Aisha bint Abu Bakr

[Augustine3]

You may realise that such a debate is no longer about facts. Muslims believe that Mohammad was a perfect man (but that doesn’t make him God - so go figure). When confronted with an inconsistency between his actions with today’s values, Muslims end up with one of two options:

1 The facts are wrong and so, reinterpret the facts so that the facts of his life reflect the values of today. Which is why ever so often, alternative views emerge. Neither the mainstream views or these alternative views have much of evidence to stand up to them because the hagiography just sidesteps such factors.

2 The values are wrong and so reiterate the values of Mohammad’s days as the values of today. This leads to a calcification of thought and a backward-looking community yearning for a Golden Age of long past and eventually a stagnation & a blaming of others (in the current situation, the Judeo-Christian world) for the undeniable stagnation they find themselves in.

There is of course a small but (hopefully) growing number of Muslims who understand that there must be a context to the Quran and not everything Mohammad did that was acceptable then would be acceptable today. We pray for this growing group that they may eventually lead Muslims back to an Islam built on matured thinking.

This goes back to my original post before posts were thrown to detract the issue. If Muhammad was the supreme epitome of how a Muslim ought to live his life, then I fail to grasp how a 50 year old man can be attracted to a 9 year old girl (7 years old originally when first noticed by Muhammad) regardless of the values held at that particular time. Actually the values back then were more barbaric and self-centred forcing young girls to marry and having total disregard of their consent. Muhammad’s life example is meant to be applied to all times and all places. He has failed to show the authenticity of a true marriage built on the foundation of love which is the natural law written in our hearts. I’m talking about marriage the way Allah intended it to be, not some strategic move for political gain or whatever other reasons Muslims try to explain it.

 

[Reuben_J]

This goes back to my original post before posts were thrown to detract the issue. If Muhammad was the supreme epitome of how a Muslim ought to live his life, then I fail to grasp how a 50 year old man can be attracted to a 9 year old girl (7 years old originally when first noticed by Muhammad) regardless of the values held at that particular time. Actually the values back then were more barbaric and self-centred forcing young girls to marry and having total disregard of their consent. Muhammad’s life example is meant to be applied to all times and all places.

This seems to trouble me too with regard to Muhammad who was unable to rise above the dastardly practice of having sex with minors as was the tribal practice of the people then. He seemed to okay this practice in Islam.

He has failed to show the authenticity of a true marriage built on the foundation of love which is the natural law written in our hearts. I’m talking about marriage the way Allah intended it to be, not some strategic move for political gain or whatever other reasons Muslims try to explain it.

Playing the Devil advocate here – except for the fact that she was a minor, there was no evidence that Muhammad did not love the child. In fact according to most of the Hadiths regarding her, she was actually the favorite wife and Muhammad dotted on her.

There is nothing wrong for the marriage to cement a better relationship between the families as long as the couples are faithful, loving and caring for each other. In fact, many of the marriages in the Old Testament were arranged with the view that they were beneficial to both parties / families.

 

[jimkhong]

This goes back to my original post before posts were thrown to detract the issue. If Muhammad was the supreme epitome of how a Muslim ought to live his life, then I fail to grasp how a 50 year old man can be attracted to a 9 year old girl (7 years old originally when first noticed by Muhammad) regardless of the values held at that particular time. Actually the values back then were more barbaric and self-centred forcing young girls to marry and having total disregard of their consent. Muhammad’s life example is meant to be applied to all times and all places. He has failed to show the authenticity of a true marriage built on the foundation of love which is the natural law written in our hearts. I’m talking about marriage the way Allah intended it to be, not some strategic move for political gain or whatever other reasons Muslims try to explain it.

I do agree of much you said if I am following your train of thoughts correctly. The main problem for the Muslims is this notion that Mohammad is the perfect man. Other than I am not able to find it in the Quran (someone can help me here), the concept is also baffling as perfection is an attribute exclusive only to God. But Mohammad is also said to be only a man. If so, he cannot be perfect in the general sense of the word.

If he is perfect, then his motivations is perfectly aligned with God, leaving God in an unusual situation of ‘playing politics’ with marriage and a 7 year old girl (and having some of his creation 14 centuries later being turned off by the idea).

If he is not perfect, then he is another man trying to do God’s work in an imperfect way because he couldn’t figure out a more perfect way to do it. He is driven by motivations and emotions that’s not exactly divine - personal gain, pride, etc, etc, etc.

 

[Vico]

Here is the age of marriage in some of the modern day Muslim majority countries ,

Male 18, Female 16-Pakistan, Egypt,

Both 18- Morocco, Turkey, Iraq.

Male 21, Female 18- Algeria, Bangladesh

Male 15, Female 13 Iran

Male 16, Female 16 Jordan

Male 18, Female 14 Afghanistan,

muslim-marriage-guide.com/marriage-age.html

With parental consent and court permission:

Male 14, Female 13 New Hampshire, USA:

So pregnancy is a reason to allow it so it is pubescent not prepubescent. That would make it fall into Hebephilia (typically ages 11 to 14). Modal age of menarche is 12.8 in the USA.

Pediatrics. 2003 Jan;111(1):110-3. reported:
Less than 10% of US girls start to menstruate before 11 years, and 90% of all US girls are menstruating by 13.75 years of age, with a median age of 12.43 years. This age at menarche is not significantly different (0.34 years earlier) than that reported for US girls in 1973.

 

[adamhovey1988]

Recently I was talking with some people about Islam, and one of the people I spoke with claimed Muhammad was a pedophile.

The person didn’t give any explanation, so I assumed he was probably just parroting something a pundit said or otherwise was being racist (i.e. assuming that all Arabs were pedophiles).

To confirm that the person was wrong, I looked up Muhammad’s Wives to be sure. Then I found that one of them was Aisha bint Abu Bakr.

Wikipedia states: “Traditional sources state that she stayed in her parents’ home until the age of nine when the marriage was consummated with Muhammad, then 53, in Medina, with the single exception of al-Tabari, who records that she was ten.”

Wiki Islam, a form of Wikipedia operated by Muslims, states: “She was the daughter of Muhammad’s best friend and head evangelist Abu Bakr. Muhammad selected the six-year-old Aisha in preference to her teenaged sister, and she remained his favourite wife. She contributed a major body of information to Islamic law and history. The paedophilic aspect of this relationship has institutionalised such marriages within Islam.”

So my question to Muslims is, how do you explain this?
In pretty much the entire world today pedophilia (an adult having sex with a pre-pubescent child such as a 9 year old) is considered one of the most heinous and unforgivable crimes someone can commit, so why would God give revelations to one? Does “consummating a marriage” mean something different in the Muslim World than it does in the Western World? Is someone just spreading misinformation? Or did a founder of a major religion really have sex with a 9 year old?

To be clear, I only want answers from MUSLIMS (or from people who have had a conversation with Muslims on this topic) All the other times I made posts asking about Islam, I got a lot of answers from Christians. In one thread I started asking how non-christian religions viewed Jesus, lots of Christians harassed the non-Christians. I don’t want that to happen here; only reply if your a Muslim, if you’ve talked to a Muslim on this, or if you intend to cite your sources.

I am not Muslim, so I will not answer the question. Do take note that even if all Muslims were paedophiles (not all are) do recall that not all Arabs are Muslim. Here in the United States most Arab Americans are Christian.