# The marriage to Aisha at six: consent, and the command to pray at seven

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/x6sffyrljey/s/7/
- Date: 2018-08-30 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: BukhariGate Part 1: Sahih Bukhari is NOT so Sahih -Mufti Abu Layth (36:02–43:54)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6SfFYRljeY&t=2162s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/x6sffyrljey/

**Topics:** The age of Aisha; Sahih al-Bukhari (BukhariGate); The marriage contract

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The report that the Prophet married Aisha at six dishonours him: Bukhari itself requires a virgin's consent, which a six-year-old cannot give, and the command to separate children's beds at ten contradicts the claim that a nine-year-old had a woman's body.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says the report that the Prophet married Aisha at six and consummated at nine is an attack on the Prophet's honour, because a six-year-old cannot give the consent that Bukhari itself requires of a virgin, and the claim of physical maturity at nine contradicts the command to separate children's beds only at ten.

**Evidence, his words at 36:52:** “the prophet is looking at a six-year-old child with the intent of marriage which is a sexual relationship that is disgusting and it is an attack on the honor of our prophet” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6SfFYRljeY&t=2212s)

## Longer summary

After closing the previous point, Mufti Abu Layth reads hadith 5133, that the Prophet married Aisha at six and consummated the marriage at nine, and says that looking at a six-year-old with the intent of marriage is disgusting and an attack on the Prophet's honour. He rejects the defence that nine-year-olds of the time were like eighteen-year-olds today. He asks whether she consented, pointing to the chapter heading and hadith 5136 on the following page, that a father may not force a virgin or divorced daughter into marriage, with the report of a girl whose marriage the Prophet annulled and the report that a virgin's permission must be taken, even if given by silence. He asks how a six-year-old can consent, noting that a child of that age is not even obliged to pray. He then reads the report, graded sahih by Abu Dawud [?] and other scholars and numbered 491 in the edition he cites, that children are commanded to pray at seven, disciplined at ten and separated in their beds at ten, and argues that it is incoherent to hold both that boys and girls may sleep together until ten and that a nine-year-old had the body of a grown woman. He says such claims embarrass Muslims and do a disservice to the Prophet, and that a book containing them cannot be given a godly status.

## Sources and names cited

- Sahih al-Bukhari
- Sahih al-Bukhari 5133: https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5133
- Sahih al-Bukhari 5136: https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5136
- report: command your children to pray at seven discipline them at ten and separate them in their beds
- Aisha

## Transcript (machine tier, 36:02–43:54)

[35:34] so what they're trying to say is by saying you can use purified alcohol sorry you can use alcohol that's turned into vinegar he's using the term you can slaughter alcohol the bahal hamra slaughtered alcohol what slaughtered it the fish did and the sun they've gone through so much the the the gymnastics they've done to try to make sense of that statement nobody's got a problem with saying you can eat fish it's halal that's fine nobody's got a problem with saying you can use vinegar from alcohol

[36:13] nobody's got a problem with those things i'm not i haven't got a problem this statement my friend is absurd like stop just stop it just stop you're doing it right now just stop it you know it's like this is making you look silly like you've got to just accept when something's absurd like the early scholars crossed this out as a clear syntactical mistake they said it doesn't make any sense what this is talking about right so let's take a look people let's take a look now okay here's something interesting in bukhari since we're speaking about the prophet sallallahu alaihi

[36:52] and his marriage to aisha the prophet's marriage to aisha hadith 5133 he married her when she was six years old as in bukhari six years old there is another one i think she says seven but in this one very clearly six and then he consummated the marriage uh when she was nine wow wow the prophet is looking at a six-year-old child with the intent of marriage which is a

[37:31] sexual relationship that is disgusting and it is an attack on the honor of our prophet and let me tell you something let me tell you something these people say that oh the six year olds then the year olds then were like 18 year olds today what

[38:00] are you smoking crack the nine year olds were like 18 year olds what on earth are you on about did she i want to ask one question did she consent did she consent to this nikkah bukhari hadith the chapter heading 42 hadith 5136 it comes on the page after it [Music] was that a father cannot

[38:40] force his child his virgin daughter or divorcee daughter into a marriage and there is a hadith so this one is about that the next one in the uh there's several hadith theory actually brings so he says that her father married her off and she didn't like it the prophet revoked the marriage

[39:20] and then this hadith a young girl or a virgin girl can not be married until you take permission and then the prophet said even if at that point the way of giving permission was just like being silent and being or smiling or things like this that is fine based on customary practices but you must take consent how on earth does a six-year-old consent how does that happen does she even understand anything

[39:58] does she understand what this deen is about to consent they say yeah but the custom what custom how do you force a six-year-old into a marriage allah hasn't even said that she must pray she's not even held liable and they say yeah but she no uh so tell me why didn't the prophet just consummate the marriage then they say oh but she was young was she what what do you mean she was young was she too young to consent so it was a forced marriage which ought to be rejected is that is that what is that what it was

[40:37] they said yeah but you know she when she was nine she had the physical maturity of a uh 17 18 year old oh wow okay wait wait wait wait wait i haven't finished that when do you command the child to pray now this is a hadith which abu dhabi and other scholars declare sahih right

[41:10] 25 this hadith is 491 maybe the the chapters very sorry the numbering varies in different editions uh that the hadith says the prophet said look command your children to pray and they are seven okay now listen to this and discipline them at the age of 10 if they're still not praying and discipline can mean different things it doesn't have to mean like uh being forceful but that's not the point

[41:48] the latter point so yet aisha didn't even have to be praying but the latter point at the age of 10 separate them in the beds so the brother and the sister are sleeping together and according to the quran that the arabs used to that's a verse in the quran that they used to customarily sleep generally naked a lot of them now so they're sleeping together these 18 year old bodies of boys and girls

[42:26] sleep together but oh they can do that but when they're 10 the prophet said start separating them but they've got 18 year old bodies though oh but it's okay so but once they're 10 then they must have like 20 year old bodies so separate them when they're 10 but don't separate them when they're nine nine is like they're only 18 year old physical bodies i mean how stupid does do people have to get seriously like this is the stuff that is in our tradition that we are pushing out there we are embarrassing ourselves we are doing a disservice to

[43:04] the messenger of allah on one hand he's saying oh yeah brothers sisters they all sleep together then we're trying to say yeah but he's marrying a girl because she's physically so mature now she's like a woman wow oh but by the way allah doesn't even say she has to pray yet because she's mentally not that mature oh but obviously she gets sexual consent she understands what that is she just doesn't understand what to pray means what kind of a stupid statement is this why are we absolutely just dissing the messenger of allah in such a way

[43:43] so these are the things people when this is what is in silence so i don't feel that this the way people have placed this book on god's status can be tolerated so yes part one of my point was that i will continue to deconstruct these hadith i will show them upon the individual merits to be weak and unreliable every single one that uh what dr jonathan brown and people were sharing that these three people transmitting from aisha every single one is unreliable

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment X6SfFYRljeY/s/7. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/x6sffyrljey/s/7/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.