the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam married Aisha when she was 18!!??

[Um Abdullah M.]

Assalamu alaykum

I registered in an Islamic forum
and a shia told me that shia and educated members of the forum believe that Aisha radiyallahu anha was 18 when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam married her?

have you ever heard of such a thing?
never knew their were people who claim to be Muslims to have such a belief

any comments on this?

[Abdullah al-Shishani]

actually on islam-online.net in the fatwa bank, there is one sheikh who said something similar.

Anyway, this is a test from Allah, that separates weak from firm. It is nothing strange for the people of 1400 years ago, to marry a 9 year old, however, knowing the attitude of Rasulullah (sallalahu aleyhi wa salam) about caring how people will view Islam, I think he wouldn't marry her (r.a.) if he would know how kuffar would use this against him. However, it was a qadar of Allah, and he (salallahu aleyhi wa salam) was shown a dream twice about it, and we know what dreams mean for prophets and Allah (s.w.t.) Knew the consequences. So just as Ibraheem (a.s.) was ordered to slaughter his son, in order to test him, so are people tested. This is just one aspect, of course Aisha (r.a.) passed to us a big part of Sunna, and she is the greatest scholar among women of the umma, and so on.

[Ibn Adam]

There's an English "da'wah" book that says something similar too.

They basically attack the authenticity of the explicit hadith in Bukhari to the contrary and then try to use "logic" to suggest that she must've really been 16 or 18.

Sad but true (sad that they twist things to make them more palatable to non-Muslims).

[ansari]

edit - delete.....

[Abu_Abdillah2000]

It is generally the shi'ah belief that Rasulullah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa-sallam, married 'A'ishah when she was about 18. So if this was claimed by shi'ah on a shi'ah forum then it's nothing strange. And this belief of theirs is inconsequential when compared to their bid'ah and kufr.

However, regarding the actual issue itself, there may have been some sunni scholars who have held this belief, but you will find a lot of things like this in history, where there is disagreement about dates, ages, etc. But regarding the issue of 'A'ishah's age, the majority of scholars of ahlus-sunnah agreed that she moved in with Rasulullah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa-sallam, when she was nine. Even those who disagreed, their disagreement was an academic disagreement regarding dates and ages, nothing more. Marrying at such young ages wasn't disapproved of until people's minds got brainwashed by the western european ideas.

The problem is that these defeatists today are actually "hijacking" this apparent scholarly difference for their own purposes of presenting a "rosier" picture of Islam to please the kuffar, wallahul-musta'an.

This is the real issue with these insidious so-called "modernists", who I believe are the biggest cancer in the Ummah today. If these kind of people, with the kind of ideas they are trying to propagate today, had appeared in the earlier centuries of Islam, they would probably have been executed for apostasy and heresy, and perhaps rightly so.

[Ibn Adam]

It's true in some areas you get disagreement about dates and details on some events but in this specific issue, do you know of any scholar outside the last 100 years who has ever made this claim, that 'A'isha (radhiya Allahu 'anha) was 16 - 18 at her marriage?

It lends this re-interpretation an air of acceptance to place it in a category of "things over which the scholars have differed." This "opinion" has appeared in recent times and doubtless borne out of a desire to appear more "presentable" to non-Muslims.

Even the book that I read which argued this (actually there were two, both by sunni authors) didn't try and cite scholars of the past who held the opinion that she was 16-18, rather they attacked the authenticity of the hadith and then brought spurious arguments themselves to allege she was older.

[Ibn Adam]

From memory this is one book that makes the claim. I haven't been able to locate the other book which I hope means the publishers withdrew it from publication.

[Yasir]

There was also a book published on this topic by Islamic Vision called, "Aishah’ - A study of her age at the time of her marriage".

[Ibn Adam]

That's the second one that I was referring to, I had remembered it being published by IPCI though.

[Yasir]

IV and IPCI are sister companies.