Was the marriage of Aisha(RA) to Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) a divine decree?

Question

Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) married Hazrat Aisha(RA) when she was only 9 years old and he was 53. He in fact proposed her when she was only 6.

This sounds strange that the most genius person in the world would marry a 9 year old girl? For what? This would mean that a divine decree was involved here and that God had special place for Aisha(RA). But even that is doubtful. Hazrat Aisha(RA) has been a main cause of the rift in Islam i.e. Sunni Version and Shia Version. Shia Muslim do not really favor Aisha(RA) in a number of ways

• That she propelled her father into caliph-hood when the Prophet died;
• She fought against Hazrat Ali in battle of Camel. (Having a sound mind, I think it was wrong on her part to get involved in such war, especially that she was defeated);
• The marriage of Aisha(RA) to the Prophet was not the happiest marriage in the world. Even the Quran talked about their divorce 33:28-29;
• Her own right as a little girl was violated by having such early marriage;
• I have heard her first menses came when she was 14. This falsify the claim that she was really an adult at the time of marriage.

O Prophet, say to your wives, "If you should desire the worldly life and its adornment, then come, I will provide for you and give you a gracious release. But if you should desire Allah and His Messenger and the home of the Hereafter - then indeed, Allah has prepared for the doers of good among you a great reward." [33:28-29]

So the question is, why did the Prophet marry a 9 year old girl when potentially it brought no good to Islam. Yes there are huge number of hadiths related to her but they are related in a chain and majority of them are not accepted by Shia Muslim (and hence my question). Why did the Prophet marry a 9 year old girl?

If this was divine decree, wasn't it terribly wrong one?

Disclaimer:I am Sunni Muslim and this question is I no way intended to defame Aisha(RA). She is Ammul-Momimin. My question is really about God, and how he makes decision, which can be potentially wrong. Also note that I will accept Sunni Islam view answer, although Shia answers are highly encouraged.

Answer 1

@Ali has mentioned the social political connections, but I would like to elaborate more: It has come partly from here but it is in Persian.

Your question is basically why god has let the Prophet marry Aisha?

The answer is that it has been for political reasons. The prophet (pbuh), to reach better status socially and politically, in order to advertise and spread Islam as much as possible did some marriages. Here I list them and explain more:

• Aisha: The daughter of Abubakr from the tribe Tim (Quraish)
• Hafsah: The daughter of Omar from the tribe Edi (Quraish)
• Om Habibah: The daughter of Abusufyan form Bani Omayah (Quraish)
• Om Salamah from Bani Mahzum
• Meimunah from bani halal
• Safiah from bani israil

Sorry for the transliteration of Arabic names :)

As you see all of them are from different tribes. Back then marriage was the primary element to strengthen the relations between different tribes. Marriage to a different tribe was the number 1 element to avoid wars between different tribes (ref. Ibn khaldun introduction)

For this reason the Prophet (pbuh), tried to marry women from different tribes, even from Bani omayyah to decrease their aggressiveness toward himself, creating love possibly, and better spread of Islam.

Quote from La vie de Mahomet from Georgio:

We read in some historical books that the Prophet (pbuh) proposed several women, and He did not even marry them all, but even this much the whole tribe was honored and it created a good relation between the Prophet (pbuh) and that tribe. For example when Umm Salamah from bani mahzum (the tribe of Abujahl and Khalid ibn valid) married the prophet, Khalid enemity towards the Prophet (pbuh) lessend very much and after not so long he embraced Islam. Another example is Juirieh and Safieh, which caused the calm down of Bani nazir and bani mutlaq. For the marriage of Juirieh with the Prophet (pbuh), the sahabah released 100 captives of war since they became relatives with the Prophet (pbuh).

Also note that all these marriages happened after Hazrat Khadijah in the final years of the Prophet, since the Prophet wanted to be sure of the love between the different tribes which were really enemy before. Therefore, don't be under this impression that Aisha was any better than other wives of the Prophet.

For example in Surah tahrim verse 4, God speaks about the mistake of two wives of the Prophet (pbuh):

إِنْ تَتُوبَا إِلَى اللَّهِ فَقَدْ صَغَتْ قُلُوبُكُمَا وَإِنْ تَظَاهَرَا عَلَيْهِ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ مَوْلَاهُ وَجِبْرِيلُ وَصَالِحُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ ظَهِيرٌ

If ye two turn in repentance to Him, your hearts are indeed so inclined; But if ye back up each other against him, truly Allah is his Protector, and Gabriel, and (every) righteous one among those who believe,- and furthermore, the angels - will back (him) up.

Next verse:It may be, if he divorced you (all), that Allah will give him in exchange consorts better than you,- who submit (their wills), who believe, who are devout, who turn to Allah in repentance, who worship (in humility), who travel (for Faith) and fast,- previously married or virgins.

Sahih Bukhari (صحيح بخاري کتاب فرض الخمس باب ما جاء في بيوت ازواج النبي صلي الله عليه وسلم):

حَدَّثَنَا مُوسَى بْنُ إِسْمَاعِيلَ حَدَّثَنَا جُوَيْرِيَةُ عَنْ نَافِعٍ عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ قَالَ قَامَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ خَطِيبًا فَأَشَارَ نَحْوَ مَسْكَنِ عَائِشَةَ فَقَالَ هُنَا الْفِتْنَةُ ثَلَاثًا مِنْ حَيْثُ يَطْلُعُ قَرْنُ الشَّيْطَانِ

The prophet points to the house of Aisha, and repeats this sentence three times: Fitnah is here, here is where the Hizb of Satan will appear.

In conclusion, you should read history unbiased and see what happened and what the consequences were. Aisha was among the other wives of the prophet, which apparently did several mistakes including the well-known battle of camel. I doubt if anybody can deny that. I am very worried that when I speak about this sensitive issue one of the Sunni brothers gets angry. Nevertheless, the wives of the Prophet are Umm Almuminin, which means that nobody can marry them after the Prophet.

EDIT:

I want to add some text about an issue that came up in the comments of @thecorocodile... answer. Basically the questioner is asking, why God that knows about the future and he is all wise and all knowing, why should he let his Messenger (pbuh) do sth which can be potentially wrong (in this case marriage with Aisha)?

Note that as mentioned in this answer, there were a lot of benefits through the multiple marriages of the Prophet (pbuh). It may only seem wrong because of the things that are mentioned in the question which are true indeed. But this conclusion (wrong decision by Allah) is subjective. Proof needed to support the argument. Sometimes we don't comprehend the reasoning behind things from the beginning. I suggest you read this. It might help a lot.

And God Knows best,

Hope this helps,

PS: For the age of Aisha when she married the Prophet (pbuh), see this at least. Neither 6 nor 9 seems to be true.

Answer 2

There are some Ayahs in Quran regarding marriages of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) like the below Ayah:

لَا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاء مِن بَعْدُ وَلَا أَن تَبَدَّلَ بِهِنَّ مِنْ أَزْوَاجٍ وَلَوْ أَعْجَبَكَ حُسْنُهُنَّ إِلَّا مَا مَلَكَتْ يَمِينُكَ - الاحزاب 52

But I have never heard an Ayah that orders Prophet to marry Aisha. I think making an argument that it has been a divine order is not so simple and needs very trustful references.

However I would like to add several points to my answer:

• Like everybody else, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had a private life, in addition to the social and religious life. It's not easy at all to make a judgement about a Prophet's decision that has also a private face that we can not see.

• Everything has happened 14 centuries ago and many things are forgotten by the history, or changed. So saying what was good or bad does not seem very easy.

• Think a few minutes about converting the beliefs of the huge number of people who praised their hand-made idols for many generations just in 23 years. Specially in the era that there was no internet, very limited education, and people replied dialogs by their swords.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) made a lot of social/political connections through his marriages, and having a good support from different tribes was critical for the progress of Islam, considering the hardest limitations and sanctions of pagans against Muslims.

So I believe we can not say some marriage of Prophet was a wrong choice, even if we think some decisions of a wife has been wrong.

Answer 3

Subhanallah, Allah is All-Knowing,there was a wisdom behind this controversial marriage of holy prophet,first,political,2nd ethnical,3rd social,4th jurisprudencial,and as you said it was all always for goodness of Islam,another thing is to prove that matrimonial relation will never be a guarantee for you to be admitted in Paradise, because Qur'an highly and clearly expressed the story of prophet Lut and Noah (pbut) wives' being a hypocrites and stressed out Pharaoh's wife being a believer...another thing is the obedience of Allah's Laws must be over our obedience to our parents,namely,the wives of the prophet were mothers of believer,but we must have our scale to obey those who obey Allah and disobey those who disobey hIM,

And We have enjoined upon man goodness to parents. But if they endeavor to make you associate with Me that of which you have no knowledge, do not obey them. To Me is your return, and I will inform you about what you used to do. QUR'AN 29:8

Source

Answer 4

The marriage of Aisha (RA) with Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was indeed a divine decree. We know for sure that dreams was a way of inspiration from God on the prophet. Ibrahim (AS) saw a dream to sacrifice his son, according to Quran

And when he reached with him [the age of] exertion, he said, "O my son, indeed I have seen in a dream that I [must] sacrifice you, so see what you think." He said, "O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the steadfast."

The Prophet (PBUH) also used to get inspiration through dreams. It is believed according to Muslim faith that dreams that the prophets see are true and are visions of God. It is related from Aisha (RA)

Narrated 'Aisha: (the mother of the faithful believers) The commencement of the Divine Inspiration to Allah's Apostle was in the form of good dreams which came true like bright day light, ... (V1B1N3)

The Prophet saw a similar dream regarding Aisha (RA) before he married her.

Narrated 'Aisha: That the Prophet said to her, "You have been shown to me twice in my dream. I saw you pictured on a piece of silk and some-one said (to me). 'This is your wife.' When I uncovered the picture, I saw that it was yours. I said, 'If this is from Allah, it will be done." (B58N235)