Contextual Analysis of the Prophet’s Marriage with Aisha – Part 1

The personality and character of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ has been attacked and tarnished at many levels from various fronts from the time of beginning of his mission until today. A new topic for character assassination is spun every now and then. When an issue doesn’t seem to be working, another thread is invented to attack from another side. But Islamic history itself bears witness that none of these attacks prevented seekers of the truth from being drawn to that incredibly wonderful personality whom we can know in the full light of history.

Nowadays the enemies of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ have re-invented a ‘reference in Hadith books’ (not a saying of the prophet!) about Aisha’s (may God be pleased with her) age when he married her, as a tool to tarnish his character without giving any consideration that the reference regarding Aisha’s age might have been equally a mistake from the narrator as we can see such errors in the history of many other personalities.

When we criticize a historical man for any action he has done, the subject must be analyzed from its historical context as well as from the totality of his life. Prior to that, we need to study and understand the character of that historical personality who has allegedly committed the act in question. The action of the person has to be seen in the light of the character of the personality.  The same applies to Prophet Ishaq when he married Rebeca while she was only 3 years old, according to some traditions, and to modern leaders like Mahatma Gandhi when he betrothed to Kasturba while she was only 7 years old. Let us begin this analysis and study by starting with 25 facts that are generally and incontrovertibly accepted by the world regarding Prophet Muhammadﷺ.

1. Prophet Muhammad ﷺis the most influential figure in human history. He continues to have an impact on the world even after the passage of more than 1,400 years. The socio-religious and political system he introduced controlled the world for more than 1,200 years of the 5,000 years of recorded human civilization (more than 60 percent of the time from the birth of Christ). (Michael H. Hart – The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History)
2. Prophet Muhammad ﷺis the most loved, imitated and obeyed historical personality the world has ever seen.
3. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who lived 1,400 years ago, is the most discussed historical personality now in various parts of the world for various reasons.
4. There is no image or picture or statue of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ anywhere in the world.
5. Prophet Muhammad ﷺdid not claim any kind of divinity for himself.
6. None of his followers attributed to him any divinity of any kind.
7. He claimed for himself to be the last link in the chain of prophethood with which he was charged to guide the people, and his followers believed in him as the final prophet from God.
8. He was an illiterate. The Qur’an was the only thing he showed to the world as evidence of his prophethood. Muslims believe that his Sunnah is the second most authoritative document of Islam after the Qur’an. His sayings as recorded in hadith books are linguistically very different from the Qur’anic language, style and syntax. Prophet Muhammad ﷺwas not seen speaking of many things like various natural phenomena, history, etc. to his followers in Hadith which are seen abundantly in the Quran.
9. Prophet Muhammad ﷺdid not present any supernatural act as evidence of his claim to prophethood. If he had performed any supernatural thing as evidence of his prophethood, it would have ceased to be evidence for future generations.
10. He unequivocally and explicitly claimed the prophecies about his coming were and are there in the Torah (Old Testament) and the Gospel (New Testament) – The Glorious Quran 7:157
11. Many Christians and Jews believed in his prophethood before and after he had made claim regarding predictions in Torah and Injeel about his coming. Even in this modern era, we see many people embracing Islam from this perspective. The first person to believe in him was a Christian scholar named Waraqah ibn Nawfal, who was a monotheist and a Nestorian. The first king who believed in him was the Christian king Negus of Abyssinia. Salman Al-Farsi was first a Magian and then became a Christian. He traveled long distances to Madinah and came to believe in the prophethood of Muhammad ﷺas a result of the teachings of a Nestorian Christian priest he met during his search for the truth. When Prophet Muhammad ﷺcame to Madinah, Abdullah bin Salam, a Jew and a scholar of the heavenly books from Madinah, believed in his prophethood and became his follower.
12. Prophet Muhammad ﷺstated unequivocally that he did not bring any new doctrine. According to his claim, all prophets, including him, taught people four things.
13. Absolute monotheism taught by all the prophets, which is completely consistent with cosmology, universality, and all-timeliness of the truth.
14. The messenger from God to guide human beings is and has to be from the same species as he has to lead the life of the role model for his followers.
15. The sphere of life with freedom must be formulated according to the will of God alone in communion with the mainstream of the universe as practically demonstrated by the prophet.
16. The afterlife is a natural consequence of the freedom to accept or reject the guidance, as well as the interest of absolute justice. (To be continued…)