Say: "O people of the Book!

come to common terms as between us and you: that we

worship none but Allah; that we associate no partners with Him; that we erect not
from among ourselves Lords and patrons other than Allah."

[Ch 3 verse 64]

Invite (mankind, O Muhammad pbuh) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with
wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Revelation and the Quran) and fair preaching, and
argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone
astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.

[Ch 16 verse 125]

If one amongst the pagans (disbelievers) ask thee for asylum, grant it to him, so that
he may hear the word of Allah; and then escort him to where he can be secure that
is because they are men without knowledge.

[Ch 9 verse 6]

Please visit : www.peace-islaam.webs.com

Why Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) married Aisha when she was only 9?

1-It was a divine inspiration:

Before describing the rationale behind this married relation, let it be known that the Holy
Prophet (peace be upon him) married Sayyida Aisha not of his own desire rather it was a
Divine inspiration. Read the following Hadith;

Narrated 'Aisha:
That the Prophet said to her, "You have been shown to me twice in my dream. I saw you
pictured on a piece of silk and some-one said (to me). 'This is your wife.' When I
uncovered the picture, I saw that it was yours. I said, 'If this is from Allah, it will be
done."
{Bukhari :: Volume 5 :: Book 58 :: Hadith 235}

2-It was not out of his physical desires:

The Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) did not marry Sayyidah Aisha out of his physical
desires. One need to note that for first 54 years of his life he had only one wife. His only
wife till 50th year of his life was Sayyida Khadija. He spent his entire youth with her and
she was a two time widowed woman, 15 years elder to him. For next four years his only
wife was Sayyidah Sa’uda.

3-Age of Marriage in Old Ages:

One must first understand that 1400 years ago was very different than now, times have
changed and so have humans. 1400 years ago it was something very common to marry
young girls, in fact they were not considered young girls, and rather they were considered
young women back then. It is a historic fact that girls from the ages of 9 to 14 were being
married in Europe, Asia, and Africa, in fact even in the United States girls at the age of
10 were also being married just more than a century ago.
Yet with these facts no historian claims that all these people were sick perverts, historians
would call anyone who made such a claim to be arrogant and very stupid who has no
grasp or understanding of history.
Even in Indo-Pak Sub-Continent girls used to be married at 12-13 even 50-60 years ago.
And those ‘girls’ infact raised much better families. There were less family problems
then. A simple analyses of the divorce rate then and know would certainly make it clear
that maturity level earlier used to be different i.e. people used to come of age rather
quickly.

4-Child Brides in Byzantine Empire:

http://www.roman-emperors.org/aggiefran.htm

Visit this link to see how common were the child brides in the Byzantine Empire.This
article clearly states;”Child brides, whether Byzantines or foreign princesses, were the
norm rather than the exception, especially from the late twelfth century”.

5-The Pagans of the Prophet's time:

The fact that it was a completely acceptable thing can also be seen from the response of
the pagans at that time. No Muslim or even pagan objected to the marriage because it was
widely practiced. And even until today in 3rd world countries (Muslims and non-
Muslims), little girls as young as 9 or 10 do get married. Anyway, the reason no one
objected was to the Prophet's marriage was:1-People used to have very short life-spans in
Arabia. They used to live between 40 to 60 years maximum. So it was only normal and
natural for girls to be married off at ages 9 or 10 or similar.2-Marriage for young girls
was widely practiced among Arabs back then, and even today in many non-Muslim and
Muslim countries

6-Engagement with Jubair bin Mutim:

It ought also be noted that Sayyidah Aisha ( RA) was engaged to Jubayr son of Mut'im
before Prophet Muhammed (Peace be upon him. This indicates the age of marriage and
engagement in Prophet's time. However, the engagement was later nullified by Jubayr’s
parents due to Abu Bakr (RA) embracing Islam.Doesn’t this indicate there was nothing
bad in marrying a 9 year girl at that time?She must have been even younger when she
was engaged to Jubair

7-Sayyidah Aisha was fit for marriage:

Furthermore as to the Holy Prophet’s marriage with Sayyidah Aisha, something people
will notice is that the completion of the marriage was done when Sayyidah Aisha was 9
years old, not when she was 6, and there is a reason for that. The reason why this
happened is because Sayyidah Aisha had been through puberty by the age of 9, and in
Islam a female who under-goes puberty is considered a lady and is fit for marriage.
If we read the hadiths, we find that right before Sayyidah Aisha got married off to the
Holy Prophet that she was sick and not feeling too well:

Narrated Sayyidah Aisha:”The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We
went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj then I got ill and
my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to
me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I
went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and
made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing
became all right, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she
took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, "Best
wishes and Allah's Blessing and a good luck." Then she entrusted me to them and they
prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah's Apostle came to me in the forenoon
and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age.”
{Sahih Bukhari Volume 5, Book 58, Number 234}
So as we can see, Sayyidah Aisha got ill and her body was going through some changes,
indicating that she was going through her puberty.

8-Sayyida Aisha never showed her displeasure:

Another striking thing to observe is that among hundreds of her narrations there is not
even a single one showing her displeasure about this marriage. Hence, she had no
problem with this relation. Infect it is manifest from several traditions that she loved the
Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) too much and even felt some sort of jealousy when
she found others around him. Does this not prove that she was extremely happy about this
marriage? So, when she herself had no problem at all then what’s the matter of concern
for others?

9-A 9-year old Thai girl gave birth:

A 9 old girl can become a mother. If you don’t believe me then see here is the proof;
The news item is from the New Straits Times, 10/3/2001.

10-It was absolutely legal:

Prophet Muhammad's marriage with Aisha was 100% legal and acceptable by all laws
and Divine Religions. It is important to know that girls during the Biblical and Islamic
days used to be married off at young ages when they either had their first periods, or their
breasts start showing off. In other words, when they turn into "women", then they get
married off. It was quite different for men on the other hand, because physical power and
the ability of living an independent life had always been and will always be a mandatory
requirement for men to have in life. So men waited much longer than women in terms of
getting married. The guy had to develop both his body and mind before he was ready for
marriage. That is why you see girls as young as 9 or 10 were married to men as old as 30
or even older. The culture back then and in many of the world countries today (NON-
MUSLIM ONES TOO) is quite different than what you live in today.And there is no
divine law which is broken in marrying a girl of nine at any costs.
11-Her parents never objected:

Sayyidah Aisha's mother and the Muslim women back then were O.K with her marriage.
It was part of the Arab custom and still is in many of the Muslim and non-Muslim
countries today for girls to marry at a very young age. When a girl's body starts showing
up (her breasts and her height and physical size), then she would be ready for marriage
The only reason why Sayyidah Aisha's father, Abu Baker Al Sidique, broke her
engagement with Jober is because he was a non-Muslim. Later, a woman named Kholeah
Bint Hakeem suggested for Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him to marry Sayyidah
Aisha, because the Prophet and Abu Baker became best friends. Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him) engaged Sayyidah Aisha for 3 years before he married her.

12-Muslims never concealed it:

Had there been any bad thinking regarding this marriage in minds of the people at that
time. Muslims would have tried there best to conceal at that time. But they didn't.

13-Refuting unjust Pagan views:

There were many baseless traditions in practice among the Arabs in those days. So
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was usually ordered by the Almighty ALLAH
to refute such traditions through personal examples. Similar is the case of Prophet
Muhammad’s marriage with Umm al Momineen Aisha (R.A.)

1-For a bad omen, Arab considered Shawwal a month prohibited for marriage. Sayyidah
A'isha's betrothal and departure from her parent's house took place in Shawwal. This
changed the ridiculous custom.

2-Another bad custom was that the Arabs did not give the hands of their daughters to
those who they "called" their brothers (though were not actual brothers). This was the
objection raised by Abu Bakr himself, when the Prophet (peace be upon him) made the
proposal. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) then told him that a brother in faith was not
an actual blood brother to be placed in the prohibited category.

14-Great Wisdom behind this marriage:

Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) marriage with Sayyidah Aisha at that age was indeed a
great blessings for all the Muslims ever since. Most of the matters related to cleanliness,
married relationship and other household issues have been cleared due to her narrations.
She lived a long time after the death of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and
continued to teach the Ummah about matters of daily routine and great importance.

15-What was Sayyidah Aisha famous for ??

Well what was her specialty? I ask the critics.

Was it beauty?

Was it wealth?

No it was religion!Thus proving the DIVINE LOGIC.

Arwa Bin Zubair says, "I did not find anyone more proficient (than Aisha ) in the
knowledge of the Holy Quran, the Commandments of Halal (lawful) and Haram
(prohibited), Ilmul-Ansab and Arabic poetry. That is why, even senior companions of the
Prophet used to consult Aisha in resolving intricate issues".
(Jala-ul-Afham by Ibn Qaiyem and Ibn Sa’ad, Vol.2, p.26)

Also see this;

Abu Musa al-Ashari says: "Never had we (the companions) any difficulty for the solution
of which we approached Aisha and did not get some useful information from her".
(Sirat-I-Aisha, on the authority of Trimidhi, pg. 163)

Marriage at an early age

In Ancient Greece, no specific civil ceremony was required for the creation of a marriage
- only mutual agreement and the fact that the couple must regard each other as husband
and wife accordingly. Men usually married when they were in their 20s or 30s and
expected their wives to be in their early teens. It has been suggested that these ages made
sense for the Greek because men were generally done with military service by age 30,
and marrying a young girl ensured her virginity.

See, here is Rebekah: take her and go, and let her be your master's son's wife, as the Lord
has said..........Genesis ch 1 verse 51

There are two opinions in the Midrash as to how old Rebekah was at the time of her
marriage. According to the traditional counting cited by Rashi, Isaac was 37 years old at
the time of the Binding of Isaac, and news of Rebekah's birth reached Abraham
immediately after that event (see Rashi on Gen. 22:20). Isaac was 40 years old when he
married Rebekah (Gen. 25:20), making Rebekah 3 years old at the time of her marriage.
According to the second opinion, Isaac was 29 years old and Rebekah was 14 years old at
the time of their marriage.[4] Another view is that Rebekah was 10 years old at the time.

And Jacob did so; and when the week was ended, Laban gave him his daughter Rachel
for his wife...........Genesis ch 29 verse 28

There are several opinions among the Biblical commentators as to Rachel's age when she
married. One scholar, Rabbeinu Bachaye, says she was 12 years old.Some rabbinical
writings suggest that Rachel and Leah were twins, and were fourteen years old at the time
of Jacob's first meeting with Rachel
Ancient Roman marriage was often regarded more as a financial and political alliance
than as a romantic association, especially in the upper classes. Fathers usually began
seeking husbands for their daughters when they reached an age between twelve and
fourteen. The husband was almost always older than the bride. While upper class girls
married very young, there is evidence that lower class women often married in their late
teens or early twenties.

HOW OLD WAS MARRY WHEN SHE MARRIED JOSEPH??

When you review any biblical study you will figure out that she was 12 and he was 90.

Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Sanhedrin

Sanhedrin 55b
Joseph said: Come and hear! A maiden aged three years and a day may be acquired in marriage by
coition, and if her deceased husband's brother cohabits with her, she becomes his.

Babylonian Talmud:
Tractate Sanhedrin Folio 69a
A maiden aged three years and a day may be acquired in marriage by coition, and if her deceased
husband's brother cohabited with her, she becomes his.

Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Yebamoth

Yebamoth 57b
Raba said, We also learned a similar Baraitha: A girl who is three years of age and one day may be
betrothed by cohabitation

The age of sexual consent is still quite low in many places. In Japan, people can legally have sex at
age 13, and in Spain they can legally have sex at age 12. (This data comes from the Age of Consent
chart, which you can see at:

Source: http://www.ageofconsent.com/ageofconsent.htm

In the USA last century, the age of consent was 10 years old. California was the first state to change
the age of consent to 14, which it did in 1889. After California, other US states joined in and raised
the age of consent too.

Source: http://www.ageofconsent.com/comments/numberone.htm

This table links to the marriage laws of the states and attempts to summarize some of their salient
points. The minimum legal age for a girl to get married is 12 and for a boy is 14 --- ( Massachusetts -
Title III, Chapter 207 )

Source: http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/table_marriage