Common Folk Using Common Sense

Some clown named Zafar, posting from a server in Amsterdam and using a lame Hotmail account, has been trying to post comments to a post I did way back February 2006.

My post was titled “Aisha: The Child Wife Of Muhammad“. I describe, citing several Hadiths as proof, that Muhammad married Aisha (sometimes ‘Ayesaha’ or ‘Ayesha’ or ‘A’isha’) when she was 6-years-old and consummated his marriage with her when she was 9. He was, at the time, 54 years old.

• ‘A’isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported: Allah’s Apostle (may peace be upon him) married me when I was six years old, and I was admitted to his house when I was nine years old.
• Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu’minin: The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) married me when I was seven or six.
• He stayed there for two years or so and then he married ‘Aisha when she was a girl of six years of age, and he consumed that marriage when she was nine years old.
• Narrated ‘Aisha: that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old…
• Narrated ‘Aisha: that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old.
• 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. … 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.
• 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…
• ‘A’isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Allah’s Apostle (may peace be upon him) married her when she was seven years old, and he was taken to his house as a bride when she was nine…

Having sex with a minor may not have been immoral for Muhammad and his contemporaries in that uncivilized culture, but it was ethically wrong no matter what the morals of the time or place or people. No sane person sould be aroused by a 9-year-old child, especially one known as the Messenger Of God. Most of the world would wince at the thought of this act. But not Muhammad, the inventor of the cult that is known as Islam.

Zafar’s comments were not exactly complimentary:

U have offended the Probhet(PBUH) for reasons u derive are suitable in your interpretation. Has it ever occured to you that the way you interpret could be erroneous?

My interpretation? Look, fella, I did a Copy/Paste from other Hadiths. I did no interpretations. Any interpretation should be done by the readers.

These quotes came from:

- Sahih Muslim Book 008
- Sunan Abu-Dawud Book 41
- Sahih Bukhari

Zafar, if you would do just the slightest research you would discover that I did NOT write any of these books. I simply posted the words of people that were far more learned in Islam than I will ever be, and died centuries before I was born. If you have a problem with what has ALREADY been written then take it up with them – not me.

But the saga continues.

Now there’s a heated discussion at Wikipedia over the article “Aisha” regarding her age both at marriage and first sexual encounter. A Wikipedia editor named “Striver” made the following comment:

Here is some anit-Islamic guy that bother to colect some hadith. Do we have all of them? — [[User:Striver|Striver]] 02:31, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

It should be known that, according to Striver’s own bio, he’s an Alex Jones fan. Alex Jones believes that certain elements of the United States Government are intent on weakening the United States and its sovereignty. These elements, he believes, are “paid off” in an effort to shift the balance of power toward the European continent, which is in turn under the control of the World Bank, beyond the scope of nation states. Jones refers to the World Bank and their “minions” as Globalists or the Illuminati. In other words, a wacko (and making Striver, by extension, a wacko as well). Striver is also a Shi’a Muslim.

Yo, Striver, explain to me how quoting from different Hadiths – that seem to support each other – makes me anti-Islamic? I thought they were traditions relating to the words and deeds of the prophet Muhammad.

But there comes the problem expressed by Striver and other Shi’a. Shi’a Muslims trust traditions transmitted by Muhammad’s descendents through Fatima Zahra, or by early Muslims who remained faithful to Ali ibn Abi Talib (who was both Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law – you figure it out). They don’t trust the words of early Muslims that were critical of Talib – including those by Aisha herself.

Aisha was also the head of an army against Ali ibn Abu Talib in the Battle of Bassorah the First Islamic civil war.

So who do you trust: Muhammad’s wife, or Muhammad’s cousin/son-in-law? One said one thing, and one said another. Since all I did was quote words attributed to Aisha, and since Striver thinks I’m anti-Islamic, I wonder if he thus considers Aisha to be anti-Islamic?

There it is. Muhammad married Aisha when she was 6-years-old and consummated his marriage with her when she was 9. He was, at the time, 54 years old. Get as angry as you want, but there appears to be a lot of facts surrounding Aisha’s age whether I quote them or not. Deal with it. This ought to be enough to get Zafar’s and Striver’s panties in a bunch. Maybe I’ll even get my own personal fatwa.

Muhammad, Aisha, Islam, Hadith, Alex Jones, Shi’a

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