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===Islam=== | ===Islam=== | ||
There is no real evidence that Aisha “believed” Islam in the sense of giving intellectual assent to the literal existence of Allah. On the contrary, she expressed her scepticism to Muhammad’s face. When he told her that Allah had given him permission to reject or accept as many as he liked of the women who offered themselves to him,<ref>{{Quran|33|51}}.</ref> she responded, “It seems to me that your Lord is very quick to grant your desires!”<ref> | There is no real evidence that Aisha “believed” Islam in the sense of giving intellectual assent to the literal existence of Allah. On the contrary, she expressed her scepticism to Muhammad’s face. When he told her that Allah had given him permission to reject or accept as many as he liked of the women who offered themselves to him,<ref>{{Quran|33|51}}.</ref> she responded, “It seems to me that your Lord is very quick to grant your desires!”<ref>{{Muslim|8|3453}}; {{Muslim|8|3454}}; Sahih Bukhari 6:60:311: “Narrated Aisha. I used to look down upon those ladies who had given themselves to Allah’s Apostle and I used to say, ‘Can a lady give herself (to a man)?’ But when Allah revealed: "You (O Muhammad) can postpone (the turn of) whom you will of them (your wives), and you may receive any of them whom you will; and there is no blame on you if you invite one whose turn you have set aside (temporarily),’ (Q33.51) I said (to the Prophet), ‘I feel that your Lord hastens in fulfilling your wishes and desires.’”</ref> When she was accused of infidelity, she wept night and day as long as she feared Muhammad might reject her. But when he finally spoke to her directly about the accusations, he did not mention the usual punishment for adultery but only said, “Fear Allah, and if you have done wrong as men say, then repent towards Allah, for he accepts repentance from his slaves.” At this hint that Muhammad intended to exonerate her, “my tears ceased, and I could not feel them.”<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 496; {{Bukhari|5|59|462}}.</ref> Muhammad immediately entered the prophetic trance to hear Allah’s verdict, and “I felt no fear or alarm … [but] as for my parents … I thought that they would die from fear.”<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 497; {{Bukhari|5|59|462}}.</ref> Aisha was not afraid of Allah because she already knew that Muhammad had decided in her favour – that is, she knew who Allah really was. In one quarrel she told her husband directly: “You are the one who ''claims'' to be the prophet of Allah!”<ref>[http://www.ghazali.org/books/marriage.pdf/ Farah/Ghazali vol. 2 p. 95.]</ref> | ||
She challenged him on his un-Prophet-like morals too. He had warned her against rudeness and malicious speech, even to people who deserved it.<ref>{{Bukhari|8|73|57}}; {{Bukhari|8|73|590}}.</ref> Yet she overheard him so annoyed by the conversation of two visitors that “he invoked curse upon both of them and hurled malediction.” After the visitors had left, she asked him why he had insulted them on such trifling provocation. Muhammad had no back-story on how his guests had been secret enemies or even on why their conversation had been offensive. He could only tell Aisha, “I have made condition with my Lord … that for a Muslim upon whom I invoke curse or hurl malediction, [He will] make it a source of purity and reward.”<ref>{{Muslim|32|6285}}.</ref> | She challenged him on his un-Prophet-like morals too. He had warned her against rudeness and malicious speech, even to people who deserved it.<ref>{{Bukhari|8|73|57}}; {{Bukhari|8|73|590}}.</ref> Yet she overheard him so annoyed by the conversation of two visitors that “he invoked curse upon both of them and hurled malediction.” After the visitors had left, she asked him why he had insulted them on such trifling provocation. Muhammad had no back-story on how his guests had been secret enemies or even on why their conversation had been offensive. He could only tell Aisha, “I have made condition with my Lord … that for a Muslim upon whom I invoke curse or hurl malediction, [He will] make it a source of purity and reward.”<ref>{{Muslim|32|6285}}.</ref> |