The Prohibition of Marrying Female Children and Debunking the Myth of Muhammad's Marrying Aisha When she Was Nine Years Old

Published in January 15, 2019

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Introduction:

1- The YouTube website is now filled with videos (taken from Egyptian TV satellite channels) of strange fatwas and views vomited by Azharite sheikhs of Satan in these bleak times of ignorance and backwardness; the tragedy is that they ascribe their corrupt, devilish views to the great religion of Islam. Those Azharite ignoramuses are keen to appear on TV channels to gain more fame and vie for uttering the strangest edicts/fatwas to get more attention; they are celebrated by owners of the TV channels who are keen only on attracting more viewership in order to get more ads aired on their channels in return for heaps of money; they follow the aphorism of the man who bites the dog as theunusual, infrequent event that attract audiences.     

2- The recent corrupt fatwas include now repeating (or rather reviving) the filth/myths of ancient sheikhs/authors of the Middle-Ages who assumed that it is permissible for men to marry female children; to prove their nonsensical fatwas, the Azharite ignoramuses quote the silly, untrue story (within the fake biography of Muhammad) that Muhammad married his wife, Aisha, when she was nine years old! 

3- Those Azharite backward ignoramuses who vie for more attention and fame assert that it is permissible for men to marry female to marry female babies! Until now, no one of the responsible people in the Egyptian State thought of locking these insane sheikhs up inside a madhouse.  

4- We have received a question, via email, about if there are Quranic proofs that Islam prohibits the marriage of female minors/children or not and if Muhammad married his wife, Aisha, when she was nine years old or not. We provide answers in this article in the points below.

Firstly: about Muhammad's marrying Aisha:

1- The (un)true accounts of history are NEVER a source of legislations in Islam; the Quranic stories are not a source of legislations in Islam. The only source of legislations in Islam is within Quranic verses that contain commands and prohibitions.  

2- If one would deny the existence of historical figures such as caliphs, Muhammad's relatives and wives, and the so-called companions, this will never lessen one's faith/belief in the Quran; this is because the only thing to believe in within Islam is the Quranic discourse as the Dominant Lord God's Word and the Only Source of God's Celestial Religion.

3- The fake biography of Muhammad has nothing to do with him; his only true history is found exclusively in the Quran. This fake biography, as well as history of the 4 pre-Umayyad caliphs and 'companions', was written in the Abbasid Era; the oral narratives and accounts about them circulated during the Umayyad Era. The first fake biography of Muhammad was authored by M. Ibn Ishaq from his own imagination; his footsteps were followed by other historians; e.g., Al-Waqidi, Ibn Saad, and Al-Tabari. In later eras, other historians followed the footsteps of Al-Tabari and those who existed before him.    

4- Arabs before the advent of the Quran never registered birthdates of anyone; the caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab began using the Hijri calendar introspect when he chose the year when Muhammad immigrated to Yathreb to be year one of the new era. The diwans at the time began to write the full names of Arab men to be able to distribute spoils, salaries, gifts, and allowances, but without writing down the birthdates of any persons.

5- Even regarding famous people in many fields (poetry, fiqh, etc.), nothing is known about their birthdates; people marked only the years of their death. Nothing or little was known about their childhood. Within the Bedouin environment, no one cared to register the year in which any (fe)male child was born. In many cases, most historians who wrote biographies of famous figures would invent/fabricate any year to make it the birthdate of someone. We even do not know when Muhammad was born; the dates proposed about his birth are mostly fake.  

6- One of the major lies in the history of Arabs is to assume that Muhammad was born in the so-called 'the year of the elephant'; the fake story is about a Yemeni king leading his troops, with a herd of elephants, toward Mecca to destroy the Kaaba to force Arabs to perform pilgrimage to his 'holy' shrine built in his capital. This is a laugher-inducing myth: there are no elephants in Yemen or Arabia; it is very silly to imagine big elephants spending months crossing deserts of Arabia to reach Mecca; the Kaaba can be destroyed easily by hands of men; no elephants were needed. This false story was popular in the Umayyad and Abbasid eras, and oral narrators and authors later on used this silly story to 'interpret' the Quranic Chapter 105. We have proved in our previous writings that the Quranic Chapter 105 is about how the Lord God caused the destruction of the people of Lot. The historians and other authors used the fake story of the Yemeni king and his elephant to fabricate birth-dates to Muhammad and other historical figures: they would write, for instance, that so-and-so was born two years after 'the year of the elephant'. This mythical story became a staple of their Sunnite religion.     

7- Al-Tabari, the historian, in his seminal book writes the following about the lunar calendar: (... Ali Ibn Mujahid said that M. Ibn Ishaq said that Ibn Shehab Al-Zohary said that M. Ibn Saleh Al-Shaaby said that the Holy Prophet Muhammad said that when Adam was made to descend on earth and leave Paradise, his descendants filled the earth and made a calendar that begins with his descent on earth. A new calendar to record events was created by marking the event of the deluge of Noah, as Noah distributed the earth among his male progeny: stretches of land between the Nile of Egypt and the Euphrates of Mesopotamia was given to Sam, Japheth was given the north of Asia............... Another calendar began by marking  the event of Abraham thrown into the pyre and emerging unharmed; other events that marked new calendars were the era of Joseph, the era of Moses, the reign of David and Solomon, the era of Jesus, and then the era of Muhammad when he immigrated to Yathreb....... The Jews used other major event of their history to mark their own calendar. Before Islam, Arabs marked their calendar by 'the year of the elephant'; other tribes used other major events/battles to mark their own calendars ...). We have proven in our previous researches that M. Ibn Ishaq never met Ibn Shehab Al-Zohary; rather, he fabricated his biography of Muhammad using his own imagination, and in order to give sham credibility to his narratives/accounts, he attributed them to Ibn Shehab Al-Zohary, among others. Such accounts by Ibn Ishaq (and others) are mere lies; how could they tackle the metaphysical realm of the past known only to the Omniscient Lord God? Did they exist when Adam was made to descend on earth and when the flood/deluge occurred during the era of Noah?! Sadly, Al-Tabari filled his book of history with so many laughter-inducing, nonsensical myths of the orators; their mythical accounts/narratives have been turned into 'history' and man-made, terrestrial religion.       

8- Among the lies/myths of oral narrators during the Umayyad Era, written down in the Abbasid Era, is Muhammad's marrying Aisha when she was nine years old. Those polytheists (who possibly had some pedophile tendencies) never had any sense of shame or a measure of reason; how could they ascribe such a fearful slander/lie to Muhammad; this infamous, shameful crime of raping a nine-year-old girl is never committed by Muhammad who was sent by the Lord God as a mercy to the humankind: "We did not send you except as mercy to the humankind." (21:107). Muhammad could never have violated the innocent of any female children; this does not fit the prophet of mercy who had his stature as the head of the Yathreb city-state. Besides, was Arabia devoid of mature women to give pretext for men to rape female children within marriage?! Marrying children is illegal within Islam and before the advent of the Quran. This means that the polytheists who fabricated this story desired to intentionally insult and undermine Muhammad and to express their own pedophilia.     

Secondly: about Quranic sharia legislations:

1- The Quranic sharia legislations did not descend in vacuum or within an environment devoid of any laws; the Arabs inherited the religion of Abraham from Ishmael; later generations distorted it; at the time when the Quran was revealed, there were (in)correct laws within the religion of Abraham applied by Arabs. Of course, marriage is the oldest legislation ever; Arabs married legally (within paying dowries to their wives, writing contracts, within the presence of witnesses, etc.). the Quran endorses these practices by never mentioning them as 'prohibited' and by never introducing any changes to them. This means the marriage of Arabs (including Muhammad's marriages) were valid before the advent of the Quran itself; the Quran does not require to teach people how to get married. In relation to marriages, the Quran tackles only corrupt things and offers corrections: divorce, types of women to whom one cannot marry, rights of divorced women, and the three-month waiting duration for widows and divorced women.      

2- The Quranic sharia legislations address those reasonable people of understanding. Reaching the age of marriage (mentioned in the Quranic verse 4:6) refers implicitly to attaining puberty; i.e., when males begin to ejaculate semen and when females have their monthly period or menstruation. This does not have to be explained by the Lord God in the Quran; these facts are known to all people in all eras since the ancient times. This is why it is easy to understand Quranic sharia legislations about marriage and menstruation.    

3-  "Test the orphans until they reach the age of marriage. If you find them to be mature enough, hand over their properties to them..." (4:6). Reaching the age of marriage means attaining puberty and thus being able to get married; this applies to male and female orphans; this is the age/stage when they can receive their inherited money, and 4:6 is not about marriage but about money of orphans. Attaining puberty is something known to everyone and never needed a specified legislation in the Quran at all.

4-  Attaining puberty is mentioned in the Quranic sharia legislations  about asking permission (and this context has nothing to do with marriage): "O you who believe! Permission must be requested by your servants and those of you who have not reached puberty. On three occasions: before the Dawn Prayer, and at noon when you change your clothes, and after the Evening Prayer. These are three occasions of privacy for you. At other times, it is not wrong for you or them to intermingle with one another. God thus clarifies the revelations for you. God is Knowledgeable and Wise. When the children among you reach puberty, they must ask permission, as those before them asked permission. God thus clarifies His revelations for you. God is Knowledgeable and Wise." (24:58-59). This means that the meaning of attaining puberty is something known to everyone and never entails any explanation (or new legislations) in the Quran. 

5- The period or menstruation is mentioned in the following Quranic contexts.

5/1: Prohibition of conjugal/marital sex when wives have their periods: "And they ask you about menstruation: say, "It is harmful, so keep away from women during menstruation. And do not approach them until they have become pure. Once they have become pure, approach them in the way God has directed you." God loves the repentant, and He loves those who keep clean. " (2:222).

5/2: We read the following about the three-month waiting duration.

5/2/1: "Divorced women shall wait by themselves for three periods. And it is not lawful for them to conceal what God has created in their wombs, if they believe in God and the Last Day. Meanwhile, their husbands have the better right to take them back, if they desire reconciliation. And women have rights similar to their obligations, according to what is fair. But men have a degree over them. God is Mighty and Wise." (2:228).

5/2/2: "As for those of your women who have reached menopause, if you have any doubts, their term shall be three months-and also for those who have not menstruated. As for those who are pregnant, their term shall be until they have delivered. Whoever fears God-He will make things easy for him." (65:4).

5/2/3: "O you who believe! When you marry believing women, but then divorce them before you have touched them, there is no waiting period for you to observe in respect to them; but compensate them, and release them in a graceful manner." (33:49).

5/2/4: "O Prophet! If any of you divorce women, divorce them during their period of purity, and calculate their term. And be pious before God, your Lord. And do not evict them from their homes, nor shall they leave, unless they have committed a proven adultery. These are the limits of God - whoever oversteps God's limits has wronged his own soul. You never know; God may afterwards bring about a new situation. Once they have reached their term, either retain them honorably, or separate from them honorably. And call to witness two just people from among you, and give upright testimony for God. By that is exhorted whoever believes in God and the Last Day. And whoever fears God-He will make a way out for him." (65:1-2).

5/3: In the abovementioned points, we see that the women's period or menstruation is mentioned in the Quranic sharia legislations regarding the age/stage of the women's being able to marry. This means that marrying a female child/minor has nothing to do with Islam.

Lastly:

1- Within True Islam, i.e. Qurnaism, it is forbidden to marry female children are minors since they have no periods (i.e., menstruations) as they have not attained puberty yet.  

2- We infer the above point from the mentioning of menstruation in Quranic sharia legislations about conjugal/marital sex and three-month waiting duration of widows and divorced women before they can re-marry.

3- The legislations, in the Quranic verse 4:6, about testing maturity of male and female orphans to give them their inherited money show clearly that attaining puberty means being eligible for marriage or having the ability to get married.

4- The legislations, in the Quranic verses 24:58-59, about asking permission show clearly that attaining puberty means being eligible for marriage or having the ability to get married.  

5- The Lord God in the Quran addresses reasonable people of understanding.

The Best Discourse:

 The Lord God says the following in the Quran: "Or do you assume that most of them hear or understand? They are just like cattle, but even more errant in their way." (25:44). As always, the Lord God says nothing but the Absolute Truth.