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Child marriage and Hazrat Aishah, wife of the Holy Prophet Muhammad

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 21 November 2025

“And give women their dowries (nuptial gift) as a free gift. But if they of themselves are pleased to give you a portion from it, consume it with enjoyment and pleasure.” — ch. 4, An-Nisā’, v. 4

وَ اٰتُوا النِّسَآءَ صَدُقٰتِہِنَّ نِحۡلَۃً ؕ فَاِنۡ طِبۡنَ لَکُمۡ عَنۡ شَیۡءٍ مِّنۡہُ نَفۡسًا فَکُلُوۡہُ ہَنِیۡٓــًٔا مَّرِیۡٓــًٔا ﴿۴﴾

“And test the orphans until they reach the age of marriage. Then if you find in them maturity of intellect, make over to them their property…” — ch. 4, An-Nisā’, v. 6

وَ ابۡتَلُوا الۡیَتٰمٰی حَتّٰۤی اِذَا بَلَغُوا النِّکَاحَ ۚ فَاِنۡ اٰنَسۡتُمۡ مِّنۡہُمۡ رُشۡدًا فَادۡفَعُوۡۤا اِلَیۡہِمۡ اَمۡوَالَہُمۡ ۚ …

I have recited these verses to show that, according to the Quran, a woman at the time of her marriage must have decision-making capacity. Unfortunately, in later Islamic law, which was developed by Muslim jurists two centuries and more after the beginning of Islam, the marriage of a girl who is a child 10 or 11 years old is allowed. Child marriage was a custom in many societies in the world. The reasons were often connected with establishing or maintaining a political, tribal or property alliance between families. Here in the UK until 1929 the minimum legal age of marriage was 12 for a girl and 14 for a boy provided they had the consent of the parents. The law was changed in 1929 to raise the age for both girls and boys to 16 with parental consent, and to 21 without need for parental consent. There are still people in the UK, now aged 96 or more, within whose lifetime it was legal in the UK for a girl to be married at the age of 12 years, and for a boy at the age of 14 years.

The first verse I recited requires the husband, at the time of marriage, to bestow a material gift on his wife, which becomes her property. This is generally known as mahr. Maulana Muhammad Ali, in his Urdu commentary on the Quran, has empha­sised that the mahr is a free gift which is given without expectation of any return. He mentions that there was a pre-Islamic custom, which continued among some non-Muslim communities for a long time later on, that this was a payment or bride-price which the husband paid to the parents or guardians of the bride in exchange for the bride. This custom is prohibited in Islam by declaring mahr to be a niḥlah or free gift. It is written in a dictionary of the Arabic of the Quran, compiled 900 years ago, that the word  niḥlah comes from the Arabic word for the honey bee which is naḥl because bees bring free gifts for flowers when they fly over to them. Of course, honey is sweet, and the niḥlah given to the bride by the husband must also be a sweet and pleasing thing.

To be a property owner, a man or woman must possess the discretion to make decisions. As every bride is given this mahr, which becomes her material property, it clearly means that she should be of age to own property. Moreover, the verse says that if the bride is happy to give back something from it back to her husband as a gift from her, then he should take it with pleasure. This clearly indicates that she has the right to give that property by her own choice and discretion. So she must be of an age to know what she is doing with her possessions and why she is doing it.

The second quotation I read, which is from the start of a verse two verses later, contains instructions for guardians of orphans. Obviously, when orphans grow up, they have to be given independence by their guardians. This verse requires the guar­dians to apply some kind of test of mental maturity to the orphans, and if they pass it then to hand over to them any property which the guardians were looking after for them. How does marriage come into this? It comes in because the verse says that you should keep on testing orphans till they reach the age of marriage. This clearly shows that in Islam there is a minimum age below which marriage cannot take place, and this is the age when a person attains mental maturity and can handle his or her own money and property.

I mentioned above that in the UK the legal age of marriage was set by law in 1929 at 16 for both girls and boys. At the same time, the British government of India also proposed to pass a similar law for British India, with the ages being 14 for girls and 16 for boys. The purpose was to prevent the widespread custom of child marriages among Hindus and Muslims. Various Muslim religious leaders expressed their opinions on this measure. Maulana Muhammad Ali, in an article in English, wrote:

“Thus it would appear that the bill for fixing an age limit for marriage in the case of boys as well as girls is quite in accordance with the Holy Quran and the Sunnah, and must be welcomed by all Muslims and given support to unconditionally. Personally 1 would like the age limit in the case of girls to be raised to 15 and in the case of boys to 18. … Even those Muslims who are of the opinion that Islam allows the marriage of minors must concede that this is at the most an exception and also that the general trend of the teachings of Islam is against it, and therefore, a law prohibiting the marriage of minors cannot be said to be against the teaching of Islam.” (The Light, 5 July 1928, p. 7–8)

The Muslim religious leaders who regard child marriage as allowable put forward an argument that it is stated in Bukhari that Hazrat Aishah was betrothed to the Holy Prophet, i.e., entered into nikāḥ  or the marriage pact, when she was six years old, and she joined him in his household when she was nine years old. These statements about her age have become widespread among Muslims, non-Muslims and the critics of Islam. It appears that Maulana Muhammad Ali was the first Islamic scholar directly to challenge that she was this young. He showed from historical evidence that there were, not three years, but five years between her nikāḥ and her joining the Holy Prophet’s household, and that her nikāḥ took place when she was at the least ten years old, making her at least fifteen years old when her marital life started. Further research by members of our Jamaat has shown that at her nikāḥ she was 14 or 15 years old and 19 years old when her marital life started. She had a sister, Hazrat Asma, about whom it is known that she was ten years older than Hazrat Aishah, and from the date of Hazrat Asma’s death and her age at death we find that Asma was 25 years old when Hazrat Aishah’s nikāḥ took place. So Hazrat Aishah was 15 at her nikāḥ.

I may mention two further evidences about her true age. There is a famous biography of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, written about 200 years after his death, known as Sīrat Rasūl Allāh by Ibn Ishaq, edited by Ibn Hisham. It has been translated from Arabic into other languages, including Urdu and English. It is well-known that Hazrat Abu Bakr was one of the very earliest persons to accept Islam when the Holy Prophet Muhammad started preaching at the age of forty. Then Hazrat Abu Bakr himself started calling others to Islam. In Ibn Ishaq’s book there is a list of people who accepted Islam at the invitation of Hazrat Abu Bakr. In that list are mentioned:

“Asma, daughter of Abu Bakr, together with his little daughter Aishah” (p. 116 of the English translation by A. Guillame).

This clearly shows that when the Holy Prophet started his mission, Aishah had not only been born but was capable of accepting Islam as her religion. As she was undoubtedly what is called a child prodigy, she must have been not much less than 5 years old at the time. This would make her at least 15 years old at the time of her nikāḥ, and at least 20 when she joined him as wife.

Two incidents reported in Sahih Bukhari relating to the famous battle of Uhud, which took place about a year after her marriage to the Holy Prophet, also show that she could not possibly have been 9 years of age at her marriage. A Companion of the Holy Prophet relates:

“On the day (of the battle) of Uhud when (some) people retreated and left the Prophet, I saw Aishah 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. 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.” (hadith 2880)

This is in a chapter of Bukhari headed: “Women in battle and their fighting along with men.” Commenting on this report, Maulana Muhammad Ali writes:

“It should also be noted that Aishah 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.”

The second incident about this battle is related by Hazrat Ibn Umar as follows:

“The Messenger of Allah called me to present myself in front of him on the eve of the battle of Uhud, while I was fourteen years of age at that time, and he did not allow me to take part in that battle, but he called me in front of him on the eve of the battle of the Trench when I was fifteen years old, and he allowed me.” (hadith 2664, 4097)

As the Holy Prophet did not allow Ibn Umar, a male, to join the battle of Uhud because his age was only 14, how could the Holy Prophet allow Hazrat Aishah, a female and his own wife, to come to that battlefield at the supposed age of ten?

It is also abundantly clear from the role which Hazrat Aishah played for the Muslim community for more than forty years after the death of the Holy Prophet, as interpreter and teacher of Islam, and narrator of the sayings and actions of the Holy Prophet, that he married her because of her remarkable qualities, as well as due to the prospect that she would live for a considerable period of time after his death and be able to spread his message to distant generations. The qualities she was blessed with included: a constant inquisitiveness to acquire knowledge, an excellent memory to retain it, and a great power of understanding and reasoning with which to analyse, interpret and apply it. Added to these were her boldness in speaking the truth to anyone, however high they may be, and her extraordinary communication skills to transmit that knowledge to a wide range of audiences, whether it was the prominent Com­panions of the Holy Prophet or the ordinary believers, scholars or students, males or females.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica writes that many regard Hazrat Aishah “as personifying an early Islamic idealization of women as the social and legal equal of men, valorized for their contributions in both the private and public spheres.” May Allah enable all Muslims to accord that recognition to her, and take her as our role-model — Ameen.

Website: www.aaiil.uk