Expert: Yasser - 12/13/2008

Question
salam,

I've encountered so many people who keep claiming that prophet Muhammed (PBU) was a pedophile and a child raper for marrying Aysha when she was still a child, my question is how to respond to such stereotypes?

Thanks in advance!


Answer
Salam Samar,

Such stories can be found in Hadiths. They are not in the Koran.

“And among men are those who purchase idle HADITH (tales) without knowledge to mislead (men) from the Path of God, and make a

mockery of it (God’s Path)” [Quran 31: 6]

What most people do not know is that the Islam they mostly see, hear and read about has NOTHING to do with the Koran.

Traditional Islam is based on 2 important sources: Koran & Hadith. Whats Hadith you might ask?

Hadith is a huge hodgepodge collection of the alleged sayings of Muhammad which was compiled 200+ years AFTER the death of

Muhammad. Traditional Islam derives most of its laws & rules from THIS body of information. Traditional Muslims believe that

these Hadiths are indispensable to their religion & life. So much of importance is paid to these hadiths that very often the

Koran is ignored.

And it is from these hadiths that we get extremely nonsensical & barbaric rules & laws like death penalty for adulterers &

apostates (although the Koran does not advocate any such punishment), degradation of women, bizarre dress codes for women,

killing of those who  insult Muhammad, chopping of hands of thieves etc. I must mention that hadiths also contain  many

beautiful teachings too. As I said, its a hodge-podge collection ridden with internal  contradictions.

Criticism of these fanciful stories in hadiths has always existed right from the beginning  but very few muslims care to

question its authenticity. They believe that anyone who rejects hadiths and accepts ONLY the Koran is an infidel! You must

also realise that most
translations of the Koran are also done in the light of these hadiths and in some cases the original meaning of the Koran is  

twisted to bring it in accord with hadith teachings!

For more about these hadiths please see:
http://free-minds.org/taxonomy/term/2

On the other hand, the Koran is a beautiful book with beautiful teachings. You only have to read it once cover to cover to

realise this.

http://free-minds.org/sites/default/files/quran.pdf

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have more questions and I'll be glad to answer them.

God bless