Respected Shaykh, Assalamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatu Allaahi Wa barakatuh: please advise us about the truth of the issue concerning the marriage of the Messenger of Allaah to Aisha when she was 9 years old. And the audacity of a journalist to reject the report of Bukhari, even though the icons of this Ummah have accepted this narration for more than a thousand years; it is regarding the issue of the Messenger marrying Aisha when she was 6 years of age and his consummating the marriage with her when she was 9; according to what has been reported in Bukhari (Section: The Prophet marrying Aisha, her arrival to Madina and his consummating the marriage with her there: 3894: Farwah bin Abi al-Maghra related to us that Ali bin Masher related to him that Hisham narrated from his father that Aisha said: ‘The Prophet married me when I was 6 years old and we came to Madina, so I was sent to him when I was 9 years old.) The journalist prepared himself for this case and he did not only refute it by using the logic of numbers and history but also criticized the chains of the narrators that reported the most famous narrations that exist in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim and he showed some cleverness in his method. The young journalist referred to Seerah books such as al-Kamil, Tareekh Dimashq, Siyar A’laam al-Nubalaa’, Tareekh al-Tabari, Tareekh Baghdad and Wafayyat al-A’yaan. His finding was that revelation lasted 13 years in Mecca and 10 years in Madina and that the beginning of revelation was in 610 according to the Georgian calendar while immigration to Madina was in the year 623, i.e. 13 years after of remaining in Mecca. The death of the Prophet was in 633 and according to this agreed upon timeline, the Prophet married Aisha 3 years before the Hijra, i.e. 620, which happens to be 10 years after revelation and she was 6 years old by then. He consummated the marriage with her in the first Hijri year, i.e. by the end of 623 when she was 9 years old, which would make her birth year 614, which coincides with the fourth year of revelation according to the report of Bukhari. And that is a great illusion [as he claims]. Then he criticized the narration historically by calculating the age of Aisha in comparison to the age of her sister (Asmaa bint Abi Bakr): [he claims the following:] all historical sources that were previously mentioned reported that Asmaa was 10 years older than Aisha. And these resources mentioned, without any dispute, that Asmaa was born 27 years before Hijra which means that her age, by the time revelation began in the year 610, was 14 years old. This was calculated by subtracting 13 years from her age before Hijra which is 13 years; the years of da’wa in Mecca as 27 – 13 = 14 years. Also, all sources without dispute agreed that she was 10 years older than Aisha which makes it a certainty that the age of Aisha at time of revelation was 4 years old in Mecca, which would mean that she was born 4 years before revelation; in the year of 606. With simple calculation we deduce that the Prophet married her in Mecca 10 years after revelation and her age was then 14 because (4+10=14) or in other words Aisha was born in the year 606 and married the Prophet in 620 when she was then 14 years old and then he consummated the marriage with her 3 years later plus a few months which coincides with the end of the first Hijri year in the year 624 which then makes her age at the time 18 (14 + 3 + 1 = 18 years) and that was the real age of Aisha when the noble Prophet married her. Calculating the age of Aisha according to the date of her sisters’ death (Asmaa). Historical resources confirm without dispute that Asmaa died after the famous documented incident which was the death of her son; Abdullah bin al-Zubayr who was killed by al-Hajjaj, the famous tyrant in the year of 73H. She was then 100 years old so if we subtract the age of Asmaa (100 years) from her date of death (73H) that implies that she was 27 years old at time of Hijrah and that exactly matches her mentioned age in historical resources. If we subtract from her age 10 years which is the documented age difference between her and Aisha, then the age of Aisha should be 17 (27 – 10 = 17 years old) and this was the age of Aisha at time of Hijra and if the marriage was consummated in the first Hijri year then that would make her age at that time 18 years old, which indicates the correct calculation of the age of Aisha at time of marriage to the Prophet. This is supported by the fact that al-Tabari in his book Tareekh al-Umam stated in confirmation that all the children of Abu Bakr were born during the pre-Islamic era which corroborates with the correct timeline and reveals the weakness of the report of al-Bukhari because Aisha was indeed born 4 years before revelation. Calculating the age of Aisha in comparison with the age of Fatima al-Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet: Ibn Hajar mentioned in al-Isaaba that Fatima was born the day when the Ka’bah was built, when the Prophet was 35 years old and that she was 5 years older than Aisha. Based on this report that Ibn Hajar mentioned, though it is not a strong one, but to assume its strength we find that Ibn Hajar, the exegete of Sahih Bukhari, indirectly stated that the report in Sahih Bukhari is incorrect because of the fact that Fatima was born when the Prophet was 35 years old which would then that mean that Aisha was born when the Prophet was 40 years old, which is when revelation began, which means that the age of Aisha at time of Hijra was equal to the years spent in Da’wa in Mecca which was 13 years and not 9 years. I only mentioned this report to show the extreme disturbance in the report in Bukhari. Criticism of the report from the books of Hadeeth and Seerah: Ibn Katheer mentioned in al-Bidaya wal Nihaya those who first embraced Islam when he said: “amongst those women…Asmaa bint Abi Bakr and Aisha when she was young, the Islam of these people was declared during the three years when the Prophet was still preaching Islam in secret then afterward Allaah commanded him to preach it in public.” Of course this report indicates that Aisha embraced Islam before the Prophet began to preach in public, which was in the 4th year after revelation; i.e. year 614. The implied meaning is that she embraced Islam at least in the 3rd year after revelation; i.e. year 613. Therefore if Aisha was born, as according to the report of Bukhari born, in the 4th year after revelation then that implies that she did not exist at the time when the Prophet preached Islam in public in the 4th year after revelation or that she was still a breastfed child. And all of that contradicts the mentioned proofs but the correct calculation of her age confirms that she was born in the 4th year after revelation, i.e. year 606, which would mean that she was 8 years old at the time when Islam was preached in public, year 614, which corroborates with the correct timeline of events and at the same time refutes the report of Bukhari. Actually, Bukhari himself reported in his Sahih (Section: Neighboring of Abu Bakr at the time of the Prophet) that Aisha said: ‘I only ever recall my parents being of the religion of Islam and the Prophet would visit us every single day in the morning and the evening. So when the Muslims were experiencing hardship, Abu Bakr left to immigrate before the time of Hijrah towards the Habasha) and I do not know how Bukhari reported this when Aisha says that she can recall her parents being of the religion of Islam and that was before the Hijrah to Habasha as she mentioned and she says that the Prophet would visit them everyday which indicates that she was aware of these visits and it is confirmed in history books that the Hijrah to Habasha was in the 5th year after Hijra; i.e. 615. So if we accept the report of Bukhari that Aisha was born in the 4th year after revelation (i.e. 614) then that indicates she was still being breastfed at time of the Hijrah to Habasha, so how would this corroborate with the fact that she said “I recall my parents…” but if we take the correct timeline of events we will realize that the real age of Aisha was 9 at that time (4 years before revelation + 5 years before Hijrah to Habasha = 9 years) All the above claims and evidence did not suffice the journalist but he also calculated the age of Fatima in a comprehensive manner then he finished his research with a criticism of the chain of the report of Bukhari that mentioned the age of Aisha from five routes that all return to Hisham bin U’rwah, about whom Ibn Hajar said in (Hady al-Saari) and (al-Tahtheeb): Abdulrahman bin Yusuf bin Kharrash said: Malik did not accept him and I was told that Malik did not accept him because of his narration of the people of Iraq; he visited Kufa three times, each time there he would say: ‘my father told me that he heard Aisha’, then the second time he would say ‘My father narrated to me from Aisha’ and the third time he would say ‘from my father from Aisha” and the meaning in simple terms is that Hisham bin U’rwah was trustworthy in Madina but when he went to Iraq his memory became weaker and he started to refer a Hadeeth to someone other than he who narrated it then he started to say “from my father” instead of “I heard or narrated to me” and in the science of Hadeeth the wording “heard or narrated to me” is stronger than saying “From so and so” and in the Hadeeth in Bukhari Hisham says “from my father” and not “I heard or it was narrated to me” which confirms the doubts about the chain of narration. The most important point is that Imam Malik said that the Hadeeth of Hisham in Iraq was not accepted so if we apply all this information to the Hadeeth of Bukhari we will find that he is right because the Hadeeth was not reported by anyone from the people of the Madina as all of them are from Iraq which confirms that Hisham reported it in Iraq after his memory became had become weak. Also, it does not conform that Hisham remained for such an extended period in Madina, yet did not mention this Hadeeth even once, therefore we find that the age of Aisha when she married the Prophet was never mentioned in the Muwatta of Imam Malik who saw and heard Hisham bin U’rwah in Madina. Therefore it is sufficient to know these two defects to doubt the chain of this narration” Who is the journalist who carried out this research? He is Islam al-Bukhairu and his research article was published in Issue 0, page 21 in “The Seventh Day Newspaper” which was published 15/7/2008.

All praise is for Allaah and peace and blessings upon the Messenger of Allaah. I shall divide my answer into three categories: 1) Presentation of the consensus of the Umma on what is reported in the two Sahih Hadeeth books [i.e. Bukhari and Muslim], 2) Expose of the mistakes of the writer in what he concluded and 3) Clarification of the issue of the marriage of Aisha . 1) The consensus of the Ummah on the authenticity of the two Sahih books: the Umma has agreed on the authenticity of the Hadeeths collected in the two Sahih books so that people of all ages are aware of this fact, actually to believe so has become part of the collective awareness of the Muslim Ummah and many verifiers have transmitted the agreement of scholars on this; Imam al-Nawawi said: “Scholars, may Allaah bestow his mercy upon them, agreed that the most authentic book after the noble Quran is the Sahih of Bukhari and the Sahih of Muslim and the entire Ummah accepted them” [1]. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymyya said: “Under the sky, there is no book more authentic, after the Quran, except Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim” [2]. And some of the narrations that have been criticized by scholarly experts of Hadeeth are known and such narrations are not part of the consensus, regarding this Imam Ibn al-Salah said in what al-Hafith ibn Hajar quoted him as saying: “the few narrations that were criticized – in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim – are confirmed by expert scholars and are exempted from the consensus from accepting the narrations of them because there was no consensus on accepting these few narrations” [3]. However, these few Hadeeths were criticized because they were viewed as not satisfying the conditions that were set by the authors of the two Sahih books and they [some scholars] denied some words mentioned in these narrations but there is no narration in the Sahih books that does not have an authentic original narration somewhere else. If this is known, then it shows that anyone refuting or rejecting any of the two Sahih books is actually rejecting and refuting the most authentic books of Sunnah, which is an obvious means to ruin the religion and spread doubt into the hearts of Muslims upon which none would be sure of how to pray or fast or perform hajj or interact with each other since all these details are located in the Sunnah books. So, whoever denies or defames anything mentioned in the Sahih books with an evil intention, his ruling in Islam is obvious and whoever falls into that due to recklessness without any evil intention then the least we are obliged to do is describe him as a person who does not know Hadeeth who has the audacity to discuss what he does not know and what is beyond his knowledge and if this came from someone who is not from those who carry the knowledge of this religion then it is more loathsome and repulsive. And whoever says it out of his cautiousness toward religion and out of his love of the Master of Messengers who was upset by what the enemies of Islam accuse the Prophet of therefore he wanted to defend him then we hope for him, even though he is mistaken, to be rewarded for his love and jealousy but we advise him to consult scholars and verifiers before entering into any matter of religion. However, if this was mentioned during debate with non-Muslims in an attempt to narrate what has been said without making statements after clarifying the correct view and explaining it – as shall be explained in category 3 – then that may be permitted in order to receive the benefit of delivering knowledge as the section of debate is more open than the section of examination and anticipation and what can be accepted in the former section cannot be accepted in the latter one which is addressing laypeople and educating them. 2) Exposing the mistakes of the writer [4]: a -in general, the writer, May Allaah guide him and us, aimed to refute what has been proven authentic in the most authentic Hadeeth books claiming that the narration has a weak chain of narrators then he used history books in which the narrations contained therein did not receive 1/10th of the care and examination that was given to the Hadeeth books, then he quotes narrations from these books from the same narrator that he previously rejected! He also recklessly deals with texts and is confused in his understanding of them, and even makes mistakes in quoting certain texts and sometimes quotes what did does not even exist within these texts which results in odd and awkward statements. And still after all this he has the audacity to claim that he examined all texts though he never achieved anything from that and therefore fell into erroneous mistakes. This is in addition to the fact that he quotes whatever suits him even though what he avoids, which is mentioned in the same text he quoted from, is more authentic and stronger. B - as for his criticism of the narration by calculating the age of Aisha in comparison to the age of her sister Asmaa bint Abi Bakr, then the writer relied on a narration that is not even correct to begin with, which is the narration that the age difference between both of them was 10 years and he even claimed that all historians agree on this. This is completely incorrect because although he quoted many books that state this all these books quote the report through one narrator; Abdulrahman bin Abi al-Zinaad who is the only one who reported this information and he is also weak narrator. In his biography in Tahtheeb al-Tahtheeb: Imam Ahmad was quoted as saying: He is disturbed in his Hadeeth and Ibn Ma’een said: he is not a proof for scholars of Hadeeth and Abu Hatim said: his Hadeeth can be written but cannot be used as a proof and al-Nasaie said: his Hadeeth cannot be used as a proof. [5] and to oppose this claimed agreement of historians, in Siyar A’lam al-Nubala and in Tareekh al_Islam it mentioned that: “Asmaa was older than Aisha by more than 10 years [6] so if the whole report is based on a weak narrator whose Hadeeth cannot be used as a proof and it is opposed by another report by other historians then on what basis is it used to oppose an authentic narration? As for the death of Asmaa at age of 100 then it is from the report of Hisham bin U’rwah himself, the very same one that the writer rejected in his report. C) as for the statement of al-Tabari that the writer understood to mean that all the children of Abu Bakr were born in the pre-Islamic era it has been misunderstood because al-Tabari said: “Abu Bakr married Qateelah in the pre-Islamic era who brought him Abdullah and Asmaa and he married in the pre-Islamic era Um Ruman who brought him Abdul Rahman and Aisha and all these four children were born from his two wives who we named in the pre-Islamic era” so if this report is assumed to be correct then al-Tabari is actually speaking about the wives i.e. that they were married before Islam and did not say that all his children were born before Islam. And if such understanding is possible then the possible understanding is referred to the certain which is what Aisha declared herself in explicit words about her age in many narrations. D) as for calculating the age of Aisha in comparison to the age of Fatima and the claim that Fatima was born when the Prophet was 35 years old, at the time of building the Ka’aba, the writer quoted that from the book al-Isaaba but he failed to quote the other narrations and what the author of the book – alHafith ibn Hajar- deemed to be the correct view which is the report that states that Fatima was born when the Prophet was 41 years of age and that the age difference was not agreed on, al-Dhahabi actually said in Siyar A’laam al-Anbyaa: “and Aisha was amongst those who were born during Islam and she was 8 years younger than Fatima [7] and he said in the biography of Fatima “she was born a short time before revelation” [8]. E) as for his quoting from Ibn Katheer from the book al-Bidaya wal Nihaya: “amongst those women…Asmaa bint Abi Bakr and Aisha when she was young, the Islam of these people was declared during the three years when the Prophet was still preaching Islam in secret then afterward Allaah commanded him to preach it in public.” then I do not know where that is mentioned in the book, as there is nothing there that states that at all. Also, Dr. Muhamad I’marah has made a note about this previously and if that quote did actually exist in the book then how did the writer leave the words of the Tabi’een who saw Aisha in person and then take the words of some recent scholars without even stating the chain of that report. F) as for his saying that: “it is confirmed that the Hijrah to Habasha was in the year of the time of revelation, i.e. 615 in our Georgian calendar” then he quoted: “Abu Bakr immigrated before the Hijrah of Habasha”. There is indeed a difference between a Hijra itself and the continuous immigrating of the companions and I do not know on what basis he is certain that all those who immigrated to Habasha did immigrate in the 5th year; for immigration to Habasha did not stop until the Hijra to Madina and he also made a mistake in his quote; he said: “…Abu Bakr immigrated before the Hijrah of Habsaha” while the correct statement is that “he immigrated towards the Habasha”, it appears that Abu Bakr did perform Hijrah near the time of the Hijrah to Madina because when he returned to Mecca and refused the offer of protection from Ibn al-Daghnah he gave him glad tidings and said: I was shown the place you will immigrate to, I saw a land that has a lot of palm trees that is located between two hills. G) as for his criticism of the chain because of Hisham bin U’rwah then that is naught as the Hadeeth is reported by others besides Hisham such as al-Zuhro from Urwah from Aisha and Ibrahim from al-Aswad from Aisha and all these are experts in Fiqh and Hadeeth. Also, the Hadeeth has many narrations in most of the books of Hadeeth. As for his claim that the Hadeeth has only been reported by the people of Iraq from Hisham and that his narrations from the people of Iraq should remain under question, the answer to that is that there are also some of the people of Madina who reported it from Hisham such Abu al-Zinad Abdil Rahman bin Thikwan and his son Abdil Rahman bin Abi al-Zinad and Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Yahya bin U’rwah. And the Hadeeth was reported from him by the people of Mecca such Sufyaan bin U’waynah and from the people of the al-Rai; Jareer bin Abdilhameed al-Dabi. So as can be noted his Hadeeth has not only been reported by the people of Iraq. As for the status of Hisham, he was declared trustworthy by Yahya bin Ma’een, Ibn Habban, Abu Hatim, Ibn Hajar, al-Dhahabi and others. And he is from the narrators whose narrations exist in the two Sahih books and the Sunan books and the accepted view amongst the people of knowledge is that he did not narrate disturbed narrations; al-Dhahabi said: Hisham bin U’rwah, one of the experts, an Imam and a Hujjah but when he became excessively old his memory was weak although he was never disturbed in his narrations…[9] H) there are many narrations that indicate the young age of Aisha at the time she married the Prophet such as the slander incident, i.e. ‘Ifk’, which happened in the 6th year H. In the Hadeeth about this incident that is reported in Sahih Bukhari; Aisha says about herself: “none found it strange that the Hawdaj [small enclosed carrier that a group of men would eventually place on top of a camel] was light when they lifted it and carried it as I was too young then. And Barirah one of her female servants said to the Prophet: I have never seen anything for which I could blame her, apart from the fact that she is a young girl who sometimes falls asleep and leaves her family's dough unprotected so that the domestic goats come and eat it and that incident took place in the 6th year of Hijrah. Also, the Hadeeth when Aisha stated that she had dolls to play with at the time she was married. I) reasonable people do not deal with or discuss historical events without understanding the context of such events and the factors and customs that enveloped them at the time of occurrence. To judge an act as good or bad, according to reasonable people despite their faith and religion, is not an abstract that is separate from its context and the circumstances that surrounded the act. 1-Some of signs that indicate that a girl of Aisha’s age would marry and was accepted as a norm of that era and place is that Aisha was proposed to by another man before the Prophet and if that was against the norms of that era and place then the enemies of the Prophet would have taken that as a reason to defame him as they tried all means to defame him.2- The Prophet married Aisha in Mecca then consummated the marriage in Madina leaving behind the oppression and injustice of the people of Mecca and it does not make sense that he would oppose the norms and traditions of the people at that time when the situation was so difficult. 3- who is the one who married Aisha to the prophet? He was Abu Bakr who is one of the greatest leaders who affected the world therefore a man with such nobility and such a high rank would never accept humiliation for himself or for his daughter if marrying her to the Prophet at such an age would cause him and her harm and affect their reputation amongst Arabs.4- the change in people’s norms and customs of the age of marriage no one can deny but a mentally ill person as that happens in all nations. The State of California in the United States increased the age that allows one to legally have sexual intercourse many times within only a 25 year time bracket. Until 1889 the legal age for sexual intercourse was 10 years old, then it became 14 years, then 16 years in 1897, then in 1913 it became 18 years. However, until today it is still 13 years old in the State of New Mexico and 14 years old in the States of Mississippi and Iowa[10]. Comprehend, may Allaah forgive you and me, regarding the above, that this is a nation that differs to the previous nations and it is an era that differs to that era and the legal age for marriage and for having sexual intercourse was, until recently, 10 years old. What about a different nation that lived in a different era with different norms and customs that existed 14 centuries ago? The recent extensive changes in the circumstances of the world have led to great changes in people’s customs and norms, therefore it is unfair and unwise for the people of this era to judge human history based on their current standards and norms. 5- Our problem today lies in some people who are prejudiced in the standards that they apply to all nations; as there is no difference between the Middle of Africa and the cold areas of Siberia and the Native American tribes in Latin America and the nation of China. Child labour was acceptable to them to some extent and legal until recent times, although now after they no longer required them to work after having collected all their fortunes rightly and unlawfully they began to defame and criticize the nations that still require children labour. They do not want to only their enforce standards of every living nation, but they also want to apply this on all of humanity from the moment of creation. 6- Islam is a practical religion which allows a woman to marry whenever her guardian finds it in her interest and he never allows her husband to consummate the marriage with her so long as she is not prepared physically and mentally. Yet, Islam does not set a limit on guardians as people’s norms differ as well as their needs as does each era and place and what is appropriate for it. Our grandmothers married at the age of 12 or around that age, though we do not do the same with our own daughters, also neither the Torah nor the Bible, in all its versions, sets an age for marriage. 7- The suitability of a woman to consummate the marriage happens after the woman reaches the age of puberty which at the same time allows her to have sexual intercourse without causing her harm and that differs from one woman to another and it happens around the time of puberty, so when does the woman reach the age of puberty? Modern medical science state that most women reach age of puberty between the age of 12 and 14 years old with an average of 12.75 years, but this age differs from one girl to another and from one environment to another. There are some cases when reaching age of puberty is so early that there was even a girl in Peru, in South America, who was pregnant at the age of 5 and a half [11]. Also to reach the age of puberty before age of 9 is not that rare as doctors do not even consider reaching the age of puberty at age of 7 or 8 as sickness.[12] but if it occurred when she was younger than that then she would require examination to ensure that she has no tumor or sickness that might have led to early puberty, in most cases there is no sickness involved. [13]. 8- In many countries around the world and even in America, a 16 year old girl can legally have sexual intercourse and marry (even a 14 year old girl can do so as we have explained) so now we would like to ask: Could a 9 year old girl, such as Aisha at the time she was married, be like a 16 year old today in body size and features? The answer is obviously yes and this is not even based on time, location and environmental differences. Natural growth rates, not exceptional growth rates, of medicine is set between 73 as maximum and 3 as minimum and shows that the growth rates of girls today particularly in Central America vary from other places so that a nine and half year old girl’s weight is set at the level of 97 which is the same weight of a 16 year old in level 3 which is 45 kg and the height of the first is 150 cm and it is 9 cm less than the second though she is bigger than the 14 year old girl in rank . This is based on normal growth rates and pediatricians know that many of them pass their ranks above 97 and below rank 3 without suffering any sickness and all that happens now and in the US. [14]. 9- the prejudice of people, due to their own inclinations, of what deems a girl suitable for marriage leads to loathsome contradictions even in the same country, as in the United States, the marriage of a 14 year old girl can be legal in some of its states and a crime in other states even if she is younger than 19 years old. Whoever marries a girl at that age they will be considered a rapist, which means if you live on the Eastern side of the borders of the two states the groom would be considered a good husband according to law but if he was to live on its Western side then he would be considered a child rapist who deserves the strongest penalty; Allaah says: {and if it was from anyone but Allaah, they would have found in it many differences and defects}. 10- Aisha herself is the one who said and she knows herself better than anyone else: “when a girl reaches the age of 9 then she is a woman” and after her marriage: Anas reported that when it was the day of the Battle of Uhud people fled the battle and left the Messenger while seeing Aisha and Um Saleem, with their sleeves rolled up, they would carry water in leather skinned bags on their backs and empty the contents into the soldiers open mouths”[15] and this proves that she grew up in a good manner and she was suitable to become a woman who can take on responsibility without being disturbed with the idea that she was married at 9 years old. It is not a surprise that some women at the age of 12 do what Anas mentioned for the growth rate differs from one person to another and from one environment to another. 11- when a child is abused he suffers terrible physiological consequences and if he managed to overcome them then it is rare that would become a genius and if he did manage to become a genus then it cannot be imagined that he would preach the message of the one who abused him and spread it amongst the people. So, did any of that happen to the mother of believers Aisha? Or was she leading a nation and teaching them the message of the Prophet whom she lived the rest of her life in loyalty to him and honoring his name as the beloved one who was a cause of her joy and pride in this life and the life hereafter. Were there any women happier than her in marriage as her with him? Surely not. 12- what is surprising to see from the people of the book is that they use this matter to defame the Prophet yet none of their books; neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament include even one verse setting an appropriate age for marriage. On the contrary, we find in the Bible that Moses said: kill now every male child and every woman who fornicated with a man but all the female children did not sleep with a man let them remain alive” so Moses in this section allowed sleeping with the female children of captives. Also, was not Aisha even much better than the woman who was mentioned in the Torah telling her story about Prophet David, when David became old, they used to clothe him with everything but he still felt cold so his slaves suggested that he find a virgin girl to stand before the king then hug him and sit in his lap so he can be warm, they searched until they found one who brought her to the king. She was very pretty and she worked to serve her and looked after him but he did not recognize her. In the Psalms David is described as the son of God for that we say to them in return: Aisha indeed lived a comfortable, contented, blissful life with the Master of Creation who would race her and her him and who she would joke with and he with her and he taught her what would make her a master and proud during her lifetime and if the Prophet was only interested in his lust then why did he leave her with her father for three years and then consummate the marriage? And if she was the only one wanted why did the Prophet leave his wives when they asked for more wealth until it reached the level that he gave them the choice [either to stay or leave] Allaah, Most High says: {O Prophet! say to your wives: If you desire this world's life and its adornment, then come, I will give you a provision and allow you to depart a goodly departing, And if you desire Allaah and His Apostle and the latter abode, then surely Allaah has prepared for the doers of good among you a mighty reward} [al-Ahzaab: 28-29], is it not known that a person who is lustful pleases his wives and spends unconditionally on them? Or would he just make them belittle this life and its adornment though he can live as a king? O Allaah, your peace and blessings be upon the Prophet and be pleased with the Mothers of the Believers who chose You and chose Your Messenger and chose the hereafter. Some Muslims you find them rushing to make up excuses and justifications whenever there is a doubt or a whisper that the Shaytan suggests to an enemy or an arrogant ignorant. And if they could just search and anticipate goodness then they would have found that the book of their Lord and the authentic Sunnah of their Prophet is a source of pride and honor and no part of it has anything to apologize for or be ashamed of. O Allaah guides us and guides all Your slaves. May the peace and blessings be upon the last of the Messengers of Allaah and the master of Your creation; Muhammad. [1]: Sharh Sahih Muslim, [2]: al-Fatawaa: 18/74, [3]: Hadyil Salri: 505, [4] I benefited in this reply from two articles written by Muhammad Imarah and researcher Muahmood Abduh, so may Allaah reward them with all that is good. [5]: Tahdheeba l-Tahtheeb: 6/127 [6]: al-Sytar: 3/522. [7] Siyar a’lam al-Nubala: 3/429, [8] al-Siyar: 3/417, [9] Mizaan al-I’ttidaal: 4/301-302. [10] Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics, 15th Ed, Page 1579-1580, [11] http://www.ageofconsent.com/comments/numberone.htm and see also: Fiqh studies in current medical cases that was written by group of scholars and research about menses, childbirth and pregnancy in the scale of Fiqh and medicine; page 137 – 142 where Dr. Umar al-Ashqar mentioned that there was a 2 year old who reached age of puberty. [12]: puberty according to doctors is different than menses as it occurs according to them one or year years earlier.[13] Saenger, Paul. Overview of precocious puberty. In: UpToDate, Rose, BD (Ed), UpToDate, Waltham, MA, 2007. [14] http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/growthcharts/set2clinical/cj41l071.pdf, [15]: Sahih Muslim: 3/1443.