Recordings › Shaykh Dr. Shabir Ally | Juxtaposing the Quran, Jumbling Aisha's age & Jinn Possession | MindTrap#16 · 22 Apr 2020 › Segment 11 of 23
Is questioning Aisha's age just an attempt to please non-Muslims?
hadeeth ahadith ahaadeeth hadis hadees ahaadith sahih saheeh sahih hadith saheeh hadith sound hadith malik ibn anas malik bin anas imam maalik imam malik ibn anas al-bukhari imam bukhari sahih al-bukhari sahih bukhari saheeh al-bukhari saheeh bukhari imam al-bukhari imaam imams prayer leader muftis mubah mubaah dalil daleel adillah adilla proof imaan eemaan eeman koran quraan al-quran ayah aya ayat ayaat aayah aayat 'alim aalim ulama ulema ulamaa nikah nikkah nikaah nikah nama nikahnamaIs revising Aisha's age just a cry to appease non-Muslims? Bukhari is not the final word
Play from 49:19
The video loads from YouTube only when you press play. Click a time in the transcript to seek.
Watch this part
Open on YouTube at 49:19The player starts at 49:19, the beginning of this part.
This segment48:03 to 54:33 · 6 min 30 sA view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenThe guest says he once made the same accusation, but came to see that a girl of nine is not fit for marriage and that Muslims themselves do not marry girls at that age. A report being in Bukhari does not make it the final word, since scholars have always differed with Bukhari where something more authentic exists.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth puts the charge that this is a cry to appease Western claims, saying he knows it is not, since for him it is about the Prophet's honour. The guest admits that in his youth he would have made the same charge, suspecting the faith of those who denied such reports and throwing at them verses such as 'they do not believe until they make you judge' and 'it is not for a believer to have a choice once Allah and his Messenger have decided'. He thought it normal that a girl could be married at that age because of the Prophet's example; only later did he realise that a girl that young is not suitable for marriage, and that he had to convince himself and fellow Muslims, not non-Muslims. Some Muslim societies still marry girls at perhaps twelve, but nine, the crucial age of consummation, is not something Muslims generally do, so the collective judgment of Muslims already treats it as too young; he allows that ancient societies married boys and girls young for defence and numbers, and that one's own great-grandmother may have married at twelve or sixteen, but says the evidence gathered makes it better to say Aisha was older than the report states. Those who think the report cannot be departed from misunderstand how hadith were narrated, collected and graded, a misunderstanding perpetuated by scholars who should know better: that once a hadith is in Bukhari or Muslim it cannot be questioned, whereas scholars differ with Bukhari all the time, preferring what they find more authentic, and al-Tirmidhi would call a hadith authentic while noting that the practice of the Muslims was contrary to it, because the earliest generations knew something more authentic. Mufti adds that Imam Malik held it impermissible in general to marry girls until they were nubile.
Position stated
This segment presents a view in order to discuss or respond to it. It is recorded as quoted, never as held, and no position is attributed from it.
Kind: a view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held Speakers: host and guest; guest speech is labelled and excluded from positionsTranscript
machine48:03 to 54:33 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
A guest speaks in this segment. Guest speech is labelled and is excluded from the positions layer.
This segment states a view in order to discuss it. It is recorded as a quoted view, not as a position held.
converting him to to a new phase yes I mean I thought some of these things are incredibly noteworthy sure on this thing people might say too I mean they do say they say to me I'm sure they've said this two years well in fact don't don't are you just oh this is just a cry to to appease the the kind of western claims and so on in you know you're just trying to suck up to a certain crowd by saying this now I know that you know how Charlie I know that's not the case
because to me this is the honor of the prophet sallallaahu listen but I mean but like you to kind of respond to that in yes that that would have been my my youthful claim as well I would have thought that you know if people are denying things like this then it must be that there something is wrong with their Iman did they don't quite believe in our Prophet SAW said I'm and what has been reported about him and we can even cite versus against them for our of because I mean Anahata yaki move she matches Arab I know from Allah as you do fiance
Maharaja female for dietary so living with us Lima so we all know the verse know by your Lord they do not believe until they make you a judge in all their affairs and then they find no difficulty in accepting what you have decided but they submit completely or you know it is mechanimal in the move meaning well immunity is a puddle of water Zulu Amran ie who know the whom will fear are to fear him so it's not possible for a believer but a man or woman after God and His Prophet have made a declaration that they should
have a a choice regarding their their affairs and so on so many verses of the Quran tell us to submit to the process and follow him and use him as our model an example and so on so that's the kind of thing that I would have thrown at other people and I thought simplistically at one time that this was normal there does the prophets example like he married a young girl so a girl could be married off at that at that age and it's it's only later on in life that I came to realize that that no a girl that
young is not really suitable for marriage and and this is not a non-muslim sort of claim I don't have to try to convince a non-muslim about this I have to convince myself and fellow Muslims and and I see that you know although in some Muslim societies to this day some girls may get married young but but how young probably 12 maybe in some parts of Syria maybe in the Yemen but but 9 seems to be like quite quite young and so and 9 of course is the crucial age we're dealing with because even if we say
there was a betrothal at 6 then the consummation is at 9 that is the crucial data we need to think about the crucial age and I don't see Muslims in general trying to marry off their girls at 9 years old so it's seen is that the Muslim collective judgment about this the collective understanding among Muslims is that a girl that young is young to be married we need to make some adjustments of course because in our present times one of the things that that make us think of a higher age for marriage for both boys and girls is that you know the the boys and girls have colleges and universities to Machamp
they have an education to pursue like never before whereas in ancient societies the you know the boys became warriors very young to defend their tribes against marauding invaders and-and-and the girls got married young to bear children for their tribe so that the tribe became strong in numbers so so there has to be some adjustment that way we can understand why in ancient societies girls and boys both got married young and if we look back in our own family histories we might find that a great-grandmother got married very young maybe maybe she was 16 maybe even 12 at the time and she got
married so it was not so unusual in the past but yet in this circumstance it seems from from all of the evidence that we have called together that it is better to say that I share a villa Juan was older than that report states it to be so those those who are thinking that we can't divert from that report they have a misunderstanding about how had each have been narrated and collected and then graded and sifted and and they have the misunderstanding which unfortunately is being perpetuated by some of the scholars who should know better the misunderstanding is that once
a hadith is found either in Bukhari or Muslim then this is on the face of it authentic and and the common Muslim does not dare to question this whereas every scholar of Islam worth the name knows that there may be a hadith in bihari saying that the Prophet SAW Allah is and then prayed in a particular way and other scholars would look at that and say well no I have a more authentic narration than that which is contrary to that and we're going to follow that one so it but it's not the case because it is stated in Bukhari this means that's the final judgement on on any matter so
and scholars differ with Bihari all of the time and yet they perpetuate the the the misunderstanding to the populace that once it's in Bihari it's like you can't question it we all know that that collective scholars differ from that all of the time imam at-tirmidhi as you know would report to hadith and he would say that this is authentic but the animal is contrary to it meaning that the Muslims in general are acting contrary to to this hadith and and how does that happen in the earliest generations it happens because the Muslims are aware of something that is more authentic than
what is related in that narrative absolutely and and on that note just to cut to kind of mention there people like Imam Malik had mentioned that it was not permissible generally to to marry girls he'd mentioned unless they were nubile and you'd mentioned that in his photo and regarding just for the viewers regarding the hadith and the essay needs some people had asked all the hadith week I do personally believe that all the hadith regarding this are weak and I'm a separate episode I will be with another guest we'll go through the
Paragraphs overlapping 48:03 to 54:33. Full text on the recording page.
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 2020-04-22-S11, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ksqksrxndnw/s/11/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2020, April 22). Is questioning Aisha's age just an attempt to please non-Muslims? [Video, segment 2020-04-22-S11, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ksqksrxndnw/s/11/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2020. "Is questioning Aisha's age just an attempt to please non-Muslims?" Video, segment 2020-04-22-S11, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded April 22, 2020. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ksqksrxndnw/s/11/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2020-04-22-S11, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Is questioning Aisha's age just an attempt to please non-Muslims?}}, year = {2020}, month = {4}, date = {2020-04-22}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ksqksrxndnw/s/11/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ksqksrxndnw/s/11/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2020-04-22-S11, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
Something wrong here?
Tell us what is wrong and it will be checked against the recording. Nothing changes until a person has reviewed it.
Sending a note needs JavaScript, which is off or unavailable in this browser. Nothing has been sent.
No name, email address or account is asked for or stored, and the inbox does not store your IP address. For rate limiting it keeps an unreadable fingerprint of your connection for 48 hours, and our database provider's own logs record connections as every website's do. Only your note, its kind, the page and the moment in the recording are kept, for review.