Aisha

For other uses, see Aisha (disambiguation).

Aisha, Ayesha, 'A'isha, or 'Aisha (Arabic عائشة `ā'isha, "she who lives") was a wife of Muhammad, whom Muslims regard as the final prophet of Islam.

Early life

It is not clear when Aisha was born. Most scholars have now calculate her age by reference to the date of her marriage to Muhammad (622) and then subtracting her age at marriage, indicating that at the time of union, she was a child. However, there are many theories as to her age at marriage.

Aisha was the daughter of Abu Bakr of Mecca. They belonged to the Bani Tamim clan of the tribe of the Quraysh, the tribe to which Muhammad also belonged. Aisha is said to have followed her father in accepting Islam when she was still young. She also joined him in his migration to Ethiopia in 615 CE; a number of Mecca's Muslims emigrated then, seeking refuge from persecution by the Meccans who still followed their pre-Islamic religions.

According to the early Islamic historian al-Tabari, Aisha's father tried to spare her the dangers and discomfort of the journey by solemnizing her marriage to her fiance, Jubair, son of Mut`am ibn `Adi. However, Mut’am refused to honor the long-standing betrothal, as he did not wish his family to be connected to the Muslim outcasts. The emigration to Ethiopia proved temporary and Abu Bakr's family returned to Mecca within a few years. Aisha was then betrothed to Muhammad.

Aisha's marriage to Muhammad

The marriage was delayed until after the Hijra, or migration to Medina, in 622. Aisha and her older sister Asma only moved to Medina after Muhammad had already fled there. Abu Bakr gave Muhammad the money to build a house for himself. After this, the wedding was celebrated very simply, by the bride and groom drinking a bowl of milk in front of witnesses.

Status as "favorite wife"

Even though the marriage may have been politically motivated, to mark the ties between Muhammad and his companion Abu Bakr, most early accounts say that Muhammad and Aisha became sincerely fond of each other. Aisha is usually described as Muhammad's favorite wife. Shi'a Muslims would disagree with this description, regarding it as politically motivated. They adduce the following episodes as proof that Muhammad and Aisha's marriage did not always go smoothly.

Aisha accused of adultery

Aisha was traveling with her husband Muhammad and some of his followers. She left camp in the morning to search for her lost necklace; when she returned, she found that the company had broken camp and left without her. She waited patiently for half a day, until she was rescued by a man named Safwan and taken to rejoin the caravan.

Malicious tongues started to wag, claiming that she must have been having an affair with Safwan. Some urged Muhammad to divorce his wife. He then received a revelation directing that adultery be proven by four eyewitnesses, rather than simply inferred from opportunity. One passage of the Qur'an, "Verily! They who spread the slander are a gang among you..." (Qur'an 24.11), is usually taken as a rebuke to those who slandered Aisha.

The story of the honey

According to the tale widely accepted by both Shias and Sunnis, Muhammad's wife Zainab bint Jahsh was given a skin filled with honey, which she shared with her husband. He was fond of sweets and stayed overlong with Zainab bint Jash; at least in the opinion of Aisha and her co-wife Hafsa. Aisha and Hafsa conspired. Each of them was to tell Muhammad that the honey had given him bad breath. When he heard this from two wives, he believed that it was true and swore that he would eat no more of the honey. Soon afterwards, he reported that he had received a revelation, in which he was told that he could eat anything permitted by God (Qur'an 66:1). In the following verses, Muhammad's wives are rebuked for their unruliness: "your hearts are inclined (to oppose him)".

Word spread in the small Muslim community that Muhammad's wives were tyrannizing over the mild-mannered man, speaking sharply to him and conspiring against him. Umar, Hafsa's father, scolded his daughter and also spoke to Muhammad of the matter. Muhammad, saddened and upset, separated from his wives for a month, sleeping by himself on a lumpy mattress. By the end of this time, his wives were humbled and harmony, of a sort, was restored.

When Muslim commentators on the Qur'an explicate Surah 66, it is usually this story that is told to explain the "occasion of revelation".

There is a similar but alternative explanation of Surah 66, also involving Aisha. In this story, Aisha and her co-wives were unhappy because Muhammad was infatuated with Maria al-Qibtiyya, the Christian Coptic woman who bore Muhammad a brief-lived son. (Some accounts say that she was a slave, some that she converted to Islam, was freed, and was taken as a wife.)

The death of Muhammad

Ibn Ishaq, in his Sirat Rasulallah, states that during Muhammad's last illness, he sought Aisha's apartments and died with his head in her lap. The Sunni take this as evidence of Muhammad's fondness for Aisha.

Aisha never remarried after Muhammad's death. A passage in the Qur'an forbids any Muslim to marry the prophet's widows.

Nor is it right for you that ye should annoy God's Apostle, or that ye should marry his widows after him at any time. Truly such a thing is in God's sight an enormity. (Al-Ahzab 33: 53)

After Muhammad

Aisha's father becomes the first caliph

After Muhammad's death in 632 C.E., Aisha's father, Abu Bakr, became the first caliph, or leader of the Muslims. This matter is extremely controversial. Shi'a believe that Ali should have been chosen to lead; Sunni maintain that the community chose Abu Bakr, and did so in accordance with Muhammad's wishes. This is discussed in much greater detail in the article Succession to Muhammad.

The battle of the camel

Abu Bakr's reign was short, and in 634 C.E. he was succeeded by Umar, as caliph. Umar reigned 10 years, and was then followed by Uthman in 644 C.E. Both of these men had been among Muhammad's earliest followers, were linked to him by clanship and marriage, and had taken prominent parts in various military campaigns.

Aisha, in the meantime, lived in Medina and made several pilgrimages to Mecca. In 656 C.E. Uthman was killed by rebellious Muslim soldiers. The rebels then asked Ali to be the new caliph. Many reports absolve Ali of complicity in the murder. He is reported to have refused the caliphate, saying, "You are not a people fit for my rulership nor am I a master fit for you people". He agreed to rule only after his followers persisted.

Aisha raised a small army which confronted Ali's army outside the city of Basra. Battle ensued and Aisha's forces were defeated. Aisha was directing her forces from a howdah on the back of a camel; this 656 battle is therefore called the Battle of the Camel.

Ali captured Aisha but declined to harm her. He sent her back to Medina under military escort. She lived a retired life until she died in approximately 678.

Young marriage age controversy

The age of Aisha at marriage is an extremely contentious issue. On the one hand, there are several hadiths (said to have been narrated by Aisha herself) which state she was six or seven years old when betrothed and nine when the marriage was consummated. Other traditional material (hadith, sira, etc.) suggests that Aisha may have been nineteen or twenty years old when she married. [1][2]

Many Muslim scholars have accepted the tradition that Aisha was nine years old when the marriage was consummated. This has in turn led critics to denounce Muhammad for having sexual relations with a girl so young, which in modern times would be classified as child sexual abuse. Some respond to this criticism by claiming that Aisha was post-pubescent at nine and that early marriages were common in most cultures until fairly recent times.

From the viewpoint of the Islamic clergy, the ulema, this explanation, while relieving them of one difficulty, poses another. The "late marriage" argument values the biographical and historical literature, the sira, over the canonical hadith, or oral traditions accepted by the ulema. However, anything that threatens the value of the hadith, and especially hadith narrated by Aisha, threatens the whole elaborate structure of Islamic law, or sharia. The Shi'a version of shari'a is less at risk in this one instance, as the Shi'a deprecate anything sourced to Aisha.

Liberal Muslims do not see any problem with saving Muhammad's character at the expense of Shari'a. Conservative Muslims, and the ulema, tend to embrace the "early puberty" theories.

Evidence that Aisha was nine when the marriage was consummated

These traditions are from the hadith collections of Bukhari (d. 870) and Muslim b. al-Hajjaj (d. 875). These two collections are in general regarded as the most authentic by Sunni Muslims.

• Sahih Muslim Book 008, Number 3310: 'Aisha (Allah be pleased with her) reported: Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) married me when I was six years old, and I was admitted to his house when I was nine years old.

• Sahih Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 88 Narrated 'Urwa: The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with 'Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).

• Sahih Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 64 Narrated 'Aisha: that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death).

• Sahih Bukhari 8:151, Narrated 'Aisha: "I used to play with the dolls in the presence of the Prophet , and my girl friends also used to play with me. When Allah's Apostle used to enter (my dwelling place) they used to hide themselves, but the Prophet would call them to join and play with me. (The playing with the dolls and similar images is forbidden, but it was allowed for 'Aisha at that time, as she was a little girl, not yet reached the age of puberty.) (Fateh-al-Bari page 143, Vol.13)

• Sahih Bukhari vol. 5, Book 58, Number 234 Narrated 'Aisha: The prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six. We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Harith Kharzraj. 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).

Other hadith in Bukhari repeat this information.

History from Tabari, volume 9, page 131

• "Then the men and women got up and left. The Messenger of God consummated his marriage with me in my house when I was nine years old. Neither a camel nor a sheep was slaughtered on behalf of me"......(The Prophet) married her three years before the Emigration, when she was seven years old and consummated the marriage when she was nine years old, after he had emigrated to Medina in Shawwal. She was eighteen years old when he died.

Evidence that Aisha was older than nine

• According to Ibn Hisham's recension of Ibn Ishaq's (d. 768) biography of Prophet Muhammad, the Sirat Rashul Allah, the earliest surviving biography of Muhammad, Aisha accepted Islam before Umar ibn al-Khattab. If true, then Aisha accepted Islam during the first few years of Islam. She could not have been less than 14 years in 1 AH - the time she got married (Al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah, Ibn Hisham, Vol 1, Pg 227 - 234, Arabic, Maktabah al-Riyadh al-hadithah, Al-Riyadh).

• Tabari reports that when Abu Bakr planned on migrating to Ethiopia (8 years before Hijrah), he went to Mut`am - with whose son Aisha was engaged at that time - and asked him to take Aisha as his son's wife. Mut`am refused because Abu Bakr had converted to Islam. If Aisha was only six years old at the time of her betrothal to Muhammad, she could not have been born at the time Abu Bakr decided on migrating to Ethiopia. Tehqiq e umar e Siddiqah e Ka'inat, Habib ur Rahman Kandhalwi, p. 38.

• Tabari in his treatise on Islamic history reports that Abu Bakr had four children and all four were born during the Jahiliyyah - the pre Islamic period. If Aisha was born in the period of jahiliyyah, she could not have been less than 14 years in 1 AH. Tarikh al-umam wa al-mamloo'k, Al-Tabari, Vol. 4, p. 50.

• According to Ibn Hajar, Fatima was five years older than Aisha. Fatima is reported to have been born when Muhammad was 35 years old. Muhammad migrated to Medina when he was 52, making Aisha 14 years old in 1 AH. Tamyeez al-Sahaabah, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalaniy, Vol. 4, p. 377.

• According to Abd ar Rahman ibn Abi Zannad, Aisha was 10 years younger than her sister Asma. (Siyar a´lâm an-nubalâ', adh-Dhahabî, Vol. 2, p. 289, Mu'assat ar-Risâla, Beirut, 1992). That is also confirmed by Ibn Kathir (al-Bidâya wa-n-nihâya, Ibn Kathîr, Bd. 8, S. 371, Dâr al-Fikr al-´Arabî, al-Dschîza, 1933). Virtually all other historical reports also agree in this matter. Ibn Kathir also reports that Asma was present when her son died in 73 AH and she herself died 5 days thereafter (other reports differ slightly, giving between 5 and 100 days between the deaths of the two). At the time of her death she was 100 years old (al-Bidâya wa-n-nihâya, Ibn Kathîr, Vol. 8, p. 372, Dâr al-Fikr al-´Arabî, al-Dschîza, 1933). This is also confirmed by Ibn Hadschar al-´Asqalânî who reports that she died in 73 or 74 AH at the age of 100 years. (Taqrîb at-tahdhîb, Ibn Hadschar al-´Asqalânî, p. 654, Bâb fi-n-nisâ', harfu l-alif, Lucknow). But this means, of course, that Asma was 27 or 28 years old at 1 AH and the 10 years youger Aisha already 17 or 18, so when Muhammad and Aisha started to live together she was already 19 or 20.

• Aisha has become known for having at the side of Muhammad in the battle of Badr (see for example hadiths by Muslim) as well as in the battle of Uhud (see e.g. hadiths by Bukhari). Bukhari also reports (Kitâb al-maghâzî, Bâb Ghazawat al-Khandaq wa-hiya l-Ahzâb) that the Prophet did not allow 14 year olds to participate but allowed them to join on their 15th birthday. This implies that Aisha was older at that time of these battles. However, it's also possible that the age restriction was not applied to Aisha as a wife of Muhammad.

• In a hadith of Bukhari, Aisha says: "I was a young girl (dschâriya) when Surah al-Qamar was revealed (Sahîh al-Bukhârî, Kitâb at-tafsîr, Bâb qaulihî Ta´âlâ "Bali-s-sâ´atu mau´iduhum wa-s-sâ´atu ad-hâ wa-amarr"). That Surah was revealed 8 years before Hijra and at that time Aisha would have been at most a baby (sabiyya) had she been only 9 years old at the age of her marriage. The word dschariya is most fitting for a 6-13 year old which would mean her age of marriage would be anywhere between 14 and 21. However, the exact dates of when al-Qamar was revealed is disputed. Thus, making this a weak argument.

• Most Muslims generally agree that Aisha had reached the age of puberty at her marriage. This would be unlikely for a 9 year old. In addition, Aisha was already termed 'bikr', meaning virgin adult woman even when the marriage was discussed, i.e. 3 years before the actual marriage. (Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Vol. 6, p. 210, Dâr Ihyâ' at-Turâth al-´Arabî, Beirut).

• Some Muslim scholars say that the hadith collectors Bukhari and Muslim applied less stringent standards to hadith relating to history than they did to hadith relating directly to prayer and family law. Hence a historical tradition included in Bukhari or Muslim cannot be presumed to be "strong".

Sunni and Shia views of Aisha

Sunni historians praise Aisha as a Mother of Believers and a learned woman, who tirelessly recounted stories from the life of Muhammad and explained Muslim history and traditions. She is considered to be one of the foremost scholars of Islam's early age and is revered as a role model by millions of women.

Shi'a historians take a much dimmer view of Aisha. They believe that Ali should have been the first caliph, and that the other three caliphs were usurpers. Aisha not only supported Umar, Uthman and her father Abu Bakr, she also raised an army and fought against Ali, her step-son-in-law. The Shia believe that in opposing Ali, the divinely appointed successor of Muhammad, she committed a grievous sin.

See also

• List of relationships with age disparity
• Muhammad
• Muhammad's marriages
• Family tree of Aisha

External links

Sunni view of Aisha:

• Biography of Aisha

Shi'a view of Aisha:

• Shi'a view of Aisha
• Answering some important issues regarding Aisha

Questioning hadith re Aisha's age at marriage:

• From muslim.org
• From understanding-islam.com

Sites claiming to present evidence of Aisha's age at marriage being 17-20 years:

• Studying Islam
• Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement