummated his marriage to her when she was a girl of only nine. They say:
Look at how this old man married an innocent little girl young enough to be his granddaughter when he was over 50 years old! How could he live with himself taking away her childhood to satisfy his own needs? What sort of a Prophet is this, who does something so inhumane?
Although the account of the Prophet’s marriage (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) to A’isha, when she was a child, is not told by anyone else but A’isha herself – we find no prophetic narration or any other narration from a reliable source regarding this incident – the enemies of Islam continue to spread these lies fabricated by A’isha without any proper historical research. They just rely on the accounts found in the ‘Sunni’ sect’s sources.
Those with a grudge against the Master of Prophets (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) have exploited the fabricated narration spread by A’isha through which she wanted to make people think that for the Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family), she was the youngest, most radiant, most beautiful and the favourite among his wives. Her claim that she was just a delicate and innocent child who was ripped away from her swing on which she used to play with her young friends when her mother shouted out to her and led her away so roughly that she could hardly catch her breath – without her knowing what was going to happen or what she was wanted for – to take her to the house of the Prophet who frightened her when he walked in on her when the bitter truth became clear to her that she had suddenly become a wife.
Firstly, let us shed light on the narration fabricated by A’isha. Bukhari narrates on the authority of Hisham, on the authority of his father, on the authority of A’isha who said:
The Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) married me when I was a girl of six. We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani al-Harith, son of Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell out. Later, my hair grew back and my mother, Umm Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my 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 settled down, 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 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.
Sahih al-Bukhari, volume 4, page 251, and Sahih Muslim, volume 4, page 141
In another narration, A’isha paints a picture of what happened to her in another scenario no less full of calamity than the last because she claims that her mother made her sit down – when she was just a ‘poor child’ – on the lap of her husband who treated her cheaply and consummated his marriage to her in the house of her father. That no wedding banquet was laid on for her to celebrate her marriage to him, and that no one else had even brought them anything to eat.
Ibn Hanbal reports on the authority of A’isha that she said:
My mother came to me while I was being swung on a swing between two branches and got me down. My nurse took over and wiped my face with some water and started leading me. When I was at the door she stopped so I could catch my breath. I was brought in while Muhammad was sitting on a bed in our house. Men and women from the Ansar were with him. She sat me down on his lap. Then, she said: ‘This is your family. May Allah bless you with them and may Allah bless them with you.’ The men and women stood up and went out, and the Messenger of Allah consummated his marriage to me in our house. No camel was slaughtered for me and no sheep were slaughtered for me until Sa’d, son of Ubada, sent us a bowl of grapes, something he would send to the Messenger of Allah whenever he would go round to his wives. At that time I was a girl of nine.
Musnad Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, volume 6, page 211
To back up her claim that she was an innocent child who did not understand what was going on around her, she came up with another account in which she claimed that when she got married to the Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family), she still had the dolls she used to play with.
Muslim reports on the authority of Urwa, on the authority of A’isha:
The Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) married her when she was a girl of seven and that she was taken to his house as a bride when she was nine, and her dolls were with her; and when he (the Prophet) died, she was 18 years old.
Sahih Muslim, volume 4, page 142
Moreover, she claimed that she carried on playing with her dolls even after her move to the marital home and that the Greatest Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) would find it soothing and help her play with her little friends even though they would run away from him because they were scared of him.
Muslim reported on the authority of Hisham, son of Urwa, on the authority of A’isha:
She used to play with girls in the presence of the Messenger of Allah (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family). She said: ‘My friends would come to me and would hide from the Messenger of Allah.’ She said: ‘So the Messenger of Allah would call to them to play with me.
Sahih Muslim, volume 7, page 135, and similarly in Sahih Ibn Hiban volume 13, page 174, and Mu’jam al-Tabarani, volume 23, page 21
Ibn Sa’d reported on the authority of Urwa, on the authority of A’isha, that she said:
The Messenger of Allah walked in on me one day while I was playing with some girls, and he said: ‘What is this, O A’isha?’ So she said: ‘Sulayman’s horse.’ And he laughed.
Al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, volume 8, page 62
This is how A’isha tried to hold together this fictitious account of her being young when she married the Greatest Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family), except that no matter how hard the creators of the false account tried to hold it together, it just falls apart as one can see. Now let us respond to these lies in line with historical facts, even those recorded in sources belonging to the ‘Sunni’ sect.
Firstly, if A’isha’s claims had been true, she would not have contradicted herself. We have already seen the discrepancy between her saying that when she got married she was a girl of six’ and her saying ‘a girl of seven’. Both statements are reported on the authority of her nephew, Urwa.
Secondly, Bukhari narrates on the authority of Hisham on the authority of his father who said:
Khadija passed away three years before the Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) left for Madina. He let two years pass, more or less and then he married A’isha, a girl of six. Then he consummated his marriage to her when she was a girl of nine.
Sahih al-Bukhari, volume 4, page 252
The opponents to Ahlulbayt treat this narration as if it is also narrated on the authority of A’isha herself, for Ibn Hajar says:
This appears disconnected, but given that it is narrated by ‘Urwa’, with his detailed knowledge of A’isha’s biography, it is also deemed to be narrated on her authority.
Fath al-Bari fi Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari, by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, volume 7, page 175
This narration would mean that A’isha’s wedding could only have taken place the year before the Hijra since she was a girl of six because, after Khadija’s demise (Allah’s blessings upon Her), the Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) let two years pass, more or less, without remarrying. Khadija (Peace be upon Her) passed away three years before the Hijra. Then, him having consummated his marriage to A’isha when she was a girl of nine could only have taken place two years after the Hijra because this is the time interval between when she was six and when she was nine. A’isha would only have been nine two years after the Hijra. On this basis, the length of time she lived with the Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) could not have been more than eight years because as everyone knows he was martyred in year ten (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family).
This contradicts what A’isha has claimed according to Muslim’s narration mentioned above – which said that she was taken as a bride, along with her dolls to the Prophet’s house (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) when she was a girl of nine and that he died when she was a girl of eighteen which means that she lived with him for nine years. This is confirmed in another narration narrated by Bukhari on the authority of Hisham on the authority of his father, also on the authority of A’isha:
The Prophet married her when she was a girl of six and she was taken to his house when she was a girl of nine and she lived with him for nine years.
Sahih al-Bukhari, volume 6, page 134
The narrations cancel each other out. If the first is authentic, then the length of time A’isha lived with the Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) was not nine years, and if the second is authentic, then the Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) did not marry her the year before the hijra or two years after the Mother of the Believers Khadija the Great had passed away.
This is another contradiction A’isha has dropped herself into even though both sayings are narrated along the same chain of narration, i.e. Hisham on the authority of her nephew, Urwa. This contradiction shows the lie and fabrication. The ‘Sunni’ sect cannot mitigate by saying something like these narrations are weak because they have decided that they are all authentic and to be without a doubt on the authority of A’isha.
Thirdly, A’isha claimed that the Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) said:
Oh Allah! In particular, strengthen Islam with Omar, son of Khattab.
Mustadrak al-Hakim, volume 3, page 83
We are not in the process of refuting this narration, or proving that it was fabricated by A’isha; we only wanted to rely on it to prove a point. We say that this narration is claimed to have been uttered before Omar had begun pretending to be a Muslim on the pretext that his Islam had come as an answer to the prayer of Allah’s Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family). A’isha claims that she heard it from the Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) and that she narrates it directly from him.
According to the ‘Sunni’ sect, Omar’s conversion to Islam was in the 6th year after the Prophetic Mission had begun i.e. about seven years before the Hijra. It was stated above that A’isha was a girl of six the year before the Hijra, which means that seven years before the Hijra, she was still either in her mother’s womb or a suckling child incapable of rational thought. How could she have heard or been aware of this narration allegedly uttered by the Holiest Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family)?
If what she claimed about her being young and her being a girl of six when she got married, is true, she had no business falsely attributing this fabricated narration to the Messenger of Allah (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family). And if it was not authentic then the point is still proven i.e. that she was much older than that, because according to the claim, she heard the narration, understood it and narrated it.
This is a third contradiction to add to the aforementioned contradictions which prove that it is a fabrication and a lie. Yet, what is most damaging of all is that they are all narrated through an authentic chain of transmission on the authority of Hisham, on the authority of his father, Urwa. How does one escape that?
Fourthly, Ibn Qutayba says by way of comment on A’isha’s narration about her marriage when she was a girl of nine:
And she lived until the time when Mu’awiya was the caliph and she passed away in the year 58 when she was nearly 70. She was asked: “Shall we bury you next to the Messenger of Allah?” She replied: “But I did wrong. Bury me with my sisters.” So she was buried in the Baqi’ [cemetery] and she bequeathed to Abdallah, son of Zubayr.
Al-Ma’arif, by Ibn Qutayba, page 29
Al-Birri said:
She passed away in the 59th year after the Hijra towards the end of Mu’awiya’s reign as caliph. She was nearly 70. It was on a Monday night, the night before the 17th of Ramadan.
Al-Jawhara fi Nisab al-Nabi wa Ashabihi al-‘Ashara, by Al-Birri, volume 1, page 216
Ibn Abd Rabbih said:
After his death, she lived up to the days of Mu’awiya and she died in the 58th year. She was nearly 70.
Al-Iqd al-Farid, by Ibn Abd Rabbih, volume 2, page 71
Al-Maqdisi said:
He married A’isha in Makkah the year before the Hijra (…) A’isha passed away during the time of Mu’awiya. She was nearly 70. He said to her: ‘Should we not bury you in your house with the Messenger of Allah?’ She replied, “No. I did wrong after his death.
Al-bid’ wa al-Tarikh, by Al-Maqdisi, volume 1, page 260
On this basis, A’isha’s age would have been roughly twelve the year before the Hijra, the year in which the Greatest Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) married her (as mentioned above). What a far cry this is from her saying that she was a girl of six or seven!
Even if we were to work on the presumption that what they meant by “nearly 70” at her death was that she reached the age of 67 – as some of them have stated – then she would have been a girl of nine when she got married, not a girl of six or seven except for the fact that we also reject their account that she got married the year before the Hijra. We refer back to the objection raised in the second point (above). There is shown to be a contradiction that disproves her claim.
Fifthly, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani says about Asma’, daughter of Abu Bakr:
She was the mother of Abdallah, son of Al-Zubayr. She became a Muslim long time ago in Makkah and pledged allegiance to the Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family). She was ten years older than A’isha and died less than a month after her son was killed. She was a hundred years old. That was in the year 73.
Subul al-Salam, by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, volume 1, page 39
Al-Baihaqi and Al-Dhahabi narrate on the authority of Ibn Abi al-Zinad that he said:
Asma’, daughter of Abu Bakr, was ten years older than A’isha.
Sunan al-Baihaqi, volume 6, page 204, and Siyar A’lam al-Nubala’, by Al-Dhahabi, volume 2, page 289
Similarly, Al-Nawawi narrates on the authority of Hafiz Abu Na’im that he said:
Asma’ was born 27 years before the Hijra of Allah’s Messenger (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family). Her father, Abu Bakr, was 21 years old when she was born.
Tahdhib al-Asma’, by Al-Nawawi, volume 3, page 223
The conclusion to be reached from these narrations is that Asma was 27 years old the year before the Hijra, and given that she was ten years older than her sister A’isha, A’isha’s age was about 17 at that time. That was the year in which she got married.
What a far cry this is from her claim that she was a girl of six or seven. So the Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) consummated his marriage to her when she was nearly 20, not a girl of nine.
This is how the lie told by A’isha is exposed. She intended to pretend to be younger and fool people into thinking that she was an innocent child who was married against her will to an old man. A’isha was nearly 20 at the time, meaning that she was a grown-up woman and not a child as she claimed.
The age difference between her and between the Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) was about 33 years, which is much less than the age difference between Joseph the Carpenter and Our Lady, the Virgin Mary (Peace be upon Her) when she got married or when they got engaged to each other. Mary’s age was between just 12 or 14, while Joseph’s was about 90.
The Catholic Encyclopedia says:
…a respectable man to espouse Mary, then twelve to fourteen years of age, Joseph, who was at the time ninety years old.
That means that the age difference between Joseph and Mary was about 77 years. That is more than double the difference between the Prophet Muhammad (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him and his pure Family) and A’isha. So why is there no outcry over this matter too?
The Office of Sheikh al-Habib