Q. I am a devout Muslim but I get deeply disturbed at the thought of 53 year old prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) marrying Hazrat Ayesha who was just nine years old. We are unable to explain this in the present society. Surely the reason for this marriage cannot be blatant sensuality. But please tell me how can we explain this to non-Muslims? The age difference defies all logic. It involves questions of pre-puberty alliance, question of psychological incompatibility. [RIGHT](XXX ; Srinagar)[/RIGHT]
Re: is there any thread about this one
Originally Posted by malhot *I was refering mainly to Aisha’s age (around 10 - 12 ?)compared to the holy Prophet’s ( 50?)- it must have been fairly acceptable then. *
But things have changed now, even muslims would be loathe to have their daughters marry someone their grandfathers age - that too who already has several other wives.
(posted by SlaveofAllaah)
I ask the same question what is it got to do with islam i.e. Quran, these issues are something i call as secondary.
Let me take you through the series of evidence and then you can have a rebutall
ENEMIES OF ISLAM.
- At the time of prophet they were huge lots of enemies against the prophet.
- According to point 1, if he had done a blunder by marrying to Ayesha at the age of 9, it would have affected his character and Islam as whole.
- The anti-islamic stories found on the internet are nothing new but were available during the time of prophet, and also written by jews and christians.
CULTURAL ISSUE
4) Basically the issues never arose by marrying Ayesha at the age of 9, was because it was more cultural and not religious, thats the reason no enemy of islam during the time of Prophet never pointed finger to the prophet.
5) The scholars both muslims and non-muslims equally had an opionion that no one can target the cultural views of any region its rather stupid
6) It never was mentioned in the Quran to marry at the age of 9, but only after puberty.
7) Since in this region puberty reaches at a very early age it was islamically to marry at age of 9.
8) During the time of uthman, one of the woman was a grandmother at the age of 21, can you believe it 21.
9) Few years back a girl was pregnant at the age of around 10.
10) In the history of islam its mentioned prophet married Ayeasha at the age of 9, but what happened (i hope you get my drift) after that is never mentioned.
Now these issues are made so big, in USA alone girls who havent reached the age of puberty are raped but none of these issues are published. But anyone marries a 10 year old girl (who reached the age of puberty) the issue is raised and published in the first page, probably in the western world the word rape is common that might be the reason.
Following up i asked you this question earlier i wanna ask you again, if prophet woudnt have married ayesha at the age of 9, would you become a muslim of course no, so why do you wanna create such issues. Let me know if Prophet did not marry Ayesha at the age of 9 would you be a muslim hell no.
Remember most importantly these are cultural issues and not so much religious, from religious pov its acceptable to marry a girl who has reached the age of puberty for several reasons.
Re: is there any thread about this one
Sorry i just wanted to know that what this man has asked and this was not about other things because i never wrote this but somone elses asked and i just paste the question on here that if some one can answer him or her. thank you any ways apologize to all the muslims who felt it bad even though i felt bad as well as you thts y i posted here.
Re: is there any thread about this one
Dua, You can waste your time reading Hareem's reasons pointing fingers to the hell-bound christians and jews for spreading filth about prophet muhammad (pbuh) anddd some twisted explanations as to how it was a fantastic decision for a 55 yr old to marry a 9 yr old.. orr you can accept the most logical reason that this was a common practice in the arab world in those days...
Re: is there any thread about this one
^Exactly. Long time brother, where have you been long time. Nice to see you back.
Re: is there any thread about this one
Dua, You can waste your time reading Hareem's reasons pointing fingers to the hell-bound christians and jews for spreading filth about prophet muhammad (pbuh) anddd some twisted explanations as to how it was a fantastic decision for a 55 yr old to marry a 9 yr old.. orr you can accept the most logical reason that this was a common practice in the arab world in those days...
Peace Vedic_Intellect
Firstly I urge that the post you think comes from Hareem01 actually is a post forwarded by her from SlaveofAllaah. And in his defence, I don't think he means every Christian and Jews are the enemies of Islam, just those that were involved in defeating him, because of their own prejudices. These are few but significantly so to this day Islam has enemies that are from other followings and from within, but please understand no people per se are enemies of Islam, until they say so themselves.
Re: is there any thread about this one
It is hard to explain and convine young muslims , let alone non-muslim 
So dont feel bad as these question are valid and must be asked till you understand. First thing to bear in mind that 9 year old is not definite age of Lady Ayesha at the tiime of marraige, as there are conflicting reports about her age. But, all report suggest that she certainly was very young at the time of marraige. All your questions are still valid if we replace this definite age with a threshold of say 9-12 years.
I am insisting on variable age because i have gathered that recorded ages of some very important Islamic personalities are not accurate. And their ages are not even least bit controversial. See this
continued…
Re: is there any thread about this one
Re: Marriage with Hazrat Aysha (ra) at young age
You may have read quite detailed explainantions but they don’t sound logical/convincing ?
First of all, the number is very irreletive. 6,9,11,13 take anyone it does not matter much.
The fact, Hazrat Aysha came to the house of prophet(pbuh) after she reached the age of puberty (thats for sure ) now equate with any number, 9, 10 ,11 ,12 its upto you.
Now the question,
why her parents sent her to the house of prophet at such a young age, just after reaching puberty ?
OR
Why her parents Married her off to Prophet (pbuh) at such a tender age ?
The answer is very simple, there were no schools/colleges at that time so they sent her to the best institute for learning (prophet himself) so that she may get education and teach other muslim men and women all her life 
Oops ^ that again is not convincing 
my bad.
Alternate answer:
All boys and girls were considered for marraige once they reached puberty …
normal age for marraige 12,13 for girl and for boy 16,17.
Why were they used to marry them so early ?
Because of Low life expectancy !
There were :
- Lots of conflicts, wars (killing men)
- lots of disease, famine (killin people)
- lots of miscarraiges (killing women)
As in this age, we do not see so many avoidable deaths. So our pattern of life and life expectany has changed. There is no famine every 4,5 years, no wars where you have to take part and 50 % chance of coming alive, health care is improved beyond execptations. So now people, wait for marraige a little longer, there is pretty good chance that bride and groom will be alive next year In those year they never had this luxury
Oh I remember, My grandmother had her first baby at the age around 15 before that she had a miscarriage and before that she got married, I dont know her exact age at the time of marriage, But i think it was after she reached puberty 
She may have died during miscarriage, but thank God she lived.
Re: is there any thread about this one
Jazak Allah code red
BEST explanation I have ever heard
we should really analyze things in a more rationale way
unfortunately - what we tend to do is to TAKE SIDES
even before the discussion has begun
and then try emphatically to defend our pov even though at times we ourselves might feel that we are straying from the truth...
Mohammad (pbuh) was sent as an omen for mankind - EACH and EVERY of his (pbuh) deeds, actions and words is a beacon of light.
The episode in question is more of a Cultural issue, rather than religious
In the present times, I would NEVER even think about marrying my 9 yr old daughter to a 50 old man, although 1400 years ago this would have seemed like a norm to me....
another example, in the present society (again a cultural issue, mainly in the indo pak muslims) divorced women are looked down upon, and not really considered worthy of marrying again, but look at that era 1400 years ago, it was a normal thing to do and many sahabis and sahabiyaas married more than once and there were no ISSUES attached with it.
Re: is there any thread about this one
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=5§ion=0&article=98423&d=17&m=7&y=2007&pix=islam.jpg&category=Islam
Q. At what age was Ayesha when she married the Prophet?
(Name and address withheld)
A. The report commonly known among Muslims is that Lady Ayesha was nine years of age when she married the Prophet (peace be upon him). This report is highly suspect. It is questioned on several counts. I have written at length discussing this issue and concluded that Ayesha was between 18 and 22 at the time of her marriage to the Prophet. I will give some of the evidence briefly:
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Prior to the Prophet’s proposal to Ayesha, she was engaged to marry Jubayr ibn Mutim, who was an unbeliever at the time. The prohibition of marrying unbelievers was not issued yet. The Prophet’s eldest daughter, Zaynab, was married to Abu Al-Aas who remained non-Muslim for many years. When the Prophet sent a word proposing to Ayesha, her father, Abu Bakr, declared: “These people (meaning Jubayr’s people) have proposed to her, but I will manage to extricate her from them.” This suggests that it was a serious arrangement that he needed to tactfully undo. Since the Prophet’s proposal was made three years before the marriage actually took place, the report of her marriage at nine years of age makes her six at the time of the proposal, and already engaged to someone else. This is highly unlikely.
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The idea to marry Ayesha was suggested to the Prophet by one of his companions, Khawlah bint Hakeem, who told him that he needed someone to give him comfort and take care of him after his wife, Lady Khadeejah, had died. When he asked Khawlah if she had anyone in mind, she asked him: ‘Would you prefer a virgin or a mature woman?’ He asked her to name both, and she suggested Sawdah as the mature woman and Ayesha as the virgin. He told her to carry his proposals to both. Indeed, both proposals were accepted. The Prophet married Lady Sawdah shortly afterward, but delayed his marriage to Ayesha until he had emigrated to Madinah some three years later.
We need to look at the Prophet’s family situation to put this suggestion to marry someone like Ayesha in proper perspective. The Prophet had four daughters, two of them were married and two still living with him. So, he was not without company at home. His youngest daughter was at least 13 years of age. Can we imagine that the lady who realized that the Prophet needed the comfort only a wife provides would suggest that he marries a child who was six years of age at the time she made this suggestion. Would she name a child who was several years younger than his youngest daughter? She would be suggesting that he takes a child who would need to be looked after. This is totally unreasonable.
- In the earliest and most authentic biography of the Prophet, written by Ibn Ishaq, who died in 150 A.H. a list of the people who embraced Islam in its early days is given in a separate chapter. The list includes 51 men and women, but no children. According to the general context of the biography, which remains the best for reliability, these people accepted Islam in the first four or five years of the start of its message. We find Ayesha’s name among them, with the note that she was young at the time. She was certainly young, but old enough to choose her faith and declare herself Muslim. If we say that she was only 10 at the time, and her acceptance of Islam was in year 5, then she would be 19 when her marriage to the Prophet took place, because he married her one year after his emigration to Madinah.
Further evidence can be cited to prove that Ayesha was a woman in her prime when she married the Prophet. However, this requires greater space because it involves providing the setting when certain events took place and discussing attitudes and reactions to various incidents and statements. What I can say, however, is that at the time of her marriage to the Prophet Ayesha was 18 if she was a day, but more likely, she was over 20 years of age.