Background: It is narrated that when Ayesha was betrothed to Muhammad pbuh and was married to him at the age of nine. Now, non-muslims find it very hard to digest. Not only that, they even accuse Muhammad peace be upon him a pedophile(may Allah forgive me). Now I know that's extremism but still we do need to refute to that issue. I searched for refutation and found two answers to it.
Proof1
In this one, author has completely denied that our prophet didn't marry a nine yr old girl but a 19 yr old young lady. Of course he has proved all ahadiths mentioning Ayesha's age 9 yr old as false and contradictory to other ahadith and used to some Maths to prove that she was 19, not 9.
To my understanding, author has tried to completely torn of authentic ahadiths.
Proof2
In this one, author has used some scientifc knowledge of puberty, and stuff. He has used unknown sources, to me. I mean I couldn't find the books yet he has used. that doesn't make him wrong. SOme of you may have read those books. But he has accepted the fact that Ayesha was 9 and proved it right.

So my Q is to make a conclusion out of these two refutations. We can't say both r right as one is totally opposite to other.

Please care to reply. :brother:

Well, as far as i know the hadith about the age of nine comes from bukhari and muslim and i think others. Its one of these subjects you don't hear about. I always thought she was 12 or 13, but bukhari has 3 hadith that says she was 6 when married, and 9 when she moved in. The thing is, you should get a girl's permission before marrying, and i did not see anywhere where aisha was asked about it and plus being 6 its hard to see how she can understand what marriage is.

There is also a hadith by bukhari where aisha was playing with toys with other girls when she married the prophet. So this is obviously a child.

She was engaged at 6 to someone else, then her father broke it off for engagement to the Rasool.

source?

For the convinience of readers.... Ahadiths mentioned in this case:

1. Narrated 'Aisha:

that the Prophet married 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)." what you know of the Quran (by heart)'

2. Narrated 'Ursa:

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).

(I think the narrator is Urwa bin Zubair, brother of Abdullah ibn Zubair.)

3. Narrated Aisha:

The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. 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 Allright, 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 Apostle 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.
*note: all from Sahih Al-Bukhari.

there is one hadith in Sahih muslim and Sunan Abi-Dawood.

Now in the first one author has proved Sahih Al-Bukhari contradictory in the issue as he has found some other narratives of Abdullah ibn Umar and Anas which show that everyone at Badr and Uhud was at least 14 or above.

Ahadiths r:

Narrated Ibn Umar:

The Prophet stood at the well of Badr (which contained the corpses of the pagans) and said, "Have you found true what your lord promised you?" Then he further said, "They now hear what I say." This was mentioned before 'Aisha and she said, "But the Prophet said, 'Now they know very well that what I used to tell them was the truth.' Then she recited (the Holy Verse):-- "You cannot make the dead hear... ...till the end of Verse)." (30.52)

Note: This proves that Ayesha was at Badr.

I can't find the other ahadiths right now. Insha Allah if I did, I will get back here.

But the point to think is, Ayesha was 9 or not??

http://www.load-islam.com/C/rebuttal...age_of_Aishah/

http://www.iol.ie/~afifi/BICNews/Sabeel/sabeel6.htm

Jazak Allahu Khair for the links akhi. the first one was repitition of the one I gave as second proof. The second link was simply great. I liked it pretty much Alhamdulillah.
But still we haen't made a conclusion out of it. As in my first post, the first proof given proves that Ayesha was n't 9 so at least we need to refute it b'coz I think, non muslims may use it as a proof against authenticity of Ahadiths.

:brother:

http://www.answering-christianity.com/ac4.htm

The following article summarizes the argument against the ahadith:
http://www.irfi.org/articles/article...__a_prover.htm

I will get a fatwa on the above article insha'Allah.

I have read in many bios of the prophet that Rasulullah(pbuh) married Aisha(radiallahuanha) at the age of 9 years old. I'll post my sources when I find the bios.

The link u gave bro Danish is no good, to me. I mean I regret to say that I didn't like the site at all. I found 'answering-islam' much better than this site, why? B'coz they(answering-islam) got an excuse that they r non-muslims but answering-christianity, they r muslims, aren't they? and they r talking such a trash language.

Akhi Ansar-al-Haq. that's the same link I gave as proof 1. I am waiting to hear a conclusive reply to it so that we won't have 3 or 4 refutations or arguments on the same topic insha Allah.

Jazak Allahu Khair everyone.

:brother:

I came across this fatwa which responds to arguments used against the reliability of certain hadith (those used by IRFI and Understanding-islam). Here is the fatwa:
http://www.**************/resources/Q...a00004861.aspx

Although the information in the fatwa is reliable, I don't recommend the author or the website for other issues.

Insha'Allah, br. Qasim, this fatwa should answer all the doubts raised in the article you mentioned.

With due respect, I must assert that Muslims' apparent ignorance has led them to suffer with no or low self-esteem , no or low self-confidence and very low comprehension level. On this issue I have seen may roaring Muslims have turned into toothless tigers or just doing gaga-caca.

Here is an eye opening refutation, please read and ponder upon it.


Was Aisha عائشه رضی الله عنها a child bride?