I don't even know why I am bothering to dignify this with a response, it's quite clear that the only reading and researching of Islam you have been doing is from anti-Islam websites and your post is but a copy-paste from many of them.
If you talk to most Islamic scholars, all of them will give you about the same response- there is no set age where someone is ready for marriage because everyone is different. When someone is ready for the responsibilities of marriage then they're ready, and people aren't stamped with the date that will happen on their bum when they're born. The world we live in is much, much different than the world was over a thousand years ago, and in most societies people become ready for marriage at a much later age than back then.
I haven't the slightest why you quoted that, oh, wait, I know why! This verse is quoted on all those anti-Islam websites you've been looking at even though it has zilch to do with pedophilia. LOL!
Well, I am so sorry to disappoint, but that verse actually refers to 'iddah, which is the waiting period for a woman after a divorce until she can remarry.
It would be helpful if you quoted the WHOLE hadith, not just a portion of it. Oh, right, all those anti-Islam websites you've been copy-pasting from don't have the full version of it. That's okay, cause I do, here it is...
Narrated Jabir: Allah's Apostle (SallAllaho Alaihi Wasallam) said to me, "Have you got married O Jabir?"
I replied, "Yes."
He asked "What, a virgin or a matron?"
I replied, "Not a virgin but a matron."
He said, "Why did you not marry a young girl who would have fondled with you?"
I replied, "O Allah's Apostle! My father was martyred on the day of Uhud and left nine (orphan) daughters who are my nine sisters; so I disliked to have another young girl of their age, but (I sought) an (elderly) woman who could comb their hair and look after them."
The Prophet (SallAllaho Alaihi Wasallam) said, "You have done the right thing."
Well, doesn't that put a different light on it. Funny what putting things in context does and not just cherry-picking a few sentences out does...
Anyway, this is just Muhammad, peace be upon him, joking around with him. Muhammad had an awesome sense of humour and joked around a lot and laughed a lot- there's many hadiths that record his jokes and him laughing so hard you could see his back teeth. He also used his sense of humour to get important points across. There's many other hadiths that have been twisted into something they aren't because people missed the humour or joke, to quote the late Heath Ledger, why so serious?
As explained by Lava, we really haven't the slightest how old Aisha, may G-d be pleased with her, was when she was engaged and then married to Muhammad. To build a timeline of her life from the other hadiths, she would have been from late teens to early twenties when the engagement and marriage occurred.
In Arabic, numbers are counted without the tens. 16 becomes 6, 19 becomes 9. That could explain why the ages 6 and 9 were used in the hadith.
However, most of the sources and scholars agree on Aisha being 12 when engaged and 15 when she went to live with him.
Also, as explained earlier in this post and in other posts, even if she was 6 and 9- that was pretty much normal back then all over the world. It really doesn't bother any rational historian. Aisha also shows no signs of being abused, she was a very intelligent and wise and powerful woman and became a strong leader in her community. She also had no problems with standing up to Muhammad when she disagreed with him- though Muhammad always treated her kindly and with respect. These aren't really the signs of an abused little girl.
And just to throw this in her, Aisha being married to the Prophet from a young age would have allowed him to teach her even more about Islam- remember, this is the woman who narrated thousands of hadiths and became the first scholar of Islam!
Oh, and if you're using playing with dolls as a sign of being a child- I'm a 21 woman and I still play with dolls and I still sleep with the stuffed elephant I've had since I was a little girl (and that elephant goes with me everywhere, from staying overnight at a friend's to foreign countries to into surgery), so neener.
Phhhbt!
Oh and by the way, Aisha also continued to play with her toys even long after she was married. There's a story about Aisha and Muhammad that I absolutely love, Aisha had put wings on her toy horses and Muhammad joked (remember what I said about his sense of humour?) around with her, asking what those where on the backs of the horses, why she put those wings there, she was being silly because horses don't have wings. A defiant Aisha responded that King Solomon's horses had wings, so her horses could have wings, too!
Let me quote 6:298
Volume 1, Book 6, Number 298:
Narrated 'Aisha: The Prophet and I used to take a bath from a single pot while we were Junub. During the menses, he used to order me to put on an Izar (dress worn below the waist) and used to fondle me. While in Itikaf, he used to bring his head near me and I would wash it while I used to be in my periods (menses).
And explainify, because congratulations, your anti-Islamic websites have COMPLETELY missed the point of this.
First sentence- Muhammad and Aisha would both wash themselves from the same container of water. This container of water is not a bathtub, are you trying to be ridiculous? They are in Saudi Arabia. There is not enough water to fill a bathtub and even if they did have enough water to fill a bathtub, their ritual cleansing would not be valid because it would be considered a waste of water, it does not take a bathtub full of water to clean yourself. Preserving water, and all of nature, is part of Islam. This shows that touching a woman does not make you unclean, even though some madh'habs think differently, but I'm Hanafi and we believe that a man touching a woman and a woman touching a man doesn't not them unclean..
Second sentence- Aisha and Muhammad would cuddle and basically have foreplay (but not intercourse because you are not allowed to have sex when you're on your period as a mercy towards women because being on your period is a messy and painful and sometimes embarrassing time) while she was on her period. This is actually a big deal- it shows that even though a woman is on her menses, she is not an unclean thing that dirties all she touches and she must be kept away from anyone else until her menses stop.
Third sentence- This is a continuation of the point of the second sentence. Even though she is on her menses, she can still wash his head while they are in a mosque and that she can actually even be in the mosque while on her period- itikaf is basically a "retreat" at a mosque.
I'm becoming more and more convinced your "Muslim friend" doesn't exist and is but a ruse for you to trash our Islamic DIR with false anti-Islamic propaganda and lies.
Oops, I'm a sister but I answered anyway!
Peace,
jamaesi, who doesn't really tolerate the smearing of her Prophet or her role model and favourite feminist Aisha.
