Age of Aisha at time of
marriage with Holy
Prophet Muhammad
It is believed on the authority of
some Hadith reports that the
marriage ceremony (known as
nikah, amounting to betrothal) of
Aisha with the Holy Prophet
Muhammad took place when she
was six years of age, and that she
joined the Holy Prophet as his wife
three years later at the age of
nine. We quote below from two
such reports in Bukhari.
“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.”
“Khadija 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.” [3]
As to the authenticity of these
reports, it may be noted that the
compilers of the books of Hadith
did not apply the same stringent
tests when accepting reports
relating to historical matters as
they did before accepting reports
relating to the practical teachings
and laws of Islam. The reason is
that the former type of report was
regarded as merely of academic
interest while the latter type of
report had a direct bearing on the
practical duties of a Muslim and
on what was allowed to them and
what was prohibited. Thus the
occurrence of reports such as the
above about the marriage of
Aisha in books of Hadith, even in
Bukhari, is not necessarily a proof
of their credibility.
Determination of the
true age of Aisha
It appears that Maulana
Muhammad Ali was the first
Islamic scholar directly to
challenge the notion that Aisha
was aged six and nine,
respectively, at the time of her
nikah and consummation of
marriage. This he did in, at least,
the following writings: his English
booklet Prophet of Islam, his
larger English book Muhammad,
the Prophet, and in the footnotes
in his voluminous Urdu translation
and commentary of Sahih Bukhari
entitled Fadl-ul-Bari, these three
writings being published in the
1920s and 1930s. In the booklet
Prophet of Islam, which was later
incorporated in 1948 as the first
chapter of his book Living
Thoughts of the Prophet
Muhammad, he writes in a lengthy
footnote as follows:
“A great misconception
prevails as to the age at
which Aisha was taken in
marriage by the Prophet. Ibn
Sa‘d has stated in the
Tabaqat that when Abu Bakr
[father of Aisha] was
approached on behalf of the
Holy Prophet, he replied that
the girl had already been
betrothed to Jubair, and that
he would have to settle the
matter first with him. This
shows that Aisha must have
been approaching majority
at the time. Again, the Isaba,
speaking of the Prophet’s
daughter Fatima, says that
she was born five years
before the Call and was
about five years older than
Aisha. This shows that Aisha
must have been about ten
years at the time of her
betrothal to the Prophet, and
not six years as she is
generally supposed to be.
This is further borne out by
the fact that Aisha herself is
reported to have stated that
when the chapter [of the
Holy Quran] entitled The
Moon, the fifty-fourth
chapter, was revealed, she
was a girl playing about and
remembered certain verses
then revealed. Now the fifty-
fourth chapter was
undoubtedly revealed before
the sixth year of the Call. All
these considerations point
to but one conclusion, viz.,
that Aisha could not have
been less than ten years of
age at the time of her nikah,
which was virtually only a
betrothal. And there is one
report in the Tabaqat that
Aisha was nine years of age
at the time of nikah. Again it
is a fact admitted on all
hands that the nikah of
Aisha took place in the tenth
year of the Call in the month
of Shawwal, while there is
also preponderance of
evidence as to the
consummation of her
marriage taking place in the
second year of Hijra in the
same month, which shows
that full five years had
elapsed between the nikah
and the consummation.
Hence there is not the least
doubt that Aisha was at
least nine or ten years of
age at the time of betrothal,
and fourteen or fifteen years
at the time of marriage.” [4]
(Bolding is mine.)
To facilitate understanding dates
of these events, please note that
it was in the tenth year of the Call,
i.e. the tenth year after the Holy
Prophet Muhammad received his
calling from God to his mission of
prophethood, that his wife Khadija
passed away, and the approach
was made to Abu Bakr for the
hand of his daughter Aisha. The
hijra or emigration of the Holy
Prophet to Madina took place
three years later, and Aisha came
to the household of the Holy
Prophet in the second year after
hijra. So if Aisha was born in the
year of the Call, she would be ten
years old at the time of the nikah
and fifteen years old at the time
of the consummation of the
marriage.
Later research
Research subsequent to the time
of Maulana Muhammad Ali has
shown that she was older than
this. An excellent short work
presenting such evidence is the
Urdu pamphlet Rukhsati kai waqt
Sayyida Aisha Siddiqa ki umar
(‘The age of Lady Aisha at the
time of the start of her married
life’) by Abu Tahir Irfani. [4a] Points
1 to 3 below have been brought
to light in this pamphlet.
1. The famous classical historian
of Islam, Ibn Jarir Tabari, wrote in
his ‘History’:
“In the time before Islam,
Abu Bakr married two
women. The first was Fatila
daughter of Abdul Uzza,
from whom Abdullah and
Asma were born. Then he
married Umm Ruman, from
whom Abdur Rahman and
Aisha were born. These four
were born before Islam.” [5]
Being born before Islam means
being born before the Call.
2. The compiler of the famous
Hadith collection Mishkat al-
Masabih, Imam Wali-ud-Din
Muhammad ibn Abdullah Al-
Khatib, who died 700 years ago,
has also written brief biographical
notes on the narrators of Hadith
reports. He writes under Asma,
the older daughter of Abu Bakr:
“She was the sister of Aisha
Siddiqa, wife of the Holy
Prophet, and was ten years
older than her. … In 73 A.H.
… Asma died at the age of
one hundred years.” [6]
(Go here to see an image of
the full entry in Urdu.)
This would make Asma 28 years
of age in 1 A.H., the year of the
Hijra, thus making Aisha 18 years
old in 1 A.H. So Aisha would be 19
years old at the time of the
consummation of her marriage,
and 14 or 15 years old at the time
of her nikah. It would place her
year of birth at four or five years
before the Call.
3. The same statement is made
by the famous classical
commentator of the Holy Quran,
Ibn Kathir, in his book Al-bidayya
wal-nihaya:
“Asma died in 73 A.H. at the
age of one hundred years.
She was ten years older than
her sister Aisha.” [7]
Apart from these three evidences,
which are presented in the Urdu
pamphlet referred to above, we
also note that the birth of Aisha
being a little before the Call is
consistent with the opening words
of a statement by her which is
recorded four times in Bukhari.
Those words are as follows:
“Ever since I can remember
(or understand things) my
parents were following the
religion of Islam.” [8]
This is tantamount to saying that
she was born sometime before
her parents accepted Islam but
she can only remember them
practising Islam. No doubt she
and her parents knew well
whether she was born before or
after they accepted Islam, as their
acceptance of Islam was such a
landmark event in their life which
took place just after the Holy
Prophet received his mission from
God. If she had been born after
they accepted Islam it would
make no sense for her to say that
she always remembered them as
following Islam. Only if she was
born before they accepted Islam,
would it make sense for her to say
that she can only remember them
being Muslims, as she was too
young to remember things before
their conversion. This is consistent
with her being born before the
Call, and being perhaps four or
five years old at the time of the
Call, which was also almost the
time when her parents accepted
Islam.
Two further evidences
cited by Maulana
Muhammad Ali
In the footnotes of his Urdu
translation and commentary of
Sahih Bukhari, entitled Fadl-ul-
Bari, Maulana Muhammad Ali had
pointed out reports of two events
which show that Aisha could not
have been born later than the
year of the Call. These are as
follows.
1. The above mentioned
statement by Aisha in Bukhari,
about her earliest memory of her
parents being that they were
followers of Islam, begins with the
following words in its version in
Bukhari’s Kitab-ul-Kafalat. We
quote this from the English
translation of Bukhari by M.
Muhsin Khan:
“Since I reached the age
when I could remember
things, I have seen my
parents worshipping
according to the right faith of
Islam. Not a single day
passed but Allah’s Apostle
visited us both in the
morning and in the evening.
When the Muslims were
persecuted, Abu Bakr set out
for Ethiopia as an emigrant.”
[9]
Commenting on this report,
Maulana Muhammad Ali writes:
“This report sheds some
light on the question of the
age of Aisha. … The mention
of the persecution of
Muslims along with the
emigration to Ethiopia
clearly shows that this refers
to the fifth or the sixth year
of the Call. … At that time
Aisha was of an age to
discern things, and so her
birth could not have been
later than the first year of
the Call.” [10]
Again, this would make her more
than fourteen at the time of the
consummation of her marriage.
2. There is a report in Sahih
Bukhari as follows:
“On the day (of the battle) of
Uhud when (some) people
retreated and left the
Prophet, I saw Aisha
daughter of Abu Bakr and
Umm Sulaim, with their
robes tucked up so that the
bangles around their ankles
were visible hurrying with
their water skins (in another
narration it is said, ‘carrying
the water skins on their
backs’). Then they would
pour the water in the mouths
of the people, and return to
fill the water skins again and
came back again to pour
water in the mouths of the
people.” [11]
Maulana Muhammad Ali writes in
a footnote under this report:
“It should also be noted that
Aisha joined the Holy
Prophet’s household only
one year before the battle of
Uhud. According to the
common view she would be
only ten years of age at this
time, which is certainly not a
suitable age for the work she
did on this occasion. This
also shows that she was not
so young at this time.” [12]
If, as shown in the previous
section above, Aisha was
nineteen at the time of the
consummation of her marriage,
then she would be twenty years
old at the time of the battle of
Uhud. It may be added that on the
earlier occasion of the battle of
Badr when some Muslim youths
tried, out of eagerness, to go
along with the Muslim army to the
field of battle, the Holy Prophet
Muhammad sent them back on
account of their young age
(allowing only one such
youngster, Umair ibn Abi Waqqas,
to accompany his older brother
the famous Companion Sa‘d ibn
Abi Waqqas). It seems, therefore,
highly unlikely that if Aisha was
ten years old the Holy Prophet
would have allowed her to
accompany the army to the field
of battle.
We conclude from all the
evidence cited above that Aisha
(may Allah be pleased with her)
was nineteen years old when she
joined the Holy Prophet as his wife
in the year 2 A.H., the nikah or
betrothal having taken place five
years previously.

THE BIBLE on marriage of young girls with much older men As it is Christian evangelists and
other believers in the Bible who have been bitterly reviling the Holy Prophet Muhammad on account of his marriage with Aisha, we put to them the practices of the great patriarchs and prophets that are recorded in the Bible itself in this connection.
The main accusations regarding the marriage of Aisha are that she was too young in age while the
Holy Prophet was a much older man, being fifty years of age, and that consent to marriage was
either not obtained from her or she was not capable of giving it.
Abraham
In the book of Genesis in the Bibleit is recorded about Abraham:“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife,had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian
maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, ‘TheLord has kept me fromhaving children. Go, sleepwith my maidservant;perhaps I can build a familythrough her.’ Abram agreed
to what Sarai said. So afterAbram had been living in
Canaan ten years, Sarai hiswife took her Egyptian
maidservant Hagar and gaveher to her husband to be hiswife. He slept with Hagar,and she conceived. … So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar
bore him Ishmael.” (Genesis,chapter 16, verses 1–4, and 15–16, New InternationalVersion. Bolding is mine.)Firstly, it is evident that asAbraham (who then had the nameAbram) was 86 years old, Hagar
must have been some fifty years younger than him, and probably even younger, to bear a child.
Secondly, the Bible speaks of Sarai giving her maidservant Hagar to Abraham. So Hagar’s
consent was not obtained but rather she was commanded by Sarai to go and become
Abraham’s wife.
David
The first book of Kings in the Bible begins as follows: “When King David was old and well advanced in years, he could not keep warm even when they put covers over him. So his servants
said to him, ‘Let us look for a young virgin to attend the king and take care of him. She can lie beside him so that our lord the king may keep warm.’ Then they searched throughout Israel for a beautiful girl and found Abishag, a Shunammite, and
brought her to the king. The girl was very beautiful; she took care of the king and waited on him, but the king had no intimate relations with her.” (1 Kings, chapter 1, verses 1–4, New International Version. Bolding is mine.) So there seems nothing wrong, according to the Bible, in procuring a young virgin, again apparently without her consent,
whose duties include lying with the elderly king in bed. The intention was certainly for sexual
enjoyment, otherwise there was no necessity of looking for a young, beautiful virgin. A much
older woman, perhaps a widow, could have performed all these duties, including lying with the
king to keep him warm. Mary and Joseph
The most famous marriage in Christianity is no doubt that of Mary, Jesus’ mother, with Joseph.
While the following details are not in the canonical Gospels in the Bible, it appears from other early
Christian writings (known as apocryphal writings) that Mary was twelve years old when the
temple elders decided to find a husband for her. They selected the husband by drawing lots, and
Joseph whom they chose was an elderly man, being according to some accounts ninety years old.
The husband was selected and Mary was handed over to him, and she played no part in his
selection. These accounts are summed up in the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913 edition, which is available online,
as follows:
“It will not be without interest to recall here, unreliable though they are,the lengthy stories
concerning St. Joseph’s marriage contained in the
apocryphal writings. When forty years of age, Joseph married a woman called Melcha or Escha by some, Salome by others; they lived forty-nine years together and had six children … A year after his wife’s death, as the priests announced through Judea that they wished to find in the tribe of
Juda a respectable man to espouse Mary, then twelve to fourteen years of age, Joseph, who was
at the time ninety years old, went up to Jerusalem
among the candidates; a miracle manifested the
choice God had made of Joseph …” [13] (Bolding is
mine.) Although these apocryphal accounts are not now accepted by many Christians, and the Catholic
Encyclopedia says that they “are void of authority”, yet it also speaks of their influence as
follows: “they nevertheless acquired in the course of ages some popularity; in them some
ecclesiastical writers sought the answer to the well-
known difficulty arising from the mention in the Gospel of the Lord’s brothers; from them also popular credulity has, contrary to all
probability, as well as to the tradition witnessed by old works of art, retained the belief that St. Joseph was an old man at the time of marriage with the Mother of God.”However, these accounts are
accepted by the Eastern churches. The website of the Ukrainian Orthodoxy has an article on this
subject entitled An Elderly Joseph which agrees with the presentation in the apocryphal writings “of Joseph as an elderlyman, a widower with adult
children”. It concludes: “The Christian East’s picture of Joseph as a courageous,
faithful, God-centred elderly widower rings true.” [14] We give below, as Appendix, a
quotation from one of these apocryphal books, The Infancy Gospel of James, describing how Mary’s husband was selected. While the Western Christian
churches may not accept these accounts as authentic, the Eastern churches in Europe do
accept that Mary was 12 years old and Joseph a widower 90 years old when they married. Moreover,
there is nothing in the Gospels of the New Testament to contradict these accounts, and the Gospel stories are not at all inconsistent with these ages for Mary and Joseph.