indeed removed that jealousy from her
heart and she accepted the honor of
being a wife of the prophet in that age
and in fact she was a very wise advisor
to the prophet as the famous incident in
the Battle of or the Treaty of of hudia
she had a very good role being a senior
sort of adviser and helper to the
prophet Muhammad peace be upon him so
this is just one example of many the
third category of marriages were
intended and by the way this is this was
not unusual in the tribal Society or
even among prophets in the past that in
order to remove the hatred and conflict
with other tribes you marry from them it
has been used as a very if you call it
political marriage call it political
marriage if that would result in Saving
the blood of people and removing the
need for war and conflict and we find
numerous examples the prophet marries
from the tribes of those who showed
enmity to him one example omba she was
the daughter of Abu sufyan you know in
the film about the message you call him
sufyan you know but actually it's Abu
sufyan you know he was an and the arch
enemy of the Prophet yet he married his
daughter his daughter accepted Islam and
married the prophet and you know Abu
sufyan actually when he heard that he
was very happy he was happy he knew that
this is a good man himself it's just the
you know vested interest that was
causing him to fight against the spread
of Islam and that might have contributed
to the softening of the heart of Abu
sufyan who eventually accepted Islam the
prophet married a woman from a Christian
background more than one woman from
Jewish background after he gave them
their freedom after they were captured
and they accepted to marry him what is
the problem with this some historian
actually say that some of the tribe that
used to show a great deal of enmity
toward Muslims and were engaged in some
atrocities or conflict when the prophet
married from them some accepted Islam
others were at least neutralized so
what's wrong with that to forge this
relationship and prevent Bloodshed in
his position of course as the symbol of
Islam and community and finally there
was also a case of legal precedent
removal of a taboo that no one else
would be fit for that but the prophet
God willing and mentioned that in the
very end and the end is coming clear so
we'll move to a third question or
objection about the marriages of the
prophet and probably heard about that
especially in the United States you
might have heard the statements made in
the Southern Baptist
convention I can't repeat even the nasty
words that were used but basically they
say it is reported in Muslim sources
that the prophet had the marital
contract on AA at the age of six and she
moved to his household at the age of
nine I.E a big an old man in his 50s
marrying a child and of course you know
what kind of word
go or has gone with
this first of all the issue of
difference in age is not a problem we
know many happy marriages very
productive marriages with big difference
in age of course it's nice to have
closer or closeness of age but that's
not in itself a Criterion so that's I
mean nobody cares much about that
anymore unless of course you get a 99
years old person marrying a 16 years old
maybe extreme cases might be
questionable but
difference is not an issue itself the
issue really is how abominable they say
for a man you know to have a contract at
that young age and moving at the age of
nine to his household first of all if
indeed there was anything that is
regarded as
abominable among the enemies of the
prophet in Mecca because that wedding
took place or at least the contract not
consummation took place in the later
year of the mecan period if indeed that
was the case his enemies would have
raised all kind of questions and tried
to discredit him for marrying such a
young girl and to the surprise of many
of you do you know that AA was engaged
before the prophet to another man what
does that say that within that Society
in the Arabian society marriage here in
the very early age does not necessarily
means automatically
consummation sometimes you could even
marry a child your son 3 years old to be
married to my daughter who's 2 years old
but it's it's basically like engagement
it's almost like saying we're so close
as tribes or Clans that we want to
reserve your son for my daughter or
whatever what Islam did actually is to
improve on that practice by considering
a marital contract possible at any age
however once the two parties the girl
and boy reach
adolescence then they they can decide
whether that contract is acceptable or
not so it's a conditional contract on
reaching maturity or majority and
deciding whether to accept it or not so
nobody ever raised an issue about that
furthermore AA was M was not
kidnapped or molested or whatever the
kind of terms they use she was married
with the approval of and blessing of her
parents both her parents would anyone
give his daughter for anyone any one no
matter who he is to molest her and they
loved her so dearly and Abu Bakr was a
rich and very powerful man he was a very
wise man he's not an a walk over type of
person
furthermore when people say you but
that's illegal that's illegal it's less
than 16 or 18 see according to whose law
even in some Western countries I've seen
a piece on the internet that says in
United States even in the later part of
the 19th
century there was no restriction in
terms of the age of marriage that some
people married at the age of 12 girls
sometimes were married at the age of 12
later on some states began to introduce
upper you know minimum marital age of 14
and then it increased to 16 in some
places 18 or 16 with the approval of the
Guardian these are laws secular laws the
Islamic law requires only one condition
that both parties reach majority become
Adolescent and to say that it is
impossible possible everywhere in all
times for a girl who's 9 years old to to
reach adolescence I think that is not
necessarily a correct statement having
said all of
that there's something that's rather
interesting that this the the question
of the age of at the time of
marriage while it appears inkari it is
not words of the Prophet you see be
careful Muslim sometimes use the term
Hadith Hadith can be used to refer to
words of the Prophet peace be upon him
and when you challenge that or raise an
issue it's a more serious issue but
Hadith also has been used to refer to
statements by the companions of the
Prophet or people close to him
likea none of these three Hadith in
bukari is the word of the Prophet to
start with they're all attributed to
statements made bya and Muslim while
they love and respect the household of
the Prophet never consider anyone as
infallible but the prophet himself
whether she could have made a mistake in
estimating her age that's an issue
that's op
furthermore some Scholars of Hadith has
pointed out also that all of this Hadith
has been narrated by one particular
person and some questions are raised as
to whether his narration in his old age
might have been affected by his weakness
of memory this this is another issue
altogether but the most interesting
thing that I read myself in the S of is
that is the biography of the Prophet
that's the most authentic one used by
East and West alike Western scholar also
refer to it the most ancient and the
most authentic one which was edited
byham but originally the author is Ish
oldest
one ishak speaks about the very early
Muslims by the way ishak was in no way
defending the prophet's marriages no way
trying to respond to the question raised
by the Southern Baptist convention in
the United States has nothing to do with
this he mentioned casually in his
chronology the early days of Islam those
who accepted Islam in the very early
meccan period and then he says it
includes Abu Bakr and we know this the
first man adult who accepted Islam was
Abu bak and then he talks about people
who accepted Islam but with the effort
and invitation of Abu Bakr Abu Bakr
accepted and he started to spread it and
he mentioned casually it includes names
like
abdan and he says and as
and Daughters of Abu Bakr and AA was
young at the
time that's rather interesting because
we know that the mar the contract not
the consummation the contract of
marriage was made in the last year of
the 13-year mecan period and AA is her
name appear among the earliest Muslims
who accepted Islam in the first year so
you add to that 12 or 13 years and you
add to that at least three years a child
to accept
Islam that seemed to point out that in
all likelihood she was at least 16 and
went to the household of the Prophet at
the age of 19 not six and N but I
deliberately kept that as a lust