Expert: Jamshaid Zubairee - 11/24/2009

Question
I am extremely disturbed some act of Arabs really turned me down in front of an Atheist. WHen tht Atheist asked me a question "Is collective Pedophilism allowed in Islam?" and appending the link of this blog.
http://politisktinkorrekt.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/den-pedofila-religionen-islam...


My reply was a follows:



This is my last response to that Atheist

Dear Andreas,

Thank you so much for asking this question. I highly appreciate that you directly asked me this question.

Firstly I would say "There is no such thing as collective pedophilism in Islam"

What Islamic History says about Prophet Muhammad pbuh's Marriage with Aisha RA?

At the age of 25, Prophet Muhammad (God bless him and grant him peace) married Khadija (may God be pleased with her), a twice-widowed mother of three who was 15 years his senior, after she proposed marriage to him.  They had six children, and were idyllically happy.  When she died 25 years later, he was devastated.

At that time, Prophet Muhammad had been receiving revelations for about 10 years.  Islam was spreading in the pagan city of Makkah, but the pagan rulers of the city tortured the Muslims, who preached that it was sinful to pray to the statues that surrounded the Ka'aba.

Because life was not safe for the Muslims, Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) twice sent parties of Muslims to Abyssinia, were they lived under benevolent Christian rule.

A number of the Muslims who remained in Makkah were tortured, and some killed, for their faith.  Prophet Muhammad's (p.b.u.h.) best friend was named Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him).

Abu Bakr was the first man to accept Islam after Prophet Muhammad.  He had a young daughter for whose safety he feared, as he was getting older.  After Khadija (r.a.a.) died, Abu Bakr asked Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) to marry this daughter, Ayesha (r.a.a.).  Prophet Muhammad agreed to marry her, but did not take up married life with her until she reached puberty.  She remained in her father's house, and the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) would visit her and play with her dolls with her, as she herself described it.  Ayesha was the only virgin lady Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) ever married.

My traditional response is the point about maturity of a woman. What is important here is not some random age, but the state of physical and mental maturity. It is well known that humans in hot countries mature much faster that in colder climates. It would also be interested to see the youngest pregnancies of all time : Just to give you an idea about how the age of puberty changes from region to region.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_youngest_birth_mothers

As a side note relating to her age, early marriages were previously common in every culture, including the European. When the average life expectancy was forty, people had to marry to early to have time to raise their children.  Further, formal education took only a few years, not the 16-20 we expect today.

Are you familiar with Shakespeare?  When Count Paris offers to marry Juliet and her mother protests that she, at 13, is too young, he reminds her that "Younger than she are happy mothers made." (Romeo and Juliet, I:ii) He implies that society approves of the fact that girls have become mothers at 12 and therefore presumably married at 11, or younger.

In Connecticut, in the 1700's marrying at the age of 11 was not a cause for comment:
http://listarchives.his.com/smartmarriages/smartmarriages.0402/msg00024.html

In ancient Israel, puberty was the usual age for marriage of a girl:
http://www.theology.edu/marriage.htm

Early marriage has been the norm at many times in world history. Attacks on Prophet Muhammad's marriage to Aisha on account of her age reveal the attacker's ethnocentrism and/or inability to find something of substance on which to base criticism.

About Collective Marriages in Palestine:

I would say, it vary from region to region. Mostly in Pakistan, marriage trend is between 16-18 on the average for a female. In most of arab countries, they prefer marrying a younger girls, on the average it's 15-19. Look at this document. http://www.prb.org/pdf05/MarriageInArabWorld_Eng.pdf
Marriage in Islam is a contract not a sexual desire at first. You can have marriage contract but you cannot have sexual intercourse before the age of puberty and it is not permissible for the husbands to consummate the marriage with them, unless they become physically fit for sexual intercourse by mature males.

I hope this provides enough information. If you have further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.


Kind Regards,
Falak


Dear Brother,

How can I further satisfy him?

Salam
Falak

Answer
Assalam O Allaikum,
                 the response was good. the whole accusation of permissibility of pedophilia in Islam in based on the event of marriage of Nabi e Kareem(saw) with Ummul momineen Hazrat Ayesha(ra) at alleged age of 9 and this event is substantiated by a sahih hadith.
but....
who knows the Arab culture also know that before Nabi e Kareem (SAW) there is not a single event in Arab history or literature that affirms the marriage(consummation) of young girl (as young as 9 yrs old).
Also the scholars of Islam and especially those who have a good deal of knowledge of Islamic history like ibn e jarir or ibn e kathir do not believe that the age of Hazrat Ayesha(ra) was nine year at the consummation.
we have following reasons to believe that there is some mistake or misunderstanding in narration of sahih hadith:
let me tell you why?

1) Most of these narratives are reported only by Hisham ibn `urwah reporting on the authority of his father. An event as well known as the one being reported, should logically have been reported by more people than just one, two or three

2) It is quite strange that no one from Medina, where Hisham ibn `urwah lived the first seventy-one years of his life has narrated the event, even though in Medina his pupils included people as well known as Malik ibn Anas. All the narratives of this event have been reported by narrators from Iraq, where Hisham is reported to have shifted after living in Medinah for seventy-one years.
3) Tehzeeb al-Tehzeeb, one of the most well known books on the life and reliability of the narrators of the traditions ascribed to the Prophet (pbuh) reports that according to Yaqub ibn Shaibah: "narratives reported by Hisham are reliable except those that are reported through the people of Iraq". It further states that Malik ibn Anas objected on those narratives of Hisham, which were reported through people of Iraq (Vol. 11, pg. 48 - 51).
4) Meezaan al-Ai`tidaal, another book on the narrators of the traditions of the Prophet (pbuh) reports that when he was old, Hisham's memory suffered quite badly (Vol. 4, pg. 301 - 302).

5) According to the generally accepted tradition, Ayesha (ra) was born about eight years before Hijrah. However, according to another narrative in Bukhari (Kitaab al-Tafseer) Ayesha (ra) is reported to have said that at the time Surah Al-Qamar, the 54th chapter of the Qur'an , was revealed, "I was a young girl". The 54th Surah of the Qur'an was revealed nine years before Hijrah. According to this tradition, Ayesha (ra) had not only been born before the revelation of the referred Surah, but was actually a young girl (jariyah), not even only an infant (sibyah) at that time. Obviously, if this narrative is held to be true, it is in clear contradiction with the narratives reported by Hisham ibn `urwah. I see absolutely no reason that after the comments of the experts on the narratives of Hisham ibn `urwah, why should we not accept this narrative to be more accurate.
6) According to a number of narratives, Ayesha (ra) accompanied the Muslims in the battle of Badr and Uhud. Furthermore, it is also reported in books of hadith and history that no one under the age of 15 years was allowed to take part in the battle of Uhud. All the boys below 15 years of age were sent back. Ayesha's (ra) participation in the battle of Badr and Uhud clearly indicates that she was not nine or ten years old at that time. After all, women used to accompany men to the battlefields to help them, not to be a burden upon them.
7) According to almost all the historians Asma (ra), the elder sister of Ayesha (ra) was ten years older than Ayesha (ra). It is reported in Taqreeb al-Tehzeeb as well as Al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah that Asma (ra) died in the 73rd year after hijrah[2] when she was 100 years old. Now, obviously if Asma (ra) was 100 years old in the 73rd year after hijrah, she should have been 27 or 28 years old at the time of hijrah. If Asma (ra) was 27 or 28 years old at the time of hijrah, Ayesha (ra) should have been 17 or 18 years old at that time. Thus, Ayesha (ra) - if she got married in 1 AH (after hijrah) or 2 AH - was between 18 to 20 years old at the time of her marriage.

8) Tabari in his treatise on Islamic history, while mentioning Abu Bakr (ra) reports that Abu Bakr had four children and all four were born during the Jahiliyyah - the pre Islamic period. Obviously, if Ayesha (ra) was born in the period of jahiliyyah, she could not have been less than 14 years in 1 AH - the time she most likely got married.
9) According to Ibn Hisham, the historian, Ayesha (ra) accepted Islam quite some time before Umar ibn Khattab (ra). This shows that Ayesha (ra) accepted Islam during the first year of Islam. While, if the narrative of Ayesha's (ra) marriage at seven years of age is held to be true, Ayesha (ra) should not even have been born during the first year of Islam.
10) Tabari has also reported that at the time Abu Bakr (ra) planned on migrating to Habshah (8 years before Hijrah), he went to Mut`am - with whose son Ayesha (ra) was engaged at that time - and asked him to take Ayesha (ra) in his house as his son's wife. Mut`am refused, because Abu Bakr had embraced Islam. Subsequently, his son divorced Ayesha (ra). Now, if Ayesha (ra) was only seven years old at the time of her marriage, she could not have been born at the time Abu Bakr decided on migrating to Habshah. On the basis of this report it seems only reasonable to assume that Ayesha (ra) had not only been born 8 years before hijrah, but was also a young lady, quite prepared for marriage.
11) According to a narrative reported by Ahmad ibn Hanbal, after the death of Khadijah (ra), when Khaulah (ra) came to the Prophet (pbuh) advising him to marry again, the Prophet (pbuh) asked her regarding the choices she had in her mind. Khaulah said: "You can marry a virgin (bikr) or a woman who has already been married (thayyib)". When the Prophet (pbuh) asked about who the virgin was, Khaulah proposed Ayesha's (ra) name. All those who know the Arabic language, are aware that the word "bikr" in the Arabic language is not used for an immature nine-year old girl. The correct word for a young playful girl, as stated earlier is "Jariyah". "Bikr" on the other hand, is used for an unmarried lady, and obviously a nine year old is not a "lady".
12) According to Ibn Hajar, Fatimah (ra) was five years older than Ayesha (ra). Fatimah (ra) is reported to have been born when the Prophet (pbuh) was 35 years old. Thus, even if this information is taken to be correct, Ayesha (ra) could by no means be less than 14 years old at the time of hijrah, and 15 or 16 years old at the time of her marriage.


These are some of the major points that go against accepting the commonly known narrative regarding Ayesha's (ra) age at the time of her marriage.
now the blame should be on those who couldn't understand islam and derive their perception of early marriage of a girl from  one hadith
I live in saudia since 8 yrs and i couldn't find one single reason to believe that Arab in general and saudis especially consummate in younger ages.

it was shocking to see those photos of young girls....but i am sure there must be some thing wrong in it but unfortunately i have not enough time to investigate and assure the credibility of this allegation.

Best regards
If you still have any problem please feel free to contact me again.