WAS MUHAMMAD A PEDOPHILE?

COMPILED BY AHMED KHALED

WAS MUHAMMAD A PEDOPHILE?

INTRODUCTION
The idea that The Prophet is a pedophile originates from the time and state of the Prophet’s
marriage with Hazrat Aisha, associated with the sources that claim that she was a nine-years old
girl at the time of her marriage; I have compiled and written two answers based on those claims,
the first proves that she was 14-15 or 19 or even 20 (I don’t mention other sources which makes her
27 or 28) at the time of marriage – and a second answer concerning even if she was a nine-years
old girl.

THE DEFINITION OF PEDOPHILIA :

Wikipedia Defines Pedophilia as a “psychological disorder in which an adult or older adolescent
has a sexual preference for prepubescent children. According to the DSM, pedophilia is specified
as a form of paraphilia in which a person either has intense sexual urges towards children, or
experiences recurrent sexual urges towards and fantasies about children that they have either
acted on, or cause distress or interpersonal difficulty” The coming definition would be that of a
child, since we are talking about strong sexual desire towards children.

THE DEFINITION OF A CHILD:

Medically, a child is defined as “a human between the stages of birth and puberty”
The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger
than the age of majority.
The biological definition of a child is that a “child is anyone in the developmental stage of
childhood, between infancy and adulthood.”
The conclusion from what’s cited above is that a child is one who did not reach puberty, while the
Legal definition varies by time and place, since In some countries a child is one until 18, others
until 21, others until 16, and therefore, The whole argument falls into the idea of Aisha’s puberty,
If she reached it or not; That is reflected by her body and/or Age, and therefore, The Prophet
would be a pedophile, particularly if he married a pre-puber girl, and If then he would not be a
prophet, hence a Prophet cannot be a pedophile.

WHO IS HAZRAT AISHA?

Aisha was Abu Bakr’s Daughter and Muhammad’s wife after Khadija Bent Khuwaild [May god be
pleased with her], an 40-years old widow whom The Prophet [pbuh] married after she wanted to
and offered it to him, After she saw his Morals and Good deeds while He was working with her,
Muhammad’s age was then twenty-five, marrying a forty years old woman whom proposed
marriage from him, If he was a pedophile then, he would have not accepted, for he wants a child,
but that was not the case.
After Khadija’s Death, Which was After the Call The Prophet married “Sawda Bent Zema” a
widowed-woman older than The Prophet, whom he married to teach Muslims to have pity on
widows and because she and himself felt lonely, she was about 55 years old, Also, Why would a
pedophile accept this? I don’t think that a pedophile would marry two women older than himself?
This denies the idea that the Prophet was a pedophile, but still, it is claimed that He may have
claimed pedophilia after that, and that is what this part is about.

The Idea itself is so ridiculous ignoring cultural and social status back then, but It must be
answered, since some would easily be cheated by those claims, and therefore There must exist an
answer.

ANSWER I: D ETERMINATION OF THE TRUE AGE OF HAZRAT AISHA

A bigger answer has already been compiled by Zahid Aziz at muslim.org, I strongly encourage
anyone to read that Article, since this research is based on it (Although this is an Ahmadiyaa site,
It offers good information on Islam)

It is believed on the authority of some Hadiths in Bukhair’s Sahih that the marriage ceremony of
Aisha with the Holy Prophet took place when she was a girl of six, and that she joined him as his
wife when she was nine, I quote below the Hadiths which share this Idea:

“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.”1

“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.”2

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, and
therefore, The True Age of Aisha is to be deduced from another Authentic Hadith to determine if
the Hadiths in question are true or not.

It appears that Imam 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 ceremony 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
1
Volume 5, Book 58, Number 234
2
Volume 5, Book 58, Number 236
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 Kuran] 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, that Aisha could not have been less than ten years of age at the time of her betrothal.
And there is one report in the Tabaqat that Aisha was nine years of age at the time of betrothal.
Again it is a fact admitted on all hands that the betrothal 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 betrothal 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.”3

The information that Imam Muhammad Ali cites above is enough as a logical evidence for the
true age of Hazrat Aisha, at least fourteen or fifteen, a fully puber girl that is considered then to
be Legal and be able to marry Prophet Muhammad, Also, Over this extensive amount of
evidence, Research subsequent to the time of Imam 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. Points 1 to 3 below have been brought to light in this
pamphlet.

I. The famous classical historian for Islam (Although Many of his works were easily
criticized) Ibn Jarir Al-Tabari wrote in his book ‘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.”4
Being born before Islam means being born before the Call.
II. 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,

3
Living Thoughts of the Prophet Muhammad, 1992 U.S.A. edition, p. 30, note 40.
4
Tarikh le Al-Tabari, vol. 4, p. 50.
 and was ten years older than her. … In 73 A.H. … Asma died at the age of one hundred
years.”5
III. The same statement is made by the famous classical commentator of the Holy Kuran, 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.”6

Apart from the evidence cited above, which are presented in the Urdu Pamphlet, 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 come as the following:

“Ever since I can remember (or understand things) my parents were following the religion of
Islam.”7

This is tantamount to saying that she was born sometime before her parents accepted Islam but
she can only remember them practicing 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.

Apart from these extensive evidences cited above from the Urdu Pamphlet and Imam
Muhammad Ali’s Translation of Sahih Al-Bukhari in Urdi Fadl-ul-Bari, He had pointed out
reports of two events which show that Hazrat Aisha could not have been born later than the year
of The Call these are as follows:

I. 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.”8 Commenting on this report, Maulana Muhammad Ali
writes: “This report sheds some light on the question of the age of Aisha. … The

5
Mishkat al-Masabih, Edition with Urdu translation published in Lahore, 1986, vol. 3, p. 300–301.
6
Al-Bidayya wal-nuhaya Vol. 8 p. 346
7
Those four places in Sahih Bukhari are the following: Kitab-us-Salat, ch. ‘A mosque which is in the way that does not
inconvenience people’; Kitab-ul-Kafalat, ch. ‘Abu Bakr under the protection of a non-Muslim in the time of the Holy Prophet
and his pact with him’; Kitab Manaqib-ul-Ansar, ch. ‘Emigration of the Holy Prophet and his Companions to Madina’; and
Kitab-ul-Adab, ch. ‘Should a person visit every day, or morning and evening’.
8
Muhsin Khan’s English translation of Bukhari, Volume 3, Book 37, Number 494.
 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.”9 Again, this would make her more than fourteen at the time of
the consummation of her marriage.
II. 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.”10 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.”11

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 Hazrat Aisha (may God be pleased with her)
was nineteen years old when she joined the Holy Prophet as his wife in the year 2 A.H., the
betrothal having taken place five years previously.

With the evidences cited above, Aisha was a girl whom puberty have arrived to her, at least
fifteen or nineteen at the time of her joining as a wife to the Holy Prophet, and therefore, The
Idea that The Prophet is a prophet is completely demolished.

ANSWER II: THE CULTURAL STATUS OF ARABIA 14 CENTURIES AGO.

If the above evidence was not enough for yourself, or you chose to believe lies and anti-Islamic
propaganda, then there is another answer concerning the argument, when judging on a person
you need to judge him with his society’s laws, culture and social status, hence you cannot Judge a
man who lived 14 centuries ago with Today’s laws, hence laws change.

9
Fadl-ul-Bari, vol. 1, p. 501, footnote 1.
10
Sahih Bukhari, Kitab-ul-Jihad wal-Siyar, Chapter: ‘Women in war and their fighting alongside men’ Volume 4, Book
52, Number 131.
11
Fadl-ul-Bari, vol. 1, p. 651.
I above mentioned the definition of a child, mainly, one who did not reach puberty, and therefore,
The Prophet [pbuh] would not be a pedophile if Aisha was a girl whom has reached puberty.

FamilyDoctor.org In terms of puberty concerning girl says: “Puberty is the time in life when a
young person starts to become sexually mature. In girls, puberty may start as early as 6 or 7 years
of age, but it usually starts around 11 years of age. This represents a change in how doctors think
about normal puberty. Until recently, puberty that started at 8 years of age or later in girls was
considered normal. In boys, though, the age considered normal for the beginning of puberty has
not changed. In boys, puberty begins around 12 years as age, but may start as early as 9 years of
age. This is a process that goes on for several years. Most girls are physically mature by about 14
years of age. Boys mature at about 15 or 16.”

If until recently girls it could be considered normal for a girl to start reaching puberty at the age of
8, and now it starts at 11 (and therefore decrementing) then we can deduce that 14 centuries ago it
would have been normally for a girl to start reaching puberty at the age of 6, and reach puberty at
9. Also, It is well know that Girls do mature in hot climates faster than in colder climates, the
possibility that one girl would reach puberty at 9 is not out of mind.

Also, Children at then started to work at the age of 6 or 7, There were children who became
soldiers at an age like 12 and therefore, Aisha would have been a girl that was working then, an
example would be Ali when he was a seven-years old child.

Also, as I cited above, Aisha was already married to a man called Jubair, and this itself proves that
It was normal and not something extra ordinary, If we were to judge like that, The whole society
of Arabs would be pedophiles which completely illogical and ridiculous, Also, The Pagans, and
The Jews at Khaybar and other lands were trying to abuse every single event to make Muhammad
a devil, and not a Prophet, Why didn’t they use that? It is not mentioned in any Islamic or Non-
Islamic source that they used that, if it would have been anything bad, they would have abused it,
they got the news of the marriage and no one said anything, this proves that it was a normal
cultural practice then.

Also, An Idea that is needed to mention is that If Muhammad really “Raped” Aisha, Aisha would
have said that, She would have complained, She would have hated Muhammad, while the truth is
the complete opposite! This can’t happen, that would be contradictory! Also, Muhammad’s
companions always Mentioned Aisha as good, In fact, at least one third of the Sharia is based on
Aisha’s words.

This Hadith from Aisha says: “Aaishah (Radhiallahu 'Anha) said: "Allah's Messenger never hit
anything with his hand ever, except when fighting in the path of Allaah. Nor did he ever hit a
servant or a woman."”  [Recorded by Ibn Maajah. Al-Albaanee graded it Saheeh.]

I do not think one whom you hate would make you such a good character, Also, The following
are two examples of what the Holy Prophet’s male Companions said about her:
“Abu Musa said: Whenever there was any hadith that was difficult [to understand] for us, the
Companions of the Messenger of Allah, and we asked Aisha we always found that she had
knowledge about that hadith.”

“Musa ibn Talha said: I never saw anyone more eloquent than Aisha.”12

In the famous compilation of the lives of saints in Islam, Tadhkirat-ul-Auliya, the author Farid-
ud-Din Attar, who lived eight centuries ago, introduces the life of the early female saint Rabia of
Basra as follows:

“If anyone says, ‘Why have you included Rabia in the rank of men?’, my answer is that the Prophet
himself said, ‘God does not regard your outward forms’. … Moreover, if it is proper to derive two-
thirds of our religion from Aisha, surely it is permissible to take religious instruction from a
handmaid of Aisha.”13

It is thus recognized, from the earliest times in Islam, that some two-thirds of Islamic Sharia is
based on reports and interpretations that have come from Aisha.

In view of these exceptional qualities of Aisha and the towering role played by her in the
transmission of the teachings of Islam, it is simply preposterous and outrageous to suggest that
she was the victim of some form of child and marital abuse. I ask in particular the Christian and
Jewish critics of Islam, who are reviling the Holy Prophet Muhammad on the basis of his
marriage with Aisha, whether they can point out any example of a woman in their religions who
played a role like that of Aisha in learning the religion from its founder and becoming the teacher
and instructor of all his followers, including men, after his death.

CONCLUSION

In Conclusion of this chapter, Hazrat Aisha [may God be pleased with her] was at least fifteen or
nineteen at the time of her marriage, Hazrat Aisha was not a victim of rape, she was a great
woman, It was something culturally normal to marry young girls, If Aisha was even a one, and
therefore, The Holy Prophet is not a pedophile, could not be a pedophile, and the Idea itself is
completely demolished, Also I ask in particular the Christian and Jewish critics of Islam, who are
reviling the Holy Prophet Muhammad on the basis of his marriage with Aisha, whether they can
point out any example of a woman in their religions who played a role like that of Aisha in
learning the religion from its founder and becoming the teacher and instructor of all his
followers, including men, after his death.

12
Tirmidhi, Abwab-ul-Manaqib, i.e. Chapters on Excellences, under ‘Virtues of Aisha’.
13
Muslim Saints and Mystics, abridged English translation of Tadhkirat-ul-Auliya, by A.J. Arberry, p. 40.