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Aisha's Age: Difference between revisions
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==Apologetic Arguments== | ==Apologetic Arguments== | ||
Some Muslim authors have eschewed the traditionally-accepted ahadith and attempted to calculate Aisha's age based on details found in other ahadith and some biographies, though Kecia Ali labels these attempts as "revisionist".<ref name=":3" /> | |||
===Not Enough Narrators=== | ===Not Enough Narrators=== | ||
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This claim objects that there is only one narrator, Hisham, and that although it is a sahih (authentic hadith) he alone is not enough to consider the hadith reliable. However, many of the chains of narration for these hadiths<ref>[[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Aisha#Aisha.27s Age at Consummation and Marriage|Quran, Hadith, and Scholars on Aisha's Age at Consummation and Marriage]]</ref> do not involve Hisham (for example, Sahih Muslim 8:3311<ref>'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Allah's Apostle (ﷺ) 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.<br>{{Muslim|8|3311}}</ref>), and in any case, there is no requirement in Islam for multiple narrations. Even a single sahih hadith is sufficient to establish Islamic laws and practices. | This claim objects that there is only one narrator, Hisham, and that although it is a sahih (authentic hadith) he alone is not enough to consider the hadith reliable. However, many of the chains of narration for these hadiths<ref>[[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Aisha#Aisha.27s Age at Consummation and Marriage|Quran, Hadith, and Scholars on Aisha's Age at Consummation and Marriage]]</ref> do not involve Hisham (for example, Sahih Muslim 8:3311<ref>'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Allah's Apostle (ﷺ) 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.<br>{{Muslim|8|3311}}</ref>), and in any case, there is no requirement in Islam for multiple narrations. Even a single sahih hadith is sufficient to establish Islamic laws and practices. | ||
[[Gibril Haddad|Shaykh Dr. Gibril Haddad]] also refutes the claim that most of these narrations are reported only by Hisham ibn 'Urwah. "Try more than eleven authorities among the Tabi`in that reported it directly from `A'isha, not counting the other major Companions that reported the same, nor other major Successors that reported it from other than `A'isha."<ref name="Haddad" /> | [[Gibril Haddad|Shaykh Dr. Gibril Haddad]], who was listed amongst the inaugural "500 most influential Muslims in the world",<ref name="The 500">Edited by Prof. John Esposito and Prof. Ibrahim Kalin - [http://thebook.org/books_pdf/500Muslims_2009.pdf The 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World (P. 94)] - The royal islamic strategic studies centre, 2009</ref> and is considered a Muslim scholar and muhaddith (hadith expert)<ref name="The 500" /> also refutes the claim that most of these narrations are reported only by Hisham ibn 'Urwah. "Try more than eleven authorities among the Tabi`in that reported it directly from `A'isha, not counting the other major Companions that reported the same, nor other major Successors that reported it from other than `A'isha."<ref name="Haddad" /> | ||
Shaykh Gibril Haddad<nowiki></ref></nowiki> | Shaykh Gibril Haddad<nowiki></ref></nowiki> | ||
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{{Quote-text|<ref name="Haddad" />|First, the prohibition applied to combatants. It applied neither to non-combatant boys nor to non-combatant girls and women. Second, `A'isha did not participate in Badr at all but bade farewell to the combatants as they were leaving Madina, as narrated by Muslim in his Sahih. On the day of Uhud (year 3), Anas, at the time only twelve or thirteen years old, reports seeing an eleven-year old `A'isha and his mother Umm Sulaym having tied up their dresses and carrying water skins back and forth to the combatants, as narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim.}} | {{Quote-text|<ref name="Haddad" />|First, the prohibition applied to combatants. It applied neither to non-combatant boys nor to non-combatant girls and women. Second, `A'isha did not participate in Badr at all but bade farewell to the combatants as they were leaving Madina, as narrated by Muslim in his Sahih. On the day of Uhud (year 3), Anas, at the time only twelve or thirteen years old, reports seeing an eleven-year old `A'isha and his mother Umm Sulaym having tied up their dresses and carrying water skins back and forth to the combatants, as narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim.}} | ||
===Tabari's Account of Abu | ===Age of Asma=== | ||
One [[Sahih#Da'if|da'if]] (weak) hadith narrated from al-Zinad and recorded in the works of some medieval scholars, including al-Dhahabi,<ref>al-Dhahabi. "Siyar a`lam al-nubala'". IslamWeb. Retrieved 3 September 2018. <q>قال عبد الرحمن بن أبي الزناد : كانت أسماء أكبر من عائشة بعشر" (Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi al-Zunad said: Asma was older than Aisha by ten years.)</q></ref> states that Aisha's older sister Asma was ten years older than her. This has been combined with information about Asma's age at the time of her death and used to suggest that Aisha was over thirteen at the time of her marriage. | |||
Shaykh Haddad and the IslamQA website both independently criticise this approach as relying on a single narrator, who most scholars regard as weak, and note that a hadith by a more reliable chain from the same narrator gives a broader range for the age difference between the sisters.<ref name="Haddad" /><ref>Fatwa 124483 - [https://islamqa.info/en/answers/124483/ IslamQA.info]</ref>. Both also note that al-Dhahabi too gave the vaguer opinion that Asma was "ten or more" years older than Asma. | |||
===Tabari's Account of Abu Bakr's Children and Wives=== | |||
This account uses [[Tabari|al-Tabari's]] exegesis to argue that Aisha was born in the pre-islamic period, and thus could not have been less than 14 tears old.<ref>All four of his [i.e. Abu Bakr's] children were born of his two wives - the names of whom we have already mentioned - during the pre-Islamic period. | This account uses [[Tabari|al-Tabari's]] exegesis to argue that Aisha was born in the pre-islamic period, and thus could not have been less than 14 tears old.<ref>All four of his [i.e. Abu Bakr's] children were born of his two wives - the names of whom we have already mentioned - during the pre-Islamic period. | ||
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{{Quote-text|<ref name="Haddad" />|Nowhere does Ibn Hisham say this. Rather, Ibn Hisham lists `A'isha among 'those that accepted Islam because of Abu Bakr.' This does not mean that she embraced Islam during the first year of Islam. Nor does it mean that she necessarily embraced Islam before `Umar (year 6) although she was born the previous year (year 7 before the Hijra) although it is understood she will automatically follow her father's choice even before the age of reason.}} | {{Quote-text|<ref name="Haddad" />|Nowhere does Ibn Hisham say this. Rather, Ibn Hisham lists `A'isha among 'those that accepted Islam because of Abu Bakr.' This does not mean that she embraced Islam during the first year of Islam. Nor does it mean that she necessarily embraced Islam before `Umar (year 6) although she was born the previous year (year 7 before the Hijra) although it is understood she will automatically follow her father's choice even before the age of reason.}} | ||
===Tabari's Account of Abu Bakr's Migration to Habshah=== | |||
This argument claims that al-Tabari states that when Abu Bakr was planning to migrate to Abyssinia (Ethiopia), he spoke to Mut`am, with whose son Aisha was engaged. This migration occured eight years before hijrah, at which time Aisha had only just been born if she consumated her marriage to Muhammad at the age of 9 or 10. | |||
Shayk Haddad responds that "there is no mention of emigration in Tabari's account of Abu Bakr's discussion with Mut`im" and "there had been only some preliminary talk, not a formal arrangement". | |||
===Hadith Saying 'Aisha Had Reached Puberty=== | ===Hadith Saying 'Aisha Had Reached Puberty=== | ||
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However, the word أَعْقِلْ means thoughts or reasoning, but the translator, Muhsin Khan, has used the word 'puberty'. The meaning rather is simply that 'Aisha was aware that her parents were following Islam. A literal translation would be "I was not aware of my parents other than that the two of them both acknowledged the religion". The exact same Arabic phrase is translated correctly in another hadith by the same translator.<ref>Narrated Aisha: | However, the word أَعْقِلْ means thoughts or reasoning, but the translator, Muhsin Khan, has used the word 'puberty'. The meaning rather is simply that 'Aisha was aware that her parents were following Islam. A literal translation would be "I was not aware of my parents other than that the two of them both acknowledged the religion". The exact same Arabic phrase is translated correctly in another hadith by the same translator.<ref>Narrated Aisha: | ||
(wife of the Prophet) Since I reached the age when I could remember things, I have seen my parents worshipping according to the right faith of Islam. Not a single day passed but Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) visited us both in the morning and in the evening...<br>{{Bukhari|3|37|494}}</ref> | (wife of the Prophet) Since I reached the age when I could remember things, I have seen my parents worshipping according to the right faith of Islam. Not a single day passed but Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) visited us both in the morning and in the evening...<br>{{Bukhari|3|37|494}}</ref> | ||
{{Core Pedophilia}} | {{Core Pedophilia}} | ||