Recordings › Age of Aisha (ra)- Mufti Abu Layth · 11 Jan 2017 › Segment 17 of 18
If Aisha's age is a problem, aren't polygamy and the Prophet's wars problems too?
muftis iman imaan eemaan eeman nikah nikkah nikaah nikah nama nikahnamaIf Aisha's age is a problem, are polygamy and the Prophet's wars problems too
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This segment1:55:11 to 2:00:23 · 5 min 12 sGeneral teaching
The answer in brief
machinesummary, machine-writtenPolygamy and the Prophet's wars are not irrational and differ from marrying a child, where consent is impossible. Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet remains a perfect role model and that he does not accept Aisha was that age.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth says he believes the Prophet is a perfect role model for all times, including today, and that this does not clash, first because he does not accept that Aisha was that age. On multiple marriages he says that although Western societies reject polygamy legally, owing to a Christian background that saw monogamy as the only way, on the ground open and multiple relationships exist and some research presents them as healthy, and that the male instinct is polygamous by nature, so the concept is not irrational. He distinguishes this from an underage girl, where a child cannot conceptualise what is happening or consent, which is identified as abuse; adults entering a plural relationship by their own understanding is not irrational, while imposing something on someone without the capacity to reason is. On the wars he says that almost all of those the Prophet fought were begun by the opposing party and construed as defensive, that offensive strategy existed in Islam but is not irrational, as states today accept pre-emptive strategies. He calls 'where does it stop' a false question designed to set someone up for failure, since the Prophet's life was in line with reason and welfare.
Question as read aloud · questioner not identifiedIf the marriage of the Prophet with a young girl is a problem, then polygamy and the wars he engaged in are also considered problematic today; where do we stop aligning our ethics with our age?
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Prophet is a perfect role model for all times and that polygamy and his wars, unlike a marriage to a child who cannot consent, are not irrational.
“I do believe that the prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam is a a a great role model a perfect role model for all times”
Category: teaching
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine1:55:11 to 2:00:23 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
this is a modern approach I believe this is at the very core of our de to to always view things in light of Reason firstly I do believe that the prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam is a a a great role model a perfect role model for all times I do believe for this for our day and age as well and I do not believe that that necessarily clashes if
we take this this age of AA first of all I do not accept as I've highlighted that the age of Aisha was like that secondly multiple marriages that's a good question that okay Society uh certain societies today do not accept multiple marriages but yet still parts of these societies do on the ground maybe not as a legal framework but yet open relationships are not uh unheard heard of I mean in fact even uh reports uh certain research demonstrates that they're actually very healthy amongst people that participate in them in these very same societies the
philosophy behind them when you look at what science shows scientific data does show people the human instinct especially the male instinct to still be even today on on samples today Within These Western societies to be polygamous by Nature now I accept that at a legal level at a kind of statutory level those things are not acceptable uh so people will not accept and that's because of the history of this part of the world coming from a very Christian kind of background seeing monogamy as the only way I don't believe on the ground people
necessarily see that so on the ground people may uh today so for example the ideal they don't see like one relationship to just last I mean they may have an ideal like I wish one relationship generally lasts right throughout my life but the normal practice is that it doesn't most relationships will will last for whatever while you know a few years and then they'll move on a new relationship a new and many people will engage in multiple relationships at once whether it will be on the sly or not or openly or in open relationships or covert relationships or but people are doing this so whether they openly are
accepting this uh or not uh this is definitely the reality now somebody could say well okay well people do all kinds of wrong things uh you know on the sly and they do it does not justify that's true but if we go back to this issue of underage girls the issue here is the the concept of reason and consent not being able to materialize like the child is too young to conceptualize what's going on which is then identified as
abuse okay that's not the same as saying well look if we're in a relationship that has that is pluralistic so I know we're uh we want to be in an open relationship or we want to be in a plural relationship people if they come to that understanding they if they come to it then they will uh they will accept that I do not believe that necessar to be irrational it's not an irrational concept uh I do believe the concept of saying that a child does not have like that somebody does not have the reason they do not have the capacity and yet
something is superimposed on them forced against them I do believe that to be irrational so there is a difference regarding the wars of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam if we look through the S almost all of the wars that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam engaged in right the Wars that the prophet himself engaged in they were all uh they were all usually begun by the third by the opposing party the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam although he may have set off but it's only once he heard that so and so has kind of amassed an army at a particular point and they may attack let's go so they were all construed as defensive I'm
not saying that the concept of an offensive uh uh kind of military strategy did not exist in Islam it did but we're talking about the life of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and even military kind of strategies these are not irrational so today people countries do accept that at times there are preemptive kind of military strategies there are things like this so as a philosophy that's not irrational I don't believe it's irrational at all so just linking this back so when you say where does this stop I don't believe I believe that's a false question it's a it's a kind of question trying to set up somebody for faith failure because when we look at examin the life of the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam it's all in line with reason it was all firmly based on reason and Welfare whereas trying to say Well about uh a child that has no uh concept or cannot conceptualize reason so therefore I know the advantage can be taken of the child I do not believe that to be acceptable especially in our day and age that's actually a very good follow-up question that has been raised by people um that okay when we look throughout Islamic F you know I've highlighted yes
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Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2017-01-11-S17, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/0ovisexs4ca/s/17/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2017, January 11). If Aisha's age is a problem, aren't polygamy and the Prophet's wars problems too? [Video, segment 2017-01-11-S17, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/0ovisexs4ca/s/17/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2017. "If Aisha's age is a problem, aren't polygamy and the Prophet's wars problems too?" Video, segment 2017-01-11-S17, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded January 11, 2017. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/0ovisexs4ca/s/17/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2017-01-11-S17, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{If Aisha's age is a problem, aren't polygamy and the Prophet's wars problems too?}}, year = {2017}, month = {1}, date = {2017-01-11}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/0ovisexs4ca/s/17/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/0ovisexs4ca/s/17/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2017-01-11-S17, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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