The Age of Aisha R.A

Mother Aisha’s age at the time of marrying Prophet Muhammad in the Sunni Islamic literature.
Dates in Islamic History - AH and BH refers to Hijra (the migration from mecca to medina). The event
which marked the first year of the Islamic calendar. The first year of the Islamic calendar was not the year of
first revelation or start of the Prophetic mission.
BH is Before the Hijra AH is After the hijra

Prophet Islamic mission 1st revelation – 610 CE (12 BH)
The hijra/migration – 622 CE (1 AH)
Battle of Badr – 624 CE (2AH)
Mother Aisha’s marriage to Muhammad s.a.s 624 CE (1 or 2AH) –
• This is not disputed for both the camp of nine and the older age supporters. Those who believe in
hadith of nine have to fully believe Aisha r.a. was born 4-5 years (615CE or 6 or 7BH) after the
Prophetic mission had already commenced. This point is extremely important as most of those
accepting the hadith in Muslim/Bukhari ignore this point.
Prophet s.a.s death – 632 CE (10 AH)
1. Mother Aisha in an autobiographical recall recorded in Sahih Bukhari, says she was a Jariyah
(young teenage girl) at the time verses of Surah Qamr were revealed (617CE/5BH Tafsir Al-Qurtubi)
making her at least in late teenage years at the time of her marriage A 2-year-old girl (if the accepted
hadith of nine was true) can never be a Jariyah let alone register anything.
2. Mother Aisha narrates (Sahih Bukhari) that the earliest recollection of her childhood of herself was
that she was growing up in a practicing Muslim household and mentions in the same narration her
recall of the days of her father’s first migration to Ethiopia (7 BH). An infant or <2-year-old girl
would not be able to register such experiences, comprehend the specifics and then mention them in
an autobiographical recall later on.
3. Ibn Ishaq says that Mother Aisha accepted Islam (as-Sīrah an-Nabawiyyah) in the earliest days as a
minor meaning she must have been at least an older aged child in 610 CE. Her father was amongst
the earliest converts and it is thus not possible that she was born after that. If the later was indeed
true she would have been born into a religion not accepting a religion.
4. All four of Abubakr’s children from his two wives (Umm Ruman and Qutaylah) (including Mother
Aisha r.a) were born before jahiliyyah (al-Mu‘jam al-Kabīr Isnad grade Sahih). This automatically
contradicts the content of the accepted hadith of nine. Both have apparently sahih isnads.
5. Asma r.a. (Mother Aisha’s older sister) was born 27 BH and was 10 years older than Aisha making
Mother Aisha’s birth 17 BH and her marriage 18 years of age (Tārīkh Dimashq, Maʿrifat aṣ-Ṣahābah
and present in other hadith books as well of a later time)
6. After Khadija’s death (619 CE/3BH) Khawlah whilst seeing the prophet in a state of bereavement
had a conversation with the Prophet s.a.s asking ‘why wont you get married?’. She then in the hadith
proposed the names of Mother Aisha r.a and Mother Sawdah r.a as candidates. The Prophet s.a.s then
conveys to her to mention a marriage proposal to both of them ( recorded in several prominent hadith
books). A six year old wont be able to comprehend and make a decision on a proposal and Aisha
must have been a teenage girl to be able to think through a proposal. Further Khawlah’s
conversation was in context of the Prophets bereavement of his first and longest married wife.
Emotional support cannot be provided by a six year old (At-Tabarani Isnad grade: Sahih).
7. Mother Aisha r.a. refers to herself (several chains going back to her) as much older than two notable
companions, Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī and Anas bin Mālik, and called them young boys (ghulāmayn
ṣaghīrayn) in a notable narration. Both these companions were born 10 years before hijra (Several
hadith books At-Tabari, At-Tahawi, Ibn Asakir, Jami Bayan al-Ilm)
8. Mother Aisha r.a was senior or equal in age to Fatima r.a (daughter of the Prophet s.a.s who was
born 12 or 17BH) and calls her bunayyah (daughter) in a well known hadith. This is not possible if
she was younger than Fatima r.a and thus Mother Aisha was born years before the Islamic mission
commenced. (Mentioned by Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim, ad-Dūlābī, aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī, aṭ-Ṭabarānī, and al-Bayhaqī Isnad
of the hadith is supposedly weak however a weak chain is not always dismissed in hadith science if it
has several other affirming evidences)
9. A polytheist Arab family (Al-Mutim bin Adi) who was known to Abubakr r.a had in the days of
jahiliyyah (before Islam) discussed future marriage of their son (Jubayr) to Aisha. When Abubakr’s
househould received the proposal from Khawla after Kadhijas death 3BH, Abubakr r.a went to meet
Al-Mutim’s given the promise he had made. Al-Mu’tim’s wife said that they wouldn’t want their son
converted to Islam and because of that Abu Bakr accepted the dismissal of the contract. All muslims
would agree that Abubakr r.a would not have initiated a word for his daughter’s future marriage after
Islam’s emergence to a polytheist even if they were a reasonable and sound family. The proposal
discussion must have happened in jahilliyah automatically dismissing the hadith of nine (The hadith
originates from Mother Aisha r.a. and narrated in several very reliable hadith books Ibn Ābī ʿĀsim
(in al-Āhād Wa al-Mathānī), Ibn Raḥwayh, Ibn Ḥanbal, aṭ-Ṭabarī (in at-Tārīkh), aṭ-Ṭabarānī (in al-
Muʿjam al-Kabīr), al-Ḥākim, and al-Bayhaqī
10. Mother Aisha was an active participant in the battle of Uhud in 624AD/3AH (Sahih
Muslim/Bukhari). She was running around carrying heavy waterskins and nursing the wounded as
per the hadith in one of the toughest and great battles of the Prophet s.a.s times. Its not possible for
her to have been 10 or 11 years old according to the popular hadith of nine and be in the midst of a
full fledged harsh war.
Other defects in the popularly accepted hadith of nine narration

The Islamic calendar system was not instituted during the Prophet’s life and was initiated later (Caliph
Umar’s time) because people could not reference time of events or chronology of correspondences they
received. For Mother Aisha r.a. to know her age at the time of events she would have had to, with hindsight,
calculate her years when narrating this hadith. Is there any evidence that she or any of her family members
kept track of their years or birthdates in the precalendar period? Are there any hadiths where Mother Aisha
r.a references other events using her age as a reference (for any of the battles or other major events in
Islamic history, Quranic revelation timepoints or historical milestones) apart from her marriage so that we
can be certain she was reliable in age counting? There is no authentic narration where Aisha even associates
her knowledge of her own birth with an event which also should be an important piece of evidence. Let’s
assume she knew the year of her birth(period A) in reference to a major societal event which she got told
about by a close family member and also she knew of some events around when she got married(period B).
How does a person go from period B to A and count back without an active calendar system where the
years is constantly recorded, proclaimed and made aware to people. For example, if I got married when
there was a Covid-19 pandemic and I had finished university when there was the major tsunami of Asia.
How do I calculate without a calendar from pandemic era to tsunami era? Everyone will start calculating
2020 – 2004 and say it’s been around 16 years. People don’t reflect how difficult it would be without a
calendar. I will have to try and remember all events in that time span as much as I can and arbitrarily try and
separate them backwards demarcating a time span of a year from event to event and keep on going back. It
is practically impossible for me to calculate how many years if the Gregorian calendar is not in place. Thus I
query is there proof of actual autobiographical recall by any Sahaba about their age or events related to age?
Infact is there any narration where even the Prophet s.a.s mentions anything in reference to his age?
The ages which have been mentioned in this summary as supporting evidence against the hadith of nine are
strong and valid deductions and not flimsy evidences/opinions from unknown books.
Is it possible that either Urwa or al-Aswad heard the ‘hadith of nine’ wrong or that Mother Aisha r.a erred in
her memory of the dates or calculation given we know she didn’t refer to any other major historical events
using her age but rather used time periods like most Sahaba did. If all these points are dismissed then how
do we explain all the conflicts in the content/matn of this ‘hadith of nine’ with all the other evidences in
reputable Sunni books including circumstantial evidence from Bukhari and Muslim.
Quran - The clearest evidence of age of marriage comes from Quran. The requirement of mental and
physical puberty is a necessity in Islamic marriage. Verse 4:6 requires mental maturity and verse 6:152
requires physical maturity. Most fiqh scholars use these to determine ages of marriage as above 16. For
example Imam Malik and Imam Abu Hanifa who even says upto 25.
All content has been extracted and summarized from Reference: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/arnold-yasin-mol/aisha-ra-the-case-
for-an-older-age-in-sunni-hadith-scholarship/ (Some of the text is direct quotations) – Dawah Avpr1a

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Mother Aisha’s age at the time of marrying Prophet Muhammad in the Sunni Islamic literature.

BH is Before the Hijra AH is After the hijra

Other defects in the popularly accepted hadith of nine narration

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