The Nupur Sharma storm

27 May 2022, a BJP spokeswoman named Nupur Sharma raised a storm with her fiery comment that the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (peace be upon him (pbuh)) had married an underage girl Aishah while she was just six years old whereas Muhammad himself was 53 and he consumed the marriage while she was just nine!

There were violent protests by the Muslims across India. Dozens of Muslim nations from around the world, including Indian allies like the UAE, lodged formal protests against the comments of Nupur Sharma. The unrest was so severe that the BJP had to distance itself from Sharma, labeling her a ‘fringe element’ while affirming that the Indian government doesn’t in any way subscribe to the views expressed by Sharma. Ultimately, she was removed from the party!

Did she say something false?

NO.

The age quoted is well known in mainstream Islamic scholarship. The way she said it was unpalatable, since it insinuated that Muhammad had done something horrendous, hence it was perceived to be a derogatory remark, therefore the hue and cry over it.

This was the first time in recent history (as per my memory) that the issue of the age of Aishah (at the time of her marriage to Muhammad) had raised such a large scale controversy. At the intellectual/academic level though, this issue has been alive and kicking for quite some time now, a good part of the 20th century I would say.

I personally came across this as far back as 2009 when I saw a challenge on the internet, by a critic of Islam named Ali Sina (an ex-Muslim), promising to pay 50,000 USD to anyone who could academically refute his claim that Muhammad was, amongst many other things, a pedophile! It was the shock of my life. I passed several sleepless nights. It was the first faith crisis I had. I read up all that was available on the internet back then. Ever since, this issue has been close to my heart and I have tried to keep abreast with the latest developments on this front.

This is the first time I’m writing on this publicly, although I have spoken on this several times in public and have had innumerable discussions with dozens of people over the last one and a half decade or so. Here are my two cents on it.

My thoughts on the matter: The Three main questions

The most apparently disturbing questions raised by this six year-nine year story are:

‘First question’: Was the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) a pedophile?

‘Second question’: Did the Prophet commit a repugnant act and set a wrong precedent by marrying a six year old girl and having sexual relations with her while she was just a nine year old?

‘Third question’: Does the Quran condone pedophilia? In other words, does the Quran directly allow sex with prepubescent girls?

Before we delve into answering the questions, let me also add that the six year-nine year narrative is not the only one in the market. There’s a 16 year-19 year account too, held by a minority of recent thinkers and scholars like Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, Mufti Abu Layth al Maliki, Al Idlibi, Arnold Yasin Mol, Dr.Shabir Ally, etc.

I personally find the minority 16-19 narrative to be more logical and historically more accurate and hence I subscribe to this while the reason(s) (why I find it to be more logical and more historically accurate) is beyond the scope of this article; so I’ll cover that in a separate piece. But, if I have to put it here now, at gunpoint, in short and blatant terms, the plain and simple reason is that it basically boils down to my taste. All such matters where there’s differing opinions, the choice ultimately boils down to one’s own tastes, mindset, relevance, convenience, future outlook, etc. This is the epistemology of subjective truths. Again, I won’t digress here, so more on this in a separate article!

The main point right now is, if the minority 16-19 opinion is correct, then there remains no controversy, and all the above three questions get dismissed and dismantled even before they take off.

But what if the majority view is correct? In this article, my aim is to answer the above three questions assuming the majority POV to be correct, although I personally consider it to be wrong! Heights of polemics you might think! But then my target is to show that despite the 6-9 thing being apparently disturbing, there’s more to it than meets the eye!

So without further ado, let’s tackle the ‘First question’ first!

Answering the ‘First question’

A Pedophilic disorder, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is a specific type of mental or psychiatric illness associated with sexuality that causes an adult to have primary or exclusive sexual attraction towards prepubescent children. For diagnostic purposes, the age of puberty is generally considered to be 13 years.

So there are two conditions here – puberty being the primary one, and the number 13 being a secondary demarcator used to set a crisp modern day boundary between pubescence and prepubescence.

Let’s unpack these two before we dive into the specific case of Muhammad and Aishah.

Puberty in the current times is a two to six year process that begins typically at age nine or ten (sometimes as early as six or seven!). The onset of puberty in girls usually precedes menarche (the onset of menstruation), so puberty must not be strictly equated with menarche as menarche is not the first marker of puberty, it’s one of the last; the earliest markers of puberty being appearance of pubic hair and breast buds in girls.

Nature¹ reported in October 2017:

“The age of puberty, far from being a biological constant, has been changing for much of human history, and the clearest evidence is seen in women. The most extensive evidence comes from records of the age at first menstruation (the menarche), which occurs near the end of puberty.”

“…….the start of puberty, marked in girls by the first signs of pubic hair and breast development, has continued to come earlier. Consequently, puberty now starts earlier and lasts longer. It typically begins at the age of 9 or 10, but sometimes as early as 6 or 7.”

“……passage into adulthood begins silently in the brain with the release of the hormone kisspeptin …………hormonal changes are followed physically in girls by the first signs of breast budding, and psychologically in the form of early romantic crushes.”

“Puberty progresses through the five Tanner stages of physical maturation, named after the mid-twentieth-century paediatrician James Tanner. In both sexes, pubic hair appears and then changes colour and distribution until it spreads to the thighs. At about the same time, girls’ nipples become elevated. Menstruation typically begins in the girls’ penultimate Tanner stage.”

“Normally, puberty in girls lasts for two to four years.”

“The broad shifts in the age of puberty over the centuries suggests that there is no optimal age to start maturing. The healthy age range is broad, and the timing is affected by myriad factors, including individual differences.” (Gamble, J. Early starters. Nature 550, S10–S11 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/550S10a)

Scientific American² reported in May 2015:

“For the past two decades scientists have been trying to unravel a mystery in young girls. Breast development, typical of 11-year-olds a generation ago, is now occurring in more seven-year-olds and, rarely, even in three-year-olds.”

“According to the most recent U.S. data (from 2013), 23 percent of black girls, 15 percent of Hispanic girls and 10 percent of white girls have started to develop breasts by the age of seven.” (Originally published as “Why Girls are Starting Puberty Early” in Scientific American Magazine, Vol. 312 No. 5 (May 2015), p. 28)

Live Science³ quoted Dr. Melissa Simon, a professor and obstetrician-gynecologist at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago:

“……pregnancy is possible from the start of ovulation, meaning the point at which the ovaries begin releasing mature eggs, called ova…….you can start ovulating before you start having your first period………”

No wonder, the world’s youngest recorded mother Lina Medina gave birth when she was barely six year old!⁴

Rolando Colareta, the doctor who assisted in the case of Lina in 1939, also helped deliver in 1957 the child of the second youngest mother of only nine years age, Hilda Trujillo. Dr. Rolando Colareta, in his 30 year career as an obstetrician, reported seeing four such cases of mothers under eleven years of age.⁵

From the analysis so far, it’s clear that:

– Puberty marks the arrival of sexual abilities, so much so that pregnancy and childbirth are possible as early as six or seven.

– The onset of puberty has been fluctuating throughout history and also differs from place to place. Currently, it’s quite common to witness it at around nine to ten years of age, sometimes as early as six or seven.

– Menstruation is not the first marker of puberty. The first markers include development of breast buds (in girls) and the appearance of pubic hair (in both sexes). (This point is crucial for the discussion below on the ‘Third question’)

Now going back to the case of Muhammad’s alleged pedophilia.

To call Muhammad a pedophile, Aishah should have been prepubescent at the time of consummation of her marriage with Muhammad. If it can be established that Aishah had reached puberty at the time of consummation of her marriage with Muhammad, then the case of pedophilia doesn’t stand ground.

According to the historical reports (ahadith) from Aishah herself, as narrated in the hadith collections of Al Bukhari and Muslim (see Note 1), she was six at the time of her marriage and nine when the marriage was consummated.

So Muhammad waited for three years before consummating the marriage. Why would a pedophile wait for three years?!!? If he were a pedophile, he would have consummated the marriage right after the marriage when Aishah was six!

The fact that Muhammad (married Aishah when she was six but) consummated the marriage after waiting for three years, implies that he intended for her to reach puberty or to start menstruating. Since Aishah was an extraordinary and precocious girl, she would have definitely reached puberty by nine.

Aishah reaching puberty or menarche at nine isn’t something improbable given that we have established above that puberty (as in modern times) is quite commonly reachable by nine to ten years of age.

Moreover, if Muhammad were a pedophile, he would have repeated the act again since one of the conditions of pedophilia is to have primary or exclusive sexual desire for prepubescent children. All of Muhammad’s marriages are well documented, only Aishah was a young virgin, all the others were widows or divorcees, none of them of Aishah’s age.⁶^,⁷

Coming to the number 13, of course it is irrelevant to the discussion on Muhammad since it’s just an arbitrary utilitarian modern boundary set as of now and could change in the future given the age of puberty keeps changing from time to time and place to place and also varies between individuals. If this marker is taken to be an indisputable gospel truth then all our ancestors prior to the 20th century would have to be deemed pedophiles, since in the mid-19th century the age range of 10 to 13 years was typically regarded as an acceptable age group for sexual consent even in the Western countries.⁸

For example, in the English common law, the age range of 10 to 12 years was traditionally set as the age of consent, only to be raised to 13 in Ireland and Great Britain by the Offences Against the Person Act 1875.⁹

As late as the 1880s, the legal age of consent in most states of the USA was 10-12 year.¹⁰

In India, till 1860, the legal age of consent was 10 year.¹¹

So is it okay to call the 19th century Americans, Europeans, and Indians as pedophiles?

Even today, the age of consent for sexual relations is 11 years in Nigeria, and 12 years in the Philippines and Angola!¹²

“……..eight states — including California and Washington — have no age floor for marriage……..”¹³

“There is no federal law governing the legal age of marriage in the U.S. Laws vary from state to state,………….Seven states — including California — have no minimum age at all.”¹⁴

So should the people who have recently married or have had sex with 12 year olds in Nigeria, Angola, Philippines, and the seven-eight states of the USA like California, be all punished for pedophilia?

Coming back to Muhammad, actually the slur of pedophilia emanates from the reports only due to an erroneous literalist fixation over the numbers 6 and 9. Instead of looking at the numbers, the underlying message should be looked at. Every text has a context, it has some data and some information, and then ultimately there’s some core message(s) to be delivered or point(s) to be made. Literalists are ignoring this key methodological concept.

The point to be taken from these ahadith is that maturity and capability are the required criteria for consummation of a marriage. Muhammad waited for three years before consummating the marriage so that Aishah could attain the desired level of maturity before the marriage could be consummated. That being the case, there’s no reason to indict Muhammad of pedophilia.

Coming to the Quran now.

Answering the ‘Third question’ – Does the Quran allow sex with prepubescent girls?

The Quran mentions ‘marriageable age’ and ‘capability’ as the two necessary criteria to be fulfilled before an orphan is handed over his property to him by his acting guardian.

Below is the relevant quotation from Surah Noor/chapter 4, verse 6, taken from two reputed modern translations of the Quran:

“And try the orphans (as regards their intelligence) until they reach the age of marriage; if then you find sound judgment in them, release their property to them, but consume it not wastefully, and hastily fearing that they should grow up, and whoever amongst the guardians is rich, he should take no wages, but if he is poor, let him have for himself what is just and reasonable (according to his work). And when you release their property to them, take witness in their presence; and Allah is All Sufficient in taking account.” (English translation from Muhsin Khan’s The Noble Quran) (Emphasis mine)

“Test the orphans until they reach the age of marriage, and then if you find them mature of mind, hand over to them their property, and do not eat it up by either spending extravagantly or in haste, fearing that they would grow up (and claim it). If the guardian of the orphan is rich, let him abstain entirely (from his ward’s property); and if he is poor, let him partake of it in a fair measure. When you hand over their property to them let there be witnesses on their behalf. Allah is sufficient to take account (of your deeds).”¹⁵

So there is a certain marriageable age (balaghul nikaah) and an age of mental capability (rushd) according to the above Quranic verse. Only after a child reaches the stage of mental capability, he/she would be handed over his/her property by his/her acting guardian.

There’s another Quranic verse that also talks about physical maturity (shudd) in the same context.

Surah An-a’am/chapter 6, verse 152 says:

“And come not near to the orphan’s property, except to improve it, until he (or she) attains the age of full strength; and give full measure and full weight with justice. We burden not any person, but that which he can bear. And whenever you give your word (i.e. judge between men or give evidence), say the truth even if a near relative is concerned, and fulfill the Covenant of Allâh. This He commands you, that you may remember.”¹⁶

So the criteria of mental and physical capability, if it applies to the case of dealing with wealth, should logically apply to the case of consummation of marriage too!

The same has been affirmed by the leading jurists of Sunni Islam, Aboo Haneefah, Maalik, and Al Shafie’e:¹⁷

“Maalik, al-Shaafa’i and Abu Haneefah said: the marriage may be consummated when the girl is able for intercourse, which varies from one girl to another, so no age limit can be set. This is the correct view. There is nothing in the hadeeth of ‘Aa’ishah to set an age limit, or to forbid that in the case of a girl who is able for it before the age of nine, or to allow it in the case of a girl who is not able for it and has reached the age of nine.”

So, what is the marker of sexual capability?

The biological marker is the onset of puberty, as also discussed in the Quran in Surah Noor (chapter 24), verses 58-59 which states that children who have reached the age of sexual maturity/puberty (al-hulum), must seek permission before entering the bedroom of their parents, at three periods of the day; viz., night, before dawn and afternoon; as these are the times when people cast their clothes aside or get intimate with their spouses:

“O you who believe! Let your legal slaves and slave-girls, and those among you who have not reached puberty ask your permission (before they come to your presence) on three occasions; before Fajr (morning) prayer, and while you put off your clothes for the noonday (rest), and after the Isha (late-night) prayer. (These) three times are of privacy for you, other than these times there is no sin on you or on them to move about, attending (helping) you each other. Thus Allah makes clear the Ayaat (the Verses of this Qur’an) to you. And Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise. And when the children among you reach puberty, then let them (also) ask for permission, like those senior to them (in age). Thus Allah makes clear His Ayaat (Commandments and legal obligations) for you. And Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise. (English translation from Muhsin Khan’s The Noble Quran) (Emphasis mine)

So, puberty is explicitly mentioned here in a context indicating that puberty demarcates an adult from the child, hence puberty is the age of maturity whereby sexual relations become possible, as also independently established above under the ‘First question’ that:

Ability to have sexual interactions comes with puberty which in the current times is a two to six year process that begins typically at age nine or ten (sometimes as early as six or seven!).

Thus, so far there is no Quranic basis or support for sex with prepubescent girls. There is a clear Quranic emphasis on puberty as the minimum stage when sexual relations are permissible.

Now, let’s discuss two more verses of the Quran that have been wrongly interpreted to mean that they allow sex with prepubescent girls.

Surah Ahzab (chapter 33), verse 49 states that a waiting period (iddat/iddah) is to be observed by divorced women only if she has had sexual intercourse with her husband. ‘Iddah’ is the waiting period for a woman after divorce or death of her husband, before she can remarry. If the husband divorces his wife before intercourse, then the woman need not observe the iddah and can remarry immediately after the divorce. Here’s a translation of the verse.

“O you who believe! When you marry believing women, and then divorce them before you have sexual intercourse with them, no Iddah have you to count in respect of them. So give them a present, and set them free, in a handsome manner.” (English translation from Muhsin Khan’s The Noble Quran)

Then, surah Talaaq, verse 4 (65:4) goes on to mention the iddah of various categories of women:

“And those of your women as have passed the age of monthly courses, for them the Iddah (prescribed waiting period), if you have doubts (about their periods), is three months, and for those who have no courses (i.e. they are still immature) their Iddah is three months likewise [except in case of death]. And for those who are pregnant (whether they are divorced or their husbands are dead), their Iddah is until they deliver (their burdens), and whosoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will make his matter easy for him.” (English translation from Muhsin Khan’s The Noble Quran) (Note: The words “i.e. they are still immature” are the author/translator Muhsin Khan’s explanatory addition, not a part of the original Arabic text of the Quran)

33:49 clearly states that only those divorced women need to observe iddah who have had sexual intercourse with their husband, and then 65:4 mentions the iddah of those who have not yet menstruated, indicating sexual intercourse can be had with them (since iddah is not required to be observed if there was no sexual intercourse).

Now, ‘those who have no menses yet’ could include females who:

– Have some medical problem(s).

– Or, have not yet attained maturity (i.e., very young).

Now, this second type (of very young females) could again have two sub-types:

– Reached puberty but not yet menstruated (as already discussed that not menstruated doesn’t imply not attained puberty).

– Or, not even reached puberty.

The second sub-type (‘not even reached puberty’) would indicate that sex with prepubescent girls is permissible! But this cannot be true since it contradicts the maturity clauses of the Quran mentioned in 4:6, 6:152, 24:58,59 (as already discussed above)! Thus 65:4 cannot be talking about prepubescent girls.

As already established under the ‘First question’, the onset of puberty in girls usually precedes menarche (the onset of menstruation), thus girls might attain sexual capabilities even before the advent of menarche, so puberty cannot be strictly equated with menarche as menarche is not the first marker of puberty, it’s one of the last; the earliest markers of puberty being appearance of pubic hair and breast buds (in girls). So it is these girls that are the subject of the discussion in verses 33:49 and 65:04, i.e.; girls who have attained puberty but haven’t yet menstruated (as menstruation starts in the last league of puberty), and of course also those girls who have reached puberty but haven’t menstruated due to some medical issues.

Thus, there is no Quranic support for pedophilic acts, i.e., no support for sex with prepubescent girls.

Coming to the ‘Second question’

Critics could argue that:

Although not a pedophile, yet Muhammad’s action was wrong since Aishah was still a ‘child’ at nine, despite having reached puberty, so Muhammad nevertheless encouraged sex with a ‘child’, so for sure he didn’t set a good precedent. Although puberty is possibly attained by nine, pregnancy at such a young age is rife with health hazards. Keeping in mind the overall well being of the girl, Muhammad didn’t have to do it just at the borderline of Aishah’s puberty; being a ‘Prophet of God’, he could have acted more wisely to set a better example. Muslims religiously cling on to his actions (the ‘Sunnah’) as the best examples and try to emulate him. His marriage with a six year old encourages Muslims across time and place to follow this example of his, thereby making it hard to eradicate child marriage and child sexual relations.

I’ll tackle this criticism under the following broad headings:

– Childhood is a socio-mental construct

– Early marriage was the need of the hour

– The negative legal implications of the dominant six-nine story

– Moral relativism

Childhood is a socio-mental construct

Nuriddeen Knight argues in her article:

“……..childhood is a construct largely created by society.
To understand the way in which childhood is a creation of society, we would do well to first reflect on the ways in which adulthood is a creation. At what age does one become an adult? 18? 21? 30? At one age you can vote, at another you can join the army, at another, you can legally get married. And these ages vary from state to state. They vary from culture to culture. And they vary by time period.”

Asadullah Ali Al-Andalusi and Dr. Jonathan Brown in their paper quote Mary Lewis:

“No matter what period we are examining, childhood is more than a biological age, but a series of social and cultural events and experiences that make up a child’s life…………..The time at which these transitions take place varies from one culture to another, and has a bearing on the level of interaction children have with their environment, their exposure to disease and trauma, and their contribution to the economic status of their family and society. The Western view of childhood, where children do not commit violence and are asexual, has been challenged by studies of children that show them learning to use weapons or being depicted in sexual poses……………What is clear is that we cannot simply transpose our view of childhood directly onto the past.” (Mary Lewis, The Bioarchaeology of Children: Perspectives from Biological and Forensic Anthropology (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. 4.) (Emphasis mine)

The concept of childhood beyond puberty, what we now call teenage or adolescence, as a distinct phase between childhood and adulthood, was an invention of the Renaissance, a development primarily caused by the emergence of cultures where writing became dominant over the oral mode of communication and dispersal of information amongst the masses. See the quote below.

“The……..question is, how do we define what a child is? Neil Postman, a former professor at New York University, wrote the book The Disappearance of Childhood. In it, he argues that childhood was one of the great inventions of the Renaissance, just like any other social structure. Its development was closely correlated with the written tradition and the development of primary schools as opposed to the oral tradition in the Middle Ages.”¹⁸

In oral societies and cultures, the ability to clearly speak in a certain language and the ability to listen and comprehend speech were the only skills to be learnt to be considered capable enough to take on the jobs and roles of adults. There was no need to learn reading and writing, so less time was consumed in education, no primary schools, no high schools, no colleges.

Once a person knew the tricks of language, and that normally happened at age seven, he could take on job apprenticeship in anything, for a few weeks, months, a few years at the maximum and smoothly transition into the roles and responsibilities of an adult, including marriage and childbirth right after the onset of the first stage of puberty that could occur by nine to ten years of age.

Only after literacy increased, people spent more and more time in learning writing and reading, primary schools developed, and then the high schools and colleges, that delayed the transition of pubescent males and females into the roles and responsibilities of adults, including their transition into the labor and the marriage markets.

Neil Postman in his book The Disappearance of Childhood writes:

“In an oral world there is not much of a concept of an adult and, therefore, even less of a child. And that is why, in all the sources, one finds that in the Middle Ages childhood ended at age seven. Why seven? Because that is the age at which children have command over speech. They can say and understand what adults can say and understand. They are able to know all the secrets of the tongue, which are the only secrets they need to know. And this helps us to explain why the Catholic Church designated age seven as the age at which one was assumed to know the difference between right and wrong, the age of reason. It also helps us to explain why, until the seventeenth century, the words used to denote young males could refer to men of thirty, forty, or fifty, for there was no word—in French, German, or English—for a young male between the ages of seven and sixteen. The word child expressed kinship, not an age.”¹⁹

“The more schools are built, the more school attendance is normalized, and fewer adult expectations will be placed on children. This isn’t only true of marriage but for adult responsibility in general; child labor is no longer a part of the fabric of American society because our expectations for childhood changed—as our society became more literate, we decided that a child’s time should be spent in school instead of working.”²⁰

No wonder, in 7th century Arabia which was an oral society, there were no primary and high schools, no colleges; ‘children’ transitioned to work and marry right after puberty which marked their transition from childhood directly into adulthood.

So, when Muhammad cemented his marriage with the nine year old Aishah, he did it not with a ‘child’ but with someone who was already an ‘adult’ according to the then global definitions and standards! So the Muhammad-Aishah six-nine saga is not that of a ‘sex with a child’ at all! The critics have been making much ado about nothing I must say!

Moreover, although very early marriage, say at 14 in our times, is considered repugnant now, it wasn’t so in the 7th to 18th centuries C.E., given the then drastically different realities of life across the world. Far from being something wrong, early marriage was in fact a necessity till as late as the 19th century C.E., due to low average life expectancies across the globe. This then brings us to the next point.

Early marriage was the need of the hour

To apply modern notions of child marriage (based on modern day realities) upon 7th century Arabia and criticize and misjudge the moral choices of that era (which had entirely different ground realities demanding different moral choices than the ones we make today) would be an anachronistic fallacy called Presentism, a commonly occurring fallacy in reasoning, hence illogical! (Also see – Understanding Aisha’s Age: An Interdisciplinary Approach | Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research)

A combination of factors like high infant mortality, high maternal mortality at childbirth, and deaths in young adulthood from accidents, epidemics, plagues, and wars, before modern medicine and surgery were widely available, led to significantly lower average life expectancy at birth (LEB) prior to the 1950s.²¹

In Europe, from late 400s to 900 C.E., average LEB was only 30-35 years!²² (This is the same period as Muhammad (d.632 C.E.))

In 1800 C.E., the global average LEB was only about 29 years!! And in 1900 C.E., it was only about 32 year!!²³

Closer to our times, in 1950 C.E., the global average LEB was only about 46 year.²⁴^,²⁵ Contrast this with 72-73 year in 2019-2020!²⁶

In 1950 Saudi Arabia, the land of Muhammad and Aishah, the average LEB was only about 42 years! In 2015 it was about 74 years.²⁷ Notice the drastic difference! Thus the modern notion of marriage and sex at 18 years (with LEB of 74 years) was not at all feasible for, rather it would have been detrimental to, the socio-economic structure of 7th century Arabia wherein the LEB would have been around 30 years only. Where you are expected to live only 30 years, you cannot start to produce children at 18!

Because of high infant mortality rates in those times, the chances of survival of a newborn was slim, so there was no guarantee that a couple’s first, second or even the third child would live to see adulthood. Given this grim scenario of life and death, early marriage and parenthood was a tactic for survival of our medieval ancestors. So to ensure that at least one of your several children reaches adulthood (which was 9-10 years back then) by the time you reach 30, it is necessary to start procreating as soon as your body is barely able to do it!

Thus, it’s not at all objectionable if Muhammad completed his marriage with Aishah as soon as she set foot into puberty so that early marriage ensured early procreation thereby increasing the odds of having enough children by the age of 25-30 so that at least some would survive to see adulthood while the mother is still alive. Instead of being objectionable, what Muhammad did was the most appropriate thing to do in the 7th to 19th centuries C.E. I see this as another evidence of Muhammad being divinely inspired!

No wonder, following the same logic as Muhammad would have followed, even during the mid-19th century, the age range of 10 to 13 years was typically regarded as an acceptable age bracket for sexual consent even in the Western countries.²⁸

In the English common law for example, till 1875, the age of consent was set in the age range of 10 to 12 years, raised to 13 in Ireland and Great Britain by the Offences Against the Person Act 1875.²⁹

As late as the 1880s, the age of consent in most states of the USA was 10-12 year.³⁰

In India, till 1860, the age of consent was 10 year.³¹

Even today, the age of consent for sexual relations is 11 years in Nigeria, and 12 years in the Philippines and Angola! Japan had it at 13 until June 2023 (when it was raised from 13 to 16)!!

It’s 14 years in Germany, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Austria, Serbia and Montenegro, Bulgaria, Estonia, Brazil, Columbia, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, and Bolivia.³²

Child marriage is rampant in the USA even today. See the quotes below.

Child marriage is still legal in most of the U.S. Here’s why. – The Hill (Updated, 20 Nov 2023):

“Marrying before the age of 18 was legal in all 50 states until 2017.”

“More than half of U.S. states still allow for 16 and 17 year olds to get married with parental consent, however, according to Tahirih Justice Center, a nonprofit that works to protect women and girls facing gender-based violence.”

“On top of that, 10 states allow children younger than 16 to get married with judicial approval, according to the center, while four will drop the minimum age for marriage if a girl is pregnant.”

“And eight states — including California and Washington — have no age floor for marriage, according to the center.”

The Fight to End Child Marriage in California | UNICEF USA (8 March 2024):

“There is no federal law governing the legal age of marriage in the U.S. Laws vary from state to state,………….Seven states — including California — have no minimum age at all.”

Why Did Prophet Muhammad ﷺ Marry Aisha? Dismantling the Controversy of Aisha’s Age | Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research (Updated, 22 Dec 2023):

“……..age at which one can marry with parental consent is as young as 14 in Alaska. Other states—like California, Colorado, and Idaho—have no age limit at all; as long as the couple receives the consent of parents or a judge, they could theoretically marry at any age.”

“…….while the Prophet’s marriage comes under scrutiny by Western critics, he could legally have married Lady A’isha—having the full support of her family—right here in America (recall that in many states there is no age limit for marriage; only parental and/or judicial support is needed).”

Critics might still argue that:

Even if what Muhammad did was okay in the context of the 7th century, it would be problematic if Muslims follow his example in the 21st century given the Muslims consider Muhammad’s life in general and practices/actions in particular to be worthy of being emulated. If Muhammad is given a clean chit, his action is not condemned, then current Muslims too would be justified in marrying six or seven year olds! That would open Pandora’s box of child marriage and child sexual abuse that’s unacceptable in this modern age!

The short answer to this would be that the current Muslims should not be allowed to marry six-seven year olds, neither nine-ten year olds, nor even eleven-twelve year olds. Let’s dig into this in the next section.

The negative legal implications of the dominant six-nine story

As discussed under the ‘Third question’, the principle criterion for the permissibility of sexual intercourse to consummate a marriage is the attainment of capability to bear intercourse. This is laid down explicitly in the Quran in 4:6, 6:152, and 24:58-59.

All the principles (‘usool’), the obligations (‘faraaidh’), the prohibitions (‘hurmaat’); the primary matters of Islam, are laid down clearly in the primary sources which are the Quran and the Sunnah (established and concurrent practices of the Prophet(s)).

The exact age (at which intercourse is permissible to consummate a marriage) which is a secondary matter, forms a part of the body of secondary legal opinions or Fiqh of Islam. This is derived from one of the secondary sources that is the ahadith (or isolated historical reports, also called the akhbaar-e-ahaad).

No wonder, there’s no dispute over the primary capability clause (as that comes from the primary source, the Quran). The exact age derived from the ahadith is where the scholars have differed (as that comes from the ahadith, a secondary source).

The predominant opinion held by the overwhelming majority of scholars is that Aishah was six when she married Muhammad and she was nine when the marriage was consummated.

Then there are two minority opinions:
Marriage at around 11, consummation at around 14.
Marriage at around 16, consummation at around 19.

The scope of this article is not to determine which of the three is correct.

For an analysis of the evidences and arguments for the minority opinions, see:

Aisha (ra): The Case for an Older Age in Sunni Hadith Scholarship | Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research

Aisha was not a child Her age at the time of Marriage | Mufti Abu Layth

Age of Aisha (ra)- Mufti Abu Layth

Age of Syeda Aisha (r.a) | Javed Ahmad Ghamidi

The Age of Aisha (ra) | شادی کے وقت سیدہ عائشہ کی عمر | M.Hassan Ilyas | Hamza Ali Abbasi

And for the counter responses to the arguments for minority opinions, refer to:

The Age of Aisha (ra): Rejecting Historical Revisionism and Modernist Presumptions | Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research

How Old Was ‘Aishah When She Married the Prophet ? – Islam Question & Answer

As already mentioned in the very beginning of the article, I personally subscribe to the minority 16-19 narrative. The reasons for the same is, again, beyond the scope of this article, so I’ll cover that in a separate article.

Coming back to the analysis at hand:

If any of the two minority opinions is correct, then the issue gets nipped at its bud, there remains no controversy, there ensues no need to discuss it, and no point in me writing this article!

The problem is with the predominant opinion that was voiced by Nupur Sharma and many other critics of Islam since the twentieth century. It’s a problem in terms of its legal implications as many scholars who hold this opinion use it as a basis to opine that generally any marriage can be done at six and consummation can be done at nine! This is the more disturbing part to me than the specific instance of Muhammad himself doing it (as we have already analyzed and defended the specific case of Muhammad and Aishah).

Disturbing because their opinion gives license to so many people who follow these scholars to practice the six-nine thing unrestrictedly even in these modern times when the ground realities are very much different from those of 7th century Arabia!

What leads these scholars to arrive at this ridiculous opinion?

Literalism.

They take the Quranic verse 65:04 to be unrestrictedly applicable to prepubescent girls too. But don’t they know about the capability (and marriageable age) clause mentioned in 4:6 and 6:152 of the Quran?

Of course they know! They too hold that the capability to bear sexual intercourse is a must for consummation of a marriage to take place. But they then take the ahadith of Aishah’s marriage literally and label six as the marriageable age and nine as the age of capability for intercourse! The argument they have for this twist is:

Muhammad did it with Aishah when she was nine, which explains and specifies the general directive of the Quran regarding capability. While the Quran mentioned capability as the clause without specifying the exact age or number, Muhammad’s practice works complementarily to the Quranic directive and provides the specific number, so now this number nine is to be applied to all women across all times and places!

Ridiculously shallow, dead and dry reasoning at its best! A classic example of what happens when texts are read and interpreted literally without recourse to enough deep thinking and wholesome reasoning. A more holistic approach would have been:

The Quran mentions the criterion of capability which would vary from person to person, place to place, time to time. Aishah must have been fit for the same since she was a precocious girl and given the then prevalent harsh realities of life which warranted early marriage and early initiation of sexual activity for the purpose of early parenthood. So, what applied to Aishah in 7th century Arabia will not apply to all people at all times, especially when the ground realities of life are very different from what existed in the Muhammadan era. The authorities across times and climes must decide and legislate according to the best contemporary interests of their communities.

Yet, several objections as listed below could still be made on the discourse so far under the ‘Second question’.

(i.) Child marriage is generally considered to be wrong nowadays but it was not considered wrong prior to the 20th century and Islam too allowed it through Muhammad’s practice of it. This implies Islam didn’t consider child marriage to be an absolute evil, else it would have banned it.

Drinking alcohol too was normal and common in 7th century Arabia but Islam called it out to be wrong and banned its consumption for all times. It’s banned today, it will continue to remain banned even tomorrow. So Islam considers alcohol to be eternally and universally evil, an absolute evil. Islam’s moral standpoint on alcohol is thus absolute, but it’s not absolute in case of child marriage! So why is Islam’s standpoint on it not absolute? Wouldn’t it have been of great benefit to mankind had Islam considered it to be an absolute evil and banned the practice altogether just like it banned alcohol for ever?

(ii.) Can the absolute God be the author of moralities of two types – absolute and non-absolute (or relative)?

(iii.) Moreover, Islam’s moral viewpoint on child marriage was in sync with the pre-20th century world, but it is out of sync with the 21st century world. As long as Islam was in consonance with the world at large, it was fine to follow it. Now that Islam is in dissonance with the rest of the world on many such issues as child marriage, should it not be abandoned altogether?

Let’s discuss these objections under the next section.

Moral relativism

Objection (i) above presumes that the permission given by Islam to marry underage girls in the 7th century was devoid of any necessity. As already discussed under the section of ‘Early marriage was the need of the hour’, early marriage and early procreation was the need of the hour prior to the 20th century, so something that was necessary from a social-biological standpoint couldn’t have been banned altogether.

First it was discouraged with the reasoning that the evil/sin in it is much more than the benefit in it (Quran, 2:219).

Then to pray while under intoxication of alcohol was banned (Quran, 4:43).

Finally, it was banned completely (Quran, 5:90-91).

Although not a necessity, alcohol was deeply entrenched in the Arab custom and habit, it was their life blood; banning it all of a sudden could’ve created a backlash or the ban wouldn’t have been so effective. Thus the implementation of the ban was gradual.

Moreover, if a situation arises where the consumption of alcohol becomes necessary to save lives, then this ban too gets relaxed, as per the Quran, 5:3!

The point is, even an evil can become permissible when necessary. Hence child marriage too was permitted when it was necessary. Now that it’s not necessary, it can be outlawed by the concerned lawmakers of respective nations and states if it is deemed fit for the overall contemporary well-being of the people based on the current socio-economic realities of the nations. Indeed, that has been done in almost all the Muslim nations now.³³

But God didn’t consider it to be an absolute evil like alcohol probably because the terms ‘child’, ‘underage’, ‘minor’, ‘adult’, vary from place to place and time to time, so God didn’t lay down the specifics, He left it upon us to decide upon the needs of respective times and places.

What He did give us explicitly is a general framework or broad principles. The broad principles being that sexual relations (in marriage) are permitted only when the girl has attained the ability to have intercourse and the ability in general arrives at puberty while the onset of puberty itself varies from time to time and place to place, many a time arriving as early as seven.

Beyond this, if the social-economic-political scenarios on the ground demand that for the general welfare of the population the minimum legal age of marriage and thus sex be raised to 15 or 16 or 18, then that can be done without any religious reservations against it, as has actually been done now in almost all Muslim nations across the world.³⁴

Islamic law has within itself the basic principles and tools that allow legal rulings to change to accommodate the changing ground realities or needs of specific times and places, that is, Islam is robust enough to meet the dynamic needs of the hour; one of the hallmarks of a true framework of knowledge! (See my articles 15 and 16). This then essentially answers the objection no.(iii).

Coming to the remaining objection, no.(ii), it is evident from the discussion so far that moral directives can definitely be of two types, absolute and relative. Alcohol consumption is an absolute prohibition, an example of an absolute moral directive.

But if a critical need arises, it becomes permitted to address the necessity. This moral directive too is absolute as it’s a general principle that would have to be followed under all situations in all times and places.

The identification of the needs that are critical enough to permit alcohol would be relative, possibly varying from time to time and place to place, even dependent on the authority who determines it in a given time and place, that is, in the same time and place, different authorities might hold differing legal opinions regarding whether a situation is critical enough to permit alcohol.

Generally, the basic principles (‘usool’) are absolute as they are of primary nature while their application(s) according to changing times and needs is relative as such issues are of secondary nature (‘fiqh’) as mentioned above under the section ‘The negative legal implications of the dominant six-nine story’. (Also see points 5a to 9 of my 16th article).

Same goes with child marriage. The principle, that is absolute, is that sexual relations are allowed only after maturity (or ‘adulthood’) is reached. Determination of the age of adulthood varies individually, timely, and geographically, so that is of secondary nature and is thus relative. What was okay in 7th century Arabia is not fine in the 21st century globalized world, so the concerned authorities need to legislate accordingly keeping in mind the best contemporary interests of the respective communities. This answers the objection no.(ii).

Another possible objection and its response

There is some reservation against the conclusion that Aishah had reached puberty by nine. The dispute is due to the following reports/ahadith.

(i.) Aisha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Allah’s Apostle (may peace be upon him) married her when she was seven years old, and she was taken to his house as a bride when she was nine, and her dolls were with her; and when he (the Holy Prophet) died she was eighteen years old. (Muslim, Book 008, Number 3311)

(ii.) Narrated Aisha: I used to play with the dolls in the presence of the Prophet, and my female 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. (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.) (Ibn Hajar al Asqalani, Fath-al-Bari, page 143, Vol.13) (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 73, No.151)

In the above report, the part within brackets – “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” – is not contained in the original hadith reported from Aishah but is a commentary by Hafiz Ibn Hajr al Asqalani, the famous hadith expert known for his magnum opus Fath al-Bari, the commentary on the Sahih Al-Bukhari. The reason he held the opinion that Aishah hadn’t reached puberty at nine can be gleaned from his commentary on another hadith recorded in the Sunan of Abu Dawud, quoted below.

(iii.) Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu’minin: When the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) arrived after the expedition to Tabuk or Khaybar (the narrator is doubtful), the draught raised an end of a curtain which was hung in front of her store-room, revealing some dolls which belonged to her. He asked: What is this? She replied: My dolls. Among them he saw a horse with wings made of rags, and asked: What is this I see among them? She replied: A horse. He asked: What is this that it has on it? She replied: Two wings. He asked: A horse with two wings? She replied: Have you not heard that Solomon had horses with wings? She said: Thereupon the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) laughed so heartily that I could see his molar teeth. (Sunan Abu Dawud, Book 41, No.4914)

Hafiz Ibn Hajr al Asqalani commented on the above report of Sunan Abu Dawud, in his magnum opus, Fath al Bari 10/400, Baab 91:

“Al-Khattaabee said: From this Hadeeth it is understood that playing with dolls (al-banaat) is not like the amusement from other images (suwaar) concerning which the threat (wae’ed) of punishment is mentioned. The only reason why permission was given to Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) is because she had not, at that time, reached the age of puberty.

[al-Haafiz says:] I say: To say with certainty, [that she was not yet at the age of puberty] is questionable, though it might possibly be so. Because Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) was a fourteen year old girl at the time of the Battle of Khaibar – either exactly fourteen years old, or having just passed her fourteenth year [and entering into the fifteenth year], or approaching it (the fourteenth year). As for her age at the time of the Battle of Tabook – she had by then definitely reached the age of puberty. Therefore, the strongest view is that of those who said ‘it was in khaibar’ [i.e., when she was not yet at the age of puberty], and made reconciliation (jam’) [between the apparent contradictory rulings, of permissibility of dolls, in particular, and the prohibition of images, in general] with what al-Khattaabee said (above).

[Al-Khattabee said that images are prohibited, except in the case of dolls for young girls]. This, because to reconcile (make jam’) is better than to assume the ahaadith to be in contradiction (at-ta’aarud)……..” (‘The Beneficial Response Concerning the Islamic Ruling of Pictures/Images’, by Shaykh Abdul-Azeez Ibn Abdullah Ibn Baaz, rendered in English by Abu Muhammad Abdur Rauf Shakir) (Emphasis mine)

So according to Ibn Hajar, Aisha had probably not attained puberty even at the age of 14! So it is obviously not conceivable that she could have attained puberty at nine! And the reason he held this opinion is because the report mentions Aishah playing with her dolls while she was 14, during the time the military expedition to Khaibar took place.

Now, these scholars, quite ridiculously, held this a priori, now outdated opinion that playing with images/dolls/sculptures was forbidden in Islam except for children. I call this opinion outdated since in the current day and age this doesn’t hold any water. It would have held sway in the medieval times, even in the 20th century in some places, but not now. So the reasoning is, if Aishah was playing with dolls at 14 then that’s an indication that she was still a child who had not reached puberty (since attainment of puberty differentiates an adult from a child)!

So to reconcile their a priori belief that playing with dolls is forbidden for adults with the fact that Aishah was playing with them when she was 14, they had to declare that Aishah was not pubescent when she was 14! They thus preferred to accept that the Prophet had sex with a prepubescent girl rather than accepting that it’s fine for a girl (child or adult) to play with toys (soft toys or teddy bears nowadays)! It’s so common for women in their late twenties and thirties to be fond of soft toys, so much so that they love taking soft toys as gifts from their partners! That could have been the thing in Aishah’s case too, she too would have loved to have toys despite having reached puberty.

Muhammad would have considered this natural love of girls for soft toys perfectly normal and would have thus not even considered this from the typical juristic point of view of prohibition or permission of something. It would have been a total non-issue for Muhammad but these later scholars seem to have created a hill out of a mole! Consequently creating an embarrassing situation for us, the Muslims of the 21st century!

Surprisingly enough, they didn’t even consider the possibility that the dolls might have been without faces, since the purported prohibition is in playing with inanimate objects that look like living beings, that is, have facial features that resemble actual living creatures. There is no prohibition on objects that don’t have facial features of living beings. Thus, Aishah could have attained puberty and might have been playing with dolls that didn’t have faces. In this scenario, there would have been no contradiction, and the scholars wouldn’t have had to declare Aishah a prepubescent child even at 14!

To Conclude and Summarize

With the answer to the ‘First question’: Was the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) a pedophile?

Pedophilic acts involve prepubescent children.

Puberty marks the arrival of sexual abilities, hence pregnancy and childbirth are possible as early as six or seven. The world’s youngest recorded mother Lina Medina gave birth when she was barely six years old. And Hilda Trujillo, the second youngest mother, gave birth when she was only nine years of age.

The onset of puberty has been fluctuating throughout history and also differs from place to place. Currently, it’s quite common to witness it at around nine to ten years of age, sometimes as early as six or seven.

Menstruation is not the first sign of puberty. The first signs include development of breast buds (in girls) and the appearance of pubic hair (in both sexes).

According to the concerned report (in the hadith books of Bukhari and Muslim) Aishah’s marriage to Muhammad was contracted when she was six and the marriage was consummated when she was nine.

This 6-9 narrative is not the only historical account of the event. The more historically correct account is that of 16-19.

But even if the 6-9 narrative is correct, then also Muhammad cannot be called a pedophile because for that to be true, Aishah should have been prepubescent. And if Muhammad were a pedophile, he wouldn’t have waited three years for her to turn nine. The three year wait must have been for her to reach a certain level of maturity (which would have been indicated by the onset of puberty or by the start of menstruation).

The allegation of pedophilia emanates from the reports only due to an erroneous literalist fixation over the numbers 6 & 9. Instead of looking at the numbers, the underlying message should be looked at. The point to be taken from these reports is that capability is the required criterion for consummation of a marriage. Muhammad waited for three years before consummating the marriage so that Aishah could attain the desired level of capability before the marriage could be consummated. That being the case, there’s no reason to indict Muhammad of pedophilia.

The capability clause is prescribed in the Quran as well; answering the ‘Third question’ – Does the Quran condone pedophilia?

The Quran (4:6) mentions (balaghul nikaah) and an age of mental capability (rushd) as the two necessary criteria to be fulfilled before an orphan is handed over his property to him by his acting guardian. In verse 6:152, it also talks about physical maturity (shudd) in the same context.

The criteria of mental and physical capability, if it applies to the case of dealing with wealth, should logically apply to the case of consummation of marriage too!

The same has been affirmed by the leading jurists of Sunni Islam, Aboo Haneefah, Maalik, and Al Shafie’e. They consider that if a girl is mature/capable enough to bear intercourse, it’s okay to do it irrespective of her age. However, with the various welfare needs of the girl in mind, they have generally prescribed ages 15 and above as a suitable age for marriage, even as early as the 8th century C.E!

The biological marker of sexual capability is the onset of puberty, as also discussed in the Quran in Surah Noor (chapter 24), verses 58-59 which states that children who have reached the age of sexual maturity/puberty (al-hulum), then they must seek permission before entering the bedroom of their parents.

As regards the verses 33:49 and 65:4 that are jointly used to infer an erroneous conclusion that the Quran permits sex with prepubescent girls, the correct analysis would be:

33:49 clearly states that only those divorced women need to observe the waiting period (iddah) who have had sexual intercourse with their husband, and then 65:4 mentions the iddah of those who have ‘not yet menstruated’ or ‘those who have no menses yet’, indicating sexual intercourse can be had with such women (since iddah is not required to be observed if there was no sexual intercourse).

Now, ‘those who have no menses yet’ could include females who:

– Have some medical problem(s).
– Or, have not yet attained maturity (i.e., very young).

The second type (of very young females) could again have two sub-types:

– Reached puberty but not yet menstruated (as ‘not menstruated’ doesn’t imply ‘not attained puberty’).
– Or, not even reached puberty.

The second sub-type (not even reached puberty) would indicate that sex with prepubescent girls is permissible! But this cannot be true since it contradicts the maturity clauses of the Quran mentioned in 4:6, 6:152, 24:58,59! Thus 65:4 cannot be talking about prepubescent girls.

The onset of puberty in girls usually precedes menarche (the onset of menstruation), thus girls might attain sexual capabilities even before the advent of menarche, so puberty cannot be strictly equated with menarche as menarche is not the first marker of puberty, it’s one of the last; the earliest markers of puberty being appearance of pubic hair and breast buds in girls. So it is these girls that are one of the primary subjects of the discussion in verses 33:49 and 65:04, i.e.; girls who have attained puberty but haven’t yet menstruated (as menstruation starts in the last league of puberty), and of course also those girls who have reached puberty but haven’t menstruated due to some medical issues.

Thus, there is no Quranic support for pedophilic acts, i.e., no support for sex with prepubescent girls.

Answering the ‘Second question’: Did the Prophet commit a repugnant act and set a wrong precedent by having sexual relations with a nine year old ‘child’?

The concept of childhood beyond puberty, what we now call teenage or adolescence, as a distinct phase between childhood and adulthood, was an invention of the Renaissance, a development primarily caused by the emergence of cultures where writing was dominant over the oral mode of communication and dispersal of information.

In oral societies and cultures, the ability to clearly speak in a certain language and the ability to listen and comprehend speech were the only skills to be learnt to be considered capable enough to take on the jobs and roles of adults. Once a person knew the tricks of language, and that normally happened at age seven, he could take on job apprenticeship in anything, for a few weeks, months, a few years at the maximum and smoothly transition into the roles and responsibilities of an adult, including marriage and childbirth right after the onset of the first stage of puberty (that could occur between seven to ten years of age). There was no need to learn reading and writing, so less time was consumed in education, no primary schools, no high schools, no colleges.

In 7th century Arabia which was an oral society, there were no primary and high schools, no colleges; ‘children’ transitioned to work and marry right after puberty which marked their transition from childhood directly into adulthood.

So, when Muhammad cemented his marriage with the nine year old Aishah, she was not at all a ‘child’ but an ‘adult’ according to the then global definitions and standards! So the Muhammad-Aishah six-nine saga is not that of a ‘sex with a child’!

Moreover, although very early marriage, say at 14 in our times, is considered repugnant nowadays, it wasn’t so in the 7th to 18th centuries C.E., given the then drastically different realities of life across the world. Far from being something wrong, early marriage was in fact a necessity till as late as the 19th century C.E., due to low average life expectancies across the globe.

To apply modern notions of child marriage (based on modern day realities) upon 7th century Arabia and criticize and misjudge the moral choices of that era (which had entirely different ground realities demanding different moral choices than the ones we make today) would be an anachronistic fallacy called ‘presentism’, a commonly occurring fallacy in reasoning, hence illogical!

In 1950 Saudi Arabia, the land of Muhammad and Aishah, the average LEB was only about 42 years! In 2015 it was about 74 years.

Thus the modern notion of marriage and sex at 18 years (with LEB of 74 years) was not at all feasible for, rather it would have been detrimental to, the socio-economic structure of 7th century Arabia wherein the LEB would have been around 30 years only.

Where people are expected to live only 30 years, they cannot start to produce children at 18! Because of high infant mortality rates in those times, the chances of survival of a newborn was slim, so there was no guarantee that a couple’s first, second or even the third child would live to see adulthood. Given this grim scenario of life and death, early marriage and parenthood was a tactic for survival of our medieval ancestors. So to ensure that at least one of several children reaches adulthood (which was 9-10 years back then) when the parents reach 30, it was necessary to start procreating as soon as the body could barely do it!

Yet, although what Muhammad did was okay in the context of the 7th century, it would be problematic if Muslims follow his example in the 21st century, given that the ground realities have drastically changed since. So the current Muslims should not be allowed to marry six-seven year olds, neither nine-ten year olds, nor even eleven-twelve year olds.

The principle criterion for the permissibility of sexual intercourse to consummate a marriage is the attainment of capability to bear intercourse. This is laid down explicitly in the Quran in 4:6, 6:152, and 24:58-59. And there’s no dispute over it.

The exact age (at which intercourse is permissible to consummate a marriage) is a secondary matter and hence forms a part of the body of secondary legal opinions or Fiqh of Islam. This is derived from one of the secondary sources that is the ahadith (or the akhbaar-e-ahaad), thus this is where the scholars have differed.

The predominant opinion held by the overwhelming majority of scholars is that Aishah was six when she married Muhammad and she was nine when the marriage was consummated.

Two minority opinions being:
– Marriage at around 11, consummation at around 14.
– Marriage at around 16, consummation at around 19.

If any of the two minority opinions is correct, then the issue gets nipped at its bud, there remains no controversy.

The problem is with the predominant opinion because of its legal implications, since many scholars who hold this opinion use it to opine that any marriage can be done at six and consummation can be done at nine! This is disturbing, because their opinion gives license to so many of their followers to practice the six-nine thing unrestrictedly even in these modern times when the ground realities are very much different from those of 7th century Arabia.

It is literalism that leads these scholars to arrive at this ridiculous opinion. They take the Quranic verse 65:04 to be unrestrictedly applicable to prepubescent girls, despite knowing about the capability clause of the Quran (mentioned in 4:6 and 6:152) because they take the ahadith of Aishah’s marriage literally and thus label six as the marriageable age and nine as the age of capability for intercourse!

They argue that Muhammad did it with Aishah when she was nine, which explains and specifies the general directive of the Quran regarding capability. While the Quran mentioned capability as the clause without specifying the exact age or number, Muhammad’s practice works complementarily to the Quranic directive and provides the specific number, so now this number nine is to be applied to all women across all times and places!

This is a ridiculously shallow, dead and dry reasoning! A classic example of what happens when texts are read and interpreted literally without recourse to enough deep thinking and wholesome reasoning. A more holistic approach would have been:

Last leg of the conclusion, with some further objections and responses under the ‘Second question’.

(ii.) Can the absolute God be the author of moralities of two types – absolute and non-absolute (or relative)?

In response, firstly, the objection (i) presumes that the permission given by Islam to marry underage girls in the 7th century was devoid of any necessity. As already discussed under the section of ‘Early marriage was the need of the hour’, early marriage and early procreation was the need of the hour prior to the 20th century, so something that was necessary from a social-biological standpoint couldn’t have been banned altogether.

Consumption of alcohol was never a necessity, so it was considered an absolute evil and banned unequivocally and unconditionally under normal circumstances. But even then the banning process was gradual, not sudden, because although not a necessity, alcohol was deeply entrenched in the Arab custom and habit, it was their life blood; banning it all of a sudden could’ve created a backlash or the ban wouldn’t have been so effective. Thus the implementation of the ban was gradual.

Moreover, if a situation arises where the consumption of alcohol becomes necessary to save lives, then this ban too gets relaxed, as per the Quran, 5:3! The point being, even an evil can become permissible when necessary. Hence child marriage too was permitted when it was necessary. Now that it’s not necessary, it can be outlawed by the concerned lawmakers of respective nations and states if it is deemed fit for the overall contemporary well-being of the people. Indeed, that has been done in almost all the Muslim nations now.

Coming to objection no.(ii), it is evident from the discussion so far that moral directives can be of two types, absolute and relative. Alcohol consumption is an absolute prohibition, an example of an absolute moral directive.

But if a critical need arises, it becomes permitted to address the necessity. This directive too is absolute as it’s a general principle that would have to be followed under all situations in all times and places.

Generally, the basic principles (the ‘usool’) are absolute as they are of primary nature while their applications according to changing times and needs are relative as such issues are of secondary nature (the ‘fiqh’) (See points 5a to 9 of my 16th article).

Note 1

Narrated Aisha that the Prophet married her when she was six year old and he consummated his marriage with her when she was nine year old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death) (Al 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 with her when she was nine years old. Hisham said: I have been informed that Aisha remained with the Prophet for nine years (i.e. till his death) (Al Bukhari, Volume 7, Book 62, Number 65).

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

Narrated Aisha: The Prophet married 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, Umm Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my female 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 alright, 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. 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 age nine years. (Al Bukhari, Volume 5, Book 58, Number 234)

Narrated Hisham’s father: Khadija died three years before the Prophet departed to Medina. He stayed there for two years or so and then he married Aisha when she was a girl of six years of age, and he consumed that marriage when she was nine years old. (Al Bukhari, Volume 5, Book 58, Number 236)

Aisha (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 the women of the Ansar had gathered. They all blessed me and wished me good luck and said: May you have a 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. (Muslim, Book 008, Number 3309)

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. (Muslim, Book 008, Number 3310)

Aisha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Allah’s Apostle (may peace be upon him) married her when she was seven years old, and she was taken to his house as a bride when she was nine, and her dolls were with her; and when he (the Holy Prophet) died she was eighteen year old. (Muslim, Book 008, Number 3311)

Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu’minin (mother of the believers): The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) married me when I was seven or six. When we came to Medina, some women came. According to Bishr’s version: Umm Ruman came to me when I was swinging. They took me, made me prepared and decorated me. I was then brought to the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him), and he took up cohabitation with me when I was nine. She halted me at the door, and I burst into laughter. (Abu Dawud, Book 41, Number 4915)

Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu’minin: When we came to Medina, the women came to me when I was playing on the swing, and my hair was up to my ears. They brought me, prepared me, and decorated me. Then they brought me to the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) and he took up cohabitation with me, when I was nine. (Abu Dawud, Book 41, Number 4917)

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FaZo Institute

1 year ago

The most extensive analysis on the topic I’ve ever seen! Amazing work.

Ariz

The article has been well researched and has been subtly put. A must read !

Faisal Khan

Reply to Ariz

Thank you so much for your support brother Ariz!

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