The Age of ‘A’ishah

Did Muhammad marry a little girl? What does the Qur’an say? What does the Hadith literature say? And what do historical sources say?

When asked what prevents them from embracing Islam, most non-Muslims indicate the fact that Muhammad married a child.

When asked why they left Islam, most ex-Muslims indicate the fact that Muhammad married a child.

Tragically, people flee from Islam and reject Islam for something that is not even a historical fact. There is no reliable, trustworthy, and credible evidence that Muhammad married a little girl: only lies produced by pedophiles.

The Qur’an does not permit child marriage. The verse used to authorize it, 65:4, has been subject to a perverse misinterpretation. It speaks clearly of women, not prepubescent girls. It cannot, from a linguistic perspective, be used to authorize child marriage.

The Qur’an also contains several verses that tie the age of marriage to puberty, as well as physical and psychological maturity (4:6; 6:152; 17:34, 78:33). Finally, the Qur’an is clear that sex with prepubescent girls is prohibited: “Do not approach unlawful sexual intercourse,” warns God, “Verily, it is immoral and an evil way” (17:32).

Unlike the Qur’an, which does not permit child marriage, there are traditions or ahadith, in both Sunni and Shiite works, that permit and even encourage it. Since these traditions contradict the Qur’an, and are immoral and unethical, they cannot be authentic. Serious and rigorous scholars, who are few and far between, have all dismissed them as forgeries falsely attributed to the Prophet, his Companions, his wife, ‘A’ishah, and the Imams from Ahl al-Bayt.

In spite of the above, a majority of Muslim scholars, exegetes, and jurists have endorsed child marriage over the past 1400 years. Some insist that a girl can be married at any age. They even allow men marry and pleasure themselves with breast-feeding babies. Others require girls to be six, seven, eight, nine or ten to marry. For most Muslim jurists, a girl can legally have sexual intercourse at age nine. For Sunnis, that is limited to vaginal sex. For Shiites, that includes anal intercourse.

Although they represent a minority, and are persecuted by the majority, who treat them as heretics whose blood is halal, some Muslim scholars stipulate that only girls who have menstruated can get married. Others insist that they must be mentally mature as well. Others prefer an age-based approach, ruling that females must be 13, 15, or even 18 years old in order to get married and have intimate relations with their husbands.

There is a vast chasm between what the Qur’an says, the Hadith says, and Islamic jurisprudence says. There is a huge difference between the science of history and “sacred history,” which is primarily religious fiction. There exists a vast spectrum of legal opinions in Islam. Opposition to child marriage is as old the religious tradition itself. It is neither revisionist, progressive, liberal nor reformist.

How old was ‘A’ishah when she married Muhammad? The Islamic sources provide different ages: 6, 7, 9, 15, 16, and even 19. The age one selects say more about the selector than it says about the historical Prophet Muhammad. It is sad to say but most Muslim scholars over the ages have turned the Messenger of God into the Prophet of Pedophilia. If you defend pedophilia, what does that make you? A pedophile. We have far too many pedophile preachers behind the mimbar. They do not belong behind podiums. They belong behind prison bars for promoting pedophilia.

Watch “Did Muhammad Really Marry a Child” on History Valley. Read “The Age of ‘A’ishah” from Controversies in Islam: Religious Law, Qur’anic Ethical Imperatives, and Higher Moral Objectives (2023) which is uploaded to Academia.edu for educational purposes and discussion. You may click here to access the pdf file. The study is neither Islamophobic nor apologetic. It is entirely academic.

Other useful resources include Dr. Joshua Little’s thesis, The Hadith of ʿĀʾišah’s Marital Age: A Study in the Evolution of Early Islamic Historical Memory, which is available here. For a shorter, but equally valuable, study, see Yasmin Amin’s, “Revisiting the Issue of Minor Marriages: Multidisciplinary Ijtihād on Contemporary Ethical Problems,” which can be accessed here.

Did Muhammad marry a child? Yes, absolutely, according to most Muslim authorities across the ages. Is it permissible to marry pre-pubescent girls? Yes, absolutely, according to most Muslim authorities over the ages. Of course, these are the very same racist, sexist, and misogynistic men who believed in slavery, concubinage, wife-beating, and female genital mutilation.

It cannot be denied that most Islamic authorities believe that Muhammad married a little girl. It cannot be denied that most Islamic authorities believe in child marriage. However, consensus over a wrong does not make a right. There is a minority tradition, which consists of dissident views, which denied that Muhammad married a child and which prohibited the marriage of minors. Do not put all Muslims in the same basket. And keep Muhammad out of this.

Why? Because the Qur’an is the Word of God to Muslims but the Hadith literature is the Word of Man. It is an ocean of lies concocted by men centuries after the Messenger of God. Why? Because Islamic jurisprudence consists of the opinions of men.

Revelation or inspiration may or may not come from God. That is a question of faith. However, its interpretation is unquestionably the product of men. Religion is a human construct that evolves and is shaped by men. Islam is what Muslims make of it. It can produce Rumi but it can also produce Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Muslims have voices and Muslims have choices. Do the right thing. You do not honor Muhammad by making him a pedophile. You dishonor him. It is slander, libel, and blasphemy supreme. It is an insult to the Messenger of God and the Creator of the Universe. The greatest enemies of Islam are not the Islamophobes. They are Muslims themselves who choose to ruin the reputation of their religion and the image of the Prophet Muhammad. JUST SAY NO TO PEDOPHILIA!