Muhammad and his child-bride Aisha bint Abu Bakr continued further
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in response to reader comment: aiesha was 3 and then 9

Submitted by Lactantius Jr (United Kingdom), Aug 19, 2008 at 16:34

To Syed Mohammed Ali

The issue here is not cultural, societal or anthropological, and shameful as the history of sexual exploitation of children in the West is, and the fact that children aged 12 in Japan, and 13 in Spain can legally have sex, is not germane to the issue, there are other primitive cultures that allow girls to marry following their menarche, but that does not make it right or in the best interests of the child. Some cultures killed baby daughters for various reasons. Cultural norms do not make an action morally right.

The issue is that because of the example of Muhammad the prophet of Islam, in endorsing what may well have been the cultural norm in the Arabia of his day, children around the Muslim world continue to be sexually exploited by men old enough to be their grandfathers, because Muhammad established the precedent for Muslims to follow.

Aisha's age when Muhammad first had sexual intercourse with her, is the first point that needs to be established, and there are a number of sources, all written by Muslims, that detail Muhammad's marriage and consummation with his child-bride – Aisha bint Abu Bakr, with the most respected Hadith and Islamic scholars, from early Islam until the present day, all stating that Aisha was 9, when Muhammad engaged in sexual relations with her.

From the Sahi Hadith of Bukhari

The translation into English by Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan, of the Islamic University in Medina is the one quoted. The central figure to approve and sign the translation, is Dr. Amin Al-Masri, Ph.D. Cambridge University. He is the Advisor and Head of the Sharia Dept., at the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies in Mecca.

From Bukhari vol. 7, #65:

"Narrated Aisha that the prophet wrote the marriage contract with her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage 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).'"

Bukhari vol. 7, #88:

"Narrated Urwa: ‘The prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).'"

Bukhari vol. 5, #234 says:

"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). Unexpectedly Allah's messenger came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age."

From the Sahi Hadith of Muslim

Muslim volume 2 # 3309

Aisha reported: Allah's Messenger married me when I was six years old, and I was admitted to his house at the age of nine….

The Hadith of the sunan of Abu Dawud

From Abu Dawud, Vol. 2, #2116:

"Aisha said, "The Apostle of Allah married me when I was seven years old." (The narrator Sulaiman said: "Or six years."). "He had intercourse with me when I was 9 years old."

The Tarikh of Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari

Tabari (838-923AD), wrote the most authentic Islamic history. It covers 39 volumes. Tabari was one of the greatest Islamic scholars and the greatest Islamic Historian.

From Tabari, volume 7, page7:

"....my marriage (to Muhammad) was consummated when I was nine....."

From Tabari, volume 9, page 131

"Then the men and women got up and left. The Messenger of Allah 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.

From the Encyclopaedia of Islam (pub E.J.Brill)

Under "Aisha"

"Some time after the death of Khadija, Khawla suggested to Muhammad that he should marry either Aisha, the 6 year old daughter of his chief follower, or Sawda Zama, a widow of about 30, who had gone as a Muslim to Abyssinia and whose husband had died there. Muhammad is said to have asked her to arrange for him to marry both. It had already been agreed that Aisha should marry Djubayr Mutim, whose father, though still pagan, was friendly to the Muslims. By common consent, however, this agreement was set aside, and Muhammad was betrothed to Aisha.... The marriage was not consummated until some months after the Hidjra, (in April 623, 624). Aisha went to live in an apartment in Muhammad's house, later the mosque of Median. She cannot have been more than ten years old at the time and took her toys to her new home."

The following two examples are typical of many such stories which could be told, but serve to demonstrate how Muhammad's example blights the lives of children now.

"A Saudi man in his 50s has announced that he refuses to annul his year-and-a half-long marriage to an eight-year-old girl, because he claims never to have done anything forbidden by Islamic law.

He said that Islamic law does not set a specific age for marriage, and that the Prophet Muhammad married 'Aisha when she was nine."

Source: Al-Hayat, London, August 13, 2008

http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/9193.htm

"Saudi girl drinks bleach to escape marriage. Father was swapping her for a 13 year-old"

DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)

A 16-year-old Saudi girl drank a bottle of bleach in an attempt to commit suicide to escape a forced marriage to a 75-year-old man, press reports revealed Sunday.
The girl identified only as, Shaikha, said her father was forcing her to marry the old man so that he could marry his 13-year-old daughter in an exchange deal, Bahrain's Tribune reported.

Shaikha described how her father took her to meet the old man and his 13-year-old in a marriage office where they all had pre-marital tests done, the Tribune quoted the Saudi Gazette as reporting. Shaikha told the paper how she begged and pleaded not to be forced into marriage but both of the men ignored her pleas.

The 16-year-old appealed to the National Society of Human Rights to intervene and stop the marriage, the Tribune said, adding Shaikha, whose parents are separated, asked to live with her mother. Shaikha's mother said she should be protected from her father and demanded the marriage contract be cancelled because Shaikha was threatened to marry the man, the paper said.

"Judges can punish men who force their daughters to marry like this," Sheikh Abdul Mohsin Al Obeikan, Shura Council member said, adding the marriage contract was void because it violated Shariah law, the Tribune reported. Islamic law states that for a marriage to be legal both parties must consent. If a marriage is performed without consent or under coercion the union is considered void and must be annulled.

Al Arabiya News Channel Sunday 17^th.August 2008

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/08/17/55012.html

Why do I find Muhammad's behaviour with Aisha objectionable, and the precedent that has set for children to be sexually abused all around the Muslim world ? If you don't know why 52 year old men (and older) copulating with children 9 years old is repellent Syed, I can't tell you.

Lactantius Jr

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