Response to: The Prophet (saw) Married A’isha at 6!

This is a response to the article by RevisitingtheSalaf.org, written on the 20th of January, 2012, entitled: The Prophet (saw) Married A’isha at 6!, which can be found here.

Introduction:

Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) is the last prophet, and his Shariah is the last Shariah. Since this Shariah should serve as a guide to humanity till the end of the times, that is why Allah took the responsibility of preserving the Quran Himself, because it is the main source of Shariah.

The beauty of our Islamic law or Shariah is that it guides us in all spheres of our life. And its message is not for one race only, but it is for the entire humanity. That is why Allah bestowed the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) with the best family members, and the best companions, as they were the ones who were responsible to teach the Shariah to the people after the death of the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam). We can’t expect that the ones who are responsible for teaching the Shariah would hide Quran or its divine interpretation as Shias claim.

Similarly the life of the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) should also be sufficiently known to the people because the Holy Quran says:
{There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and [who] remembers Allah often.} [Quran 33:21]

Now a part of the life of the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) can be known from his companions, but a part of his life which deals with how he lived inside his home can only be learned from his wives, because he had no sons, and his four daughters were married before the battle of Uhud, which happened in 3 AH. The Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) knew this very well, and hence he put special effort in teaching his wives too, besides teaching his companions.

Ummul Momineen Ayesha’s narrations mostly deal with how the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) would live inside his home, and how he behaved with his family members. The fact is that in the Shia books, we rarely find the narration of any wife of the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam). And when Ummul Momineen Ayesha narrated how the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) lived in his home, the ignorant started accusing her of mentioning immoral things. But little do they know that if this is to be considered immorality, than this ‘immorality’ is present in the narration of their Imams as well.

Response:

RTS starts by mentionning a movie called “The innocence of Muslims”, he says:

we have a question: ‘Is the film depiction at variance with the portrayal of Prophet (saw) in the main corpus of authority Sunni works?’
If you ask the average Sunni Muslim on the street, he will provide an impromptu response that it is. It is unlikely that most Sunni Muslims would have ever consulted any of these books, they have simply taken to the streets at the behest of their Mullah’s who have through their incendiary speeches duped the masses into assuming that the film depiction of Muhammad (saw) is alien to Islam, and that people should therefore vent their anger by way of violent protest. What these poor adherents are not told is the truth, that the very depictions, that formed the basis for this obscene piece of film making is not out of kilter with the Sunni Muslim depiction of Muhammad (saw) in the authentic Sunni world, on the contrary it concurs with it.

I watched the first ten minutes of the movie, and I can say very easily that it is so disgusting that even a neutral person will declare that it is complete misrepresentation of what is present in the Sunni books. I am amazed at how on earth have the RTS claimed this nonsense!?

Let’s begin with the arguments of Shias and lets see whether the same can be found in the Shia books as well or not.

We read in the book of Ayatullah Sayyid Muhammad Taqi Musawi Isfahani:

“there is a traditional report mentioned in Mazar Bihar and other books quoting Azadi that he said: In Medina I came out to go to the house of His Eminence, Abu Abdullah Imam Sadiq (a). On the way I met Abu Baseer, who was in a state of ritual impurity (requiring bath), although I didn’t know at that time. Both of us together came to the Imam and saluted him. The Imam raised his head and said to Abu Baseer: O Abu Baseer, do you not know that it is inappropriate to enter the Prophet’s houses in a state of ritual impurity? So Abu Baseer returned and after he had bathed, we came back to the Imam.”

_{Reference : Mikyal al-Makarim p. 776}

The infallible Imam of Shias exposed Abu Baseer, who would enter the house of the Prophet (saww) in the state of ritual impurity, while fully knowing that it was not allowed to enter the Holy Mosque in the state of ritual impurity. So if we have to criticize anyone, it should be Abu Baseer rather than Abu Bakr.

In Sahih al-Bukhari we read that `Ali (ra) for example was ignorant of a specific Fiqhi ruling:

[I used to get emotional urethral discharge frequently. Being the son-in-law of the Prophet I requested a man to ask him about it. So the man asked the Prophet about it. The Prophet replied, “Perform ablution after washing your organ (penis).]

From the Shia book al-Ja`fariyat by Muhammad bin Muhammad bin al-Ash`ath al-Kufi we read:

أخبرنا محمد حدثني موسى حدثنا أبي عن أبيه عن جده جعفر بن محمد عن أبيه عن آبائه عن علي (عليه السلام) قال : كنت رجلا مذاء فاستحييت أن أسأل رسول الله لمكان فاطمة بنته لأنها عندي فقلت للمقداد يمضى و يسأله فسأل رسول الله عن الرجل الذي ينزل المذي من النساء فقال : يغسل طرف ذكره و أنثييه و ليتوضأ وضوئه للصلاة .

[Muhammad told us, from Musa . that his father told him from his grandfather Ja`far bin Muhammad from his father from his fathers from `Ali bin abi Talib (ra): I used to get emotional urethral discharge frequently. I was shy to ask the Prophet (saw) in the presence of his daughter, so I told al-Miqdad to ask him, so he (saw) said: He should wash his organ then make ablution for prayer.]

We hope RTS doesn’t consider this narration by `Ali (ra) to be immoral…

I ask should we claim that `Ali (ra) is an ignorant and avoid taking religious rulings from him? Or is it not the job of our Prophet (saw) to educate his community and guide them from darkness to light?

RTS continues his rampage:

Saheeh Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 15: 

Narrated ‘Aisha:  Allah’s Apostle said (to me), “You have been shown to me twice in (my) dreams. A man was carrying you in a silken cloth and said to me, ‘This is your wife.’ I uncovered it; and behold, it was you. I said to myself, ‘If this dream is from Allah, He will cause it to come true.’” 

If we bring the traditions together we learn that:

• Urwah states Aboo Bakr initially rejected the hand for Aisha on the premises of brotherhood, the Prophet (saw) rejected this stance, Aboo Bakr became silent

• When the time came for Aisha to enter the home of the Prophet (saw) Aboo Bakr was nowhere to be seen,  rather it was her mother Umm Ruman that took her to the house of the Prophet (saw)

• As for the traditions suggesting the desire of the Prophet (saw) the famous saying that all good deeds are rewarded by Allah (swt), well the Prophet (saw) saw a photo of Aisha in a dream, so what is left of this saying when the Prophet (saw) concludes with the words ‘If this is from Allah, then it must happen’ ?

• Whether it happened or did not happen would be from Allah (swt)

• As the intention was to evidence love of Prophet (saw), Urwah did not consider this fact, nor did Bukhari!

Now note the discrepancies in the dream traditions ‘An angel brought you to me, wrapped in a piece of silken cloth’ Volume 7, Book 62, Number 57 and Book of Dreams Volume 9, Book 87, Number 140: ‘a man was carrying you in a silken piece of cloth and said to me..’, Book of Dreams Volume 9, Book 87, Number 139 and Volume 7, Book 62, Number 15:  ”You were shown to me in a dream’ Volume 7, Book 62, Number 57:  ’You have been shown to me twice in (my) dreams’ Volume 7, Book 62, Number 15: Book of Dreams Volume 9, Book 87, Number 140 and Book of Dreams Volume 9, Book 87, Number 139 ‘The Angel / man uncovered the cloth to show Aisha’ Volume 7, Book 62, Number 57: Book of Dreams Volume 9, Book 87, Number 139 and Book of Dreams Volume 9, Book 87, Number 140: ‘The Prophet (saw) uncovered the cloth to observe Aisha ‘Volume 7, Book 62, Number 15

Abu Bakr had never rejected the hand for Aisha, rather he merely asked a question, a very logical question which could arise in the mind of any Muslim. This is not called rejection, hence RTS has lied upon Abu Bakr. The Prophet (saww) explained it to Abu Bakr and he understood. But since the Shias have a deep hatred against Abu Bakr, they would not stop making a hill out of it as well.

Secondly you should not expect from the narration that everything would be mentioned. Hence we don’t know a lot of things about the marriage of Fatima from `Ali according to the authentic Shia narrations. For example, we don’t know how she went to her new home. Whether she went on foot, or she rode a camel? We don’t know what kind of dress was she wearing, we don’t know the number of family members who attended this marriage ect…  In other words,  if we don’t find the presence of Abu Bakr in the narration when she was being taken to her new home as far as the narrations are concerned, it doesn’t negate his presence.

Secondly, no one tried to mention that it was an evidence of the love of the Prophet (saww) towards his wife, because no one needs to give evidence when the narration itself is clear, and secondly, they were not refuting some foolish people like the Shias who think that the Prophet (saww) married her but had no love towards her. Why would the Prophet (saww) marry her, especially if he had no love for her, and if she had virtue or honor? Let RTS clarify why did the Prophet (saww) marry her? And as far as the discrepancies in the narrations are concerned, we know that it is common in narrations on such issues to have minor differences.

Sayyad Ali Milani says in his book

مجرد اختلاف الأخبار لا يجوز تكذيب أصل الخبر وعلى كل حال، فإن الاستناد إلى اختلاف الروايات في ” الطير المشوي “، لأجل القدح والطعن في أصل الحديث، جهل بطريقة علماء الحديث أو تجاهل عنها

[The existence of differences in a report does not make it permissible to reject it, and in any matter, if one did this with Hadith Al-Tayr, in order to reject it, then he is either ignorant of the ways of the scholars of Hadith, or purposefully ignored it.]

_{Reference : Nafahat al-Azhar fi Khulasat ‘Abaqat al-’Anwar, Vol. 14, p. 109}

RTS will now ask some genius questions:

5. Will Nawasib issue a Fatwa against Allah (swt) who have no doubt delivered this image to the Prophet (saw)?

6. Nawasib can’t have their cake and eat it, if imagery is haraam then a Fatwa needs to be issued forthwith against Allah (swt) for creating the Aisha replica

The answers are as follows:

1. Allah didn’t physically raise Aisha before the Prophet (saww), all of the narrations are talking about a dream. It is not necessary that the word dream be there in every narration.

2. No need to answer since it happened in a dream as I mentioned

3. That is true

4. Shias can use imagery in dreams as well, and we will have no problem.

5. We ask, should the Muslims issue a Fatwa against water since a human can see the reflection of his face on its surface?

6. Nawasib don’t need to issue fatwa, because the Ahlul bayt themselves have issued the fatwa already in Shia books.

We present some examples from what their Imams narrated and what they attributed to the Prophet (saw) in their books:

In Mustadrak al-Wasa’il 3/454, 13/110-210:

يخرج عنق من النار فيقول : أين من كذب على الله ؟ وأين من ضاد الله ؟
وأين من استخف بالله ؟ فيقولون : ومن هذه الأصناف الثلاثة ؟ فيقول : من سحر فقد
كذب على الله ، ومن صور التصاوير فقد ضاد الله ، ومن تراءى في عمله فقد استخف
بالله

[A neck comes from the fire and asks: “Where is the one who lied upon Allah? Where is the one who opposed Allah? Where is the one who underestimated Allah?” They say: “Who are these three?” It replies: “Who practiced magic lied upon Allah, who made the images opposed Allah, who worshiped insincerely has underestimated Allah.”]

In al-Kafi 6/528:

أرسلني رسول الله صلى الله عليه
وآله وسلم في هدم القبور وكسر الصو

[The messenger of Allah (saw) sent me to demolish the graves and break the images]

And:

بعثني رسول الله (صلى الله عليه وآله) إلى المدينة فقال: لا تدع صورة إلا محوتها، ولا قبرا إلا سويته، ولا كلبا إلا قتلته

[The messenger of Allah (saw) sent me to Madinah and said: “Don’t leave an image unless you erased it, nor a grave unless you leveled it, or a dog unless you killed it.]

And:

إن عليا عليه السلام كره الصورة في البيوت

[`Ali (as) hated the images in the houses.]

Rawd al-Jinan by al-Shaheed al-Thani pg.212:

إبن عباس رضي الله عنهما وقد سئل : اني اصور هذه الصور فافتني فيها. قال
سمعت رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم يقول :كل مصور في النار يجعل له لكل
صورة صورها نفسا فتعذبه في جهنم

[I heard the messenger (saw) say: “Every man who creates images is in the fire, Allah will make each image alive so it may torture him in the fire.]

And other similar narrations…

RTS continues asking useless questions:

We would like to know:

• Who conducted the marriage ceremony (Nikah)?  

• Which Muslims were witnesses to the event?  

• What was the precise necessity to enter into a marriage contract with a six year old?  Where was the nikah read, the house of Aboo Bakr, the Prophet (saw), or the House of God (swt)?  

• Were previous customs in existence relating to marriage with a pre-adolescent?  Sadly none of these narrations provide any clarity on this.

We promise to provide the answers to the first two questions, if the Shia answer the same questions regarding all the other wives of the Prophet (saww) from their own authentic narrations. This is our challenge to RTS and they will fail it because this type of detail is not mentioned most of the time.

RTS’s extremely dumb questions continue:

• Who accompanied her?

• Were those accompanying her Mus or Kuffar

• If Muslim / non who were they?

• Is this how daughters are married off, unexpectedly, without time to compose / prepare themselves?

• Why did the Prophet (saw) turn up unexpectedly at midday and not at night?

• Why did her mother make her stand at the door?

• Why are we not informed of any consolation between mother and daughter before this hand over?

• Where was Aboo Bakr at this very emotional time?

• Where were her other relatives (brother and sisters) is it not natural that they would want to see off their sister?

• What did Aboo Bakr leave as a gift?

Yes dear readers, his questions are so dumb that we will reply to them with some dumb questions of our own:

1. After how many days did `Ali migrate?

2. How much time did he take to reach Madinah?

3. Was he travelling on horse or camel?

4. What was the color of the horse or camel?

5. When the Prophet (peace be upon him) sent off Fatima to Ali, who were accompanying along with her?

6. Which wives didn’t take part in it and what were the reasons?

7. How many friends did `Ali invite to his wedding ceremony?

Etc… Etc… Many other completely useless questions can be asked.

This is not stranger than the 11th Imam visiting his wife Narjis before marrying her, and saying to her that he would come in her dream every night. Why was the 11th Imam visiting a strange woman in her dream even before marrying her?

We read in Shia books:

Narjis narrates that the twelfth imam said to her:

فما كان تأخري عنك إلا لشركك، وإذ قد أسلمت فإني زائرك كل ليلة إلى أن يجمع الله شملنا في العيان، فما قطع عني زيارته بعد ذلك إلى هذه الغاية

[I avoided you due to your shirk, and when you embraced Islam, I will visit you every night till Allah gathers us together, (She said): so his visits never stopped until our marriage.]

_{Reference : Dalail al-Imamah, by Shaykh ibn Jarir ibn Rustam al-Tabari, p. 494}

If this is digestible for the Shia, then why do they have a problem with the Prophet (peace be upon him) seeing his future wife in his dream?

As far as the age is concerned, this was never an issue according to the majority of Shia. Rather the Shia have an authentic narration that the infallible Imam was asked about the marriage of a girl or boy, only three years in age, and he said :

عن علي بن يقطين قال: سألت أبا الحسن عليه السلام أتزوج الجارية وهي بنت ثلاث سنين؟ أو يزوج الغلام وهو ابن ثلاث سنين؟ وما أدنى حد ذلك الذي يزوجان فيه؟ فإذا بلغت الجارية فلم ترض فما حالها؟ قال: لا بأس بذلك إذا رضي أبوها أو وليها

[ From Ali bin Yaqteen: I asked Abu Al-Hasan (as) if I can marry a little girl that is three years old, or if a young boy that is three can get married, and the minimum age for marriage? What if she grows into puberty and doesn’t want to, then what? He said: It is fine if her father or caretaker doesn’t mind. ]

Reference : Tahdheeb ul Ahkam, by al-Tusi Vol. 7, p. 382

RTS says:

• The authentic, reliable, golden chain of Aboo Bakr’s  descendants that conveyed these narrations

• The most authentic work in the so called Sunni sect

The repercussions of such an approach are evident for all to see, after all if A’isha’s direct eye witness testimony can be called in to question here then anything that she says can become the subject of scrutiny, scepticism and even doubt.  It is little wonder that faced with this bleak prospect the so called Sunnies have to their credit come out extolling the accuracy of A’isha’s account, thus protecting her from any suggestion that her account was false.  Rather than feel embarrassed at such narrations we see scholars within the so called ‘Ahl Sunnah’ defending such narrations, stating that such marriages are not objectionable as a girl is capable of marrying at the age of nine provided she attains puberty as she is capable of bearing a child.  Bilal Philips falls within the ambit of those that not only affirm to Aisha’s testimony, but actually insist that it is right that such narrations be embraced. There is a world of difference between a girls being capable of marrying (due to her attaining puberty) and whether it is morally / ethically right for such a young girl to marry.  The maturity of a girl does not automatically change with the onset of menstruation; she remains a ‘girl’ developing into a woman.  The suggestion that menstruation gives the green light for such a girl to be wedded and bedded is absurd.  Think logically can any right minded person envisage a fifty year old man marrying a nine year old girl, whose maturity was such she was still playing with her dolls?  Has Bilal Philips married his daughter to a fifty year old man, pursuant to the alleged Sunnah of the Prophet (saw)?.

In the beginning, RTS wants to tell the readers that the advocates of Ummul Momineen Ayesha insist that we reject the personal testimony of Ummul Momineen Ayesha in favour of secondary sources, and later on it claims that rather than feel embarrassed at such narrations, we see scholars within the so called ‘Ahl Sunnah’ defending such narrations’. Perhaps RTS want to kill two birds in one shot.

Let us see what Shia scholars have said regarding the marriage of Lady Fatima

Sayyid Muhsin al-Ameen said:

فعلى قول أكثر أصحابنا انها ولدت بعد النبوة بخمس سنين يكون عمرها حين تزويجها تسع سنين أو عشر سنين أو إحدى عشرة سنة لأنها تزوجت بعلي ع بعد الهجرة بسنة وقيل بسنتين وقيل بثلاث سنين

According to most of our companions, she was born five years after Nubuwwah, her age at the time of marriage should be nine, ten or eleven years because she married Ali a year after migration, and it is said two years after migration, and it is also said that three years after migration.

_{Reference : Aayan al-Shia, Vol. 1, p. 313}

Shaykh Ali al-Namazi al-Shahrudi said:

وكان تزويجها في السنة الأولى من الهجرة، وكان لها يومئذ تسع سنين

She was married a year after the migration, and she was nine years at that time.

_{Reference : Mustadrak Safinatul Bahar, Vol. 8, p. 247}

Shaykh Najah al-Tayi said

تزوج علي (عليه السلام) وعمره خمس وعشرون سنة وتزوجته فاطمة (عليها السلام) وعمرها تسع سنين

Ali married Fatima when he was 15 years old, and Fatima was nine years old.

_{Reference : Azwaj al-Nabi wa-Banatuh, p. 40}

Ayatullah Ali Dawani said

Fatima Zahra (a.s) was only nine at the time of marriage. It must be remembered here that Hijaz is one of the warm climatic zones where girls gain puberty rather early. But it is said that principally, Zahra’s development was rather extraordinary and she looked eighteen when she was nine.

_{Reference : Portraits of Youths in Quran and the History of Islam, p. 156}

RTS continues his baseless rant:

Again baseless assumptions, as are common amongst the Shias. While the fact remains that majority of their scholars stated that Lady Fatima was married when she was nine years old, and majority of them had no problem with it. So it is strange how someone assumes nowadays that if a wife of Prophet Muhammad (saww) states that she was nine years when she was married, she was trying to protect herself from the culpability of her wrong conduct. Rather Ayesha didn’t need to concoct narrations to limit her culpability in the future acts. `Ali himself said after the battle of Jamal in the Shia book Nahjul Balagha:

وَلَهَا بَعْدُ حُرْمَتُهَا الأولَى، وَالْحِسَابُ عَلَى اللهِ

[She (`Aisha) has the same respect afterwards as she had earlier, and the accountability (Hisaab) is on Allah to take.]

_{Reference : Nahjul balagha, p. 335}

Her respect and stature was accepted by Ali himself, even though if the present day Shias don’t accept it. And if she indeed need to concoct narrations in her virtues, there were much more things which she could falsely claim, rather than mentioning her age wrongly. Majority of the early Shia scholars had no problem with it, and most of them also accepted the young age of Ayesha when she was married. But suddenly, affected by the Western thinking, Shias find a problem with her young age.