Omar Suleiman – Ending the Debate on Aisha RA Age
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the physical and psychological dimension of child marriage, the need for policy to portray the Prophet peace be upon him in various ways, and the importance of empowering women in the workplace. He uses the example of The Lion King to highlight the need for women to be more empowered and find a way to get a woman out of a marriage. He emphasizes the need for women to be more aware of their bodies, develop healthy behavior, and be open-minded in sharing personal experiences with the world.
AI: Summary ©
spinarak Mela Haman hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen
wa salatu salam, ala rasulillah Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam only he was like me with Selim to Suman kathira. So Hamdulillah, we've moved into a different setup. But I pray that Allah subhanaw taala makes it more beneficial. It's more conducive to a classroom environment, it is better to have people packed in and
you know, hopefully insha Allah tala being regular in some of the classes that we have here. But obviously, this is a very unique lecture that we have here tonight. It's, it's not one that's in response to any sort of emergency, it's actually one that complements is meant to complement the collection that we just released, which has been in the works for months and 100. Inaudible I mean, on the age of it, so it'll be a lot of title and the name of the collection was more than just a number. And the idea was to make sure that we don't only contextualize the age of our initial the allow of Thailand, in broader context, using an interdisciplinary approach as the US of the law,
along with Dr. Brown, or looking at, you know, what the definition of a child has been, and is today and will be in the future, but instead to actually reclaim the entire narrative about it shall be allowed. And I've told this story in the past before about,
you know, an incident that I had with a woman at University of Florida, who could not come to terms or grapple with this particular issue of the age of a shovel the Allahu taala and her but Allah subhanho wa Taala blessed her through knowing the person about you shall have the law on her to actually come to Islam through the knowledge of our Isha as a person and actually to name her daughter Isha, once you give birth to it, so because one thing if you just pay very close attention to if you attend Juma photos, if you attend Islamic lectures, the amount of mentions that I certainly allow on her gets is more than any woman in the lifetime of the Prophet sallallahu
wasallam. And as much as any men in the lifetime of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam In fact, the last cultivar that I gave here, I ended off with a story about Isa about the allowance Allah and because through Isha, we know the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam through Isha, we know our religion, through a shadow, the law of Thailand, we develop not just a greater appreciation and love for the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, but we actually develop a greater love and appreciation for her, and she is our mother. And so, I want you to, first and foremost, understand that we're talking about your mom, my mom, she is as beloved to us, as our own biological mothers would be. And
she is our mother, because Allah Subhana Allah gave her that distinction when he gave that distinction to the wives of the messenger, sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And she is our mother and that she is the access that had we not had, we would not know our religion in the way that we know our religion today. Can you imagine how much we'd be deprived from where it not for the love of Thailand, and the wisdom of Allah subhanho wa Taala in placing a woman like a shuttle Viola on her in the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and by extension in our lives through her example, and through her entrance into the example of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam. So where does
the debate about the age of Isha? Well the lohana come into? And it's very interesting because the prophets lie some came 14 150 years ago. All right, so we're talking, you know, centuries ago, and over the years, there have been different attacks on the Prophet sallallahu wasallam. And obviously, there is an agenda behind the attacks on the Prophet peace be upon him starting from the time that he lived himself sallallahu wasallam and as you go through generation after generation, you see the evolution of those attacks on the person and the character of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam. This particular topic, which is a favorite talking point of islamophobes, today, was not just a minor
point or a footnote, in the talking points of islamophobes over 13 centuries, it was completely non existence, meaning you cannot find in the hundreds and hundreds of books of attacks on the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam his character from Quraysh, to the orientalist to the to the to the early European writers on the character of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, you cannot find a single attack on this particular facet of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam his life, not one person takes objection to it. In fact, it is not even an item for discussion within the Islamic tradition itself. There are no lengthy discourses about the age of ihL of the law that exists
From any moment, bizarrely, or cephalus, London Tamia, so both the defense as well as the discourse, not necessarily in the context of a defense, both of those are contemporary issues that have been brought up. So when we say, not only was this not an issue in the time of the prophets lie some in the seventh century were employed, every attack they possibly could on the character and the person of the Prophet peace be upon him. It was not an issue until the 21st century. Yet somehow, it's become the favorite talking point to try to portray the Prophet sallallahu wasallam in a certain way. And there are numerous ways that we could approach the issue, you could approach it and say,
well look at marriages in the past, right. And you could say, you could point to how unfair the uniqueness of the critique of the prophets lie. Some is in this regard, because if you took from Christian tradition, or Jewish tradition, or completely secular tradition, you will find people that were married with much larger age gaps than that of the prophets lie summon, it sold the law on including, for example, those that, that believe that money on money has to them that Mary was married to Joseph and the age gap being almost twice as much as the age gap between the prophets lie seminar, he sold the olana, with magium audience that I'm being in her teens and Joseph being in his
80s. But that not being a discussion not being an issue to be brought up. And I remember, you know, it was interesting to me as I was looking, when I first started studying the biographies of people, and the time of the Prophet slice them as a whole. And I'll never forget something that actually happened with me. And it wasn't in the context of an attack or a discourse. I was just reading in the top of God, and the Sahaba, about Abdullah Muhammad have been loss. May Allah be pleased with him in his father, and it listed ometer loss, and the mother of Abdullah have nominated us as 12 and 10. When Abdullah was born, and I went, hmm, that must be a typo.
Then I realized it wasn't because I started cross checking all the sources like wait, they had 12 year old parents, back then, could you imagine a 12 year old walking around with a child? Right? A 12 year old man and a 10 year old woman walking around in the mezzanine, you'd be like, wait, what is this? That's because human beings look so decidedly different 1400 years ago than they do today, right? And somehow you find the mama shopping mall a lot talking about, you know, a 50 year old grandmother with a 13 year old grandson, and you're just like, What's going on here? How is this all evolving, and cases of law that took place at the time. And you realize right away that this was a
very different society. And these things were spoken about without issue at all, with no discourse to accompany them, whatsoever? So the question, you know, and the papers do an excellent job of talking about this from the perspective of the anthropology of it. And you know, the sociology and psychology of what would be deemed child marriages today, but not necessarily so in the past, which is why you won't find intelligent people actually critiquing the profit slice, and I'm on this using any type of data sets, it's just a matter of using something that they know can, can rock our boat a little bit. So the question, I'm not going to go into all that data, because it exists in the
papers. But I will say this, why frame the profit slice on them like that? Why would islamophobes employ this tactic to frame the profit slice? In that way? It's all about invoking a certain imagery. One that is a portrayal of vicious Muslim men that are in need of restraining, right portraying the angry it's the same image that you get through Hollywood, of angry Muslim men, angry Arab men, right, that are violent, old and, you know, brutal and abusive towards young children, particularly young girls. So it's to portray Muslim men by extension of portrayal of the Prophet slicin him that way, as these violent men that are in need of being restraints. And it also goes to
the women's side, why frame I shuttled the law on her as a child bribe because it fits the portrayal of Muslim women in need of rescue.
Right. So Muslim men are inherently in need of restraints, Muslim women are inherently in need of rescue. Therefore, as part of the colonial project, portraying that entire side of the world as being bred like this,
allows for us to not only attack the Muslim identity in the West, but to pillage the Muslim world in the east, right. So these things are intricately connected and you cannot separate them and many academics have written about that the portrayal of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam in a certain way, that fits with the derogatory portrayals of Muslim men today, right because that is, at the end of the day, how people envision or how people interpret
The dynamics of the Muslim world as a whole. So we then ask ourselves another Why? Why do we have a problem with it? Why does it not settle with me when I hear the Prophet sly Salah married a young Isha, or the Allahu taala? And why is it going to rock me and we have to be willing to first and foremost, you know, acknowledge our own biases, our own cultural conditioning, that every single person is hostage to the norms of the society that they live in. And that's okay, it's okay to be hostage to those norms, because that's how Allah subhanaw taala created you we are conditioned in certain ways, based upon how we interact with the norms that are around us. The problem is not that
the problem is when we try to assign those norms to other societies, not just you know, back in time, but even horizontally to other societies that exist today. Because there are vastly different circumstances that exist in every single one of their society. So why do we have a problem with it? Well, first and foremost, the issue of child marriage, right to to, you know, completely look at, or to or to view child marriage in a holistic fashion. And again, child marriage as it exists today, and what child marriage meant in the time. So first and foremost, why would I have a problem with the marriage of the profit slice I'm in I saw the law and how well first and foremost, why do we
have a problem with child marriage? And how do we assign that dynamic, to the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, there's the physical dimension of that, the physical elements of that. And so the image of a child. And it is perfectly understandable. And it is perfectly rational and reasonable to say that a child today, at the same age would have been an adult 1400 years ago in a different society that people biologically and physically,
you know, matured at different rates. And another thing to assign in that dimension. So again, the first one is physical, was a shuttle, the Allahu taala. And how pubescent did I show the law and have reached the age of maturity. And we know that from the Hadith of the Prophet sly, summoned from the hadith of it. So describing her marriage herself that he settled the allowance on on her, did indeed reach the age of maturity, that when she went to the house of the messengers of voice, and she reached the one universal biological mark, of a transition from childhood to adulthood, before she went into the home of the Prophet peace be upon him. So the first one is, again, physical, the
physical, biological dynamic of it. The second one is the psychology of it. Right? The imagery that is evoked in our minds, when you think of a child marriage, you think of a young abused child, a young child whose self esteem has been taken away a young, quiet, blank child, who does not have any, any way of articulating the devastation of their lives and their circumstances. And when you look at a shuttle, the law of Thailand, what do you see, you see the exact opposite of that in both ways, number one, the confidence she had in herself.
You cannot say about the law, I know that this was a woman that was not confident in herself, very self confident, and assertive woman more so than any of the wives of the Prophet peace be upon him. Right, the the character, the confidence of a shuttle, the Allahu taala on her, was absolutely unmatched by any woman of her time. And the second thing is the love that she had for the Prophet peace be upon him the way that she loved the Prophet peace be upon him. And the way that she viewed the Prophet peace be upon him, and spoke about him in glowing terms and in a loving way. So the physical dimension is out. The psychological dynamic dimension is out another dimension
relationships that we rightfully talk about, which is the power dynamic, right? It evokes a certain power dynamic, and that's something that's being brought up.
You know, and I'm not going to comment on on hillary clinton's comment about Lewinsky and Bill Clinton and how there was no power dynamic there. But intelligent people would recognize a power dynamic right? That there's a certain power dynamic that would arise if there's an adult that's married to a child, and how do we you know, how do we reckon with that in the time of the Prophet peace be upon him if he show was indeed may Allah be pleased with her, a child? Well, if you study the life of Isha and the Prophet peace be upon him and no marriage comes under the microscope in our tradition, more so than the marriage of the Prophet peace be upon him and so may Allah be pleased
with her. In fact, if you were to attend any marriage seminar, or to attend any lecture in the Muslim community, about the about emotional intelligence or about how we should be kind and generous with one another and how we deal with situations in our own marital lives, the examples that you'll go to immediately
are the examples of the Prophet peace be upon him and our mother Isha? May Allah be pleased with her. And those of you that have been exposed to any of those facets of that marriage of the Prophet peace be upon him and Isha, may Allah be pleased with her. How does the power dynamic look?
Is it the Prophet peace be upon him bullying, abusing, putting her in her place? Right, not letting her voice her opinions, showing disregard for her opinions or for her own values or showing disregard for her emotions or shutting her down in arguments. Right? Or are stowing her away? Are any of those things present? No, you have a woman who gives us an intimate look into the arguments that she had with the Prophet peace be upon him.
And not just that, but the way the Prophet peace be upon him dealt with those arguments. You have a woman that would challenge the Prophet peace be upon him. You had a woman that would challenge anybody in her society, right if she felt like she was transgressed or if she felt like something that if she felt like a false hood was expressed, you had a woman that was willing to challenge all of those things. In her times, you had a woman that the Prophet peace be upon him said, I can tell when you're mad at me. Because when you're pleased with me, you say you swear by the Lord of Muhammad, but when you are upset with me, you swear by the Lord of Abraham. So I can tell I can tell
when you're angry with me and I can tell when you're pleased with me We have the the last principle that I gave the last sermon truly that beautiful story, about Isha breaking a plate, and that you know, in the house of the Prophet peace be upon Prophet peace be upon him saying is on its own welcome. Your mother has become jealous, even referring to her as your mother, saying that to the elders amongst the companions, your mother has become jealous and speaking of her in that beautiful way, do you see a an imbalance of power? Do you see a an older man who was oppressing a younger woman or diminishing her in any way, in any of the interactions, we have the interactions of Russia
and the Prophet peace be upon him? In good times, in average times and in bad times? In any of those situations? Do you see a power dynamic that switches or a pendulum that swings too far into the direction of the Prophet peace be upon him? And I mean, the power dynamic, just for the record, would exist when you have any non profit, PR o p. h, et not nonprofit the way we understand but a person that's not a prophet married to a prophet. I mean, that's, that's, that's a pretty
you know, that's a pretty difficult relationship to navigate in the first place. It's pretty intimidating if you'd be married to someone who receives divine revelation. Right? But do you ever see the Prophet peace be upon him? abusing how Allah favored him? Not just over mankind, but favorite him over? Isha? May Allah be pleased with her? Absolutely not? Well, what about them? Number four, so we already covered again, the the idea here is if you think child marriage, the imagery that comes to mind or the things that would, that would evoke a discomfort in you would be number one, physical, biological, number two, psychological. Number three, the power dynamic number
for the educational dynamic. Because the discussions about child marriage across the world, are inevitably linked, always to education, where there is rampant child marriage, there is a gross imbalance of education between children who are boys and children who are girls, right? Those things are always linked together. In the educational dynamic, do you find an ISA on the Aloha, a woman who suffered in some educational dynamic because she was married to the Prophet peace be upon him at a young age? Actually, no, she was the most knowledgeable of the wives of the Prophet peace be upon him. She was the most knowledgeable of the women of her time, she was the most knowledgeable of the
men of her time as well, which we'll get to some of the specific narration so clearly, she grew into being a great scholar in the Islamic tradition in the community of the Prophet peace be upon him. And that's something that's very important if you were to walk into Medina in the year 630.
And you saw a shuttle de la Honda speaking and giving a lecture.
Right? What would be the impression that you would take of this woman, a woman that later on in her life would lead an army a woman that would, you know, and not not too far removed from the death of the Prophet peace be upon them only a few years after that occupied the highest positions and the highest pulpits? So do you see an educational dynamic that exists in that time? What about abuse? Obviously, that's one of the most important things that comes up and is the concept of abuse. When you think of a child marriage, you think of an adult that is abusing a child, it was Isha, may Allah be pleased with her that says that the Prophet peace
be upon him never, never abused her, never once beat a woman or beat a servant or beat anyone or laid his finger on anyone. And she said about the Prophet peace be upon him that countable sort of lying so a lie some acid and nasty holo called the Prophet peace be upon him, was the most exalted person that I've ever seen in regards to his moral standard in regard to his character. And she spoke glowingly, not just of the public life of the Prophet peace be upon him or of the knowledge of the revelation of the Prophet peace be upon him, but of the private life of the Prophet peace be upon him, particularly in how the Prophet peace be upon him, dealt with, dealt with
situations where an argument could have escalated to something worse, right, so you don't see the elements of abuse. And so the the question that comes after all of this, because we said, again, the idea of portraying this marriage in this way, in such an unprecedented way that's never happened over 14 centuries, is not just to produce to portray the Prophet peace be upon him as a way but to portray Muslim men as violence, men that are in need of restraint, and Muslim women, as victims that are in need of rescue. And therefore, that's why we have an entire policy that is built on taming the rest of the world. Right. So portraying the Prophet peace be upon him in that way, is really
meant to portray the Muslim, the ideal Muslim in a certain way in the ideal, or the Muslim society in a certain way. And so a question then comes up. Wait, so are you saying that you support child marriage?
Right, so that's the next that's the
the catch at the end? Are you saying you support child marriage? And the answer is no, I'm saying that characterizing it says a child is wrong, empirically, wrong can be proven wrong and inappropriate. In fact, our religion or our scholars understood throughout history, that it was okay, not only okay, but it's encouraged to put safety protocols in place for the welfare of society. So no, there is absolutely nothing of that sort. There is absolutely no justification. And I can hold without any conflict in my identity, that I shall the lohana, the age that's been assigned to her would be considered a child at a child's age in my time, but not so in her time, and
be against the abuse of children through children marriage as it exists today. But if there is no norm, and there are many ways, and I don't want to go too much into detail, because I actually want to talk about the story of the marriage of Ayesha and the person of it, show me a lovely pleased with her, since we're talking about letting the discourse die. But if you think about this, the fact that 50 years ago in the United States 50 years ago, in the United States, the marriage, the average age of marriage was significantly less in America than it is today. Some of like my grandmother got married when she was 14 years old and Palestine, right. And that was completely normal, there was
absolutely nothing with it. That doesn't mean that I support the marriage of a 14 year old today, but that the age of marriage changes so dramatically over time and across states, there is no consensus even in the United States about what the appropriate age of marriage is. And let's face it, if we're talking about, you know, the definition of a child changing due to life expectancy due to environments due to education and how we view education in our societies today, then it could be that in our lifetimes, you know, there could come a time where the minimum age of marriage is 20.
Right or 21. Right? And and, you know, maybe at that time, we'd be like, you know, what, 19 year olds are children.
They shouldn't be married. So that age will fluctuate probably in our own lifetimes. Not only that, but if you think about the obsession with characterizing the Prophet peace be upon him in a certain way, and characterizing the Muslim world in a certain way. And then you ask yourself, well, that what age are people taught our children taught to experience to experiment and experience an intimate fashions? So then how does that factor into the way we view the age of marriage in different parts of the world and in this part of the world here, the point being that these are things that require much more intelligent discourse and Isha about the allow her in herself, who is
an extremely personal person this Alisha gave us access to very personal elements of her life. Never once hinted at any single form of abuse that could potentially come or manifest in an imbalanced marriage never once hinted at any of the dynamics or any of the features that are prevalent in a child marriage as being prevalent in her interaction.
And not just with the Prophet peace be upon it. But in her interaction with larger society, the position that she held in larger society is just as significant in combating that narrative that I shall only allow was some child that was forced into a situation. So what is the story of it settled the law on his marriage to the Prophet peace be upon him? Well, first of all, one of the things that doesn't get spoken about is how normal was the engagement of Arusha to the Prophet peace be upon him, and the marriage of Isaiah to the Prophet peace be upon him she was actually engaged before him, she was engaged to drobeta been what term a man by the name of debate a bit more time. And Isha
was not sought out by the prophet peace be upon him for marriage, but instead suggested to him both by a human being and an angel. In jabril, alayhis salaam after a human being, who is the human being that that introduced our issue, to the Prophet peace be upon him or suggested the marriage of the Prophet peace be upon him and while the Allahu Allah, it was Kohler, may Allah be pleased with her, and she came to the Prophet peace be upon him and she said to the Prophet, peace be upon him as he lost his only wife, for the first 53 years of his life, the only woman he had ever married at that up until 53 years old, in a society that had unrestricted polygamy, and the Prophet peace be upon
him is grieving the one woman that he was ever married to and Khadija may Allah be pleased with her and Hola. May Allah be pleased with her trying to get the Prophet peace be upon him remarried, and she introduced us to the Prophet peace be upon him and he shall have the Aloha and she introduces Isha to the Prophet peace be upon him in this way, she says, been to a happy, healthy law he like, didn't even introduce her as he said, she said, what about the daughter of the most beloved person in the world to you? I will back her father. What about the daughter of the most beloved person in the world and the Prophet peace be upon him immediately knew who she was talking about? So she went
to Emerald man, the mother of our Isha about the law to Atlanta. And she says mouthful Aloha and a communal Hayley will Baraka What an amazing blessing that Allah has entered upon you. So Oh romance that one or that what is that? She said, are suddenly Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam after war and he afterward Allah He, he said that the Prophet peace be upon him sent me to you so that I could you know, so that I could carry out the engagement of the Prophet peace be upon him to Arusha honorable man was ready to like lock it up then
she said, I wish I could just go ahead and do this now. But I gotta wait for a pullback you won't be allowed to come home. I will back in with the Aloha and who comes home and hola was waiting, she tells I will Beckett that the Prophet peace be upon him is here to are the Prophet peace be upon him has agreed to marry your daughter and sent me to convey that you know what aboubaker his first reaction was was not Oh, she's young was not Satan was not even that she's engaged. He goes, wait a minute, Well, hello toss Lu la who will have been to a he is she fit to marry him when she is the daughter of his brother. Because I will Beckett and the Prophet peace be upon him with that close.
So wait a minute, but he's my brother. Right. So that was the first concern that he had that the closest of the Prophet peace be upon rubble bucket was closer than the closeness of a blood relationship. So coda went back to the Prophet peace be upon them and the Prophet peace be upon him said enter a thief in Islam, what not to get a hate to Hello, Lee, that you are my brother in Islam, not my brother as in a blood brother. So those relationships don't hold on, we're talking about marriage. So then abubaker said, Well, I'm in an awkward situation, because she's already engaged to debate and Muslim. Now engagement back then was simply a promise to marry right there, there wasn't
actually any physical interaction or anything that manifested itself, except that she was engaged to
debate even watering. So Rebecca said, I've got to find a way because when a man said that Rebecca is never a man that's gone back on his words, Rebecca said, I want to find a way to get her out of that engagement anyway, because, you know, drobeta had been motoring. You know, and his father actually hostile to the Prophet peace be upon him in this in this regard. So I went back and went to motor Emma's house. And
when he went there, the wife of motorhome was there. And she said that, you know, if we marry our son to your daughter, then he's gonna, then she's going to divert him away from his beliefs, and introduce him into that religion of yours. So before we record can even say a word, the wife of multiroom expressed objection and said, Well, you know, if I should go through with this marriage with debate, then things you know, he might become a Muslim. And we'd hate for that to happen. We'd hate for him to become a Muslim. So, I will work here. So you know, where to turn to Muslim and said, you know, what is it that she's saying? And he says, she says something that I can hear and I
can agree with
Meaning I agree with what my wife is saying about drobeta marrying ish and potentially becoming a Muslim silverbucket said, well, that's unfortunate and just kind of gave a few words and then he left the house and celebrated as soon as he left the house, that the engagement was broken between Japan and Asia. May lobby pleasure and debate was a fierce enemy of Islam. He was the owner of washi who threw the spirit Hamza on the line also Subhanallah this man was engaged to Asia and ends up being the one that that frieze, washy along with Hindi Of course on the on the condition that she murders the uncle of the Prophet peace be upon him so I will record comes back home celebrating
praising Allah Subhana Allah and he says to Hola, you know, please hurry up and invite Allah's Messenger here hola goes to the Prophet peace be upon him and invite him to aboubaker at his house. And that's where the engagement took place. Three years later, the marriage took place when she reached the age of marriage. Okay. So again, from a societal perspective, there was once again an engagement and once she reached that one marker, which was known at that time, which was biologically reaching the age of maturity, then she married the Prophet peace be upon him. And I sold the law on her described that day, when, you know, she comes home and I she was a very active
girl, which is why the Prophet peace be upon him and I saw the law and he used to foot race, okay, even as they were married, she was very active. She describes the way that she, you know, when she comes home, after playing, and she's called, and she's, you know, she's informed at that time about the engagement, and she sees the unsavoury women that are celebrating. And she then says that she was prepared for marriage. And all of these things start to take place and they go into motion where she's going to marry the Prophet peace be upon them, and how did she describe the look of the Prophet peace be upon him again, the characterization of an islamophobe is that this is a woman
that's being forced into a marriage with a man that she doesn't want to marry. Of course, we know later on that she's extremely jealous and protective of the Prophet peace be upon them. But how does she describe the Prophet peace be upon him? She said, if the ones who condemned zuleika and cut their hands upon seeing Joseph use of it his Salaam, in amazement, right, the story of use of Iceland when they saw the women saw Joseph peace be upon him, the Prophet Joseph use of honey cinnamon cut their fingers. She said, if those women who condemns or they can cut their hands upon seeing use of it, his Salah, were to see the blessed smile of a lost messenger, they would cut their
hearts without even knowing it.
So she described that image of the Prophet peace be upon him as a beautiful man, as a handsome man as a pleasing man, and as one that she would fall deeply in love with, and would be extremely protective over as well. And how was the Prophet peace be upon him with our Asia, or the Allahu taala? And, well, when he was asked by Armand menos, who is the most beloved person to you, in front of all of the money was asked, who's the most beloved person to say that Yeshua?
Then he said, then who? He said, then then her father, and how did he settle the law regard the Prophet peace be upon him,
except in love, and mercy and incomplete admiration. And it's really interesting here because, again, we called our collection about a shovel the lawn, not just a number. And this is really important, because the irony
is that those who claimed that she was dehumanized in her marriage to the Prophet peace be upon him are actually guilty of dehumanizing her, they actually reduce her to a number, and try to force us to ignore her entire life, her entire person, her entire character, and somehow championing an issue that was not even present in the life of the Prophet peace be upon him to say that, you know, this was some sort of oppression and some sort of misdoing and to bring up an objection that was not raised for 1400 years, in order to characterize the Prophet peace be upon him and Muslim men, by extension in a certain way and characterize Isha may Allah be pleased with her and Muslim women in
certain ways. So she's not just a number. So let's just talk about her qualities for a bit. Some of the narrations about her the wife of the Prophet peace be upon him, most of them told her he says model eight, I had an assignment issue. He said, I have never seen a woman more eloquent than Isha may Allah be pleased with her and even mentioned he said that her narrations of Hadith when she narrates a Hadith, she never makes a grammatical error. She's always poetic and the way she even speaks about an incidence that he said was so eloquent. And so in control of her language, that when she spoke when she just narrated stories and incidents, there was clarity, there was eloquence,
there was beauty, and the Arabs were big on, on making sure that there was
No grammatical issues and nothing that was set out of place. So he said I've never seen a woman more eloquent than it should have been Casey says I've heard a bucket on letter is not an alley, the first four hola the first four k lives. I've heard them speak, and I've never heard anything more eloquent than that which would come from the mouth of Arusha. May Allah be pleased with her knee and he said, min Femi mahalo from the mouth of a creation he said, I've never seen the mouth of a creation of a god more eloquent than the mouth of Isha. May Allah be pleased with her mushroom. May Allah be pleased with the mushroom cloud the Allahu anhu says a toad Messiah menos hobbie Rasulullah
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Yes, Luna and Farah. He said, I saw the elders of the Prophet the companions of the Prophet peace be upon him gathered around the Isha asking her the difficult questions about inheritance. like think about that image, right? If you walked into Medina and you saw Isha, may Allah be pleased with her. You're seeing a woman that is teaching the elders, from the companions of the Prophet peace be upon him on the most difficult issues in Islamic jurisprudence. She's one of the seven they had the seven companions who used to give fatwa the most frequent, she's considered one of the seven.
It's reported that women in particular used to come in they used to surround her house. And she used to have, you know, and you can just imagine the imagery between 40 and 70 women at any given time surrounding her her jalon surrounding her house, so that they could come in and they could learn from her and attend her classes, and ask her questions in Amazonia, may Allah be pleased with them, who's the first man to take a zoo he was the first man to take to be commissioned to officially collect his teeth. As nobody says that when I asked about who I should go to everyone pointed first, to those that that studied without Isha. And those that were without each and of course, his or
herself. And Amara, the student have an issue and he said, When I saw a camera, so when I went to her, I found her to be a boundless sea of knowledge and comprehension. She was a giant, an ocean of knowledge, being the student of Alisha, may Allah be pleased with her of the love and omo reports that that when the time of had used to come around that there used to be a tent where I used to sit in and she would just answer everybody's questions, and the men and the women used to go to Isha with their questions. But most of us, Shadi, who is amongst the scholars of the companion says that when the companions of Allah as messengers of Allah, Islam face any difficulty, they would refer to
Isha. And she always had some knowledge about that which perplex everybody else. So when we couldn't figure something else out amongst ourselves, we're talking about the scholars of the companions, we went to each of the scholar, and she always knew how to answer that question. Or to have this debate he says that I've never seen a woman more knowledgeable than Isha in halal and haram, meaning that which is lawful, and that which is prohibited in poetry, in medicine, in history, in ancestry than Islam, a lot of people pleased with her. So she was not just the scholar in regards to Islamic knowledge, she was a scholar in regards to everything, okay, to everything. In fact, irda says that,
you know, one time I actually asked, I shall be alone, and I said, You know, I can understand,
you know, how she's so knowledgeable about different things like I get, she said, he said, I can understand how she's knowledgeable about the revelation, I could understand how she's knowledgeable about the practices of the Prophet peace be upon him because of the proximity, right? So like, How are you so knowledgeable in medicine?
Like how do you get medicine more than anybody else? And she said that because when the Prophet peace be upon him became sick,
she would learn and study cures, power, that's the genius of our HTML, I'll be pleased with her and just in studying medicine, when the Prophet peace be upon him was sick, she actually elevated herself to being a scholar, on medical issues in that society of the Prophet, peace be upon him and of the companions of the Prophet peace be upon him. Allah Azhar Kashi, zarca, she writes a book called a job, which is the response and it's all of the times that I should corrected other companions must either occur to each other. So it'll have all the times that I used to corrected all the other companions of the Prophet, peace be upon them and the objections that she raised when she
raised when she when she reconciled. When someone had when someone had a narration about one of the private practices of the Prophet peace be upon him or how he worshipped it. She was able to come and correct that some of the ways that some things some texts were interpreted in a way that wasn't favorable to women, he settled the law and he would correct those a hadith or correct the understandings of those narration. So she challenged people's narration, She challenged people's opinions and their their jurisprudence. She challenged what she felt were unjust practices at the time, so
He said that, you know, so So, you know, he again he described he said, You know, I could get her knowledge of medicine. I mean I can get her knowledge of Quran I got her knowledge to Hadith I got her knowledge of lineage and history and ancestry because her father was a double bucket. Right? So she learned all that from a well bucket. But how did this woman no even medicine that way? It's because his mind was unparalleled. In that time of the Prophet, peace be upon him, even amongst the male companions of the Prophet peace be upon him, and I Isha, may Allah be pleased with her again, a woman of great confidence, and great stature. She said that a lot favored me with 10 things they
didn't favor anybody else with. And this was a she was an old woman about to pass away. So the first thing is that I was never married to anyone but the Prophet peace be upon him and I'm the only one that could claim that she's the only woman who never married anyone but the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. Because the Prophet peace be upon everyone else that he had married was either a widow or a divorcee. So she's like, I'm the only person that was only married to the Prophet, peace be upon him. No one before him. No one after him again. She was engaged to debate. She said both of my parents were hygiene meaning they were Mahajan are the people that migrated from Mecca to Medina
escaping persecution.
She said number three, Allah declared my innocence from above the heavens. A law revealed 16 verses of Quran defending her when people made remarks or people accused her innocence. Number four, she said gibreel the angel Gabriel proposed on my behalf
to the Prophet peace be upon how is that because the Prophet peace be upon him saw a dream of Djibouti and Ani his Salaam after hola suggested, he said to the properties of Gollum, he saw a dream of Djibouti an ISA,
showing, you know lifting the veil on a cell of the olana and saying, how he's Oh Jessica for dunya with Africa, this is your spouse in this life and the next so she said to be proposed to the Prophet peace be upon him on my behalf. She said, I drank and being from this is number five I drank and I Bade from the same container as the Prophet peace be upon him.
Number six, she said that the Prophet peace be upon him used to pray at night while I was laid in front of him, while I was sleeping in front of him and the Prophet, you know, their home was so small, the Prophet peace upon didn't live in a palace, lived in a tiny little chamber, right? And so she said that when the Prophet peace be upon him used to do his night prayer, he's the one he used to prostrate, he would tap her leg so she could move her legs inward, so that he could fit his head in the room. Right so she said, I used to lay in front of the Prophet peace be upon him while he would pray at night. Number seven, she said that revelation used to come to him while he was in my
home. Just true that many times the Quran was revealed to the Prophet peace be upon him in the home of Yeshua or the Allahu taala and number he said the Prophet peace be upon him died on my chest.
No one else can claim that the Prophet peace be upon him died on my chest the Prophet peace be upon him was reclined on the chest of our Isha one who came to him and took his soul. Number nine she said the Prophet peace be upon him died on my nights.
And number 10 she said the Prophet peace be upon him was buried in my room.
Right so this was a woman that understood her space in Islamic history. She was a hoffy love the Quran, she memorized the Quran, she narrated over 2000 a hadith 2000 narrations about the Prophet peace be upon 2000 narrations that give us a look at who this man was behind closed doors, who this man was as a husband, who this man was, as a father, who this man was in times when most people fail at the standard that's been set upon them.
And she, you know, it's really interesting because, you know, one of the great scholars said that Allah revealed 16 verses in her defense, and she narrated Hadees she narrated traditions about the Prophet peace be upon him, in his defense, even if that made her look back. What that means is that when she narrates a saying about an argument she had with the Prophet peace be upon him.
And he's always right. And he's, you know, she's the one that lost her temper, or she's the one that raised her voice or, you know, and it's the same people that would mock eisah would use narrations that she narrated herself, which is just, you know, sheer ignorance, right? Like she narrates these Hadith about the arguments that I used in the last sermon the last year, multiple scenarios that had the right, all of those things, why to defend to show the supreme character of the Prophet peace be upon them, even if that means that she could potentially make herself look bad, but a mother is interesting.
in teaching her children so she taught us through her interactions with the Prophet peace be upon him. But who the Prophet peace be upon him? was iotawatt who was the nephew of Isha? May Allah be pleased with that he said that no one's prayer resembled the prayer of the Prophet peace be upon him like a semi Allah be pleased with her. If you watched her pray, she looked exactly like the Prophet peace be upon him she resembled the Prophet peace be upon him in the way that he would pray in the spirituality and the for sure and the humility that she had in her prayer, or it was says that one time I came, I came to visit her and she was my aunt. And I saw her standing up and praying, and she
was crying and reciting the verse for men, Allahu Elena or Kleiner that was a symbol for
a symbol, right? So it's a tool that allow us kind to us and he removed from us and he spared us from a grievous punishment allow us kind to us and spirit is from grievous punishment. So he said that I, I stood behind her on the side of her as she prayed to try to get her attention. And she didn't stop her prayer. She was so immersed in that one verse of the Quran, that he said that I decided I'm going to go shopping and come back later, he said, I went shopping and came back later, and she was still standing in the same place reciting the same verse, crying and remembering her Lord. So this was a woman that was a sage, a worshiper, a woman whose worship resembles the worship
of the greatest worshiper and the Prophet peace be upon him. This was a woman that many people don't know is distinguished in her charity. I'm loving this debate. He says that I'm loving the service that I No, no, no, no two people more generous than my mother and my aunt. His mother was a snap into the bucket. His aunt was I shouldn't be bucket. He said, I actually used to gather her money until it became something until it was it was of a certain quantity, and then she'd give it away. A smite used to give it away right away. So he said, I knew no two people more generous than my mother. And by my aunt, he said that I should never use to keep anything except that she gave it
away. And charity. Once a poor man came to her to ask her for her. Well, she went inside her home, and all she found were grapes. And she even gave those away. And that was her meal for the evening. And she gave away the grapes that she had. And the man said, Is that all? And she said, Well, can we have them? And if califa how many atoms of good deeds are within these grapes? So that's all I have to give you. But I'm not you might be a little bit but I hope a lot doesn't be a little bit. Right, because that's all I have to give you.
You know, once she was given a gift of 100,000 dead humps, she gave all of it away. She was once given 70,000 rental homes. This was in the movie and the mayor of Philadelphia, they sent her large financial gifts, she gave all of it away, almost on the low end, who who used to allocate 10,000 did hums every single month to the mothers of the believers he allocated 12 for her. And I'm not only allowed on him, he said that in the Habiba. Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, she's the beloved one of the Prophet peace be upon him. The Prophet slicin compared her to all other women in the world as the likeness of 32 all other dishes, which was the most beloved dish of the Arabs, and
she would give that away and charity to, and she used to take so many orphans and poor children into her home that if you walked into the home of Asia, you would wonder how many children she actually had? Because you just saw so many children around her orphans and poor children. She emancipated over 60 slaves with her own wealth freed over 60 people from slavery, emancipated over 60 slaves, and a signal Malik describes that beautiful narration of the Isha because when you think I show how many times do people think sadaqa charity, right? And this is actually why I wanted to focus on this for a moment because if you walked into the Medina, the Society of the Prophet peace be upon him,
you knew, he stood by her knowledge. And her eloquence on one hand, and you knew her, her greatest public act that she was known for was her charity, but most people would never associate that with it. So there's a very famous narration that a woman came to Iowa and I gave her the only three dates that she had in the home. So she gave two dates to her children. And then as he was about to eat, the one date that was given to her, her children started to grab for that date, and she toward that date into two halves and she gave it to her children. And I should told the Prophet peace be upon about that. Because she was, she was she was amazed by that. And the Prophet peace be upon him said
Allah will show her mercy because of the mercy towards her children because of the mercy she showed towards her children. Verily, Allah will show her mercy as well. But Rita who is a free servant of Anisha, she tells the story about how there was a beggar that came to the door once at the house of Isha and knocked on the door because I said
This house was known to be a housewife, charity, she'd give whatever she had in her cabinets, everything and charity. And Veritas said, we've got nothing. So I just stopped her and said, No, no, I think we have some barley scrapped in the house until she found a bag of barley.
And she gave it away. But he said, you know, but he laughed at her and said, You know, you're fasting, right? Like, how are you even gonna break your fast you imagine the wife of the Prophet peace be upon them, the greatest scholar in that time, the sage, this woman who occupies the position of Mother of the oma, and there was a fear that she wouldn't have anything to break her fast on. Like, think about that, right? And Benita says, Well, how are you going to break your fast and she laughed at her and he simply smiled and said, Allah will provide and she went back to her prayer. And then just as she was just right as she started to pray, must've now she hadn't broke her
fast. Someone knocked on the door, and started to you know, and gave gifts and gave a goat an entire goat, as a gift to Isha. May Allah be pleased with pleased with her, and he smiled a burrito and she said, I swear by Allah, none of you truly believes until you trust a lot more than what you trust that which is in your hands.
No, one of you truly believes until you trust a lot more than you trust that which is in your hands, like I had more trust in Allah that He would provide for me than a person who actually has the food sitting on the table.
That was a woman that was a sage. What was her fasting like? possum? The son, the grandson of Rebecca, the nephew of Artesia awesome, said, Canada, I should assume with Dell, so that I should fasted like every single day, she was always fasting, you'd never find out, he said, not fasting. So this woman that narrated about the fasting of the Prophet peace be upon her nephew says, I never found her not fasting, she was fasting every single day of her life pretty much except for the days that it was prohibited to fast, and pass him said, and though she was the most knowledgeable of the companions, she was also the most humble of the companions.
And if she did not have an answer, she preferred other people to answer a question. So when someone came to her, for example, and asked her once a question, she said it ti Li and in Ireland will be that he committed, he said, Go to it, because it understands that particular must, Allah knows that particular issue far better than I do. So these are the quotes or these are the stories that we have to tell about this mother of ours of this great woman. Don't D humanize her by reducing her to a number. And don't fool yourself by accepting an ignorant, simplistic narrative, that mischaracterizes her marriage, not just against all of the religious knowledge that we have about
the Prophet peace be upon him, but literally against every intelligent anthropology study about how societies function at the time and how they function today.
It's, it just doesn't make sense for us to allow that narrative to reduce her. And so, you know,
we presented and I have to come to the conclusion now, we we presented this,
you know, this collection Hamdulillah, where we had, you know, for essays for publications about the age of addressing it from different angles, and someone says, Well, you know, there is one publication, which will and someone says, Well, what about the opinion that she was older? What if she was actually much older than we think, and we just didn't know better? Right. And I want to actually address that for a moment. First of all, let's acknowledge that the desire to readily accept an opinion that she was actually much older, okay, is not grounded in reality, but grounded in our own insecurities, and how much we always want to ward off any criticism about our faith.
Right, even if that means, you know, accepting opinions that are minor, or sometimes even outright dishonest and saying, we just want to, we want to ward off any criticism about Islam, we have enough to fight off already, not recognizing that, you know, that this framework of our religion and of Muslims, is one that has been put forth for the sake of political gains and for the sake of cultural exploitation, and many other things. So that's the first thing so let's, you know, we have to acknowledge that most people, you know, it's confirmation bias, you want to find what you want to find. It's like, you know, what, I don't want to have to even deal with the question as a whole. So
let me just go ahead and find you know, the articles and the opinions that she was older. Secondly, it is a minor opinion in that is, it is as new as the criticism of the Prophet peace be upon him marrying or marrying her at a young age. I'm gonna say that again. It is as new as the criticism of the Prophet peace be upon him for marrying her at a young age. So proponents of an opinion that I saw was actually a lot older than is suggested in the narration Bahati. They would say that that's because
her age was never a topic of discussion in the past. Okay, so just like the criticism is new, the entire discourse about her age is new. So they would say that's why we don't find this opinion in Islamic history because the discourse didn't exist in Islamic history in the hole. But nonetheless, it's a minority contemporary view that arises out of implicit evidence against explicit evidence to the contrary. So even if it is a view, a legitimate view, it would be a minority view, a contemporary view that that arises, again, based on implicit evidence against and, you know, explicit evidence to the contrary. Thirdly, and this is actually something very important, because,
you know, sometimes some brothers and sisters like no, you know, we've, we can't even we can't entertain any discussion about her age, or what her age was, and things of that sort. And I really want to make this up, I think it's an important point to make arriving at this view, by rejecting the tradition is not acceptable. So there are some thinkers out there that would throw doubt on the entire, you know, the entire authenticity of Sahaja. And try to uproot the tradition to prove this point, which is a much bigger problem than believing that I shall have the law on who was a lot older than what we find in our in a narration body, that's a much bigger issue. If you try to uproot
the tradition, to where you can actually try, you can throw out anything that you don't feel like matches with that, what you'd like to believe about the tradition. So the thinkers that are out there that cast aspersions on Hadeeth, as a whole, and the authenticity of Hadoop as a whole and the collection of the sunan. Bahati as a whole, it's deeply problematic. So their opinion, would be rejected. However, the paper that we published as an alternate view, again, one paper out of four
was, through a minority view that employees proper,
proper, the proper derivatives of coming to an opinion, it doesn't uproot the entire tradition to arrive at the conclusion. So it's okay to entertain a discourse as long as it doesn't uproot the tradition as a whole. But still recognizing that again, the reason why the majority opinion is as it was the explicit opinions as it was, because this never was an issue. And so we have to kind of walk back to that. And so I'll read just you know, the conclusion that I think is very important, or one of the one of the paragraphs was in the conclusion of Sisterhood of the Knights paper, what was the age of ice at marriage, simply put, old enough. Marrying near the onset of puberty is not possible
or preferable for most of us in our Western cultural context, and that's okay. We are not obliged to marry young or to get our daughters married young, we can hold our own culture and cultural and individual opinions about the age one ought to get married. But we must stop pretending that this is a moral position rather than one that's based on circumstances.
And she says at the end of it, portraying it as a child is meant to portray the Prophet peace be upon him a certain light, a light that attempts to fit on, he shoveled the law into a larger narrative of Muslim women as meek, submissive and oppressed, and Muslim men as oppressive, abusive and unjust, a narrative that is both malicious and dishonest. The controversy around her age prevents us from discussing her legacy and contribution to Islam, her life and marriage the Prophet peace be upon him, her knowledge and her wisdom, he said, is so much more than the quote child bride, the enemies of our beloved prophet peace be upon him attempt to paint her as she was a saint,
a sage and a scholar, can we please make that the legacy? Can we please make that legacy the bulk of our discourse around this amazing woman, we ask a lot to be pleased with her, and to join us with our mother and he shall be allowed to enter and to join us with the Prophet peace be upon him and the prophets and the righteous and the highest level of gentlemen for the dose, we asked a lot to allow us to rise to a moral standard that has been set in the standard of the Prophet peace be upon him, We ask Allah subhanaw taala to perfect our hook to perfect our characters and to allow us to not just love the Prophet peace be upon them but to emulate the Prophet peace be upon him in his
worship in his character in the way that our Isha or the lohana did Allah subhanaw taala be pleased with the family, the companions of the Prophet, peace be upon him and join us with them alone, I mean,