Did Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) marry a minor?

The Age of Marriage according to The Quran

One of the most contested Islamic topic on the web is the purported marriage of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) with a minor. Islamophobes cite it to further their agenda, even some hardcore Muslims bring about medical science which verifies that some children reach puberty very early in their childhood. There have been reports of even children as young as 6 giving birth to a child. But these are rare occurrences. Most of the humanity does not endorse such marriages, especially when one of the spouses is a mere child.

There are a couple of Hadiths (the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad or snippets from his life) which allege that he married a 6 years old child - named Aisha (RA) - and consummated marriage when she was 9.

First Hadith: “It is reported from Aisha that she said: The Prophet entered into marriage with me when I was a girl of six … and at the time [of joining his household] I was a girl of nine years of age.”

Second Hadith: “Khadija (first wife of The Prophet) died three years before the Prophet departed to Medina. He stayed [alone] for two years or so. He married Aisha when she was a girl of six years of age, and he consummated that marriage when she was nine years old.”

Based upon above 2 Hadiths, a large majority of Muslims, who themselves shun marriage with a child, try to justify marriage with a minor. They take it upon themselves to defend the honor of the Prophet (his actions) even when it feels rationally & morally erroneous.

They further state that there is no age of marriage provided in The Quran - the primary source of guidance in Islam, the Word of God. This is not correct. Quran does provide the criteria for marriage for the orphans. As orphans are biologically no different from other human beings, so the same criteria can also be applied to other human beings.

Quran (4:6): “Test orphans until they reach marriageable age (Balagh); then, if (Fa-in) you find they have sound judgement (Rushd), hand over their property to them”.

The criteria given in the above verse are 3:

a. Balagh - Achieving full adult stature.

b. Rushd - Achieving mental maturity.

c. Handing over of the property (in other words, make them able to have their own income. This would allow them to take care of the family which will start growing with the birth of children. This condition further elaborates the position that a person needs to have sound judgement to conduct any business, hence, here we are talking about a mentally mature person only).

So, if The Prophet married Aisha when she was 6 or 9, she was neither ‘Balagh’ at that time, nor had attained ‘Rushd’. It is also unimaginable that The Prophet committed an act that was against the rules of The Quran. He was a source of emulation for all the Muslims. Quran itself describes him as an excellent model whose conduct should be copied, “The Messenger of God is an excellent model for those of you who put your hope in God and the Last Day” (33:21).

The above 2 Hadiths and the verse (4:6) from The Quran are in conflict with each other. The reason is production of a large number of fake Hadiths by the opportunist Muslims. Leonard Shlain, in his book – Alphabet Versus the Goddess – gives an account of the early days of Islam:

“The sharia (law – here he means, only Quranic laws) did not completely satisfy the Islamic society's need for conflict resolution. In courts throughout the Islamic realm, claimants increasingly resorted to citing oral Hadiths to bolster their cases. As a result, the Hadiths multiplied with astonishing speed, until one could be found to justify about every point of view. The practice had become so rampant that Ibn Abi al-Awja was executed in 722 at Kufa after confessing that he had fabricated four thousand Hadiths to serve his purposes. Caliphs, frustrated by the proliferation of stories about the Prophet, tried without success to stem the tide”.

We can imagine, if one person fabricated 4,000 Hadiths, how many more would be there who had fabricated more or less Hadiths. There are 6 collectors of Hadiths whose books are considered most authentic. The most authentic book of Hadiths among them is known as Sahih Bukhari. The 2 Hadiths quoted above, which quote the age of Aisha at the time of marriage (6 or 9), are both taken from Sahih Bukhari. But, there are also 2 other Hadiths, both from Sahih Bukhari too, that paint a different picture.

Third Hadith: “Aisha (The wife of the Prophet) said, "I had seen my parents following Islam since I attained the age of puberty (aqal – intellect). Not a day passed but the Prophet visited us, both in the mornings and evenings”.

The third Hadith clearly establishes that at the time of puberty (or mental maturity – aqal), Aisha (RA) used to live with her parents and not with the Holy Prophet (PBUH). This indicates that she was not married at age 6 or 9, both ages occur before mental maturity (aqal); instead she was definitely married – and moved to the household of The Prophet – after she had attained the mental maturity.

Fourth Hadith: The Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) instructs: “The virgin should not be given in marriage until her permission has been sought”.

The fourth Hadith raises the point how is it possible that a child of 6 or 9 or even a teenager is wise enough to choose a husband for herself? If she is supposed to give her permission, then it must be that the female is mature enough to know whether a person can be suitable (or not) for her. Otherwise, this whole practice will be lame and the parents or guardians of the female should choose the husband, but, this is not what the Hadith says; Hadith specifically says that permission from the female is compulsory. The only interpretation we can have from it is that the female who is giving permission is old and mature enough to decide for her future.

It is clear that first 2 Hadiths not only conflict with The Quran, they also conflict with the latter 2 Hadiths. Because, Quran is the primary source of instruction, which God Himself has promised to guard - “We have sent down the Quran Ourself, and We Ourself will guard it” (Quran 15:9) – and God Himself claims that The Quran is 'the criterion' (furqan) to judge all Divine law, we can infer that the laws of The Quran take precedence over all other forms of guidance.

Hence, Quran does provide clear requirements that need to be fulfilled before a person is married and in the light of these requirements we can be certain that Prophet Muhammad did not marry a minor.

Talking about age of marriage, there is one other verse of Quran that has been attacked by the critics to be endorsing marriage with pre-menstrual females. The context is the waiting period after divorce (which is a minimum time period that can establish a women's pregnancy from her recently divorced husband; the purpose of this practice is to make the biological father to pay for the upkeep of his soon to be born child):

Quran (65:4) (Dr. Ghali's translation): "And as for those of your women (Nisa) who have despaired of menstruation (post-menopausal females) in case you have any suspicion, then their (fixed) spell shall be three months, (along) with those who have not menstruated (as yet)."

Quran (65:4) (Muhammad Abdel-Haleem's translation): “If you are in doubt, the period of waiting will be three months for those women who have ceased menstruating (post-menopausal females) and for those who have not [yet] menstruated”.

As we can see that the translation of (65:4) also talks about the women (Nisa) 'who have not menstruated' and there is an addition of words '(as yet)' in brackets. These are the words added by the translators. So, here the translators are trying to pin down the meaning that 'those who have not menstruated' are prepubertal children whose menses have not started. This understanding has been corroborated by a number of interpreters, many of them considered the best among the Quranic Tafsir (exegesis) writers. It follows that if verse (65:4) is talking about divorce of prepubertal children, that means, they were married very early in their lives, hence marriage with minors is allowed.

This is a wrong interpretation, verse 65:4 here is not talking about prepubertal children, but the adults who have stopped menstruating before their menopause due to certain physiological or pathological conditions. There is a long list of causes for absence of menstruation among the adult women; for example, pregnancy, breastfeeding, excessive exercise, stress, too little or too much body fat, hormonal imbalances, genetic disorders, medications, antipsychotics, chemotherapy, etc. Thus, verse (65:4) is not talking about marriage (or divorce) with prepubertal children at all, but only about women mature enough to have menstruation. To further clear any confusion, the verse is talking about 'Nisa' which means 'adult women', not female children (Itfal).

Hence, Quran does not instruct marriage with any under age minor. Instead, it institutes minimum requirements that need to be complied for a marriage among the believers.