I know they’re not held as being prophets, that wasn’t why I posted it. Why do you care if I condem muhammad and aisha’s marriage or not??? I’m not condoning child marriage if that’s what you’re talking about. But I do acknowledge that in times before, “child” marriage was more normal. One can glean from the Talmud as well as all bible scholors that I’ve heard from, that marriage at a young age was the norm back then. I agree that consumation at age 9 seems really young. But I have read about 9 yr olds being married and having children at that age (with their, and their parents approval-in the 21st century). Also, from what I’ve read in hadiths, aisha only had good things to say about muhammed, for whatever it’s worth. But again, I’m not advocating anything of the sort.
Yes there are girls even today who are married off that young and have babies. Most of them suffer horrific physical problems because of it. I’ll have to look for a study I found about what is happening to girls in places like Pakistan and Indonesia these days where they are still married off as almost babies. It will break your heart, especially if you have a daughter and actually care about her. Just because parents might have approved of a marriage, even in the 21st century does not mean anything. Some parents are SOBs who could care less about their children. This is why society at large needs to have laws to protect children… yes even to protect them from parents some times.
I can look back in history at Muhammad’s marriage to Aisha and say that what he did was wrong. But in his time, some people did that. If it stays in that time of history then fine.
But I have discussed this topic with many Muslims. Most Muslims have told me that since Muhammad did it, obviously God condones child brides, hence it is allowable even today. I know a few Muslim who were born here in the USA and converted to Islam as young adults. They want to see the age of consent here in the USA rolled back to younger ages…as young as 9 years old.
The age of marital consent for girls in Iran was 9 years old, based on the live of Muhammad, until about 5 years ago. They only changed the law because of international pressure but they left in a loop hole that still allows young girls to be married off if the courts/clerics and the girls father agree. So basically the law never changed. It just looks good on paper. Child marriages are still common in many places world wide, even where they are supposedly outlawed. And the problem is that with many Muslims is that they believe it to be just fine because of the marriage of Muhammad to Aisha.
As for early marriage in the Talmud, etc. By the time of Jesus, the Jewish law was that a marriage could not be consummated until the girl was about 14 years old. They could not be engaged until the age of 12.5. Then the engagement lasted a year. So the earliest a marriage could take place was t 13.5. Then after the marriage the girl lived with her parents for the next year while the couple ‘dated’ and got to know each other. She did not move into her husband’s home and consummate the marriage until she was 14.5. While that is young by today’s standards, it’s a whole lot older then 9 years old. The average life span in those days was something like 25 or 30 year old.
These laws had been in place for hundreds of years, they were the laws of the Jews and the Christians of that time. It was the Arab tribes who were still doing many of the things like marrying children, burying girls alive, etc.
I would have less of a problem with the marriage of Muhammad to Aisha if I had not found that most Muslims I’ve spoken to on the topic have no problem with child marriages specifically because of the example of Muhammad.
