Aisha

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

She is a controversial figure in Islamic history, both because of her opposition to Ali ibn Abi Talib, whom Shi'a Muslims regard as the first Shi'a Imam, and because she is believed by many Muslims to have been only nine years old when she was married to Muhammad. Critics of Islam argue that marriage to a young girl reflects badly on Muhammad. The controversy is covered below.

Islamic feminists also regard her as an example of a Muslim woman who was learned and taught men, who engaged in political affairs, and who showed that Muslim women can speak and act for themselves.^{[citation needed]}

Early life

It is not clear when Aisha was born. Most scholars calculate her age, by reference to the date of her marriage to Muhammad (622) and then subtracting her age at marriage. 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..." (^{[Quran 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 (^{[Quran 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. By the end of this time, his wives were humbled and harmony was restored.

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

There is a similar but alternative explanation of this chapter, 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.) (Rodinson 1961, pp. 279-283)

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. (^{[Quran 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. He agreed to rule only after his followers persisted.

Aisha raised an 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 anywhere from twelve to nineteen years old when she married.

There are three main points of view on this controversy.

Some Muslims respect the authority of the hadith, the source of much Islamic law (sharia) and therefore accept the hadith collected by Bukhari which quote Aisha as saying that she was nine years old when her marriage was consummated. However, they usually share the widespread belief that sex with pre-pubescent children is wrong. Since Muhammad, by definition, would not have done anything wrong, Aisha must have already undergone puberty.
Critics of Islam accept the hadith stating that Aisha was nine, but do not agree that she was pubescent. They argue that claims that she was are contrary to the accepted scientific research on puberty, and motivated only by a wish to save Muhammad's character. (One critic accepts that she may have been pubescent, but still regards the marriage as deplorable [1].) Critics insist that Aisha was a young girl and that Muhammad, by having sex with her, was a child molester (or pedophile). This criticism seems to be recent;^{[citation needed]} older works against Islam do not mention it.
Some Muslims are willing to reject the hadith included in Bukhari, insisting that Aisha must have been exaggerating, may have been unsure of her own age, or had been misquoted. They point to other traditions (from Islamic historians such as Ibn Ishaq and Tabari) which would put her age at marriage as between fourteen and nineteen. However the work of Ibn Ishaq was done more than a hundred years after the death of Muhammad and the work as such has survived only as quotes in other books, as for instance Tabari's.

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. This tradition is also found in Abu Dawud and Tabari.

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). Template:Bukhari-usc
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). Template:Bukhari-usc Template:Bukhari-usc Template:Bukhari-usc Template:Bukhari-usc
'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported: Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) married me when I was six years old, and I was admitted to his house at the age of nine. She further said: We went to Medina and I had an attack of fever for a month, and my hair had come down to the earlobes. Umm Ruman (my mother) came to me and I was at that time on a swing along with my playmates. She called me loudly and I went to her and I did not know what she had wanted of me. She took hold of my hand and took me to the door, and I was saying: Ha, ha (as if I was gasping), until the agitation of my heart was over. She took me to a house, where had gathered the women of the Ansar. They all blessed me and wished me good luck and said: May you have share in good. She (my mother) entrusted me to them. They washed my head and embellished me and nothing frightened me. Allah's Messenger (, may peace be upon him) came there in the morning, and I was entrusted to him. Template:Muslim-usc
'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. Template:Muslim-usc

Similar hadith are to be found in Abu Dawud. A version of this tradition can also be found in Tabari:

"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. (Tabari, Volume 9, p. 131, in the SUNY edition)

Claims that Aisha was pubescent at nine years of age

Supporters of the hadith say that of course it is possible that girls are pubescent at nine, and adduce Islamic traditions alleging that girls as young as nine gave birth [2], [3], [4]., [5]. They claim that girls matured early in desert climates.

They point to traditions in other cultures allowing, or even encouraging, marriage at young ages. They insist that it is unfair to single out Muhammad in this regard, as if he were doing something shocking. None of the people of his time, or indeed for many centuries later, found anything shocking in his marriage to Aisha. They indignantly point to all of Muhammad's other marriages, to widows or divorcees who were in many cases older than he was, as proof that he could not have been a pedophile.

Claims that Aisha was pre-pubescent at nine years of age

Many contemporary critics of Islam claim that Aisha was pre-pubescent and that Muhammad was engaging in child abuse and pedophilia in marrying her. See [6], [7], [8], [9]. Some critics have even accused Muhammad of showing sexual interest in other children [10].

Evidence that Aisha was older than nine

Some Muslims are willing to reject the hadith. They argue that there is ample evidence from other Islamic histories which allow us to infer that Aisha must have been older than nine when her marriage was consummated. See these websites for sustained argument: [11], [12], [13]. For evidence that influential Muslims are willing to consider these views, see [14], which quotes a former President of the Islamic Society of North America.

One line of thought points 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. Ibn Ishaq lists converts to Islam in the order in which they converted; Aisha accepted Islam before Umar ibn al-Khattab. If that true, then Aisha accepted Islam during the first few years of Islam, sometime after 610 CE. She could not have been a babe in arms; she must have been walking and talking, hence at least three or four years of age, in order to accept Islam. Her marriage followed the Hijra, the migration to Medina, in 622 CE. She must have been at least twelve and possibly older when she married.
Critics of the traditionalists argue that a small group of Muslims migrated to Ethiopia in 615 CE, and that Abu Bakr planned to join them. The historian Tabari reports that Abu Bakr wished to spare Aisha the discomforts of the journey and went to Mut`am, whose son was engaged to Aisha, and asked if the marriage could take place immediately. Mut`am refused because Abu Bakr had converted to Islam. If Aisha were only nine years old in 622 CE, when she married, she would only have been two years old in 615 CE -- much too young for marriage.
Tabari 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 fourteen years in 622. (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 thirty-five years old. Muhammad migrated to Medina when he was fifty-two, making Aisha fourteen years old in 622. (Tamyeez al-Sahaabah, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalaniy, Vol. 4, p. 377)
According to hadith in Bukhari and Muslim, Aisha is said to have joined Muhammad on the raid that culminated in the Battle of Badr, in 624. However, no one below the age of fifteen was allowed to accompany raiding parties. Hence Aisha must have been at least fifteen in 624, making her at least thirteen when she was married.

Muslim critics of the early marriage theory also criticize the relevant hadith as weak. They 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". They also say that hadith sourced to Urwa through informants in Iraq were collected after he migrated to Iraq at the age of seventy-one. His memory was then weak and those hadith -- which include the hadith relating to Aisha -- are suspect.

One book, Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: the Legacy of A'isha bint Abi Bakr, by D.A. Spellberg, Columbia University Press, 1994, argues that Aisha's youth was deliberately emphasized by scholars who supported the Abbasid caliphate and rejected Shi'a claims for the descendants of Ali ibn Abi Talib. (This would have been the period when Islamic history, and the hadith, were first written down.) Aisha was the only virgin wife of Muhammad, divinely destined for him, and thus divinely inspired in her opposition to Ali. Claims for her youth at marriage are claims for her virginity and special status (see [15] for the reference).

Sunni and Shia views of Aisha

Sunni's recognize Aisha as a Mother of Believers, a title of honor given to Muhammad's wives.

Sunni historians 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 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 she did wrong in rebelling against Ali. Some say that since Ali forgave her, so should Shi'a; other Shi'a are less forgiving. ^{[citation needed]}

References

Guillaume, A. -- The Life of Muhammad, Oxford University Press, 1955
Rodinson, Maxime -- Muhammad, 1980 Random House reprint of English translation
Spellberg, D.A. -- Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: the Legacy of A'isha bint Abi Bakr, Columbia University Press, 1994

External links

Sunni view of Aisha:

Biography of Aisha

Shi'a view of Aisha:

Answering some important issues regarding Aisha

Sites criticizing Muhammad for the alleged early marriage:

Sites questioning the hadith used to prove an early marriage: