HAZRAT A'ISHA SADDIQAH (Radi .Allaahu .Anha)

This is a controversial issue with regards to Aisha (r.a.a) marriage, especially in modern times! Some scholars say she was nine years old after referring to the hadiths. But according to Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood, her conclusion is that Aisha (radi Allahu Anha)age at the time of her marriage was 16/17 years old. For a detailed explanation, please read her booklet.

A Study of her age at the time of her marriage

(based on the researches of )

Maulana Muhammad Farooq Khan

INTRODUCTION

Aishah was a great Muslim lady, the daughter of the Prophet's closest companion Abd Allah ibn Abi Quhafah, better known to us as Abu Bakr, and his second wife, Umm Ruman. She was the 'second beloved' of the Prophet, the joy of the last years of his life. She was so famous that it seems quite extraordinary that some of the best-known facts about her should be challenged.

We consider what may possibly be the most serious piece of mis-information in the whole of Muslim history - the long unchallenged notion that the Prophet's third wife Aishah, the daughter of his dear friend Abu Bakr, was only six when she accepted nikah with the Prophet, that she married him physically when she was around nine years old, and was around eighteen when he died. One can find these 'facts' quoted again and again; moreover, they appear to be based on the most trustworthy of authorities - the hadith collections of Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, an-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah.

However, there are many points to consider. Firstly, all of these authorities seem to have based their conclusions solely on the work of Aishah's relative, the historian Hisham ibn Urwah, the grandson of Aishah's sister Asma. One might think, therefore, that they were extremely accurate. However, Hisham's accuracy in other matters was challenged. The matters pertaining to Aishah were supposedly obtained from Hisham's father, but apparently these particular hadiths were offered only in Iraq and were unknown to the people of Madinah, and must necessarily, therefore, be regarded as not entirely trustworthy.

In order to help the reader form his or her own judgement, certain fixed dates and terms should be placed before them.

• The birth of the Prophet was in 570 CE.
• His Call to the Prophethood occurred in 610 CE.
• The year his wife Khadijah died was 619 CE.
• The most likely year of his nikah to Aishah was 620 CE.
• The Hijrah to Madinah took place in 622 CE.
• The Prophet's full marriage to Aishah was in 2 AH/623-4 CE.
• The Prophet died in 10 AH/632 CE.
• Most authorities agree that Aishah died in 50 AH/672 CE.

The conclusions formed about the dates and age of Aishah rest on three separate theories. The first, and most widely accepted throughout the Muslim world, is that she was born in the fourth year of the Prophethood (ie 614 CE). This is based on one reference in Ibn Sa'd's work, which seems to be contradicted by many of his later statements. If this was true, it would mean she was indeed five when Khadijah died, six when her nikah was performed, nine in the year of her full marriage, and eighteen when the Prophet died. However, it would also mean that if she did die in 672 CE she was only fifty-eight, and not sixty-seven as most authorities report.

The second theory is that she was born some four years before the Prophethood, in 605-6 CE. This would mean she was 4/5 when he was called to his mission, 14/15 when Khadijah died, 15/16 at her nikah, 19 in the year of her marriage, and 27/28 when he died. She would have indeed been sixty-seven when she died 50 AH. (Sometimes one has to be flexible with the years, because people tend to 'round things up' and take into account the number of months in any year as a complete year - ie, if someone was sixteen years and eight months old, people might well say she was nearly seventeen).

The third theory is that she was five years younger Fatimah, who was said to have been born five years before the Prophet's call, therefore making the year of Aishah's birth in that very year, 610. If this was true, she would have been 9 when Khadijah died, 10 at her nikah, 12 in the year of Hijrah, 14 when she married him, 22 when he died, and 62 when she died.

The argument based on the age of Fatimah has a further complication, however, since her own dates are disputed. Isaba, for example, agreed that she was born in 605 since when she married Ali in 625 she was 20. Yet she was said to have been 29 when the Prophet (and she herself) died in the year 632 - which pushes her birth year back to 603.

The nikah of a six-year-old Aishah has given ammunition to the enemies of Islam - which cannot be helped if it is true. However, so many given facts make this suggestion seem debatable.

My own personal conclusion from it all would be Aishah was born in 605/6, and that Ibn Sa'd had been cursed by a glaring example of writer's slip which went unnoticed and got repeated ad infinitum by those who used him as a primary source. The slip, I believe, was that he stated that Aishah was born in the fourth year of the Prophethood, when what he actually meant was that she was born four years before the Prophethood.

This makes all the points raised by the author completely sensible, and of prime importance to our own generation of Islamic scholars.

(Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood)
This is only the introduction
The rest of the explanation will be included, insha-Allah

*Please note: Permission has been granted to reproduce this publication by the author.