Short answer
By Aisha's own account, the marriage contract was made when she was six. She moved into the home of the Prophet (ﷺ) at nine. In her world, a girl was held ready for marriage at puberty. For a thousand years after, the law of Christian Europe let a girl be betrothed at seven and married at twelve. English law let a girl of twelve marry until 1929. The Bible sets no minimum age. To judge a marriage of seventh-century Arabia, three questions matter: was she ready, was she harmed, and did she choose it? Classical Islamic law forbade married life before a wife was physically ready. No early report records any harm to her. Years later, offered her freedom, Aisha chose to stay. She became one of the greatest scholars of early Islam. No enemy of his is recorded objecting to the marriage. Islam's answer rests on those questions, and the record answers them. Today the law of each country sets the age of marriage, and Muslims keep the law wherever they live, as the Qur'an binds them to their agreements (17:34).
Full explanation
What Aisha herself reports
The ages come from Aisha, and the answer stands on her words. The contract was made when she was six; one report says seven. She stayed in her parents' home for three years. After the move to Medina, her mother prepared her with the women of the town. Her mother then handed her to the Prophet (ﷺ) when she was nine. She was eighteen when he died.
Aisha reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) married her when she was six, that the marriage was consummated when she was nine, and that she then lived with him for nine years.
Aisha reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) married her at six (seven in one report), that she was brought to his house at nine, and that she was eighteen when he died.
Aisha reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) was engaged to her at six. After the move to Medina she fell ill and recovered; then her mother Umm Ruman fetched her, the women of the Ansar blessed her and prepared her, and her mother handed her over to the Prophet when she was nine.
What Islamic law requires
The Prophet (ﷺ) laid down a general rule: a woman must be asked before she is married. He declared invalid a marriage a father had forced on his daughter. Married life may not begin until the wife is physically able to bear it without harm. Jurists of the Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanafi schools of Islamic law held that this readiness differs from girl to girl. They held that it is not fixed by an age. Jurists are the scholars of Islamic law. The Qur'an speaks of an age of marriage that a young person reaches. In the same verse it asks for sound judgment before orphans receive their property. The jurists ruled for societies that set no age by law. Today the law of each country sets the age of marriage, and Muslims keep the law wherever they live, as the Qur'an binds them to their agreements (17:34). In England and Wales, for example, no one under eighteen may marry since 2023, not even by a religious ceremony alone.
Aisha asked the Prophet (ﷺ) whether women should be asked for their consent to marriage. He said yes; and when she said a virgin may be too shy to speak, he said her silence is her consent.
Khansa bint Khidam, who had been married before, reports that her father married her off against her wishes, so she went to the Prophet (ﷺ), and he declared the marriage invalid.
Al-Nawawi gives the ruling of Malik, al-Shafi'i and Abu Hanifa that a wife is handed to her husband only when she is able to bear intercourse, which differs from girl to girl and is not fixed by an age, and he calls this the correct view.
“Make trial of orphans until they reach the age of marriage; if then ye find sound judgment in them, release their property to them; but consume it not wastefully, nor in haste against their growing up. If the guardian is well-off, Let him claim no remuneration, but if he is poor, let him have for himself what is just and reasonable. When ye release their property to them, take witnesses in their presence: But all-sufficient is Allah in taking account.”
“Come not nigh to the orphan's property except to improve it, until he attains the age of full strength; and fulfil (every) engagement, for (every) engagement will be enquired into (on the Day of Reckoning).”
Raised the minimum age of marriage in England and Wales from sixteen to eighteen, in force from 27 February 2023, and made it an offence to cause anyone under eighteen to enter a marriage, including a religious ceremony that is not legally binding.
A guardian, witnesses, and nothing hidden
The Prophet (ﷺ) said there is no marriage without a guardian. The Companions were the Prophet's (ﷺ) followers who knew him. Al-Tirmidhi was a ninth-century collector of hadith, which are reports of what the Prophet (ﷺ) said and did. He records that the Companions and the generation after them held that there is no marriage without witnesses. Neither group differed on this. A marriage in Islam is made openly, through the woman's guardian and before witnesses. Aisha's was arranged by her own father, openly, after an earlier proposal for her had been dropped.
Abu Musa reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said there is no marriage without a guardian.
In his own comment closing this chapter, al-Tirmidhi says that the people of knowledge among the Companions of the Prophet (ﷺ), and the generation after them, acted on this and said there is no marriage without witnesses, and that the early scholars did not differ on it. (The reports in the chapter are not relied on here; this is al-Tirmidhi's statement of practice.)
After Khadijah's death, Khawlah bint Hakim suggested Aisha to the Prophet (ﷺ) as a wife. Abu Bakr first went to Mut'im ibn 'Adi, who had asked for Aisha for his son; Mut'im's wife objected that the match might bring her son into Islam, the earlier understanding lapsed, and Abu Bakr then gave Aisha in marriage to the Prophet.
How the marriage came about
The Prophet (ﷺ) was shown Aisha twice in a dream. He left the matter to Allah (﷾): if it was from Him, it would come to pass. He then asked her father, Abu Bakr, his closest friend, for her hand. Abu Bakr said that they were brothers. The Prophet (ﷺ) explained that they were brothers in faith, not by blood, so she was lawful for him. Asked who was dearest to him, he named Aisha, and among men, her father.
The Prophet (ﷺ) told Aisha that before he married her she had been shown to him twice in a dream, carried by an angel in a piece of silk, and he said to himself: if this is from Allah, it will come to pass.
When the Prophet (ﷺ) asked Abu Bakr for Aisha's hand, Abu Bakr said he was the Prophet's brother. The Prophet replied that they were brothers in Allah's religion and His Book, and she was lawful for him to marry.
Amr ibn al-As asked the Prophet (ﷺ) who was the most beloved of people to him. He said Aisha; and among men, her father.
Who suggested the match, and who had asked first
After Khadijah, his first wife, died, a woman of the community suggested Aisha to the Prophet (ﷺ). Her name was Khawlah bint Hakim. Aisha had already been spoken for. Mut'im ibn 'Adi, a leader of the pagan Quraysh, the ruling tribe of Mecca, had asked for her hand for his son. So her own society, pagan and Muslim alike, held her to be of an age to be promised in marriage. Abu Bakr went to Mut'im first. Mut'im's wife objected that the match might draw her son into Islam. The understanding lapsed. Only then did Abu Bakr give his daughter to the Prophet (ﷺ).
After Khadijah's death, Khawlah bint Hakim suggested Aisha to the Prophet (ﷺ) as a wife. Abu Bakr first went to Mut'im ibn 'Adi, who had asked for Aisha for his son; Mut'im's wife objected that the match might bring her son into Islam, the earlier understanding lapsed, and Abu Bakr then gave Aisha in marriage to the Prophet.
Her own choice, years later
Allah (﷾) told the Prophet (ﷺ) to offer his wives a kind release if they wanted the life of this world. He began with Aisha, years after the marriage. He told her to consult her parents first. She answered at once that she chose Allah (﷾), His Messenger and the Hereafter.
“O Prophet! Say to thy Consorts: "If it be that ye desire the life of this World, and its glitter,- then come! I will provide for your enjoyment and set you free in a handsome manner. But if ye seek Allah and His Messenger, and the Home of the Hereafter, verily Allah has prepared for the well-doers amongst you a great reward.”
When Allah told the Prophet (ﷺ) to give his wives the choice of leaving him, he began with Aisha and told her not to answer until she had consulted her parents. She replied that she had no need to consult them: she chose Allah, His Messenger and the Home of the Hereafter.
The woman the marriage made
Aisha was the only virgin among the wives of the Prophet (ﷺ). Every wife after her was a widow or a divorced woman. No hadith or early biography records any harm to her from the marriage. She lived into her sixties and taught for nearly half a century after his death. Aisha became one of the greatest scholars of the first generation of Islam. Al-Dhahabi, a historian and hadith scholar who died in 1348, credits her with more than two thousand hadith and knew of no woman more learned. The Prophet (ﷺ) helped at home, and he died in her house with his head on her chest.
Aisha asked the Prophet (ﷺ), as a parable, whether he would graze his camel on a tree already eaten from or on one untouched, and he chose the untouched one. The narrator explains that she meant the Prophet had married no virgin besides her.
Credits Aisha with 2,210 hadith, 174 of them in both al-Bukhari and Muslim, says he knows of no woman in the community, or among women at all, more learned than she, and gives her age at death as sixty-three and some months.
Al-Aswad asked Aisha what the Prophet (ﷺ) used to do at home. She said he busied himself serving his family, and when the time for prayer came he went out to pray.
In his last illness the Prophet (ﷺ) kept asking where he would be the next day, waiting for Aisha's turn. His wives let him stay with her, and he died in her house with his head against her chest.
The scholar the Companions consulted
The Emigrants were the Muslims who had left Mecca, and the Helpers were the people of Medina who took them in. Once they disagreed over a point of law. Abu Musa went to Aisha, and she told him he had come to one who knew. A man asked Ibn 'Abbas about the night prayer of the Prophet (ﷺ). Ibn 'Abbas sent him to Aisha, as the one who knew it best of all people. The same report preserves her famous answer that his character was the Qur'an. Her student Masruq swore he had seen the senior Companions ask her about the law of inheritance.
When the Emigrants and the Helpers disagreed over when the full bath becomes obligatory, Abu Musa went to ask Aisha. She told him he had come to one who knew, and gave him the Prophet's (ﷺ) ruling.
Sa'd ibn Hisham asked Aisha about the character of the Prophet (ﷺ). She asked him whether he did not read the Qur'an, and said that the character of the Prophet was the Qur'an.
Records that Aisha's student Masruq swore he had seen the senior Companions of the Prophet (ﷺ) asking her about the shares of inheritance.
Credits Aisha with 2,210 hadith, 174 of them in both al-Bukhari and Muslim, says he knows of no woman in the community, or among women at all, more learned than she, and gives her age at death as sixty-three and some months.
A marriage of love
The hadith record a marriage of affection given and returned. The Prophet (ﷺ) teased Aisha that he could tell when she was cross. He knew because she then swore by the Lord of Abraham instead of the Lord of Muhammad (ﷺ). They raced on foot. She won. Years later he won, and said, this is for that. Some Ethiopians gave a display with spears. He stood in the doorway, screening her with his cloak, so she could watch. He drank from the place on the cup where she had drunk. And she was jealous of Khadijah, a wife she never met, because he spoke of her so often.
The Prophet (ﷺ) told Aisha he could tell when she was pleased with him and when she was cross: pleased, she swore by the Lord of Muhammad; cross, by the Lord of Abraham. She answered that even then she left out only his name.
Aisha reports that on a journey she raced the Prophet (ﷺ) on foot and beat him. Later, when she had put on weight, they raced again and he won, and he said: this is for that.
Aisha reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) stood at the door of her house, screening her with his cloak, so that she could watch some Ethiopians display their skill with spears.
Aisha reports that while she was having her period she would drink from a vessel and hand it to the Prophet (ﷺ), and he would put his mouth where hers had been and drink; and she would eat from a bone and he would do the same.
Aisha says she was jealous of none of the Prophet's (ﷺ) wives as much as of Khadijah, whom she never saw, because he spoke of her so often.
The law of Christian Europe
Critics judge this marriage by modern law. That law has changed again and again. For centuries the law of Christian Europe let a girl be betrothed at seven and married at twelve. Blackstone's Commentaries, the standard English law book of 1765, says so plainly. A girl of twelve could marry lawfully in England until 1929, and in England and Wales the age was sixteen until 2023. The Catholic Church's own law today lets a girl marry at fourteen. The line has moved many times, so a seventh-century marriage cannot fairly be judged by the law of 2023. That law still binds everyone who lives under it, Muslims included.
Sets out English law: a girl may be betrothed or given in marriage at seven, is entitled to dower at nine, and at twelve may consent to or refuse a marriage. A marriage made under that age was not void but incomplete, to be confirmed or refused when she reached it.
The classic history of early English law: in the medieval law of marriage a child of seven could consent to betrothal, the age for consummation was taken to be twelve for girls and fourteen for boys, and parents often betrothed children younger still.
Made void any marriage in which either party is under sixteen. Before it, English law allowed a girl to marry at twelve and a boy at fourteen.
Raised the minimum age of marriage in England and Wales from sixteen to eighteen, in force from 27 February 2023, and made it an offence to cause anyone under eighteen to enter a marriage, including a religious ceremony that is not legally binding.
The Catholic Church's law sets the minimum age for a valid marriage at sixteen for a man and fourteen for a woman.
- Middle Ages
Seven and twelve
In English law a girl could be betrothed at seven and married at twelve.
- 1765
Blackstone
Blackstone's Commentaries, the standard English law book, sets out the same ages: seven for betrothal, twelve for marriage.
- 1929
Twelve until this year
Until this year a girl of twelve could marry lawfully in England. The new law set the age at sixteen.
- 1983
Church law
The Catholic Church's law, still in force today, lets a girl marry at fourteen.
- 2023
Sixteen until this year
England and Wales raise the minimum age of marriage from sixteen to eighteen.
The age set by law in Christian Europe has changed many times, most recently in 2023.
What the Bible says about the age of marriage
No law of Moses, no word of Jesus and no letter of Paul sets a minimum age of marriage. The nearest the Bible comes is Ezekiel's picture of a girl who has reached bodily maturity. That matches the Islamic rule that married life waits for bodily readiness. The Bible's own figures make King Josiah a father at about fourteen. He began to reign at eight and reigned thirty-one years. His son Jehoiakim became king three months after his death, at twenty-five.
“I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.”
“Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath.”
“Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.”
“Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.”
- Age 8
Josiah becomes king
He began to reign at eight.
- Age 39
Josiah dies
He reigned thirty-one years, so he died at about thirty-nine.
- Three months later
His son becomes king
His son Jehoiakim became king three months after his death, at twenty-five.
A father at about fourteen
Thirty-nine less twenty-five: by the Bible's own figures, Josiah became a father at about fourteen.
No law of Moses, no word of Jesus and no letter of Paul sets a minimum age of marriage.
An objection no one made at the time
The enemies of the Prophet (ﷺ) called him a poet, a forger and a madman, and the Qur'an records their charges. None of them is recorded objecting to this marriage. His Christian critics for more than a thousand years attacked the number of his wives, not Aisha's age. The historian Kecia Ali shows that her age became a central charge only in the twentieth century.
“"Nay," they say, "(these are) medleys of dream! - Nay, He forged it! - Nay, He is (but) a poet! Let him then bring us a Sign like the ones that were sent to (Prophets) of old!"”
“And the Unbelievers would almost trip thee up with their eyes when they hear the Message; and they say: "Surely he is possessed!"”
A history of how Muslims and non-Muslims have written the Prophet's (ﷺ) life. It shows that pre-modern Christian critics attacked his marriages chiefly for their number, and that Aisha's age became a central charge only in the twentieth century.
Perspectives
The modern objection: too young to consent
Many critics who have no religion say that a girl of nine cannot consent to marriage. So, they say, the marriage was wrong, whatever the century.
Critics say a girl of nine cannot consent to marriage, so the marriage was wrong in any age.
Rebuttal
The objection judges the seventh century by a modern rule. No scripture sets that rule, and it has changed again and again. English law let a girl of twelve marry until 1929, and the Catholic Church's law today allows fourteen. Classical Islamic law forbade married life until the wife's body could bear it. And Muslims today keep the lowest age set by the law where they live. Years later, Aisha was offered the choice to leave, and she chose to stay. She became one of the leading scholars of early Islam.
By whose standard?
The objection judges the seventh century by modern law. That law has changed again and again, and no scripture sets it. It binds those who live under it today. But it cannot be laid on the past.
The Bible sets no minimum age of marriage.
By the Bible's own figures, King Josiah became a father at about fourteen.
English law allowed a child to be promised in marriage at seven, and a girl to marry at twelve. A girl of twelve could marry lawfully until 1929.
The Catholic Church's current law lets a girl marry validly at fourteen.
There is no record of the Prophet's (ﷺ) enemies objecting to the marriage. The charge became a main line of attack only in the twentieth century.
The Islamic perspective
The marriage of the Prophet (ﷺ) and Aisha was lawful and loving. When Aisha was offered the choice to leave, she chose him. Like any marriage of its time, it should be judged by three questions. Was she ready? Was she harmed? Did she herself choose it? The record answers each one.
Aisha herself reports that the contract was made at six and that married life began at nine.
Classical Islamic law forbade married life until the wife's body could bear it. Today, Muslims keep the lowest age of marriage set by the law of the country they live in (17:34).
Offered release years later, Aisha chose to remain the Prophet's (ﷺ) wife.
Aisha became one of the leading scholars of early Islam, credited with over two thousand hadith.
Aisha lived into her sixties and taught for nearly half a century after the Prophet's (ﷺ) death. No early source records any harm to her from the marriage.
Aisha was the only one of the Prophet's (ﷺ) wives who had not been married before.
The match was suggested by Khawlah bint Hakim. And Aisha had already been asked for in marriage for the son of a pagan leader, Mut'im ibn 'Adi.
Islam requires a guardian and witnesses for a marriage.
The Companions brought Aisha their hardest questions of law and worship.
The hadith record a marriage of affection. They tell of teasing, a running race, watching the Ethiopians' display together, and sharing a cup.