was Muhammad a pedophile ? the short answer is no , but this highly offensive
question is asked increasingly these days particularly on social media and by christians .
missionaries who in my experience taunt muslims with this accusation that Muhammad was a pedophile ,
and this in particular is because of his marriage to Aisha . but when you look at the historical
evidence presented in context , we find that this allegation is in fact baseless and
that's what i intend to do now briefly . scholars disagree concerning the age of Aisha when she
married the prophet . the earliest estimate being that she was nine years old ,
this means that the marriage contract was ratified after Aisha reached puberty which
was considered adulthood in ancient arab society . a marriage between an older man and a younger woman
was customary and socially appropriate in that era considering that such marriages were an important
means of survival in a harsh desert environment and that people had a much lower life expectancy
than they do have today . professor Colin Turner of the University of Durham here in England .
he is an expert on islam in the Middle East studies department , explains the context of the
prophet's marriage . he writes : a marriage between an older man and a young girl was customary among
the bedouins , as it still is in many societies across the world today . it was not unheard of in
Muhammad's time for boys and girls to be promised to each other in marriage almost as soon as they
were born , particularly if the union was of direct political significance to the families concerned .
however such marriages were almost certainly not consummated until both parties had entered
adulthood (which arabs in the 7th century tended to reach at an earlier age than westerners today) .
it is highly unlikely that Muhammad would have taken Aisha into his bed
until she was at least in her early teens which was wholly in keeping with the customs of the day
and in context not in the least improper . that's professor Colin Turner "Islam : the Basics"
published by rutledge 2006 pages 34-35 . the scholar of religion's Karen Armstrong , she's
a very distinguished and accomplished publisher on Islam , Christianity , Judaism , Buddhism .
in her biography of the prophet writes : there was no impropriety in Muhammad's betrothal to Aisha ,
marriages conducted in absentia to seal an alliance were often contracted at this time
between adults and minors who were even younger than Aisha . this practice continued in Europe
until well into the early modern period , there was no question of consummating the marriage
until Aisha reached puberty , when she would be married off like any other girl .
end quote . that's from her "Muhammad : A Prophet for Our Time" published by harpercollins . interestingly
christian tradition recalls a similar marriage between : can you guess ? the much older Joseph
to the young virgin Mary , and this is even more extreme . the catholic encyclopedia says of Joseph :
a year after his wife's death as the priests announced through Judea that they wish to find
in the tribe of Judea a respectable man to espouse Mary when 12 to 14 years of age , Joseph who was at
that time 90 years old went up to Jerusalem among the candidates . that's the catholic encyclopedia
in new advent website 1995. so she may have been as young as 12 and he may have been as old
as 90. christians cannot possibly use the prophet's marriage to condemn islam for if
they do so , they would have to condemn Joseph , saint Joseph the husband of the virgin Mary (and i can't
imagine they would ever do that) . but interestingly marriage in islam is not simply about sex ,
it's a spiritual agreement based as the quran puts it on love and mercy in surah 30 verse 21 it reads :
he god created spouses from among yourselves for you to live with in tranquility , he ordained
love and kindness between you . so this is what god has ordained for marriage .
ratifying a marriage contract does not necessitate sex , there is no evidence whatsoever
that the prophet had sex with Aisha before puberty , and that's a crucial point .and just to
emphasize that point , just to create a couple of western sources talking about the age of
consent and marriage in the west . quoting from a textbook "Adolescence, Sexuality, and the
Criminal Law: Multidisciplinary Perspectives" it's the handbook discussing the regulation of
adolescent sexual behavior and provides lots of useful historical information , it's mainly written
for the legal profession for those interested in issues of criminality and the sexuality of
children and adolescents , and it says on page 25 : age of consent throughout history has usually
coincided with the age of puberty , although at some times it has been as early as seven . early on ,
age of consent was a familial or tribal matter and only became a legal one in the greco-roman period .
the Roman tradition served as the base for Christian Europe as well as
the christian church itself which generally essentially based upon biological development
at 12 or even 14 but continued to set the absolute minimum at seven (seven years old) . and then
another quote here : traditionally across the globe , the age of consent for sexual union was a matter
for families to decide or a tribal custom . in most cases this coincided with signs of puberty ,
menstruation for a woman and pubic hair for a man . and then coming particularly to the united states
which really surprised me : in the 19th century , the usual age of consent in the United States was
(believe it or not) 10 years in the state of Delaware . until the mid-1960s , it was seven years .
in a guide to America's sex laws the authors note : the law governing the
age of consent has changed dramatically in the united states during the 20th century .
most states codified a statutory age of consent during the 19th century and the usual
age was 10 years . now this is stated by Richard Allen Posner , he was chief judge of the united states
court of appeals . so that was his statement of the affairs . and then coming to Britain .
according to british common law during the colonial period , the age of consent was seven .
today we are astounded that girls of this age were assumed to know enough about sex or about sin
to make such a decision competently but nevertheless that was the reality . so , age of
consent laws are quite different from what they are today clearly . so in the light of this
it cannot be said (coming back to Muhammad again) that there is any evidence at all that the prophet
committed pedophilia . now this was because the age of consent , the age of puberty , the age of
adulthood were all at the same time the age of puberty , and Muhammed would have consummated the
marriage several years after the betrothal when she was technically an adult , when she was a woman
according to the customs and the historical context of the day , so it would have been an
appropriate thing to do . so , it's not right however , i mean obviously i'm not a scholar i'm
not here to produce fatwas but it's not right to follow the customs of seventh century
Arabia in my view , we need to take into account the earth , the customs of our own societies .
and in our societies , the legal age of marriage is quite different , in Britain it's 16 . i understand
in the vast majority of muslim countries , the marriageable age is between 16 and 18 years of
age and that's the custom you follow , there's no set age as far as i'm aware in the Sharia
for marriage . so to summarize the prophet's marriage to Aisha was appropriate considering
the circumstances of life in Ancient Arabia , their marriage was not based upon lust or abuse but upon
their shared spiritual mission to deliver these teachings of islam to humanity because Aisha
went on to become one of the greatest scholars of islam and a transmitter of knowledge of the sunnah ,
of the prophet particularly regarding women's matters , women's issues and she's highly regarded
even today for that knowledge . so i think that is (in a very rough way , in a very
simple way) the reason why it is anachronistic to put it politely . in other words , you're reading back
our contemporary western understandings which are very historically relative reading it back
into history to other times and other cultures and judging those cultures that's called Anachronism
and it's not a good thing it's an intellectual sin . most cultures throughout history in the bible
of course as well , the age of marriage was the age of puberty . if we condemn Muhammad , we condem the
Virgin Mary , we condem Joseph , we condem the vast majority of people throughout history for
whom adulthood began at puberty . the bar mitzvah is another example , when boys and girls now
usually about 12 13 years of age are technically adults , they take on the burden
of following all the commandments of the torah . this is when they enter into the adult community .
so it's a different age from the ever-increasing age seems like after ever-increasing increase
in the age of marriage and when childhood ends , we had now have adolescents which didn't exist
before the 19th century . anyway ; that's enough for now i hope that was of interest . until next time