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On Mohammed’s Marriage to little Aisha

The Sources

Islamic Source

Event

Bukhari (005.058.236)

Narrated Hisham's father: Khadija [Mohammed’s first wife] died three years before the Prophet departed to Medina. He stayed there for two years or so and then he married 'Aisha when she was a girl of six years of age, and he consumed (sic)[consummated] that marriage when she was nine years old.

Bukhari (007.062.64)

also Bukhari (007.62.88)

Narrated 'Aisha: that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death).

Bukhari (007.062.67)

Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, "A matron should not be given in marriage except after consulting her; and a virgin should not be given in marriage except after her permission." The people asked, "O Allah's Apostle! How can we know her permission?" He said, "Her silence (indicates her permission)."

Bukhari (007.062.68)

Narrated 'Aisha: I said, "O Allah's Apostle! A virgin feels shy." He said, "Her consent is (expressed by) her silence."

Bukhari (7.062.018)

Narrated 'Ursa: The Prophet asked Abu Bakr for 'Aisha's hand in marriage. Abu Bakr said "But I am your brother." The Prophet said, "You are my brother in Allah's religion and His Book, but she (Aisha) is lawful for me to marry."

Theology

 

In summary: She was married at six and Mohammed had sex with her when she was nine; Mohammed was 51 years of age at the time of the marriage and 54 when he consummated it; the textual evidence is not clear as to whether or not she had even reached puberty by age nine (see here and here #464); the father of Aisha, Abu Bakr, though not a blood brother was very close to Mohammed (‘the dearest creature of God’ to him; and close enough for Abu Bakr to say: ‘I am your brother, how can you marry my daughter?') and so Aisha was like his niece; consent was given by her parents, and by herself at some point (at six and/or nine years of age?); Mohammed initiated the marriage; Mohammed claimed that Allah approved the union.

 

In the Qur'an, though Aisha is mentioned, her age is not specifically an issue. However, the age of brides is alluded to in Q 65:1-4: for a divorce to proceed a waiting period of three months is required; and ‘the same shall apply to those who have not yet menstruated.’ As Robert Spencer has noted, ‘in this revelation Allah envisions a scenario in which a prepubescent woman [child] is not only married, but also divorced by her husband.’

 

Consequences/Comment

 

This event cannot be considered just a cultural practice and valid only for that time or only among Arabs of the 7th century because according to Islam, Mohammed is the considered the perfect model of human behaviour for all people for all time e.g. Qur'an 33.21. His example is without fault. Nothing he said or did was wrong or for his time only.

 

What does consent mean in the case of a nine-year old (or six year-old) girl? It means that since silence is interpreted as consent, Aisha as either a six or a nine year-old, was actually mature enough to have refused; she could have said, ‘No’ to her parents and to Mohammed. Does the reader believe that? With calm seriousness Muslims have told the author that since Islam is very clear that consent is a requirement of marriage and since Mohammed married Aisha then Aisha must have given her consent because (of course) Mohammed would not have violated this principle of consent because he is of ‘great moral character.’ (Qur'an 68:4).

 

The problem of the ‘consent as silence’ principle is that silence can, of course, be interpreted to mean many other things. Nowadays, most people, belief systems and civil authorities, would not agree that a 6 or 9 year old girl should be married, even if she shouts from the roof top that she is in love and wants to marry her 54 year old uncle. They would agree that she is simply not mature enough, physically, emotionally or mentally. Unfortunately, this principle is still in use, e.g. ‘Infidel’ by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

 

Child marriages are not only linked to Islam. However, with such an example as Mohammed’s, who is the ‘religious’ authority/example in Islam, child marriages will be very difficult to eradicate. For a fuller discussion click here, here, here and here (UNICEF report), picture.

 

Tags: Aisha, Kinana, Marriage in Islam, Silence is consent

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Court in Pakistan Validates Forced Conversion, Marriage of Christian Girl to Muslim

Underage victim continually kept from appearing at hearings.

Huma Younas, 14, was abducted and forced to convert to Islam, her parents say. (Morning Star News courtesy of family)

Huma Younas, 14, was abducted and forced to convert to Islam, her parents say. (Morning Star News courtesy of family)

LAHORE, Pakistan (Morning Star News) – A high court ruling in Pakistan validating the marriage and forced conversion to Islam of a 14-year-old Christian girl has heightened fears that it will encourage others to commit such crimes, sources said.

The High Court in Sindh Province on Feb. 3 dismissed a petition to have the marriage and forced conversion of a Catholic girl overturned, ruling that both were valid since a girl under sharia (Islamic law) can marry after her first menstrual cycle.

Huma Younus was taken from her home in Karachi’s Zia Colony on Oct. 10 while her parents were away and was forced to marry the man who abducted her, identified as Abdul Jabbar of Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab Province, her attorney said.

“The hearing on Feb. 3 lasted only five minutes,” the family’s attorney, Tabassum Yousaf, told Morning Star News. “The court, in just a few words citing the sharia, has justified the violation of the girl’s body since she has already had her first period.”

Yousaf added that the family was prohibited from seeing Huma because police said her life would be at risk if she was brought to the courtroom.

He said the family challenged Huma’s marriage and forced conversion under the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013, which declares marrying a person under 18 years old an offense punishable by up to three years in prison.

Although the Sindh government takes credit for becoming Pakistan’s first elected assembly to pass a bill on child marriage in April 2014, the law is still poorly implemented, sources said.

Yousaf said he submitted Huma’s baptismal and school documents in court that proved she was 14 years old, but nevertheless Sindh High Court judges Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro and Irshad Ali Shah ruled that the marriage was valid based on her menstrual cycle.

The legal battle has been going on for months with constant delays and excuses cited so as not to present the underage girl in court, sources said.

The family has filed an appeal to the Court of Justice in Sindh Province, and Yousaf said a hearing is scheduled for March 4. Police will thus have more time for medical tests to determine Huma’s age, he said.

Guardian Consent Needed

The girl’s parents were informed via text message that Huma had converted to Islam and had married Jabbar “of her free will,” sources said.

Since forced conversions are not illegal in Pakistan, her attorney said he believed the case hinged on Huma’s age.

Prominent Supreme Court Advocate Saiful Malook told Morning Star News that even though sharia allows marriage of a minor girl if she has her first period, the marriage has to be validated by the girl’s guardian.

“In no way can any court of law endorse an underage marriage unless it is supported by the girl’s guardian,” Malook said. “Marriage is governed by the Contract Act, wherein no minor can enter into a contract or agreement without the explicit approval of her guardian. In this particular case, the court must take into account whether the girl’s legal guardian has consented to her marriage even if it’s judging the act under the sharia.”

He added that a 14-year-old minor cannot be deemed mature enough to change her religion by her own will, considering the fact that she could have been coerced or blackmailed into renouncing her faith. Huma reportedly filed an affidavit declaring that she married of her own free will, but Yousaf has said that such an affidavit can’t be filed legally until she obtains an identity card at age 18.

The high court must order Huma to record a statement in the courtroom, Malook said.

“If the police are not producing the girl before the court on various pretenses, the court should be wise enough to see through the police’s mala fide and hand the custody of the minor back to her parents,” he said.

Malook, who represented Pakistan’s most high-profile blasphemy convict, Aasiya Noreen, better known as Asia Bibi, before the Supreme Court and won her freedom, said that abducting for the purpose of forced conversion and underage marriage is a major problem in Pakistan. He added that legislation effective in curbing the practice is long overdue.

Christian rights activists believe that the ruling of the Sindh High Court will encourage more perpetrators of such crimes to hide behind sharia. Pakistan Center of Law of Justice Executive Director Napoleon Qayyum told Morning Star News that the high court’s ruling would result in a surge in cases of forced conversion and underage marriages of Christian girls.

“Another Christian girl aged 14 was recently abducted and gang-raped by some Muslim youths in Bihar Colony area of Lahore,” Qayyum said. “The victim is a student of grade nine and was abducted by four or five boys on her way to a local tuition center on Jan. 16, 2020. The abductors not only raped her but also obtained her signatures and thumb impressions on some papers.”

Police were able to recover her on Jan. 19, but Qayyum said he fears the suspects will use her signed documents to produce a fake marriage certificate and religion conversion letter in a bid to escape abduction and rape charges.

“This is common modus operandi of Muslims to confuse the court and avoid justice,” he said.

In nearly all such cases, he said, the rapists threaten to harm the girls’ families if they reveal the truth.

“Moreover, the girls are also forced to give false statements in court that they have changed their religion of free will and had married of their own choice,” Qayyum said. “Girls belonging to minority communities often succumb to pressure and consideration for their family’s security, which has further emboldened the men belonging to the majority faith.”

Most victims of forced conversion and marriage in Pakistan are reportedly Christian and Hindu girls and women forced to marry Muslim men who are much older than them. According to the Centre for Social Justice, at least 159 such cases were reported between 2013 and 2019.

The Sindh legislature in 2016 passed a law outlawing forcible conversions and conversions before the age of 18 but, under pressure from Islamic extremist groups, the governor declined to sign it. Each year about 1,000 Christian and Hindu women in Pakistan are forcibly converted to Islam and then married off to their abductors or rapists, according to the National Commission of Justice and Peace and the Pakistan Hindu Council.

Pakistan ranked fifth on Christian support organization Open Doors 2020 World Watch list of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, and on Nov. 28, 2018, the United States added Pakistan to its blacklist of countries that violate religious freedom.

https://morningstarnews.org/2020/02/court-in-pakistan-validates-for...

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