Did Muhammad marry a 6 year old?

Question

Making the rounds of news sites today is a story of a billboard in Indianapolis that makes the following six claims regarding the prophet Muhammad, under the heading "The Perfect Man":

Married 6 year old
Slave owner & dealer
Rapist
Beheaded 600 Jews in one day
13 wives, 11 at one time
Tortured & killed unbelievers

Sources:

Indy Muslims call out creators of local billboard that insults Prophet Muhammad

also answered here already https://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/5849/age-of-ayesha-as-at-marriage — DavePhD, Jun 07 '17 at 10:40
The billboard doesn't mention who is being referred to. Though lots of other people make the claim about Mohammed. — Andrew Grimm, Jun 07 '17 at 12:58
related: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/3439/could-climate-affect-aishas-age-of-sexual-maturity — Sklivvz, Jun 07 '17 at 13:16
@jamesqf: I focussed the question to be about just one of the claims, so the question wasn't too broad. Given it took 500 words and 4 references to answer just the first claim, I think that was the right decision. If you would like to ask about another claim from the list, please ask a separate question. — Oddthinking, Jun 08 '17 at 06:21
@RLH, do you consider this question answered or do you feel that the answer is missing something? — Jordy, Jun 13 '17 at 04:59
@Jordy, no it doesn't answer my original question regarding the tenets of the billboard, just a few of them. Since a moderator molded my original question into something else, a moderator can take care of the answer marking of this question. Honestly, I was just as curious about points 4 and 6 as the first few. So, in my personal opionion this is still incomplete. — RLH, Jun 13 '17 at 13:29
@RLH, AFAIK only the OP can mark a post as an accepted answer. But relating to Oddthinking's comment, why don't you just ask another (two) question(s) if those claims are interesting to you? — Jordy, Jun 14 '17 at 05:47
@Jordy, I'm not going to fight on this "philosophical" hill. StackExchange is often vary stringent on rules but, IMHO, if a moderator changes a question, then they should have the right to specify the answer. That, however, is a conversation for Meta and I don't have time at the moment to monitor a few questions regarding this billboard, which I why I posted one question regarding the tenets of it, which was what made headlines. Someone else can ask those questions if they are interested. Regardless, the #1 answer has been given the mark. — RLH, Jun 14 '17 at 13:43

score 19 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:41

19

Maybe, there are multiple accounts of Muhammad's life which all vary on certain details such as this.

According to various ahadith* Aisha was probably 6 or 7 years old when she married Muhammad, this marriage was consummated at age 9.

She was 6 according to Sahih al-Bukhari (emphasize mine):

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).

_{Volume 7, Book 62, Number 64}

She was 7 according to Sahih Muslim (emphasize mine):

Aisha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Allah's Apostle (May peace be upon him) married her when she was seven years old, and he was taken to his house as a bride when she was nine, and her dolls were with her; and when he (the Holy Prophet) died she was eighteen years old.

Please note: there is a gap of roughly 200 years(!) between the moment these ahadith were written and the actual wedding.

There are other sources who disagree that these ahadith are accurate when it comes to Aisha's age.

According to muslim.org (emphasize mine):

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 ... Thus the occurrence of reports such as the above about the marriage of Aisha ... is not necessarily a proof of their credibility.

They also give 10 as an alternative age (emphasize mine):

... 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.

There are broader estimates as well.

Wikipedia lists this source in the footnote which says it can be anything between 13 and 19 (I can't find an online version) (emphasize mine):

Muslims who calculate 'Ayesha's age based on details of her sister Asma's age, about whom more is known, as well as on details of the Hijra (the Prophet's migration from Mecca to Madina), maintain that she was over thirteen and perhaps between seventeen and nineteen when she got married.

_{Barlas, Asma (2012). "Believing Women" in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an." p. 126.}

*Ahadith is the Arabic plural of hadith.

edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:41

Community

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answered Jun 07 '17 at 11:21

Jordy

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I removed two unsupported passages: that "most" people believe she was 6, and that it's "impossible" to know for sure. You should cite the current consensus of historians on the matter, instead. – Sklivvz Jun 07 '17 at 13:24
@Sklivvz, okay. Shouldn't it also be removed in the opening sentence then? – Jordy Jun 07 '17 at 13:30
Probably: I left it under the interpretation that it was the result of *your* evidence and not that it's actually impossible. – Sklivvz Jun 07 '17 at 13:32
@Sklivvz, btw, do you have any pointers on how I can determine what the current consensus is? – Jordy Jun 07 '17 at 13:34
I think that a more appropriate answer would be "According to some Muslim sources she was 6". As was discussed in meta about previous questions, we don't have the tools to give religious interpretation. – SIMEL Jun 07 '17 at 13:44
For finding out the consensus, I'd start by reading on [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisha#Age_at_marriage) and check the sources. @SIMEL "Married a 6 years old" is sort-a wrong in any case (because marriage today implies sex, whereas at the time it wouldn't until puberty) – Sklivvz Jun 07 '17 at 13:52
@Sklivvz, I didn't find an exact declaration of consensus but I altered my answer to show that traditional sources say 6 or 7 but that there is some disagreement among (Muslim) scholars. Any other tips on how I can further improve my answer? – Jordy Jun 07 '17 at 14:31
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@Sklivvz, We can't differentiate the sources, and there is no consensus. I can go and read the sources and see that there are Hadits (and scholars) that say that she was 6 when married (and 9 when the marriage was consummated). There are other scholars that say that she was 7, other that say that she was 10 and others that say that she was a teenager, **BUT** we don't have the knowledge to differentiate between them. We can't rate the "importance" of different religious opinions, this is what Islam.SE is for. – SIMEL Jun 07 '17 at 14:42
@Sklivvz, to paraphrase you from https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3826/should-this-objectively-falsified-question-answer-be-reopened: "ultimately it's a question on what those ahadith mean not on the exact wording" – SIMEL Jun 07 '17 at 14:45
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I think it would be better without the first word "Maybe". Just start with, "There are multiple accounts". In that way you'd be presenting the evidence (the multiple accounts), without adding your own judgment (about which of these accounts "maybe" true). – ChrisW Jun 07 '17 at 21:43
@ChrisW I read "maybe" as the one-word summary, followed by a one-sentence summary, followed by the answer proper. It doesn't feel like an additional judgement to me. – IMSoP Jun 08 '17 at 10:39
@IMSoP, that is exactly what I meant. I've seen many answers that follow this pattern for people who are skimming the page, so I assumed it was an accepted practice to begin your answer with *yes*, *no* or *maybe*. – Jordy Jun 08 '17 at 10:48
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@Jordy You're right it's a standard format, and it should be (or is allowed to be) your own evaluation/summary of the evidence you present; so if you think that the answer is "maybe" then keep it. – ChrisW Jun 08 '17 at 11:37
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So what is reported isn't "Mohammed was seen marrying a six year old girl", but "Mohammed got married to a female person whose birth date isn't known. We can only estimate her birth date and her age at the time of the marriage, and estimates vary between "six years old" and "at least 13 years old and possibly 19". – gnasher729 Jun 10 '17 at 18:42
Relevant: http://www.ilaam.net/Articles/Ayesha.html – Sakib Arifin Jun 21 '17 at 23:40
Relevant: http://gupshup.org/gs/religion-and-philosophy/73057-shanavas-selective-quotes-re-aishas-age.html – Sakib Arifin Jun 21 '17 at 23:41
Relevant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisha#Age_at_marriage – Sakib Arifin Jun 21 '17 at 23:41
See [this thread on islam.se](https://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/5849/age-of-ayesha-as-at-marriage?rq=1) for references to the completely dominant opinion among Islamic scholars that she was married at 6 and bedded at 9. – G. Bach Nov 02 '17 at 21:28
I once read a book with scholarly articles about Mohammed. There was one that claimed that Fatimah (c. 605 or 615-632?), daughter of Mohammed and Khadijah, was sort of an old maid when she was married to Ali at an unknown date, possibly 622, aged 19 or 19. The book said that in modern Arabia child brides are so common that it was unusual but not rare for women to be grandmothers aged 22. In such a case the average generation would be between 11.0 years and 11.5 years) There are examples of grandmothers even younger than 22. – M. A. Golding May 17 '18 at 18:52
One further thought: the authority for the 6 year age ahadith is 'Aisha. She was very far from being a neutral actor and was heavily involved in the politics of the early Caliphate. It could be argued that she had a motivation for emphasising her virginity on marriage. She cannot necessarily be taken as an impartial source anyway. – Francis Davey May 04 '20 at 12:17

Did Muhammad marry a 6 year old?

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