Child Marriage in Islamic Law: Difference between revisions

Some Islamic apologists have tried to cast doubt on the age of Aisha when she married and had sex with Muhammad despite the many sahih hadiths in which Aisha explicitly and directly states her age.  

They sometimes seek to explain that Aisha was in fact not nine-years-old as the Sahih hadiths of Aisha’s own testimony claim, but seventeen or eighteen-years-old at the time.

 

The most common of these arguments is propounded by the “Learner”, or Moiz Amjad. Other transmitters of these arguments include T.O Shavanas, “Imam” Chaudhry (word-for-word plagiarism of Amjad's work), and Zahid Aziz.

Aisha was nine lunar years old at the time her marriage to the Islamic prophet was consummated and there is simply no valid evidence that suggests otherwise.

 

The vast majority of Muslims today also agree with this, and many of these honest Muslims take offense to these lies propagated by western Muslim apologists who are embarrassed by their own prophet's actions.

Because of its many endorsements within Islamic scripture, child marriages are permitted by the majority of Muslim scholars and leaders, and in many Islamic countries it is common practice.  

Girls far below the age of puberty are forcibly married to older persons (sometimes in their 50s and later) for various personal gains by the girls' guardian. Pedophilic Islamic marriages are most prevalent in Pakistan and Afghanistan, followed by other countries in the middle east and Bangladesh.<ref>[http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=1631 America Magazine: Child Marriage in Afghanistan and Pakistan, by Andrew Bushell; March 11, 2002]</ref><ref>[http://www.americansforunfpa.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=630 Americans For UNFPA: Virtual Slavery: The Practice of “Compensation Marriages” by Net Community of AfUNFPA; last retrieved Monday, 08 December 2008]</ref> This practice may also be prevalent to a lesser extent amongst other Muslim communities, and is worryingly on the rise among the growing Muslim populations in many Western countries, such as the United Kingdom<ref name="Ten-fold rise in forced marriages in just four years">[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196955/Ten-fold-rise-forced-marriages-just-years.html Ten-fold rise in forced marriages in just four years] - The Daily Mail July 2, 2009</ref> and the United States.<ref>Christine Vendel - [http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1557578.html?pageNum=2&mi_pluck_action=page_nav#Comments_Container Man charged with statutory rape in ‘marriage’ to 14-year-old girl] - The Kansas City Star, November 8, 2009</ref> There are many reasons and justification that may be given by the world-wide practitioners of pedophilic Islamic marriages, the common denominator being Islam. In August, 2010, the Malaysian State of southern Malacca legalized child marriages specifically between Muslim men and Muslim girls ''below'' the age of 16. In a country where Muslims now amount to 60% of the total population, they enforce "Sharia law which operates in parallel with the civil legal system." Ivy Josiah, the executive director of the ''Women's Aid Organisation'', says "It is really a regressive move. It is turning back the clock." <ref>[http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1319257/Outcry-over-Malaysian-child-marriages Outcry over Malaysian child marriages] - World News Australia, August 4, 2010</ref> News like this leaves one wondering what will happen to child abuse laws in Western countries once Muslims form a sizeable portion of the population.  

A growing number of Muslims (primarily in the West) cannot bring themselves to accept the narrations given by Aisha in which she states that she was married to Muhammad when she was six years old and that he consummated his marriage with her when she was nine years of age, even though these are recorded in Bukhari's [[sahih]] [[Hadith|ahadith]] collection. These Muslims will usually resort to questioning the English translation <ref>[{{Compendium-of-muslim-texts-base-url}}/hadith/muslim/ USC's Compendium of Muslim texts - translated by Dr. Mushin Khan]</ref> of Dr. Mushin Khan, without addressing the ahadith in their original Arabic. A reading of the relevant Bukhari ahadith make it clear that Muhammad had sexual intercourse with Aisha when she was nine years of age. The terms used are: "udkhilath" and "bana biha", which can only mean "sexual intercourse" in the context of the ahadith. The confusion from Muslims regarding this comes from their lack of understanding regarding the English phrase "consummation of marriage", their ignorance of Arabic and their unwillingness to admit that their prophet had sexual intercourse with a nine year old child. Instead of attacking the English phrase "consummation of the marriage", it might better serve Muslim apologists to read the relevant ahadith in the original Arabic before venturing a rebuttal.

There are many references to the permissibility of pedophilia, to be found in authentic Islamic scripture.

This article refutes the claim that Joseph, the husband of Mary (the mother of Jesus Christ), was a pedophile, a popular yet erroneous tu quoque argument used to defend Prophet Muhammad's pedophilic marriage to Aisha. Upon reading the non-canonical apocrypha, the Christian equivalent of da`if (weak) or maudu (fabricated) hadith, we find it does not say Mary married Joseph when she was aged only 12. It in fact says she was possibly 17 years of age at the time the marriage was eventually consummated, if ever (Mary's perpetual virginity, the belief that Mary remained a virgin her entire life, is an essential article of faith for the majority of the world's Christians). The most decisive argument against the claim that Joseph was a pedophile is the fact that the same non-canonical writings which are used to gather information on Joseph and Mary's age, also confirm Mary's status as "ever virgin" (in The History of Joseph the Carpenter, Jesus says on Joseph's death "my mother, virgin undefiled").

===Proof that Aisha was Still Pre-pubescent Aged Fifteen===

The doll-playing exegesis used in "Aisha's Age of Consummation" in itself proves Aisha's status as pre-pubescent at the time of the consummation of her marriage to Muhammad, but most Muslims are unaware that the Sahih ahadith say that Aisha, was below the age of puberty when she was at least fourteen years old, and remained in that state till the age of sixteen. This is because they have never read the Sahih ahadith in Arabic. The narrators of the Sahih ahadith were not ashamed that Muhammad had married and had sexual relations with Aisha when she was below the age of puberty. Hence, from the original Arabic, it is clear that Aisha was below the age of puberty at the age of 14 (at the time of the raid on the Bani Mustaliq) or 15 (at the time of the Ethiopian slaves dancing incident), and begun her first menstrual period at the age of 16 (during the journey for hajj).  

*[[Muslim Statistics (Children)]]