"Khadija died three years before the Prophet departed to Medina. He
stayed [alone] for two years or so. He married Aisha when she was a
girl of six years of age, and he consummated that marriage when she
was nine years old." [3]
As to the authenticity of these reports, it may be noted that the
compilers ofthe books of Hadith did notapply the same stringent tests
when accepting reports relating to historical matters as they did
before accepting reports relating to the practical teachings and laws
of Islam. The reason isthat the former type of report was regarded as
merely of academic interest while the latter type of report had a
direct bearing on the practical duties of a Muslim and on what was
allowed to them and what was prohibited. Thus the occurrence of
reports such as the above about the marriage of Aisha in books of
Hadith, even in Bukhari, is not necessarily a proof of their
credibility.
Determination of the true age of Aisha
It appears that Maulana Muhammad Ali was the first Islamic scholar
directlyto challenge the notion that Aisha was aged six and nine,
respectively, at the time of her nikah and consummation of marriage.
This he did in, at least, the following writings: his English booklet
Prophet of Islam, his larger English book Muhammad, the Prophet, and
in the footnotes in his voluminous Urdu translation and commentary of
Sahih Bukhari entitled Fadl-ul-Bari, these three writings being
published in the 1920s and 1930s. In the booklet Prophet of Islam,
which was later incorporated in 1948 as the first chapter of his
bookLiving Thoughts of the Prophet Muhammad, he writes in a lengthy
footnote as follows:
"A great misconception prevails as to the age at which Aisha was taken
in marriage by the Prophet. Ibn Sa'd has stated in the Tabaqat that
when Abu Bakr [father of Aisha] was approached on behalf of the Holy
Prophet, he replied that the girl had already been betrothed to
Jubair, and that he would have to settle the matter first with him.
This shows that Aisha must have been approaching majority at the time.
Again, the Isaba, speaking of the Prophet's daughter Fatima, says that
she was born five years before the Call and was about five years older
than Aisha. This shows that Aisha must have been about ten years at
the timeof her betrothal to the Prophet, and not six years as she is
generally supposed to be. This is further borne out by the fact that
Aisha herself is reported to have stated that when the chapter [of the
Holy Quran] entitled The Moon, the fifty-fourth chapter, was revealed,
she was a girl playing about and remembered certain verses then
revealed. Now the fifty-fourth chapter was undoubtedly revealed before
the sixth year of theCall. All these considerations point to butone
conclusion, viz., that Aisha could not have been less than ten years
of age at the time of her nikah, which was virtually only a betrothal.
And there is one report in the Tabaqat that Aisha was nine years of
ageat the time of nikah. Again it is a fact admitted on all hands that
the nikah of Aisha took place in the tenth year of the Call in
themonth of Shawwal, while there is also preponderance of evidenceas
to the consummation of her marriage taking place in the second year of
Hijra in the same month, which shows that full five years had elapsed
between the nikah and the consummation. Hence there is not the least
doubtthat Aisha was at least nineor ten years of age at the time of
betrothal, and fourteen or fifteen years at the time of marriage." [4]
(Bolding is mine.)
To facilitate understanding dates of these events, please note that it
was in the tenth year of the Call, i.e. the tenth year after the Holy
Prophet Muhammad received his calling from God to his mission of
prophethood, that his wife Khadija passed away, and the approach was
made to Abu Bakr for the hand of his daughter Aisha. The hijra or
emigration of the Holy Prophet to Madina took place three years later,
and Aisha came to the household of the Holy Prophet in the second year
after hijra. So if Aisha was born in the year of the Call, she would
be ten years old at the time of the nikah and fifteen years old at the
time of the consummation of the marriage.
Later research
Research subsequent to thetime of Maulana Muhammad Ali has shown that
she was older than this. An excellent short work presenting such
evidence is the Urdu pamphlet Rukhsati kai waqt Sayyida Aisha
Siddiqaki umar ('The age of Lady Aisha at the time of the start of her
married life') byAbu Tahir Irfani.[4a] Points 1 to 3 below have been
brought to light in this pamphlet.
1. The famous classical historian of Islam, Ibn Jarir Tabari, wrote in
his 'History':
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