Clarifying concepts series
Part 1 : Was the prophet ( peace and blessing Allah be upon him ) a pedophile ?
A lot of none Muslims have many wrong ideas concerning the prophet Muhammad (PBABUH) . And one of the most repeated Shubhas is accusing him for being a pedophile because of his marriage to Aisha when she was at the age of 9 . So they say that this action is against the common sense and it doesn’t fit a man who was sent by God to declare his message .
First of all , let’s separate the Shubha to two parts . We will see in the first one if this marriage is against nature and the correct comportement or not .. So let’s start with this question ; what is the definition of an enfant ? Because scientifically , the girl is not considered as an enfant after puberty , and both male and female can go into a marriage after it . The definition of puberty is “a body and sexual maturity when human is able to reproduce” . Its time differs from a human to another , and from a place to another one . In the West , there is a difference between countries concerning the age when is marriage is permitted . In America for example , there are states where is allowed to marry at the age of 13 , others at the age of 12 and this is the average age of puberty in the USA by the way ( you will find sources of informations in the end of the article ) . So in countries near to the equator and where the temperature is high , it’s very normal to find girls who get pubescent at the age of 8 and 9 . In this context, you can return to “Human sexuality problems” and “Mother daughter wisdom” by John Bancroft , and what we’ve said was also mentioned by Will Durant in “Story of civilization” . Let’s have a look in history ; Urraca queen of Castile married Léon in the XIth century at the age of 8 , also the king of France Philipe the second married his wife in the XIIth century when she was at the age of 10 . In addition of Joanna the queen of Castle who was married at the age of 12 , and Isabella the queen of England in the XIVth century who got married at the age of 8 . And maybe many of us don’t know that Juliette the hero in the famous romantic story was 13 years old , and if you read the story , you will pass by a paragraph when the mother of Juliette tell his daughter “then think in marriage...I was a mother of yours at your age while you are still virgin”. Nowadays , in Romania , a women named Rifca Stanescu has became the youngest grandmother in the world after getting pregnant at the age of 11 and her daughter got pregnant at the age of 10 . And Rifca said that that is totally normal in her society . Also , we can mention that the time when it’s allowed in Spain to a person to start practicing consensual adultery ( Zinah ) starts from the age of 13 . And before one century only , It was allowed in France starting from the age of 11 , to be updated after that to the age of 13 . Until 1885 , it was allowed in America starting from the age of 10 , and from only 7 in the state of Delaware . And of course the majority of girls in the past used to get married directly after being pubescent , and there was no school , no modern jobs , no nothing of what we have today as what Javier Fajardo the professor in Navarre university has said . Arthur Siccan has also said that the 14 years old girl whom people today look at her as a young teenager used to be considered as a responsible women and a normal wife due to the convention and the culture which she would grows up in , specially that she didn’t need any complicated experiences or specific skills . The opposite of what we are living today .
In Islam , Both male and female Muslims have the right to get married at the point when they are able to reproduce . Male used to participate in battles and fights exactly after reaching puberty . Ussama Bin Zaid lead a whole army of Shabah ( compagnons of the prophet (PBABUH) when he was only 17 years old . Also the mother of the believers Aicha was engaged to Jubair Bin Mot’im before breaking her engagement because of her Islam and him staying in Kufr ( none believe ) . So the prophet (PBABUH) was engaged to her and he married her because she was virgin and pubescent . And if this thing was wrong at that period , the Mushriks of Kuraish or the jews of Madinah or anyone who was against him and tries to get him by sticking any vice to him would say that this marriage is wrong . Because they have already accused the prophet (PBABUH) by many things as being a poet , a crazy man , and a sorcier . But none of these things were true . And no one has said that the marriage of the prophet (PBABUH) was something bad or wrong because it was something very normal . In Islam , every pubescent is responsible of all his acts and behaviors in the day of judgement when he will be held accountable by Allah , so it’s not correct to claim that he is an enfant who doesn’t know what he does . It’s not correct to deal with the age of marriage as an absolute scientific fac
It’s not correct to deal with the age of marriage as an absolute scientific fact that is the same at all times and all societies , specially when we know that countries in the west are not agreed on one specific age in when a person is allowed to practice consensual adultery . The weird is that they let the 12 years old girl to do adultery freely in a fling while she is not permitted to have a mature relationship with a dowry and a responsible husband . And this is one of the most weird contradictions .
About the repeated question ; would you be OK to let your daughter get married at the age of 9 ?
The answer is that we should see if the thing is legal or forbidden . If it’s legal , you are free to do it or not as long as it isn’t an obligation . And the Islamic Shariah has came to fit all times and places and cultures , that’s why Islam didn’t put a specific age of marriage but he linked it to the ability and capability of having a sexual activity . So if the girl doesn’t have the ability , it’s forbidden then to push her into a marriage even if she is 16 years old .
People in the past used to dress the Izar and ‘Imama (traditional dresses) and it is allowed . But this kind of vestments today might be against the tastes of some societies . So because they don’t like it doesn’t mean that this kind of dresses are ugly or against logic . Same thing with marriage . You won’t commit a sinn if you let your daughter get married at the age of 21 instead of 35 or 18 .
- [ ] The opposite of the human laws which they didn’t agree about a specific age of marriage or adultery . This ages in these laws are just mathematical numbers at the end of the road which isn’t based on any logical or scientific base .
Scientific definition of puperty
http://bit.ly/1QNYBcK
Massachusetts did not set a minimum age for marriage with the consent of the parents or the judge
http://1.usa.gov/1FyS0am
The age of the girl's marriage in the state of Nowhamshire is 13 years
http://bit.ly/1CqMbLZ
The average age of puberty in the US is 12 or 13 years
http://bit.ly/1de0JYD
http://bit.ly/1MEc5lu
It's normal for a girl to reach puperty in 8 or 9 years old
http://bit.ly/1KBA4SI
Girls reach puperty faster the closer they are to the equator
Page 429 from
C. Northrup, Mother Daughter Wisdom (Random House Publishing Group, 2006).
Page 191 from
John Bancroft, Human Sexuality and Its Problems (Churchill Livingstone/Elsevier, 2009).
Page 401 from
M.A. Fritz, and L. Speroff, Clinical Gynecologic Endocrinology and Infertility (Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2011).
Page 16 from
A.E. Aronson, and Diane M. Bless, Clinical Voice Disorders (Thieme, 2009).
Page 992 from
J.S. Berek, and E. Novak, Berek & Novak's Gynecology (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007).
The Age of Oraca Queen of Castile and Leon the time of marriage
Page 161 from
T. Earenfight, Queenship in Medieval Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
Queen of Sicily and the age of Princess of Wales Joan and Sun Isabella Queen of England at the time of marriage
Pages 240 and 246 of the book
C. Hartley, A Historical Dictionary of British Women (Taylor & Francis, 2013).
Page 31 from
K. Green, and C. Mews, Virtue Ethics for Women 1250-1500 (Springer Netherlands, 2011
YOU ARE READING
What about Islam ?
SpiritualThis book is composed of a wide range of islamic articles in english for muslims who don't speak arabic. There is a similar book in french.
