Aisha's Age
This article refutes modern Muslim apologetics which attempt to distort Aisha's true age of consummation.
Introduction
Before we begin, one must realize that the majority of Muslims today (for example, Shaykh Gibril Haddad, whose work is referenced here) agree that Aisha was nine lunar years old when her marriage to Prophet Muhammad was consummated. The apologetic argument that Aisha was older than nine at the consummation of her marriage, is not even a Muslim one, but an Ahmadiyya one.[1] These apologists try 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 that she was nine years old at the time. They are clearly embarrassed that one of their prophets married and had sex with a nine-year-old pre-pubescent child, and 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 some other ages derived from misquotations, indirect sources, fuzzy dating techniques, and downright slander.
The most common of these arguments are now propounded by the “Learner”, or Moiz Amjad, based on the work of Habib ur Rahman Kandhalwi (urdu) as presented in his booklet, "Tehqiq e umar e Siddiqah e Ka'inat". Other transmitters of these arguments include T.O Shavanas,[2] “Imam” Chaudhry (word-for-word plagiarism of Amjad's work),[3] Zahid Aziz,[1] and Nilofar Ahmed.[4]
We will now proceed to show the polemics of Moiz Amjad to be illogical rubbish. The question that escapes those who accept Amjad’s polemics is ‘why they would believe sources that clearly derive different ages for Aisha when she first had sex with Muhammad.’
When one examines the work of Amjad, one sees that his arguments contradict and debunk each other. His argument No. 5 says she was 14 to 21 years old. However, his argument No. 6 says she was 15+, his argument No. 7 says she was 17 or 18, his argument No. 8 says Aisha was 14+, his argument No. 9 says she was 12+, and his argument No. 12 says she was 12.
In other words, each and every one of his evidence contradicts and debunks all the others. Which of these so-called arguments is correct? They cannot all be correct. Sadly, Amjad does not have a clue.
The simplest answer is that Amjad has used doubtful data and assumptions for his calculations. In reality, all his arguments are false. Instead of using Sahih hadiths, Amjad uses non-sahih source material. Instead of using specific and clear age testimony, Amjad uses events that cannot possibly be dated with any degree of accuracy. Instead of using traditions of acknowledged authenticity, Amjad prefers to believe unsubstantiated slander and misquotations. Hardly a solid foundation for establishing facts. No wonder Amjad cannot provide a consistent answer to the question of Aisha’s age.
His argument appears to be that because he himself, using spurious information, derives multiple conflicting ages for the one specific event in Aisha’s life, then we must throw out what we know about her age at this event. In effect, Amjad is saying that just because he is using rubbish data, we have to throw out the sahih hadiths. However, this is not the logical outcome. Rather than discarding the good with the bad, we will merely throw out the bad; in this case, Amjad’s weak attempt to obfuscate our understanding that Aisha was aged nine when she married and had sex with Muhammad.
The Arguments
The First Argument
This is a classic Straw man. There is no requirement in Islam for multiple narrations. Even a single sahih hadith is sufficient to establish Islamic laws and practices.
Teacher of Fiqh at Sunnipath.com and Livingislam.org, Shaykh Dr. Gibril Fouad Haddad, who was listed amongst the inaugural "500 most influential Muslims in the world,"[5] also debunks the claim that most of these narratives are reported only by Hisham ibn Urwah.
The Second Argument
Another Straw man. There is no requirement for a hadith to be narrated in Medina for it to be considered sahih. Also, many events in the Prophet’s life were narrated by single narratives as well. Does that make them invalid? No. To demand multiple, independent narrations from Medinans is just setting up a standard that does not exist – i.e. a straw man.
Shaykh Haddad also refutes this argument by listing the people from Medina who reported this event.
The Third Argument
The actual statements, their translations and their complete references are given below:
Yaqub ibn Shaibah says: He [i.e. Hisham] is highly reliable, his narratives are acceptable, except what he narrated after shifting to Iraq. (Tehzeeb al-Tehzeeb, Ibn Hajar Al-`asqalaaniy, Arabic, Dar Ihya al-turath al-Islami, Vol. 11, pg. 50)
According to Shaykh Haddad, Amjad’s third argument is either misrepresentation or a lie. Apparently, the slander against Hisham ibn Urwah is unfounded and unsupported by closer reading of Amjad’s own reference.
As for Malik, he reports over 100 hadiths from Hisham as is evident in the two Sahihs and Sunan! to the point that al-Dhahabi questions the authenticity of his alleged criticism of Hisham.
Indeed, none among the hadith Masters endorsed these reservations since they were based solely on the fact that Hisham in his last period (he was 71 at the time of his last trip to Iraq), for the sake of brevity, would say, "My father, from `A'isha? (abi `an `A'isha)" and no longer pronounced, "narrated to me (haddathani)".
Al-Mizzi in Tahdhib al-Kamal (30:238) explained that it became a foregone conclusion for the Iraqis that Hisham did not narrate anything from his father except what he had heard directly from him.
Ibn Hajar also dismisses the objections against Hisham ibn `Urwa as negligible in Tahdhib al-Tahdhib (11:45), saying: "It was clear enough to the Iraqis that he did not narrate from his father other than what he had heard directly from him".
In fact, to say that "narratives reported by Hisham ibn `Urwa are reliable except those that are reported through the people of Iraq" is major nonsense as that would eliminate all narrations of Ayyub al-Sakhtyani from him since Ayyub was a Basran Iraqi, and those of Abu `Umar al-Nakha`i who was from Kufa, and those of Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman from Kufa (the Shaykh of Abu Hanifa), and those of Hammad ibn Salama and Hammad ibn Zayd both from Basra, and those of Sufyan al-Thawri from Basra, and those of Shu`ba in Basra, all of whom narrated from Hisham!The Fourth Argument
The actual statement, its translation and its complete references is given below:
This is another slander in which the slanderer does not correlate Hisham’s memory loss with the ‘Aisha’s age’ hadiths. Hisham was born in 61 A.H. and died in 146 A.H. at Baghdad – meaning he was 85 years old when he died. He moved to Iraq when he was 71 years old. When did his memory fail him? The slanderer provides no answer.
In fact, Shaykh Haddad accuses Moiz Amjad of outright lying.
The Fifth Argument
The actual statements referred to in the above paragraph, their translations and their complete references are given below:
The precise date of the revelation of Surah al-Qamar is unknown. Ibn Hajar, Maududi, and other traditionalists said it was revealed 5 years before Hijrah (muslimhope). Zahid Aziz said it was revealed before 6 BH. Khatib said it was revealed in 8 BH. Amjad does not name his source for his claim that the verse was revealed in 9 BH. The point is that the precise date of revelation of Surah al-Qamar is unknown, and using an imprecise date to calculate Aisha’s age is not only ridiculous but stupid. However, if an estimate must be used, then why not use Ibn Hajar’s estimate which is more authoritative and traditionally accepted than Amjad’s unnamed source?
Shaykh Haddad confirms this. He also proves that the traditional estimate of the revelation of Surah al-Qamar is consistent with Aisha’s age being nine years.
Thus it is confirmed that our Mother `Aisha was born between seven and eight years before the Hijra and the words that she was a jariya or little girl five years before the Hijra match the fact that her age at the time Surat al-Qamar was revealed was around 2 or 3.
A two year old is not an infant. A two year old is able to run around, which is what jariya means. As for "the comments of the experts" they concur on 6 or 7 as the age of marriage and 9 as the age of cohabitation.Thus, Amjad’s attempt to throw doubt on Aisha’s age by using a non-traditional (i.e. spurious) estimate for the date of revelation of Surah al-Qamar is easily debunked.
This is what Amjad later said, which totally debunks his own argument above.
Ibn Hajar in his commentary "Fath al-Baariy" has indeed mentioned that the incident of the splitting of the moon took place around 5 years before the Hijrah. Nevertheless, this statement does not qualify as an "agreement" of 'traditionalists and commentators'. Maududi's referred statement, in my opinion, is not adequately substantiated. A more accurate statement would have been that all the commentators and traditionalists agree on the point that the incident of the splitting of the moon took place while the Prophet (pbuh) was in Mekkah.
As for the time of the revelation of Surah Al-Qamar, it can be estimated through the sequence of the revelation of the Surahs as given in Ibn Shihaab's "Tanzeel al-Qur'an"[2], Suyutiy's "Al-Ittiqaan"[3], and Al-Zarkashiy's "Al-Burhan fi Uloom al-Qur'an"[4]. According to each of these sources, the period of revelation of Surah Al-Qamar was the same as that of Al-Balad (90), Qaaf (50), Al-Humazah (104), Al-Tariq (86), Al-Jinn (72) and Saad (38 ). All of these Surahs are generally held to be revealed during the initial period of prophethood. Maududi, in his commentary, has acknowledged that each of these Surahs was revealed during the initial period of the Prophet's ministry.So now we have Amjad backtracking on his claim that the date of revelation of Surah al-Qamar can be determined precisely. Initially he claimed it was in 9BH. Now he says it’s some undefined time in the Meccan period. Thus, it can be seen that Amjad himself has finally seen the absurdity of his own argument.
The Sixth Argument
A narrative regarding Ayesha's (ra) participation in Badr is given in Muslim, Kitaab al-jihaad wa al-siyar, Arabic, Bab karahiyah al-isti`anah fi al-ghazwi bikafir. Ayesha (ra) while narrating the journey to Badr and one of the important events that took place in that journey, says:
When we reached Shajarah.
It is quite obvious from these words that Ayesha (ra) was with the group traveling toward Badr.
A narrative regarding Ayesha's (ra) participation in the battle of `uhud is given in Bukhari, Kitaab al-jihaad wa al-siyar, Arabic, Baab Ghazwi al-nisaa wa qitalihinna ma`a al-rijaal.
Anas reports that On the day of Uhud, people could not stand their ground around the Prophet (pbuh). [On that day,] I saw Ayesha (ra) and Umm-e-Sulaim (ra), they had pulled their dress up from their feet [to save them from any hindrance in their movement]."
As far as the fact that children below 15 years were sent back and were not allowed to participate in the battle of `uhud, it is narrated in Bukhari, Kitaab al-maghaazi, Baab ghazwah al-khandaq wa hiya al-ahzaab, Arabic.
Dr. Ali Sina, founder of Faith Freedom International and author of "Understanding Muhammad", refuted this argument:
Women and young children went to the battlefields to perform other functions.
Therefore, it is clear that the fifteen-year age threshold applied only to boys, and Amjad’s line of argument is clearly false.
Shaykh Haddad also showed that Amjad had used false or incomplete information.
So, Aisha did not participate in Badr at all, despite Amjad’s assertion. It is also illuminating to know that Amjad had partially quoted the Uhud hadiths to falsely convey the impression that Aisha participated at Uhud when the hadiths are clear in that she was merely carrying water skins to the combatants. The last part of the hadith was omitted, either deliberately or inadvertently, an act some people may consider disingenuous.
The Seventh Argument
The relevant references required in this argument are provided below:
For the Difference of Ayesha's (ra) and Asma's (ra) Age:
According to Abd al-Rahman ibn abi zannaad:
Asma (ra) was ten years older than Ayesha. (Siyar A`la'ma'l-nubala', Al-Zahabi, Vol. 2, pg. 289, Arabic, Mu'assasatu'l-risala'h, Beirut, 1992)
According to Ibn Kathir:
She [i.e. Asma] was ten years elder to her sister [i.e. Ayesha]. (Al-Bidaayah wa al-Nihaayah, Ibn Kathir, Vol. 8, pg. 371, Arabic, Dar al-fikr al-`arabiy, Al-jizah, 1933)
For Asma's (ra) Age at Her Death in 73 AH
According to Ibn Kathir:
She [i.e. Asma] witnessed the killing of her son during that year [i.e. 73 AH], as we have already mentioned, five days later she herself died, according to other narratives her death was not five but ten or twenty or a few days over twenty or a hundred days later. The most well known narrative is that of hundred days later. At the time of her death, she was 100 years old. (Al-Bidaayah wa al-Nihaayah, Ibn Kathir, Vol. 8, pg. 372, Arabic, Dar al-fikr al-`arabiy, Al-jizah, 1933).
According to Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalaaniy:
Amjad’s objection to Sina’s analysis is similar to that of the previous argument.
Apparently Amjad is not worried that his arguments all derive conflicting ages for Aisha, thus debunking each other.
Shaykh Haddad also challenges the accuracy of the information, thus casting doubt on Amjad’s source material.
Using inaccurate data, Amjad assumes Asma was older than Aisha by 10 years when a more reliable source says the age difference is up to 19 years. Taking this more reliable information calculates Aisha’s age at around nine years old, completely in accordance with the sahih hadiths where Aisha herself said she was nine years old.
The Eighth Argument
The original statement in Tabari, its translation and reference follows:
Shaykh Gibril Haddad says that the evidence Amjad provided above is false.
There is also no need to make oblique calculations using Tabari when Tabari explicitly states Aisha’s age several times.
These are Tabari’s direct accounts. He reported it at least four times, making it clear that this was what he deemed authoritative.
The Ninth Argument
Muslimhope shows that even if we were to believe that Aisha accepted Islam before Umar, it doesn’t mean this took place during the first year of Islam since Umar converted in 617AD, about 4 years after Aisha’s birth in 613AD. Thus, Amjad had made a miscalculation here.
2. A’isha never converted to Islam, because she never remembered a time when Mohammed did not come by twice a day and her parents were not Muslims. This is prior to the first migration to Ethiopia (617 A.D.) (Bukhari 5:245 p.158).
Besides disputing the claim that Ibn Hisham reported that Aisha accepted Islam quite some time before `umar ibn al-Khattab, Shaykh Haddad also casts doubt on Amjad’s logic.
The Tenth Argument
Muslimhope shows that Amjad’s logic is wrong and not based on fact.
Shaykh Haddad also casts doubt as to the veracity of Amjad’s Tabari evidence, admittedly derived from a secondary reference that Amjad never checked.
The Eleventh Argument
Sina has refuted this argument.
And Amjad has agreed:
Shaykh Gibril Haddad also adds:
The Twelfth Argument
Ibn Hajar's original statement, its translation and reference follows:
Using Fatima’s age difference with Aisha to refute the Aisha’s Age sahih hadiths is a logical fallacy because the biography of Fatima is conflicting. Nobody knows for sure when Fatima was born (when her father was a nobody), and though her death was well-recorded her age at death is not known for certain.
The traditional account is that she was born on Friday, 20th jumada ` th-thaaniyah in the fifth year after the declaration of the prophet - hood (615 AD), which means she was about the same age as Aisha.[6][7]
It is reported on the authority of Jabir ibn Yazid that (the fifth Imam) al-Baqir was asked: "How long did Fatimah live after the Messenger of Allah?" He answered: "Four months; she died at the age of twenty-three." This view is close to that reported by the traditionists of the (Sunni) majority. They have asserted that she was born in the forty-first year of the. Messenger of Allah's life. This means that she was born one year after the Prophet was sent by Allah as a messenger. The scholar Abu Sa'id al-Hafiz relates in his book Sharafu' n-Nabiyy that all the children of the Messenger of Allah were born before Islam except Fatimah and Ibrahim, who were born in Islam.
Reference: Abu Ali al-Fadl ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Fadl at-Tabrisi (c. 468/1076 - 548/1154)Some say she was born ten years earlier than Aisha. Those who believe this also believe Fatima was aged 29 years when she died, not the 18 years traditionally believed.
Sina has refuted the accuracy of Amjad’s information:
Shaykh Gibril Haddad showed that Ibn Hajar was merely reporting what some narrators reported, not his own conclusion, and Amjad chose the wrong narration and also wrongly attributed that narration to Ibn Hajar, who was merely the reporter.
In conclusion, Fatima’s birth date is uncertain. Despite this, Amjad used a non-traditional estimate to cast doubt on Aisha’s age, when the traditional account exactly matches the established facts. Note that Amjad omitted the traditional account in his Ibn Hajar reference, choosing instead one that is clearly in error. Some might view this deliberate omission to be disingenuous.
The Thirteenth Argument
Although we agree there is no evidence to support the claim (usually made by Muslims in defence of Muhammad's pedophilia) that it was an Arab tradition to give away pre-pubescent young girls in marriage to old men, no credence should be given to mere ‘opinion’ of Aisha's age of consummation when there are sahih hadiths that explicitly state that Aisha married and had sex with Muhammad when she was aged only nine.
Although an ad hominem, this neatly summarizes what an actual Muslim scholar thinks about Moiz Amjad’s scholarship.
Conclusion
Moiz Amjad has presented a series of arguments as to why the generally accepted understanding of Aisha’s age (i.e. nine-years-old) when she married and had sex with Muhammad, based on commonly known narratives, is erroneous and contradictory.
However, on closer inspection, it appears he has produced arguments that can be broadly categorized into these categories:
- A. Unjustified slanders against Hisham ibn Urwah and the Iraqi narrators.
- B. The use of non-sahih information to refute otherwise sahih hadiths.
- C. The use of secondary, indirect sources in preference of direct testimonies.
- D. The use of ‘imprecise’ dating in preference to specific dates and statements of age.
- E. The use of misquoted references and erroneous information.
- F. The use of incorrect logic.
- G. Personal opinion.
For these reasons, we reject Moiz Amjad’s attempt to discredit the ‘Aisha age’ hadiths, particularly those of Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.
It astounds us that Moiz Amjad is apparently unperturbed that his arguments derive conflicting ages for when Aisha married and had sex with Muhammad. A reasonable person would see that this means his arguments debunk each other, while all the sahih hadiths in regards to Aisha's age of consummation are in perfect harmony.
See Also
- Aisha's Age of Consummation
- Responses to Apologetics: Muhammad and Aisha
- Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Aisha - Islamic sources relating to Aisha
- Refutations - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Refutations
External Links
- Shaykh Gibril Haddad - Biography of Shaykh Gibril Fouad Haddad at SunniPath, The online Islamic Academy
- Evidence Muhammad was a pedophile - FFI forum thread which deals with further apologetics
- Really, really wishing Aisha weren't nine - Robert Spencer debates a typical non-Muslim apologist for Islam
- Responses to "The Learner" (Moiz Amjad) and others - Collection of Answering Islam articles
Acknowledgments
This article is greatly indebted to the following:
- Dr Ali Sina, founder of Faith Freedom International and author of Understanding Muhammad, for Controversies about the age of Aisha
- Dr. Shaykh Gibril Fouad Haddad, teacher of Fiqh at Sunnipath.com and Livingislam.org, for Our Mother A'isha's Age At The Time Of Her Marriage to The Prophet
- The Muslimhope website, for A’isha: Mohammed’s Nine-Year Old Wife
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Zahid Aziz - Age of Aisha (ra) at time of marriage - Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha`at Islam Lahore Inc. U.S.A. (for a refutation to the issues raised by Aziz's tu-quoque defence, titled "Mary and Joseph", click here)
- ↑ T.O Shanavas - AYESHA’s AGE: THE MYTH OF A PROVERBIAL WEDDING EXPOSED - Islamic Research Foundation International, Inc.
- ↑ Imam Chaudhry - What Was The Age of Ummul Mo'mineen Ayesha (May Allah be pleased with her) When She Married To Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)? - Islamic Supreme Council of Canada
- ↑ Nilofar Ahmed - Of Aisha’s age at marriage - Dawn, February 17, 2012
- ↑ Edited by Prof. John Esposito and Prof. Ibrahim Kalin - The 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World (P. 94) - The royal islamic strategic studies centre, 2009
- ↑ Fatimah az-Zahra - (A Brief History of The Fourteen Infallibles, p. 47-53)
- ↑ A Brief Biography of Fatima (A.S) the daughter of the Last Messenger and the Mother of Imams - Ummah.net