In the incident of Ifk, an accusation of adultery was levied against ‘Aisha. The name of the incident takes its name from the word "ifk" إفك meaning "slander", "lie", "calumny", or "falsehood." This word is specifically used in surat-an-nuur (Surah 24) verse 12. or "During an expedition, the Muslim caravan accidentally departed without ‘Aisha. She remained at the camp, where Safwan (a companion of Muhammad) found her later. They stayed there at night, and the next day, he brought 'Aisha back to Muhammad. Rumors that Aisha and Safwan had committed adultery spread in the wake of this incident.

Inside the house, Muhammad also doubted 'Aisha, and he consulted people to divorce 'Aisha. But outside the house, Muhammad wanted to end these rumors, as they were affecting his claim of prophethood. Thus Muhammad ordered to kill 'Abdullah Ibn Ubai for slandering 'Aisha in this case, but the tribe of 'Abdullah refused to obey Muhammad and they defended 'Abdullah. A war was about to begin between the two tribes of Muslims upon this issue.

No revelation came about the innocence of 'Aisha initially despite the tense situation of war. Only after one month, Muhammad claimed the revelation of Quranic verses for the innocence of 'Aisha. It is doubted by Islam critics that the revelation was delayed for one month, while Muhammad wanted to make sure that 'Aisha was not pregnant (i.e. if a woman gets her monthly menstrual blood, then it is a sign that she is not pregnant). Muhammad had many wives at that time, but he was unable to bear any children from all of them. Thus, if only 'Aisha would have become pregnant one month after being alone with Safwan, then people would have started doubting the revelation too for announcing the innocence of 'Aisha.

There were 3 Sahaba (companions), who made the slander of adultery against 'Aisha. At that time, Muhammad claimed the revelation of more Quranic verses, which not only stipulated the minimum number of witnesses to 4 in case of adultery, but they also stipulated that all the witnesses would be lashed 80 times if their number is less than 4 (even if they are telling the truth).

Details about the Incident of IFK

'Aisha provided the following details about the incident of IFK (recorded from 'Aisha through multiple chains of narration).

Criticism: Why did Muhammad doubt 'Aisha and didn't immediately think well of 'Aisha?

After one month, Muhammad claimed that divine revelation came to him, which condemned that group of people for not immediately believing in the innocence of 'Aisha.

But the Islam critics claim that Muhammad's own actions were against this Quranic Verse. According to 'Aisha:

• Muhammad himself didn't immediately thought well about 'Aisha, but he himself started doubting 'Aisha.
• And instead of saying it to be a clear lie, Muhammad himself stopped showing KINDNESS towards 'Aisha, despite her being ill. Even if he came to 'Aisha, then he only greeted her, and then left.
• Then Muhammad also started investigating about the character of 'Aisha from Ali and Zayd (the adopted son), and Barira (i.e. the maid-servant) inside the house.
• Then Muhammad also consulted them regarding giving "Divorce" to 'Aisha.
• Even after one month, Muhammad was still doubting 'Aisha and he asked 'Aisha if she had committed a sin, then she should confess it and repent.
• 'Aisha said, she was so much disappointed with this behaviour of Muhammad, that she refused to even talk to him directly.
• 'Aisha even refused to testify her innocence to Muhammad, while she was of opinion that the slander had already been planted in the heart of Muhammad, and he would not accept her testimony.
• 'Aisha further said, but if she falsely confess that she indeed committed a sin, then Muhammad was immediately going to believe it.
• Then 'Aisha turned her face from Muhammad, and laid on the other side of bed.
• Then Muhammad claimed divine revelation came to him which proved her innocence, but 'Aisha was still so much upset with Muhammad's behaviour when her mother asked her to accompany Muhammad, then 'Aisha refused to even go with him.

Islam critics claim that outside the house, Muhammad was trying hard to keep the mouths shut of people from raising doubts in this incident, by even giving orders to kill 'Abdullah bin 'Ubai, but inside the house, he was himself doubting 'Aisha. But as a human being, he made a mistake and didn't anticipate that later his own behaviour would be disclosed by 'Aisha too, which would put his own behaviour in direct contradiction to this revelation. Thus it is enough to understand that this was not a revelation by any divine being, but it was only the Human Drama of Muhammad.

Criticism: Quranic claim that pure Men have only the pure Women

In this same revelation of Surah Nur, Quran also claimed that pure men have only the pure women. This Quranic claim should serve as an argument that 'Aisha was innocent, while she was wed to a pure man i.e. Muhammad.

Ibn Kathir wrote in his Tafsir under this verse 26 of Surah Nur:

But the Islamic critics point out that this Quranic claim of pure men only having pure women goes against the human logic. The Qur'an itself gives the example of wife of Lut, who was not pure of heart, while Lut himself was a pure man. The Qur'an also gives the example of wife of Pharaoh; she was a pure woman, while Pharaoh was not. Similarly with wife of Noah, who herself was not pure. This explanation thus seems to go against the known biographies of many of the Islamic prophets. And there are also common observation that many Muslim men do fornication in the western countries with the western women, but then go back to their country of origin, and wed the Muslim girls/women, who are pure according to the Islamic standards.

Criticism: Islamic Ruling of 4 eye-witnesses in the case of adultery

Muhammad also claimed the revelation of verse 24 of Surah Nur at the same time of incident of Ifk. This verse stipulated an entirely new condition of number of witnesses to be 4 in case of slandering. And it also stipulated another entirely new condition i.e. if there numbers are less than 4, then all the witnesses should be lashed 80 times, even if they are telling the truth.

The first one who made a slander of adultery against 'Aisha was 'Abdullah Ibn Ubai. Muhammad firstly ordered his killing. But he was an influential person and Muhammad failed to incite the Muslims from his tribe to kill him.

Then there were 3 other Sahaba (companions) who also made the slander of adultery against 'Aisha. They were:

1. Hassan bin Thabit (the famous poet)
2. Mistah
3. Hamna bint Jahsh (She was a sister of Zaynab, who was another wife of Muhammad)

These 3 companions were not influential like 'Abdullah bin Ubai. Thus after the revelation of verse 24:4, those 3 got the punishment of 80 lashes each, while their numbers were less than 4.

Islam critics claim that this Islamic ruling is totally against human rationale to lash the witnesses even if they are telling the truth. This illogical ruling proves that no revelation was coming from any divine being, but it was Muhammad himself, who was extremely angry upon those people who were putting his position of prophethood in danger by slandering 'Aisha. And Muhammad wanted to teach them the lesson. And for this reason he himself did this human drama of revelation, and stipulated the numbers of witnesses to be 4, and to punish all if their numbers are less that 4, even if they are telling the truth. The number of those witnesses was 3. But if their number was 4, then Muhammad would have still punished them by simply raising the number of witnesses to 5. And if the number of witnesses was 5, then still Muhammad would have still punished them by putting the condition of 6 witnesses.

Criticism: How did Muhammad know that Allah will 'soon' reveal the verses of innocence of 'Aisha after one month?

No revelation came for 'Aisha's innocence for the whole month. Then Muhammad came to 'Aisha (who was staying in her parent's house at that time) and he claimed that Allah will 'soon' reveal the verses about her innocence. And then surprisingly, only after one minute, he claimed that revelation came and it made 'Aisha free of those accusations.

Islam critics claim that Muhammad could have only make such claim (i.e. soon revelation will come for her innocence) when it was in his own hands to make the revelations at any time that he wished. And it is strange that indeed the revelation came immediately after that as soon as Muhammad and 'Aisha finished their conversation.

All the people who show magic tricks, they play with the minds of others, and make many such dramas in order to convince the people that they are indeed talking with unseen creatures. Therefore, Muhammad once himself forgot that he had to sweat while claiming the descent of revelation, and instead of that, he slept and kept on snorting.

So, neither any hard condition overtook Muhammad, nor he sweat due to the heavy weight of the revelation, but this time he kept on sleeping and snorting comfortably while receiving the revelation.

Criticism: Why was the revelation delayed for the whole month?

No revelation came about the innocence of 'Aisha initially despite the tense situation of war between the two Muslim tribes. Only after one month, Muhammad claimed the revelation of Quranic verses for the innocence of 'Aisha. It is doubted by Islam critics that the revelation was delayed for one month, while Muhammad wanted to make sure that 'Aisha was not pregnant (i.e. if a woman gets her monthly menstrual blood, then it is a sign that she is not pregnant). Muhammad had many wives at that time, but he was unable to bear any children from all of them. Thus, if only 'Aisha would have become pregnant one month after being alone with Safwan, then people would have started doubting the revelation for announcing the innocence of 'Aisha, and this would have destroyed his claim of prophethood completely. Therefore, although on one side Muhammad was trying to limit the slanders against 'Aisha, but on the other hand he let the door open to punish 'Aisha if she would have become pregnant later.

Criticism: Role of Hijab and Islamic Modesty in the incident of Ifk

The idea of 'Hijab' and 'Islamic Modesty' plays a role in this incident:

The Islamic idea of hijab necessitates the wholesale separation of women from the society of all men, who are not in some way related to them. Even conversation, and any kind of interaction between men and women is considered vulgarity, and is against the 'Islamic Modesty'. Therefore, on this journey too, 'Aisha was made to hide from the eyes of men behind the curtains of her howdah. And since men and women could not even 'greet' each other as it is also considered vulgar in Shariah, thus those men (who were lifting her howdah) were unable to find out if she was present in the howdah or not, by simply saying 'hello' to her. Therefore, this whole incident happened only due to these restrictions upon the woman in name of Hijab and Islamic Modesty.

Moreover, Islam critics claim that such 'restrictions' in name of 'Islamic Modesty' are against the 'Human NATURE'. And these unnatural restrictions make the society so much paranoid and skeptic, that it becomes a 'psycho' case. Muslims are unable to tell why these 2 companions (i.e. Hassan bin Thabit and Mistah) made a slander against 'Aisha. But the reason seems to be simple that these unnatural restrictions are making members of Islamic society paranoid, where they believe in such things which actually are not there.(Note: Muslims still use "Radhi Allahu 'Anhu" for these 2 companions and consider them to be the people of high status). Even today, thousands of killings take place in Islamic societies, in name of 'Honour Killing', which are based merely upon doubts and paranoia.

Also see again this lack of interaction between them when Safwan found 'Asiha, and they didn't exchanged any words with each other.

Islam critics ask what wrong could have happened if they would have greeted each other, and Safwan would have asked her about the problem why she was alone there, and if she needed some other kind of help too in that situation? Even today Muslim ladies and girls are unable to take help without any hesitation in each and every field from men (either they are male doctors or male teachers etc). So much energy of the society is wasted in these unnatural restrictions, and half of the Islamic society (i.e. women) become practically useless and unable to help with the productivity.

PS:

Muslims are divided on the issue if woman's 'face' should be veiled or not. Those who support the veiling of face too, they present this tradition as a proof, while here 'Aisha veiled her full face from Safwan.

Criticism: Why did Muhammad use to take his wives during the battles?

In the pre-islamic Jahiliyyah period in Arabia, the Kings acted like the dictators. They didn't allow their common soldiers to take their wives during the journeys, but did bring their own wives for themselves, despite the extra burden this imposed on their army.

Muhammad also followed the footsteps of these jahili dictator kings. The incident of Ifk happened while Muhammad took 'Aisha with him in that journey.

In this same Hadith about Ifk, 'Aisha narrated: