UNTIL THE يوم الدين, THE YAWM AD-DIN, the Day of Judgment Muhammad so eloquently preached about, Muhammad's character will be tarred by his relationship with his third wife, Aisha (عائشة). Considered one of the Mother of the Believers, Aisha bint Abu Bakr is generally regarded to have been Muhammad's favorite wife. Perhaps for the purpose of cementing Muhammad's political relationship with Abu Bakr, Aisha's father, who later would take over the reigns of that politico-religious bellicose machine called Islam that Muhammad had founded, perhaps motivated out of simple lust,* the marital relationship between Muhammad and Aisha spells the death knell to any claim of authentic prophethood by Muhammad.
Muhammad and Aisha in Arabic
The traditional ahadith put Aisha at six or seven years of age at the marriage, and at age nine at its consummation by Muhammad, then in his mid-50s, the young Aisha quite clearly at a premenarcheal age. There is not much prophetic or divine in the image of a 55-year old erect penis entering the virginal vagina of a nine-year-old girl and discharging vainly its semen in a orgasmic groan of ecstasy, regardless of how many Allahu Akbars are said. Less prophetic is the suggestion that God would positively will this moral enormity. Regardless of how common or not this practice was in the sexually-corrupt Bedouin society in which Muhammad rubbed his shoulders,** marriage and sex with a nine-year-old was not required, and certainly is not something that a man ostensibly holding himself out as the pattern for all men should do. Even supposing that child marriage and consummation had been the standard convention for the Bedouin, this is something a far-seeing prophet and his Allah, it seems, would not have encouraged, but would have banned. This is not something one should expect from the man hailed as al-Insan al-Kamil (الإنسان الكامل), the person who has reached perfection. This is not a moral zenith, but a moral nadir, at least if we are to judge by objective standards of natural moral law.***
It is no use to whitewash this historically probable situation. All the standard, approved and orthodox ahadith relating to this issue are consistent. For Muslims or their Western cronies to deny this fact is intellectually dishonest: nay, it is a plain lie. The Sahih Muslim 8.3310 relates:
The same text continues with another hadith, 8.3311, which has a slight, but ultimately meaningless, discrepancy in her age:
Various ahadith in Sahih Bukhari attest to Aisha's age at marriage and at consummation, 7.62.64, 7.62.65, and 7.62.88.
Similarly, in other parts of Sahih Bukhari, 5.58.236 and 5.58.234, we find the same evidences:
Muhammad! What hast thou wrought!
In another collection of ahadith, the Sunana Abu-Dawud, 41.4915, 41.4916, and 41.4917 we have the same attestation of marriage at six and consummation at nine:
As I was exploring these ahadith, I saw immediately below 41.4917, this interesting hadith, 41.4920: "Narrated AbuMusa al-Ash'ari: The Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) said: He who plays backgammon disobeys Allah and His Apostle." Muhammad condemns backgammon as against the will of Allah, but enjoins sex with premenarcheal girls? Most of us will see the absurdity in some of Muhammad's edicts, banning the gnat and swallowing the camel. The natural law will scream in our inner ear, the forum of our conscience, that something is deadly wrong with this self-acclaimed prophet. But remember, for a Muslim, الله ورسوله أعلم, Allah and his messenger know best, the natural law notwithstanding.
__________________________________________
*In Sahih Bukhari 9.87.139, 9.87.140, and 9.87.141, Muhammad seems to confess a prior longing for Aisha, as he even had dreams about her being uncovered. Seeing Aisha naked in a dream (at age six) meant to Muhammad that this desire "is from Allah, then it must happen."
**It seems that Aisha's father, Abu Bakr, was not initially excited about the prospect, but, being under the thrall of Muhammad appears to have conceded to the pseudo-prophet's proposal after weakly trying to deflect it on the grounds that he was Muhammad's brother: Sahih Bukhari 7.18: "Narrated 'Ursa: The Prophet asked Abu Bakr for 'Aisha's hand in marriage. Abu Bakr said 'But I am your brother.' The Prophet said, 'You are my brother in Allah's religion and His Book, but she (Aisha) is lawful for me to marry.'" In other words, Islam--not Bedouin practices--made it legitimate for Muhammad (and by implication any Muslim) to marry and bed premenarcheal girls. This precept in itself is so repugnant to the natural law and to reason that, by itself, it destroys any possible divine warrant underlying Islam.
***The problem is even worse that just Aisha. In Ibn Ishaq's biography of Muhammad we discover the lecherous Muhammad planning to wed an infant Ummu'l-Fadl even while she was a baby crawling before him. Since this event appears to have occurred during the Battle of Badr, Muhammad would have been approximately 55 years of age, which of course meant that he would have been in his mid sixties when he married the nine-year-old Ummu'l-Fadl. "(Suhayli, ii. 79: In the riwaya of Yunus I. I. recorded that the apostle saw her (Ummu'l-Fadl) when she was a baby crawling before him and said, 'If she grows up and I am still alive I will marry her.' But he died before she grew up and Sufyan b. al-Aswad b. 'Abdu'l-Asad al-Makhzumi married her and she bore him Rizq and Lubaba. . . ." A Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2006), 311. Lucky for young Ummu'l-Fadl, Muhammad died before he could fulfill those plans. This is not the only hadith that suggests Muhammad had set his eyes on other infants for future marriage as girl brides. In the collection of ahadith entitled Musnad Ahmud 26329
we have the following
The body of this hadith may be translated:
Muhammad and Aisha in Arabic
The traditional ahadith put Aisha at six or seven years of age at the marriage, and at age nine at its consummation by Muhammad, then in his mid-50s, the young Aisha quite clearly at a premenarcheal age. There is not much prophetic or divine in the image of a 55-year old erect penis entering the virginal vagina of a nine-year-old girl and discharging vainly its semen in a orgasmic groan of ecstasy, regardless of how many Allahu Akbars are said. Less prophetic is the suggestion that God would positively will this moral enormity. Regardless of how common or not this practice was in the sexually-corrupt Bedouin society in which Muhammad rubbed his shoulders,** marriage and sex with a nine-year-old was not required, and certainly is not something that a man ostensibly holding himself out as the pattern for all men should do. Even supposing that child marriage and consummation had been the standard convention for the Bedouin, this is something a far-seeing prophet and his Allah, it seems, would not have encouraged, but would have banned. This is not something one should expect from the man hailed as al-Insan al-Kamil (الإنسان الكامل), the person who has reached perfection. This is not a moral zenith, but a moral nadir, at least if we are to judge by objective standards of natural moral law.***
It is no use to whitewash this historically probable situation. All the standard, approved and orthodox ahadith relating to this issue are consistent. For Muslims or their Western cronies to deny this fact is intellectually dishonest: nay, it is a plain lie. The Sahih Muslim 8.3310 relates:
'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported: Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) married me when I was six years old, and I was admitted to his house when I was nine years old.
The same text continues with another hadith, 8.3311, which has a slight, but ultimately meaningless, discrepancy in her age:
'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) married her when she was seven years old, and he was taken to his house as a bride when she was nine, and her dolls were with her; and when he (the Holy Prophet) died she was eighteen years old.
Various ahadith in Sahih Bukhari attest to Aisha's age at marriage and at consummation, 7.62.64, 7.62.65, and 7.62.88.
Narrated 'Aisha: that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death).
Narrated 'Aisha: that the Prophet married her 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)." what you know of the Quran (by heart)'
Narrated 'Ursa: The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with 'Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).
Similarly, in other parts of Sahih Bukhari, 5.58.236 and 5.58.234, we find the same evidences:
Narrated Hisham's father: Khadija died three years before the Prophet departed to Medina. He stayed there for two years or so and then he married 'Aisha when she was a girl of six years of age, and he consumed [sic: consummated] that marriage when she was nine years old.
Narrated Aisha: The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl 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 became Allright, 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 a 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.
Muhammad! What hast thou wrought!
In another collection of ahadith, the Sunana Abu-Dawud, 41.4915, 41.4916, and 41.4917 we have the same attestation of marriage at six and consummation at nine:
Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu'minin: The Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) married me when I was seven or six. When we came to Medina, some women came. according to Bishr's version: Umm Ruman came to me when I was swinging. They took me, made me prepared and decorated me. I was then brought to the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him), and he took up cohabitation with me when I was nine. She halted me at the door, and I burst into laughter.
Narrated AbuUsamah: The tradition mentioned above [i.e., 41.4915] has also been transmitted by Abu-Usamah in a similar manner through a different chain of narrators. This version has: "With good fortune, she (Umm Ruman) entrusted me to them. They washed my head and redressed me. No one came to me suddenly except the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) in the forenoon. So they entrusted me to him.
Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu'minin: When we came to Medina, the women came to me when I was playing on the swing, and my hair were up to my ears. They brought me, prepared me, and decorated me. Then they brought me to the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) and he took up cohabitation with me, when I was nine.
As I was exploring these ahadith, I saw immediately below 41.4917, this interesting hadith, 41.4920: "Narrated AbuMusa al-Ash'ari: The Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) said: He who plays backgammon disobeys Allah and His Apostle." Muhammad condemns backgammon as against the will of Allah, but enjoins sex with premenarcheal girls? Most of us will see the absurdity in some of Muhammad's edicts, banning the gnat and swallowing the camel. The natural law will scream in our inner ear, the forum of our conscience, that something is deadly wrong with this self-acclaimed prophet. But remember, for a Muslim, الله ورسوله أعلم, Allah and his messenger know best, the natural law notwithstanding.
__________________________________________
*In Sahih Bukhari 9.87.139, 9.87.140, and 9.87.141, Muhammad seems to confess a prior longing for Aisha, as he even had dreams about her being uncovered. Seeing Aisha naked in a dream (at age six) meant to Muhammad that this desire "is from Allah, then it must happen."
**It seems that Aisha's father, Abu Bakr, was not initially excited about the prospect, but, being under the thrall of Muhammad appears to have conceded to the pseudo-prophet's proposal after weakly trying to deflect it on the grounds that he was Muhammad's brother: Sahih Bukhari 7.18: "Narrated 'Ursa: The Prophet asked Abu Bakr for 'Aisha's hand in marriage. Abu Bakr said 'But I am your brother.' The Prophet said, 'You are my brother in Allah's religion and His Book, but she (Aisha) is lawful for me to marry.'" In other words, Islam--not Bedouin practices--made it legitimate for Muhammad (and by implication any Muslim) to marry and bed premenarcheal girls. This precept in itself is so repugnant to the natural law and to reason that, by itself, it destroys any possible divine warrant underlying Islam.
***The problem is even worse that just Aisha. In Ibn Ishaq's biography of Muhammad we discover the lecherous Muhammad planning to wed an infant Ummu'l-Fadl even while she was a baby crawling before him. Since this event appears to have occurred during the Battle of Badr, Muhammad would have been approximately 55 years of age, which of course meant that he would have been in his mid sixties when he married the nine-year-old Ummu'l-Fadl. "(Suhayli, ii. 79: In the riwaya of Yunus I. I. recorded that the apostle saw her (Ummu'l-Fadl) when she was a baby crawling before him and said, 'If she grows up and I am still alive I will marry her.' But he died before she grew up and Sufyan b. al-Aswad b. 'Abdu'l-Asad al-Makhzumi married her and she bore him Rizq and Lubaba. . . ." A Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2006), 311. Lucky for young Ummu'l-Fadl, Muhammad died before he could fulfill those plans. This is not the only hadith that suggests Muhammad had set his eyes on other infants for future marriage as girl brides. In the collection of ahadith entitled Musnad Ahmud 26329
we have the following
حدثنا يعقوب قال حدثنا أبي عن ابن إسحاق قال وحدثني حسين بن عبد الله بن عباس عن عكرمة مولى عبد الله بن عباس عن عبد الله بن عباس عن أم الفضل بنت الحارث أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم رأى أم حبيبة بنت عباس وهي فوق الفطيم قالت فقال لئن بلغت بنية العباس هذه وأنا حي لأتزوجنها
The body of this hadith may be translated:
The Messenger of Allah (peace upon him) saw Um Habiba the daughter of Abbas while she was al-futim (still nursing) and he said, "If she grows up while I am still alive, I will marry her.[This hadith is often miscited on the internet as Musnad Ahmad 25636].
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